Illustrating the Tokyo Olympics

So after a lot of speculation we can be sure now that Tokyo Olympics 2021 will go ahead. We`re not sure on the exact mechanics, but it is going to happen. And it`s great news for the creative world as Olympic illustrations have always thrown up some absolutely iconic designs, none more so than the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The first ever sports pictograms, and their most recent incarnations

The design team of that Tokyo Olympics started the worldwide adoption of a whole new illustrative language - the pictogram. Confronted by the linguistic challenge of hosting an international event of the magnitude of the Olympics in Japan, and in keeping with their minimalist mindset, Masaru Katsumi and his team threw out the traditional text-based approach and turned to an illustrative solution that has since become universal - Japanese creativity at its best. These were game-changing ways of communicating with your audience that have stuck like glue ever since.

Illustrated guidance pictograms from Tokyo 1964

So what will be the big takeout from this year`s event? The official art posters for Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2021 include some terrific work ranging from Japanese calligraphy and traditional sumi-e ink wash paintings to modern sports manga and anime illustrations, and all other elements of Japanese illustration in between.

Key illustrations for Tokyo 2020

Sports manga and illustration exploded in popularity both during and after the last Tokyo Olympics. It was actually the staging of the 1938 Amsterdam Games that inspired the first Japanese sports animation…now you can find series based on every single sport imaginable. Manga and anime are fantastic mediums for the story-telling aspects of sport - the drama, the motion, the energy, the emotion, it`s perfect material for the animator/mangaka`s pen…one of the top-selling mangas of last year was about a volleyball player!

Obviously the more attention a particular sport gets, the more manga and anime focusing on it gets created, but it also works the other way round - football wasn`t that big in Japan until the monster soccer manga Captain Tsubasa sent it through the roof. And not just in Japan - Messi in Argentina, Zidane in France, Torres in Spain, Del Piero in Italy, they`ve all credited Captain Tsubasa for them taking up the game. We`re hoping that the power of Japanese design cuts through once again as it takes its place in the word spotlight in the weeks and months ahead.