Continuing with the saga surrounding the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games logo’s design, Toshio Muto, Director General of the world’s biggest sporting event for 2020 has announced that organizers will indeed be abandoning the logo.
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games today decided to withdraw the current Games emblems. Further information regarding the new emblems will be announced as soon as it is available. – Official Statement
The design, originally unveiled in mid-July to mixed reviews, was originally criticized for its red dot and “T” as an attempt by Tokyo to personalize the 2020 Olympics rather than celebrate the games as an international showcase.
Then, as we reported last month, Belgian designer, Olivier Debie, accused the Japanese artist Kenjiro Sano of plagiarism, citing that Sano’s 2020 logo appeared too similar to the emblem that he had made for a theater in the eastern Belgian city of Liege. Debie claimed copyright infringement and threatened to take the International Olympic Committee to court. At the time of reporting the plagiarism accusations, Tokyo 2020 organizers had dismissed the claims and insisted they would continue to utilize the logo as it was originally introduced.
Flash forward to today, however, and Muto has clearly communicated to the press that organizers “have reached a conclusion that it would be only appropriate for us to drop the logo and develop a new emblem. At this point, we have decided that the logo cannot gain public support.”
John Coates, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020 also commented on the situation, indicating that, “There is no question about the originality of Mr Sano’s emblem, the design that he did. But such was the criticism and the weight of it in Japan that I can well understand the decision that the Tokyo Organising Committee has taken.”
As for the Tokyo Governor, Yoichi Masuzoe, he says he wants Mr. Sano to provide an explanation, as he and his city ‘feel they have been betrayed.’ There are additional monetary implications of the logo being yanked from the plans, as Japan Airlines and other sponsors have already started using the logo in marketing materials.
The Tokyo 2020 organizers will be holding another competition to determine the new logo design ‘as soon as possible.’
Might be running out of design ppl . More adult diapers are sold in Japan than babies’ .
It was the ugliest Olympic logo ever… might as well not have one… all I could see was the letter T for Tokyo, how creative
Im just hoping it won’t be as bad as the london Olympics logo… something like rios would be good.
Good! The just-abandoned logo was stiff and rigid. It spoke neither to Japan nor to the fluidity of an Olympic athlete in motion. I’m sure they’ll find something much, much better.