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Net user proposes clever changes to 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo in light of one-year delay

Krista Rogers
Mar 31, 2020
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We’d like to add our own stamp of approval to the ones already there.
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Japan
(2021 Tokyo Olympics • clever • hanko • logo • Olympics • twitter)

Shibuya 109 building unveils new winning logo design set to appear over scramble crossing in 2019

Oona McGee
Jul 24, 2018

Owners say sayonara to their iconic red sign with a new logo that captures the spirit of all the youth fashion stores inside the building.

Japan
(art • competitions • design • fashion • logo • Shibuya • shibuya 109 • Shibuya scramble crossing • Tokyo)

Governor of Tokyo unveils new city logo, internet responds with questions about plagiarism again

Oona McGee
Oct 14, 2015

Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe revealed the capital city’s new logo at a press conference in the nation’s capital on Friday, and the simple design, featuring the one-line catchphrase “&TOKYO”, is already in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The logo unveiling was met with a heightened level of scrutiny following the plagiarism scandal which resulted in the withdrawal of the official Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo recently, and it turns out that netizens are now worried about a recurrence of events. The distinctive white ampersand enclosed in a circle has been discovered online in a similar black, white and red configuration currently in use by another organisation, an insurance and commercial litigation company in New Zealand.

Japan
(design • logo • Masuzoe • Olympics • Tokyo • Tokyo Governor • tourism • Yayoi Kusama)

Looks like it’s time to say good-bye, and maybe good riddance, to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo

Casey Baseel
Sep 1, 2015

There hasn’t been a lot of love for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ logo, which was officially unveiled by the event’s Organising Committee at the tail-end of July. Almost immediately after getting their first eyeful of it, many in Japan called it unappealing and confusing, and just a few days later some were calling it plagiarized.

In other words, not too many people were looking forward to seeing the emblem plastered all over the city during the Games, as well as the years leading up to them. The good news for the logo’s detractors is that they probably won’t have to, as the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics seem ready to officially withdraw the design for their promotion.

Japan
(2020 Olympics • design • logo • Olympics • plagiarism • scandal • Tokyo Olympics)

Is there an adorably chubby bird hiding inside the Tokyo Olympics logo?

Casey Baseel
Aug 1, 2015

It’s been a rocky debut for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics official logo. First, it elicited mixed reactions as to whether its somewhat obtuse aesthetics really conveyed the noble sentiments it was aiming for. Then came the allegations that the logo was plagiarized from the emblem of a Belgian theater.

But let’s set aside the issue of whether or not the design is a copy or not and ask another artistic question: Is the Tokyo Olympics logo actually an adorably stylized bird?

Japan
(2020 Olympics • cute • design • funny • logo • Olyumpis • Tokyo Olympics)

Design agency reimagines Pokémon as corporate logos

Anime News Network
Jan 27, 2015

San Francisco design agency Pictogram has reimagined several Pokemon as corporate logos, joking that “since the Pokémon Corporate Personhood Act of 2015, as spearheaded by Professor OAK, Pokémon became free to start their own companies, mandating the design of Pokémon brand identities.”

Here are some of our favorites:

Global
(Anime News Network • brand • design • logo)

The konami code makes Twitter flip the bird!

Fran W
Jun 24, 2014

It’s the ultimate easter egg, the key to secret funny effects on all kinds of websites. The konami code, entered by pressing the sequence up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A, works on Twitter!

The code, which originated in video games from Japanese publisher Konami, and is called the konami komando (“konami command”) in Japanese. Twitter user @konosuke recently posted that, perusing the site’s JavaScript, he had discovered a piece of code in there that read “konami_watcher”. Intrigued, he punched in the magic code on Twitter’s timeline page and … something surprising happened! Join us after the jump for a look at Twitter’s new flippy bird!

Internet
(cheat • easter eggs • konami code • logo • twitter)

North Korea releases new logo for space agency, Internet forgets how acronyms work

Preston Phro
Apr 3, 2014

For a country that allegedly has little contact with the outside world, North Korea somehow manages to end up in the news an awful lot. While it’s hard to tell how much of what we hear and read is true, sometimes a nugget of truth–beautiful, hilarious truth–slips through the cracks of propaganda on both sides of the ideological line and leaves us giggling.

As you’ve probably heard, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has recently unveiled the logo for their year-old space agency, NADA. Though they may have expected fanfare or at least a bit of grudging respect, the main response they got was an Internet full of giggles.

Internet, North Korea
(logo • NADA • NASA • North Korea • space)

Pop artist makes familiar logos even better with Ghibli characters and more

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Feb 18, 2014

Today the marketing industry is a multi-billion dollar entity that spends countless man-hours designing and maintaining relatable brand logos. That’s why the work of pop-culture artist, Bruce Yan, is so cool. He takes characters we all know and love and uses them to recreate logos we see every day, somehow managing to give rise to a brand new and yet completely familiar logo. From the Girl Scout symbol to Morton Salt, take a look at his clever redesigns after the jump!