Dramas continue for the 2020 Olympics as Kenjiro Sano, the designer of its new logo, is challenged by the creator of Belgium’s Théâtre de Liège emblem. But it’s far from the first time Games logos have run into trouble

The logos for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo were supposed to symbolise the harmony of the Olympic spirit. But now, the designs have become embroiled in a plagiarism row.

Designed by Kenjiro Sano, the two new logos were unveiled last week, five years to the day before the Games begin. In its official release, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee hailed them as encapsulating the power of Olympic unity. Based on the T in Tokyo, tomorrow and team, the Olympic Games logo was inspired by “the full meaning of coming together as one”.

“The black colour of the central column represents diversity, the combination of all colours,” said the organisers. “The shape of the circle represents an inclusive world, in which everyone accepts each other. The red of the circle represents the power of every beating heart.”

But this week, graphic designer Olivier Debie pointed out the similarities between Sano’s Olympic emblem and his own logo for the Théâtre de Liège in Belgium, which he started work on in 2011.

Studio Debie posted a picture on Facebook showing the two side by side, noting that its work has been widely shared on Pinterest. Debie also tweeted a gif of the Liège logo merging into the new 2020 emblem with the hashtag “#plagiat?”

Olivier Debie (@OliDebie) Théâtre de Liège vs Tokyo 2020 #Tokyo2020 #ThéâtredeLiège #plagiat? pic.twitter.com/u64MpWBAI2

Sano, the designer, issued a statement via the organising committee saying: “I have no particular comment to make.”

The similarities between the two have been widely discussed online, and Debie is said to be considering legal action. Meanwhile, designer Andrew Jackson also flagged up the Tokyo logo’s parallels with an image created by Barcelona-based Hey Studio in the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese tsunami, though the studio itself tweeted on Thursday that it considered the similarity a coincidence.

This new row comes at a difficult time for the Tokyo Olympics, as the argument surfaced just 10 days after the Japanese government scrapped plans for Zaha Hadid’s $2bn Olympic stadium.

The troubled history of Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic stadium project Read more

In a statement, organisers defended the intellectual-property checks the emblem went through. They said: “Prior to the selection of this design, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee conducted long, extensive and international verifications through a transparent process.”

Armin Vit, a leading graphic design writer who specialises in brand identity, has also defended Sano’s design.

“With a logo this simple and using basic geometric shapes, similarities are bound to happen,” he said. “Anyone that says the Tokyo 2020 designer plagiarised the Belgian theatre logo has no idea what they are talking about, and is just adding adding noise to social media. It’s a coincidence and nothing more.”

Vit is broadly positive about the Tokyo Olympic logos, but acknowledges that these high-profile graphic design projects are fraught with difficulties. “Designing a logo for the Olympics has always been an impossible commission, as not only is it an extreme creative challenge but the designer must also navigate the International Olympic Committee process, which I gather to be extremely difficult.”

Vit thinks the multiple channels through which people can now comment on new designs “has made it exponentially more difficult to launch a logo unscarred” and traces this back to the furore that surrounded the unveiling of Wolff Olins’s London 2012 Olympic logo.

It was compared to a broken swastika, or Lisa Simpson performing oral sex on her brother Bart, with Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian decrying it as “one of the saddest modern sights of all”.

Other Olympic designs have run into trouble. The Tatíl Design studio’s logo for the 2016 Games in Rio was accused of being very similar to that of the Telluride Foundation, a Colorado-based community trust.

And in 2004, cultural preservation groups threatened to sue the Athens Olympic Organising Committee over the mascots, Phevos and Athena. The dolls were inspired by ancient Greek figurines – but opponents claimed they insulted classical Greek culture.

