In light of the fact that the original Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic logo was officially withdrawn due to plagiarism concerns, organizers have now officially re-launched the competition to once again design the Games’ emblems.
The original logo, which was released in July of this year to mixed reviews, was ultimately tagged as too closely representing that of a Belgian designer’s emblem he had made for a theater in the eastern Belgian city of Liege. The artist claimed the logo represented copyright infringement, which led to the IOC and Tokyo Games abandoning the design in September.
The design competition to create an entirely new logo is now open to everyone, regardless of previous experience or formal qualifications. Individual competition entries must come from Japanese Nationals who are at least 18 years of age, or foreign nationals of the same age minimum who have the right of residence in Japan. Children and non-resident foreigners can also submit designs via the group entry system (10 persons maximum), as long as one member of the group meets the aforementioned age, residential and nationality requirements.
According to Tokyo organizers, the Games emblems should ‘seek to symbolize the fact that the 2020 Games are being held in Tokyo and Japan and elicit empathy with people across the world. The designs should endeavour to have widespread appeal before, during and long after the 2020 Games are over.’
The submission timeframe runs from November 24th through December 7th and will be conducted via a website to be publicly announced at a later date. The final winning design will be announced in spring 2016.
You can read more about the design guidelines for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic emblems here.