Members of the Tokyo Olympics Emblems Selection Committee, left to right, lawyer Izumi Hayashi, Keio University professor Takeshi Natsuno, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan Toshiro Muto, Tokyo University of the Arts President Ryohei Miyata, former tennis player Ai Sugiyama and Paralympic shooter Aki Taguchi, attend a press conference Friday in Tokyo, during which they revealed the four shortlisted emblem designs to become the official logo for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The four designs were selected from 14,599 entries in a contest open to the public from Nov 24 to Dec 7 last year, after the initial emblem, designed by Japanese designer Kenjiro Sano, was scrapped over allegations of plagiarism due to its similarity to the logo of Theatre de Liege in Belgium.
The four finalist designs represent an indigo-colored Japanese traditional checkered pattern, a ring symbolising harmony, an image of an athlete reaching the finish line, and a morning glory flower, the committee organizers explained. The committee said they have opened the debate on the final selection of the logo to the public, who can send their opinions online or via postcards until April 17. The official logo will be announced on April 25.
During the press conference, Miyata, the chairman of the committee, explained that they have devoted most of the selection process time to ensure that all submitted designs were original and in line with the key concepts of the Tokyo Games. “We’ve learned from the past,” Muto, the committee CEO, said, referring to the Sano scandal, in which the committee was internationally criticized for their inability to detect plagiarism during the selection process.
© Japan Today
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koiwaicoffee
What is a "former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan" doing in this committee?
edojin
Like most of you commenting above, I, too, didn't like any of them. I was hoping they, the Olympic committee, could come up with something more Japanese-ish. As is becoming more and more evident, the committee is being run by people who have no idea of what they are doing ... or are supposed to be doing ...
HollisBrown
I guess they are going for the 'bland, designed by a committee' look.
I refuse to believe that these are the 'best' 4 out of 14,599 entries. Absolutely no way.
Michael Lam
Come on jury do your homework. The morning glory flower is a native to china imported to japan. Secondly the flower is considered a weed in Australia. Why would you consider this as a national emblem oran option to choose. Waste of time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory
borscht
I ike the one of the fan done by the guy or girl after the original was not so original.
This one: the second one down.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34125046
koiwaicoffee
What a waste of taxpayers money..
clueless
Open it up to all the elementary schools in Japan to design the logo. I would love to see that. The above designs are all flash and no bang.
Christopher Glen
The Olympics are 4 years away.........and it's still up in the air. These people are setting new parameters for incompetence
sensei258
How about a contest with submissions from students displaced by the Fukushima disaster?
nath
I'm not a big fan of any of them. I still like that alternate that some guy made when the topic of plagiarism first came up with the first logo.
gaijinfo
Choose the first one on the left. It kind of looks like a radioactive mushroom.
sensei258
Which do you think will happen first, selection of a decent logo or the start of the stadium construction?
lationz
These people have no idea what they're doing.
mu-da
That's it? After all the fuzz and spending millions of ¥¥¥?
sensei258
Nope, nope, nope, and nope. Try again.
smithinjapan
Wow... good thing they refused to listen to public opinion and the 'vote' the people held on a design by 'the people', so that these judges could have a second, highly paid job for nearly a full year, in order to decide something badly.
THAT is why simply couldn't listen to the people -- how would these guys get paid? Pretty horrible designs, all told. I'd go with the two no the left as they have a SLIGHT semblance of originality.
mtuffizi
every designer has their own unique way, i admired their designs and still like the logo that had a bit of similarity to the theater in belgium.i don't understand why get rejected. that was beautiful. is it so difficult to learn how to share a bit of idea?
M3M3M3
Why do the Olympic and Paralympic logos have to be so radically different, or different at all? They could be interpreted in an offensive way.
First, (The flower logo) the olympic logo is a gorgeous flower while the paralympic logo seems to be 3 flowers that haven't bloomed yet?...huh?
Secondly, (the running person logo) shows an able body person gracefully engaged in some physical activity, while in comparison the paralympic logo could be take to be a disabled person trying and failing to emulate the same activity. (Are they trying to depict fencing?)
Thirdly, the other two olympic logos are perfect circles while the paralympic logo just doesn't seem to be able to achieve this geometric perfection.
Just use the same logo for both.
sf2k
seriously they're still on this are they?
idir13013
Learned from the past? Considering how bad all those logos are, with nothing that can be easily identified and nothing that is really challenging our mind, the selection was clearly made by people with no idea of what they are doing. It all seems like a joke, I can't believe this is where they stand now, between those entries!