• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 18, 2010

A 5-year-old company that takes photos of entertainment and sports figures -- from Jerry Garcia to Dwight Howard -- and turns them into mosaics has a partnership with NBC Universal to create its art for the Winter Olympics.

The deal includes a collection -- from a bobsledder in action to a downhiller -- posted on a section of NBCOlympics.com, which is sponsored by Toyota. As a result, one of the Photomosaics is of a new Sienna minivan.

Mosaic Legends, based in New York and South Florida, looks to provide companies with its Photomosaics that can then be monetized as a consumer product.

"The essence of the Olympic experience is represented in those iconic images from a unique point in time," stated Jonathan Schweiger, Mosaic Legends executive vice president. Mosaic Legends says the art pieces currently on NBCOlympics.com were each generated from 1,173 individual images from past Olympic video. A final set of three will be created specifically for the Vancouver Games.

The company began by using images of musicians such as Garcia and David Bowie and more recently segued into sports. A Muhammad Ali initiative is coming.