HARA DESIGN INSTITUTE

An emblem design competition for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with 104 entries was withdrawn, revealing only one identity work, and the event’s organizing committee has started the whole process again, from scratch. I believe that to make known publicly the content of this competition, whose entrants were limited to professional designers who had won at least two of several designated awards, would serve to provide valuable information both facilitating public understanding about graphic design and articulating the future development of the Olympic symbol. Therefore, availing myself of this opportunity, in which the copyright of my submitted work had been returned to me, I would like to publish my entry as authentically as possible, although part of this work had already been leaked from anonymous sources. In order to keep the scope of my publication within the borders of what belongs to me as the entrant, I will use a completely different form for the Olympic Rings and the TOKYO 2020 logo than those I used in my submission.

Read more... My proposal for the Olympics emblem symbolizes “pulsating earth”, “heartbeat” and “summit”. Two “stars” imply the sun and the moon or the celestial bodies as if seen afloat above an astronomical horizon while representing athletic competition transcending individuals and nations. The color red indicates the traditional Japanese color portraying dynamism and passion. My proposal for the Paralympics emblem represents “beaming joy”, “resonance” and “festivity”. It rests on the image of “flying celestial beings/nymphs” delivering joys hovering in the sky. I designed two of these emblems as a spherical globe without the shadow using a single color: red, which confers originality in terms of form. Both emblems are reproductions of original molds I created on my own.

Dealing with identity design, I am convinced that, in today’s design planning environment, it is absolutely essential to examine whether the identity can cope with various communication scenes. Particularly this time, I thought that the relationship between the two emblems was important. The submitted reference materials consisted of 14 images, which were carefully selected from a wide variety of considered work, including moving images, which I thought might make up an integral part of the identity design. As a designer, I participated sincerely in the initial competition. To my mind, an emblem design competition not only reaches the primary goal of deciding upon the design, but also is the first step in the process of building a design committee that can function properly within the Olympics Organizing Committee.

The call for entries has been reissued. Participation qualifications are now: entrant must be 18 years old or older and must present two images. The number of runners in this now “design marathon” will probably swell. I won’t know what kind of race it will be unless I actually participate, so I will collect myself and participate positively in this new race, contributing to the success of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

I am authorized to use all photographs submitted as part of my proposal. The moving images, CG and music used for my proposal are all my original creations.

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