The opening ceremony of Summer Olympic Games 2016 will take place on 5th August in Brazil (HKT: 6th August).
The five colors of Olympic rings are blue, black, red, yellow and green. They represent the five continents. The interlocking of each other means unity. The five colors and the white from the background, are symbolling international, as they are the colors of national flag of the hosts (participant countries).
Every Olympic Games has its own logo. The concept and idea mostly come from the character of the participant country, the spirit of Olympic Games and sometime relate to the year of the Games.
Rio- Simple but Meaningful
Olympic Games 2016 will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its logo is comprised of 3 colors: blue, green and yellow which are the colors on its nation flag. Three people hold hands with each other, which represent the harmony among different countries. You can also see the letter “R”, “I” and “O” inside the logo. And try to use a little of your imagazination and maybe you can spot the outline of Sugarloaf Mountain (Complexo do Pão de Açúcar), a scenic spot of Rio?
London- The Most Controversial One
The logo of London Olympic Games in 2012 is the most controversial one.
We can see 2012, London and the Olympic rings on the logo. Didn’t it achieve its purpose perfectly?
But this simple logo caused four disputations.
First of all, it’s design fee. It costed €400,000. It was subjective to judge if the logo was beautiful, but €400,000 certainly not a small amount.
Secondly, some people thought that the logo involved “pornographic elements”, which was salacious.
Moreover, this logo caused the resentment and hatred between countries.
Iran International Olympic Committee, has declaimed against the logo which can break down into four letters: “Z”, “I”, “O” and “N”- Zion, which indicated Jerusalem, a city of Israel. This made some of the Iranian feeling uncomfortable, and they threatened to absent in the Games.
Jew thought that there were “N”, “A”, “Z” “I”- Nazi, which reminds the Jew of their painful history.
Tokyo- Copy Cat?
Tokyo will be the host of Olympic Games next in 2020. The upper logo was the original design by Kenjiro Sano. The “T” represented “Tokyo”, “Tomorrow” and “Team”, and the red dot symbolized the nation flag of Japan and heart beating,
However, many people complained there’s plagiarism in this design when it first went pubic in July last year.
The logo below was designed for Théâtre de Liège by Olivier Debie, a designer from Belgium.
Andrew Jackson, designer from Spain, pointed out the logo of Tokyo were similar to his design in 2011 (see below).
Eventually, Japan re-designed a new logo which released in April 2016.
The designer, Asao Tokolo said that the squares and rectangles represented different nations and cultures, and the pattern retained the signature of Edo age.
However, the citizen of Japan disliked the new logo, some people said that it felt like the logo of funeral home.
On the other hand, the design from the citizens were more popular. Here below are three of them.
Good Examples
Beijing 2008. The red and white part looked like a human and Chinese word “京” (Beijing). And it looked like cinnabar stamp, which was full of Chinese character.
Athens 2004. Athens (located in Greece) was the originator of Olympic Games. The first Olympic Games took place in Athens. Blue and white are the colors of nation flag of Greece. Awarding the crown made by the branch of olive was a traditional in the past.
Sydney 2000. The blue outlined Sydney Opera House, represented cultural. The running man in red and yellow color represented Sydney is an energetic city. The boomerang (in red) was the tool for hunting by the aborigine, showing the traditional side.
Let’s Play a Game
Which logos belonged to the countries below? (Answer is at the bottom)
a) b) c) d)
e) f) g)
1) 1960 Rome (Italy)
2) 1976 Montréal (Canada)
3) 1980 Moscow (Russia)
4) 1982 Los Angeles (USA)
5) 1988 Seoul (Korean)
6) 1992 Barcelona (Spain)
7) 1966 Atlanta (USA)
TVC
Olympic Games 2016 is approaching. Many promotion materials are now available in varies channels. Most of them are 2D graphic. Have you watched the TVC?
Brazil, a country that is enthusiastic, expressive and carefree. There are many tropical rain forest in Brazil which remind us of the different species living in it. BBC converted the athlete into animals, and put them on different sports according to their strength and ability.
Only the strong and adaptable one survives. There is competition in the forest and the stadium but yet, the animals coexist with each other and so does the athletics. This is exactly the message Olympic want to bring to the world: harmony and benign competition.
Are you ready for Olympic Games?
Source of the Pictures: Olympic Games Official Website (https://www.olympic.org/) /Internet
Source of the Video: Youtube
Answer:
a5
b3
c4
d7
e1
f6
g2