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The Tokyo 2020 Mascots: Which Pair Would You Select?

Oh to be a child again – to not care what others think, to ask questions randomly and endlessly, to see only friendship in others, and possibility in anything….

And so it is inspirational to me that the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee decided to have elementary school children in Japan select the mascots of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. On December 7, 2017, the organizers finally unveiled the top three mascot designs, which will be put to a vote of schoolchildren held from December 11 of this year to February 22 of 2018.

Here are the mascot candidates.

2020 Mascot Candidates

Initially, to my adult eyes, they kind of look and feel similar, perhaps because they are generally all humanoid, and of the same dimensions. To me, the Olympic mascots of candidates A and B are quite similar in their big-eye and big-ear look. But on closer inspection, candidate C is different, with the pronounced application of Japanese fairy tale characters – the fox (kitsune) and the raccoon (tanuki).

Candidate B’s Paralympic mascot is also from Japanese lore, an animated representation of the koma-inu, the lion-dog creature that you often see at the entrance of shrines. Candidate A tries to employ the checkered design of the official Tokyo2020 logo, which to me, feels kind of forced, something a committee member would recommend.

But again, my adult eyes are not the filter – the mascots are for the kids.

Having said that, the finalists in this competition were decidedly selected by adults. As this list of jury panelists show, only adults selected the final three designs. And these were very commercial adults, people who have succeeded in marketing product to children and young adults: experts from toy companies Bandai and Takara Tomy, from comic publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan, children’s book publisher Poplar, game producers Bandai Namco and Square Enix, anime producer Toei Animation and stuffed doll manufacturer Sega Interactive.

So the Tokyo 2020 mascots, when they are voted on by schoolchildren in the coming weeks, aren’t entirely springing from the fertile minds of children. But at least they have a say. The question is – will moms and dads the world over, when the time comes, have a say in whether to buy or not.

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December 10, 2017 Business, Japan, Olympics, Others, Pop Culture, Tokyo 2020

Update on Tokyo 2020 Logo Competition

Over 300 designs for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo design contest have already been submitted. Is yours one of them?

You need to be a Japanese national or a permanent resident of Japan 18 years or older to submit. A child or groups of children can also submit a logo design, but only under the name and supervision of a person 18 years or older.

According to this NHK report a few days ago, you need to make sure that you have the words “Tokyo 2020”, as well as the Olympic and Paralympic symbols together with your original design.

NHK logo report 1

But there are a few restrictions NHK pointed out in the video clip:

  • You cannot mash the three design elements together into one.
  • You cannot use the Olympic torch or Olympic medal in the design.
  • You cannot use widely known national symbols like the flag symbol in the design. (Admittedly, this last one will be open to interpretation.)

NHK logo report 2

When the submission portal opened up, over 300 submissions were made in the first 30 minutes. The application form was downloaded over 70,000 times, so one can expect that number to climb dramatically. In terms of the timeline going forward, the hope is to narrow the design nominees to 100 to 200 by the end of the year.

In January, a committee will narrow the nominees to a short list, making sure that the requirements are satisfied and that the logo would be eligible for trademark registration. There would then be a national survey conducted to get further input, with the intent of finalizing the logo design by Spring of 2016, although the details of that step are not yet clear.

You have until December 7 to design your logo, fill in the application and submit. For background on why this contest is being held, see a prior post on this topic.

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November 28, 2015 Japan, Others, Pop Culture, Rio Olympics, Tokyo 2020

2020 Tokyo Olympics Logo Design Contest is Open: It Can Be You!

A few 2020 Tokyo Olympic design ideas already bandied about on the internet.
A few 2020 Tokyo Olympic design ideas already bandied about on the internet.

Here’s your chance at fame!

Are you 18 or older? Are you Japanese or a foreign national residing in Japan? Do you have even the slightest clue about symbolism and design?

Then sign up for the chance of a lifetime – to be the designer of the logo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

As pointed out in this article, the organizing committee decided, after the debacle regarding the previous version of the Olympic logo, to open up the competition to all of Japan. I must admit, this is a smart move as competition amidst hundreds if not thousands of excellent ideas will result in a short list that a professional design firm would be hard pressed to offer.

There are “key concepts” of the 2020 Games that the Tokyo Organizing Committee would like you to incorporate into the design:

  • “The Power of Sport”
  • “Japanese-ness and Tokyo-ness”
  • “World Peace”
  • “Personal Best and Utmost Efforts”
  • “Sense of Unity and Inclusion”
  • “Innovativeness and Future-oriented”
  • “Reconstruction and the Power to Rise Up”

It’s not clear whether all of these “concepts” need to be in the design, but then again, these are fairly predictable ideas.

So do you have the chops? The inspiration? The time?

If yes, then show the committee what you got. Submission window is from November 24 to December 7, 2015. For more information, go here.

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October 18, 2015 Japan, Others, Pop Culture

Rio 2016 Logo Vs Telluride Logo: Let’s Face It – We All Copy

rio and telluride logos

The Tokyo 2020 emblem designed by Kenjiro Sano has been all the (out)rage in recent months, for its likeness to the logo of The Theatre de Liege in Brussels. The designer was so humiliated by criticism that he asked the Olympic committee to drop the emblem, which they eventually did.

But as I had written earlier, creating the perfectly unique design is a challenge where everything is available on the internet and in reality, everything is iterative. Apparently, the 2016 Rio Olympic emblem went through the same criticism days after its launch, on January 2, 2011, according to this article.

The multi-color representation of three people linking arms and legs in a series of loops that resemble an Elton John pair of sunglasses was apparently seen as a copy of the logo of the Telluride Foundation, a non-profit based in Colorado, US with the aim of creating a sustainable and thriving community.

OK, the color schemes are similar, they both have arms linking, yes they invoke the feeling of the other, but they aren’t the same. I’d say there are more similarities between the Telluride logo and the renown painting, The Dance, by Henri Matisse. Fortunately, this French painter and sculptor is dead, and won’t be complaining about people or non-profit organizations ripping off his ideas.

The Dance, by Henri Matisse
The Dance, by Henri Matisse
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September 26, 2015 Others, Pop Culture, Rio Olympics

Shamelessly Copying the Olympic Rings Logo: Once a Day

Poster Created by Sarah Hyndman for London Olympic Games
Poster Created by Sarah Hyndman for London Olympic Games

It was a vision that appeared on her desk – a collection of items that appeared to look like the Olympic rings. And from that day, which was also the day exactly one year prior to the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, Sarah Hyndman decided to photograph images of items that resembled the Olympic logo.

As a run-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016, Hyndman is re-publishing her one-a-day posts, and you can see them all here.

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Day 25 – Mushrooms
  • Day 33 – Paper Umbrellas
  • Day 107 – Macaroni
  • Day 162 – Jellies
  • Day 196 – The Amazing Spiderman

Hyndman said in this NY Times article that the Olympic logo is lasting and powerful. “I often explain to clients that a really strong brand or logo can have a greater life span than just existing in its two-dimensional format. My project shows that the Olympic rings is a great logo because it can withstand being translated again and again.”

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September 12, 2015 Other Olympics, Pop Culture

Wacky Packages: Copying Logos for Fun

All the fuss over plagiarism regarding the Tokyo Olympic emblem included examples of how Puma’s logo has been plagiarized. A company in Hokkaido created a parody brand for clothing called “Kuma”, which means bear. Thus a figure of a bear is placed at the same location as the cat in the Puma logo.

Puma Kuma logos

In this case, the Japan Patent Office ruled in favor of Puma and thus forbade Nihon Kanko Shoji from further use of the Kuma logo.

This reminded me of these funny stickers that I used to collect when they were popular in the US in the 1970s – Wacky Packages. These were definite parodies of real brands. I have no idea whether Wacky Packages ever got into IP difficulty, but I loved them as a kid.

Examples of Wacky Packages, stickers I collected as a youth.
Examples of Wacky Packages, stickers I collected as a youth.
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September 7, 2015 Others, Pop Culture

The Wreath Emblem – the Best of the Rest

To me, by far, the best of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic logos or emblems is the one used for the 2020 bid process. For other ideas floating on the internet, see this interesting BBC article.

The Olympic emblem for the 2020 bid.
The Olympic emblem for the 2020 bid.
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September 3, 2015 Others, Pop Culture, Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo dropped amid plagiarism claim | The Japan Times

tokyo2020emblemThe organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will cease using an emblem that some critics said may have been plagiarized, NHK reported Tuesday. It w

Source: Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo dropped amid plagiarism claim | The Japan Times

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September 1, 2015 Japan, Others, Pop Culture, Tokyo 2020
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