The controversy surrounding the Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo design brings to light the massive use of crowd sourcing within graphic design and largely connects to the grandiose issues surrounding Olympic identity. As technology becomes more accessible within design, graphic design has become a more inclusive, accessible and more necessary task within the industry today. However, this act of inclusivity is also pinning designer against designer with the commissioner being the benefactor, receiving work for low cost or even free. Though many have attached a critical eye to spec work within graphic design, few have addressed such practice within high-level commissions like the Olympic games.
Within the Tokyo 2020 games, the initial logo design was dismissed for copyright infringement leading the Japanese government to create a large-scale crowd sourcing campaign open to the general public offering minimal payment for the winning logo design. Using critique brought forward by Richard Grefé. I argue that crowd sourcing is a way to lessen the value of design but something that has been apart of the Olympic design history for many years. With the guidance of Olympic historian, Jilly Traganou, I aim to address the importance placed on Olympic identity within popular culture as well as the loss of identity of a country in the hopes of rebranding to international markets.
About the presenterKatie Gross
M.A Candidate in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies Program at Parsons School of Design, anticipated graduation date May, 2017.
Illustration B.F.A at Parsons School of Design, received 2012