The design needs to capture the spirit of a sporting event, and ideally the Olympic ideals. But an Olympic logo isn't just an identity for the Games. It's also a presentation of the host city, which often means trying to balance elements of national heritage while showcasing a country's modernity.
The logo design has to be simple enough to work in lots of environments, from wayfinding signage to printed material and from giant billboards to tiny mobile screens. And that's not to mention the competing tangle of cross-border committees to navigate and stakeholders to please.
Elegant, iconic and harmonious, it combines the red sun symbol of Japan with the Olympic rings in a winning gold colour and the words Tokyo 1964 in bold block letters. Designed by the Japanese designers Masaru Katsumi and Yusaku Kamekura, it looks simple, but the way the rings fit together uses quite complex interleaving, removing the usual spaces where they overlap for a more compact and balanced linked icon.
2004 was a landmark year for the Olympics as it was the first time the modern Games returned to their Greek roots. In keeping with this symbolism, the Athens 2004 logo took the form of an olive wreath, the prize for victors in ancient Greece, fashioned into a grand spiral.
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