
The history of the Olympics is one of war — of idle armies training in times of peace. To me, a graphic designer operating from a position of married theory and practice, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic logo design competition represents the most vehement bifurcate embodiment of anti-intellectualism and anti-labor sentiments.
In the 1800s, global visual culture was still predominantly driven by Victorian British aesthetics. You can still see aspects of this today, notably in the logo for the Coca-Cola Corporation. The original version was designed in 1886. It uses a very British style of script lettering. It reflects a lot of British tendencies toward decoration from the pre-modern era and is more than anything, a symbol of Empire. Modernism was a departure from this fussiness.
“Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.”