The mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, “bing dwen dwen”, has also created a wave of “dwen dwen fever” in Japan. The other day, the official mascot for the 2025 Kansai World Expo in Osaka was also finalized. The official logo was praised by the architect Tadao Ando as “full of incongruous fun”, and the official mascot was designed based on the official logo, which was announced on the internet after the announcement. What kind of theme and expectation does this mascot represent? Do you like the way it looks?

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LOGO of the Osaka-Kansai Expo

The theme of the Osaka-Kansai Expo, “Designing a Future Society that Shines with Life,” aims to unite the world in realizing a society in which each individual can think about how he or she wants to live and realize their full potential, and a sustainable society that supports this way of life.

The logo chosen will be the symbol of the World Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai. It will be used as the official logo to promote the Osaka-Kansai World Expo and create further momentum.
A total of 5,894 entries were received between Friday, November 29 and Sunday, December 15, 2019. After a selection process, the above logo was selected as the logo for the Kansai World Expo Osaka in August 2020 among the five finalists.

The following are the five finalists.

Concept

Dancing. Jumping. Bouncing. That’s why it is alive. The CELLs, whose DNA is based on the design elements of the 1970 Osaka-Kansai Expo, will co-create the future on Yumeshima in 2025. In addition to the main symbol, which surrounds a form that can be taken as both Kansai and Osaka Prefecture, the CELLs communicate as characters by drawing letters and numbers. Free. Organically. Developmentally. Expressing the brightness of life.

Group Name: TEAM INARI
Author (Representative): Tamotsu Shimada
Year of birth: 1965
Occupation: Art director/Graphic designer
Group Members:
Miyuki Amemiya, Nobuhiko Oyetomo
Shinya Kamimura, Yuko Nunokawa
Yusuke Fujisawa

the Official Character of the Osaka-Kansai Expo

<img src=”https://www.expo2025.or.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/image-43.png” width=”243″ height=”337″ class=”alignnone size-full” />

In 2022, the final selection of the official character design for the 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo) was held, and the three finalists were selected. The best design was selected from the three finalists.

The official character will be used as another symbol of the Osaka-Kansai Expo and will be widely used to further promote and build momentum, following the official logo that will be confirmed in August 2020, and will hopefully become a favorite and familiar character to people around the world.

The following are the three finalists.

Design Concept

Is it possible to make a character directly from the logo? We designed this work with this question in mind. Our design was based on the image of the “Water City” of Osaka. We wanted to create a character like the water in the “Water City”, so we separated and expanded each part of the logo to create a variety of characters, and chose this one as our final answer. We sincerely hope that this design does not fail to live up to the feeling of inexhaustibility that the LOGO brings to us.

Character Features

The character does not have a fixed shape. The current main design is just a possible shape. The red part can be split and the blue part can be changed at will, there is no fixed shape. The character will be transformed into various shapes in the minds of all Expo attendees. We hope that the character will also reflect the future of today’s diverse world.

Relationship with the logo

The living logo has always wished to “change”. One day, when it encountered clean water, it became able to change its shape into various forms. Since that time, the logo and the character became one. The logo mark is changing every day in search of a better form, wishing to “become the person I want to be”. As long as you have the power of imagination, the possibilities for change are endless.

Group name: mountain mountain
Author (Representative): Kohei Yamashita
Year of birth: 1971
Occupation: Designer, picture book author