Big 3 are;
- The Emblem problem
- The Olympics Main Stadium problem
- Tokyo Governor problem
First, I'll catch up the emblem problem.
24th July 2015
The Emblems were decided.
It was announced that the emblems created a designer Kenjiro Sano were adopted.
(from: www.sankei.com)
Those didn't had a very good reputation To be honest, I was very disappointed.
Plagiarism Suspicion arose.
People started to say the emblem was similar to the logo of the Liege theater in Belgium designed by Olivier Debie.
(from: http://bylines.news.yahoo.co.jp)
I'm not sure if those are similar or not.
Mr. Debie filed a lawsuit, but Mr. Sano claimed that he never plagiarized it.
The JOC and the TOCOG expressed using the emblems, but Sano's other plagiarisms were brought to light.
After twists and turns,,,,,
The emblems were "SCRAPPED".
The TOCOG started soliciting the design of an emblem.
4 Final Candidates were presented.
(from: http://mainichi.jp)
I personally liked the one in the bottom left.
The emblem was decided with a lot of booing among people.
(from: https://tokyo2020.jp)
This emblem was not popular at all when medias and such conducted surveys.
It was said that the selection process for the first time was very closed and opaque.
So the TOCOG announced that they would conduct the process more openly this time.
However, it end up being a "BLACK BOX."
This kind of Japan's nature never changes, especially among public organizations.
Thank you for three interesting posts!
ReplyDeleteI think that the original emblems were not suitable to symbolize the Olympics. They look like some kind of corporate logos. It was almost certain that such simple designs using a Latin script letter would already exist among the millions of company logos around the world. The design team were careless not to check for that possibility.
It's fortunate that those dull designs were abandoned.
I agree with your preference among the final four candidates. My order is BL, TR, BR, TL.
Traditionally Olympic emblems tend to have flowing, curved elements representing the dynamic movement of the athletes and other sportsmen and sportswomen. Also, I feel that several colours are necessary, not just one.
But I have thought about the final choice, and I can see some merit in them. I also watched a video and heard the designer describe the ideas he had behind this design. Actually, I have to say I am a bit doubtful when I hear such descriptions and justifications. I wonder if some of those concepts are invented after the design is complete, and some of the words are rather meaningless.
On a more positive note, there are some interesting aspects that I noticed.
The Paralympics emblem is symmetrical and the five little lines at the bottom make it look like an uchiwa. (My 4-year prediction is that souvenir fans will be made with that design!)
The main Olympics emblem appears, at a glance, to be a ring constructed from a symmetrical pattern. But it is not symmetrical, but rather three repeated arrangements when you look around the "circle". That makes the design more interesting and I admire that choice by the designer.
The colour is a traditional Japanese indigo, but shouldn't Olympic emblems be a bit more colourful? What is your opinion?
The London 2012 Olympics emblems also went against conventional style and were similarly hated by many people. Somehow, after a period of time, we became more accustomed to them. But still, they were never really loved by most people.
I have looked at some of the videos on TOCOG's YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAu4dQjR2vyR5baXOtMvVA/videos). They are nicely produced and professional.
BUT....
As you wrote, "...very closed and opaque....Japan's nature never changes, especially among public organizations."
All COMMENTS ARE DISABLED on those videos! Why?
"Why, Japanese committees?!"
I hope they welcome comments nearer to the time of the games.
I'm sorry to have written such a long comment, but it was an interesting topic for me. I hope you don't mind reading it.
Later, I will write comments for your next two posts.
Tim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great comment!
Yes, indigo dyeing is Japan's traditional dyeing.
I prefer more colorful emblems.
We are used to seeing colorful emblems and that might be why we feel a bit weird when seeing the one color emblems.
It might become a epoch-making thing to use just one color for emblems in Olympic history?!
The Tokyo Olympic emblem consists of three different shapes of square, in total of 45.
Using those 45 squares, you can make the Paralympic emblem by just changing their arrangement, without changing their angle.
The Paralympic emblem consists of completely same 45 squares of which angle is also the same.
What I hate most is the selection process.
The organization said that they would make the process transparent and fair. They invited public opinion. However, it was only superficial, which means just wasting our money.
There was not any evidence that the opinions were referred. I doubt if those were even read. In fact, the most unpopular design was selected.
I read an article about the London Olympic emblems. It said that "very unpopular or epoch-making?"
Sounds familiar, haha.