On Friday Tokyo 2020 announced that it will reveal the official Olympic and Paralympic Games emblems next Friday, July 24 coinciding with the moment exactly five years before the opening ceremony begins to kick off the Games.
The bid committee announced that a “special event” will be held in Tokyo to celebrate the occasion.
The emblem reveal is typically a major milestone for many Olympic Games as it helps set the stage for the public face of the bid, and helps influence many future elements including the “look” and visual design of the marketing materials and build-out of the events, the style of the mascot and the design of the torch. For months, it will become one of the most recognizable images in the world.
The emblem will also appear on millions of souvenirs to be sold from pins to clothing and limited edition Coca Cola bottles, to name a few.
Recent Games logo reveals have stirred up controversy including that of London 2012 when a radical dynamic graffiti-style emblem was said to conjure vulgar imagery and even cause seizures when the animated version was viewed.
Until now, Tokyo’s Games has been represented by its bid logo that was designed when the city was competing against Istanbul and Madrid before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to elect the Japanese capital at a meeting in Buenos Aires in 2013.
The bid logo portrays an arrangement of cherry blossoms, the most celebrated flower of Japan. The floral motif “expresses the feelings of deep gratitude inherent in Japan’s sending of cherry blossom trees to all parts of the world”, according to the bid.
The bid logo was designed to symbolize friendship and peace.
