The Summer Olympic Games is a huge and important quadrennial event in the world, and a successful one can have an enormous impact on the host countries, influencing its status, economy and even people’s livelihoods.
Recently the long-awaited 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo design was revealed, withreviews and comments appearing on the internet soon after from all over the globe. Overall the public’s evaluation was not great:
“Are you kidding me? I’m guessing that it’s just a teaser logo.”
“It’s a weird solution, not because of the graphic theme chosen, but because of the content it represents.”
A designer, Olivier Debie, even accused the Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo creator, Kenjiro Sano, of copying his work for the Belgium theatre (FIG. 1) and hopes that Japan will not carry on using it, “[I have] decided on an action to ask for the withdrawal or the change of the [Olympic] logo.”
Aside from Debie, the design has not rated well within Japan, and some locals expect a replacement. Faced with such allegations, Sano made a public response to clarify that his logo is an original design with a graphical ‘Tokyo 2020’ following the same style. (FIG. 2)
(Figure. 2)
So far, neither the designer or olympic official’s explanations of the concept availed the general public into appreciating it.
(Figure. 3)
1964 VS 2020
Another popular online comment was the design’s classic retro flavour – I think this results from having a nod to the Tokyo 1964 logo design (FIG. 3): both look simple and make use of red and gold coloured geometric shapes that reflect traditional Japanese tastes.
But if we focus purely on aesthetics, we would easily agree that the 1964 design is the better of the two. The logo was created more than fifty years ago by Yusaku Kamekura and has become a classic piece of design. It depicts the idea of the sun rising from a shimmering sea; by turning the coloured olympic rings to pure gold it gives the appearance of the reflection of the sea during golden hour, which combines with the national flag of Japan to a striking effect.
The concept behind Sano’s Tokyo 2020 logo are the three T’s: Team, Tomorrow, Tokyo. With clear intentions to be positive, there are no surprises to be found here. The element of the logo’s “T” mark is simple but not unique, a better choice of typeface could have been made for “Tokyo 2020,” and when compared to the 1964 gold rings, sticking to the standard five colours seems somewhat generic. Overall the older version has much more strength in both meaning and memorability, and since its conception nothing has come close to imitating it stylistically.
LONDON 2012 SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
Back in 2007, when the London 2012 Olympic logo design was released, the response surrounding it was even greater than Tokyo 2020 with the majority of the voices being highly critical:
“Terrible, look like a kids competition entry to me.”
“Maybe its just a joke, I sincerely hope it is …”
Three years have passed since the 2012 Olympic Games took place, and I think many people changed their minds over the design after seeing the success of the whole brand experience in action.
The original idea “Everyone’s Olympics” proposed by the Wolff Olins team worked – it was simple, relevant and reflects the international spirit of the games. However, at the time most of the public thought the distorted shapes making up “2012”, which represents different nations coming together, was naive. Its bold and jarring appearance, although not sophisticated in a traditional sense, certainly broke conventions of being visually related to the host country, and makes an impression whether you like it or not. (FIG. 4)
(Figure. 4)
A few years later, a distinct ‘look’ for the visual system was created and applied to every event touchpoint. Based off a dynamic grid drawn from the lines and shards emanating from the logo, the effect was immediate and captured the electric feeling of the world’s biggest festival. The branding achieved its goal to reinvigorate the games for today’s interconnected audience and also influence future design thinking.
I look forward to seeing how the Tokyo 2020 design team will develop their own creative brand after the hum surrounding the logo fades.
夏季奧運會為四年一度的世界盛事，一屆奧運會成功的舉辦可以涉及一個國家的榮耀，經濟，甚至民生，影響可以很巨大。
最近，萬眾期待的東京2020奧運會標誌設計終於公佈了，不過從網路上讀到世界各地熾熱的評論似乎可以感覺到大眾對其評價不高：
“Are you kidding me? I’m guessing that it’s just a teaser logo.”
“It’s a weird solution, not because of the graphic theme chosen, but because of the content it represents.”
Olivier Debie, 比利時劇院標誌的設計師甚至指東京2020奧運標誌的設計師佐野研二郎(Kenjiro Sano )抄襲其設計，希望日本能停止使用（圖1）：“Decided on an action to ask for the withdrawal or the change of the (Olympics) logo.”
除了Olivier Debie提出希望官方停用現在設計外，日本國內也有不少相類似的聲音。
面對如此嚴重的指控，佐野研二郎亦作出公開回應及澄清，而且展示了其創作東京2020奧運會標誌的過程。 （圖2）
不過，無論設計師及官方人仕花費多少唇舌去解畫釋，但設計得不到普遍認同是不爭的事實。
1964 vs 2020
另一個熱門的評論是，新的奧運標誌感覺有濃厚的經典懷舊味道 ﹣ 因為其帶有1964年東京夏季奧運會標誌設計的影子 （圖3），同樣以簡潔的基本幾何組合而成，紅色及金色的運用，整體似乎傳承著簡潔的日本傳統品味。
不過如果我們細緻地去比較兩個設計，似乎很容易便可以分出高下。1964年 亀倉 雄策 （ Yusaku Kamekura ）的設計已經是超過五十年的作品，但無疑地這是經得起時間考驗的經典設計。意念是一個大紅太陽從海平面升起照耀大地，設計中亦把五色環改為單純的金色，就像金光反映，其簡練有力的程度跟日本國旗一樣的成功，一目了然，完全不用解釋。
反觀佐野研二郎的新設計，意念是3T: “Team”,”tomorrow”,
“Tokyo”。是非常正面的概念，但同時亦不帶一點驚喜。再看標誌的元素：“T”標記﹣只做到簡單却不獨特，“Tokyo 2020”字體的選擇似乎有相確餘地，“五色五輪”相較沒有1964年版本的大胆屏棄。於是我們看到，組合起來就缺少了舊版本的簡練和力量，有趣的是，如此簡潔的設計五十年來我們也找不到一個跟他相類似的案子。
倫敦 2012夏季奧運會
回顧2007年時，當倫敦2012年奧運標誌發佈後的迴響或者比東京2020的評論更龐大，世界各地批評的聲音如漫天雪花飄至倫敦，滾成巨大雪球：
“Terrible, look like a kids competition entry to me.”
“Maybe its just a joke, I sincerely hope it is …”
時至今日，2012奧運已結束了三年，但相信外界現在對倫敦奧運的舉辦成績包括品牌體驗及視覺系統却普遍轉為正面。
事實上Wolff Olins 團隊提出的原有意念是非常好的：Everyone’s Olympics，跟1964年的設計一樣簡單、有力，表達體育精神一矢中的。
不過他們設計了一個普編認為是幼稚的方案：以單純的形狀組成2012，代表五湖四海，字體的選擇亦帶點活潑，雖然不是一個“成熟”的設計，但却肯定是一個突破而給大眾記住了。 （圖4）
幾年之後，一個整體的視覺系統終於出爐，跟據“大同”，“活潑”，“單純”這些母題發展成一套相對“成熟”的系統，可以說相當成功和突破傳統，相信這個案亦影響了後來的設計品味。
現在，就期待著為東京2020奧運會設計的團隊怎樣為其意念發展出創意的視覺系統。
更新：東京於2015年8月31日尷尬地公佈被迫棄用奧運會的標誌設計：「我們不能忽視，事情的發展將會帶來危機感這風險，而我們撤回（標誌）的原因是因為它不再得到公眾的支持。」總幹事東京組委會武藤敏郎發表於新聞發佈會。