Ex.04: One Line Logo

Create a logo for the Olympics with only one continuous line.

The book suggests a specific year, but since that year is over I wanted to look to the future.

I chose Tokyo 2020 for my Olympic logo. As you may know, the actual logo for Tokyo 2020 was dragged through a lot of controversy and revision. Nevertheless, I decided to take a shot at it too, just for fun!

The key here was to create a logo with only one line (curved or straight) without lifting the pencil off the page. With my logo, I wanted to suggest the image of Mt. Fuji backed by a rising sun, combining two very strong cultural symbols of Japan. I figured it would be appealing and also pretty straightforward to draw with one line. Beyond that, mountains and rising suns can symbolize aspiration, attainment and victory, which are undeniable Olympic themes. So off I went to doodle.

I spent about ten minutes and a couple of pages practicing my one line until I settled on a favorite

There was no escaping the hand-drawn look, so I decided to run with it by pairing the logo with a hand-drawn font (Greatesque). If anything we can call this Tokyo's hipster Olympics?

While I think it could definitely mesh better with the Olympic logo, I incorporated Olympic colors in attempt to unify it. The colors are interchangeable to represent the diversity of competing countries.