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Vancouver Mascot


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Does anyone know when it willbe released ? Have started anything about it ?

The work on the Mascot has started months ago.

I suspect it will be released this year at the D-1000 milestone (just a guess)

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Vancouver may have more than one mascot

Damian Inwood, The Province

Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007

Like the Calgary Olympics, Vancouver may have more than one mascot for the 2010 Games.

Two concepts from the 178 submissions organizers received are being considered.

International trademark checks will be made to ensure the characters do not exist elsewhere. And the mascots' names will be checked to make sure they translate suitably into other languages.

A decision should be made by late summer.

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Vancouver may have more than one mascot

Damian Inwood, The Province

Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007

Like the Calgary Olympics, Vancouver may have more than one mascot for the 2010 Games.

Two concepts from the 178 submissions organizers received are being considered.

International trademark checks will be made to ensure the characters do not exist elsewhere. And the mascots' names will be checked to make sure they translate suitably into other languages.

A decision should be made by late summer.

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Vancouver's 2010 Olympic mascot still a deep secret

Vanoc will not even say how many people are working on its design

15443-5983.jpg

A pedestrian walks past the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascots on display outside a mall.

Photograph by : TEH ENG KOON, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun

Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007

VANCOUVER - Will it be a Spirit Bear? A stylized inukshuk? A walking totem pole? A pair of sled dogs? A moose? A flock of geese named for every province and territory?

Now that the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee's long-awaited business plan is public and out of the way, what most people appear to want to know is what will the Vancouver 2010 mascots will look like.

Alas, that's a fiercely guarded secret. So secret that neither Ali Gardner, Vanoc's director of brand and creative services, nor Renee Smith-Valade, who is in charge of the official launch this fall, will even say how many people are working on the designs and where they are from.

All they will say is that somewhere in the world, two small teams of designers are battling it out trying to impress them with images that will do everything, including sing, walk and talk.

Mascots have become one of the most important means to brand or create an image around the Olympics. Only the creation of the logo ranks as high in terms of how the Olympics are set in people's minds.

"An image can be very effective. Anything you put out there is there to shape what you want to communicate," said Tim Silk, a professor of marketing and brand management at the University of B.C.'s Sauder School of Business. "Olympic mascots are very vivid images, and we're more likely to look at images than we are at words."

On the face of it, Olympic mascots exist because they are virtual money machines. Everything from stuffed toys to pins, keychains, lunch kits and drink bottles, clothing and even video games and cartoons are created around the images. Tens of millions of dollars are added to an organizing committee's bottom line because of mascots.

But Gardner says the right mascot or mascots need to be personified, be able to perform all the winter sports, and not offend anyone.

"Mascots are just a really great ambassador and a way of connecting children and youth to the Games. The mascots help to tell stories. For the athletes, they are also a little bit of light-hearted humorous fun. They help cut the tension. A really great mascot in the venues can help create atmosphere," she said.

Last September, Vanoc opened its doors to submissions from qualified artists. It received 178 resumes, none of which were to include any ideas or renderings of potential images.

"Fortunately in Canada there is just such a tremendous amount of talent in the field of animation and character development. A lot of Canadians are also working internationally in this field," she said. Smith-Valade said the mascot or mascots -- Vanoc isn't sure how many will be created -- will be unveiled this fall when some of the sports venues are finished and open for training. The release will also coincide with the pre-Christmas market.

Vanoc's search for the right mascot also comes as interest in animation has jumped among adults. "It has gone way beyond kids and is now popular culture for teens and adults," Gardner said.

Silk says Vanoc will need to be careful in making its choice. The existing inukshuk logo is such a powerful image that anything new will compete with it. But he also notes the inukshuk, which has aboriginal connections as well as distinctly Canadian imagery, wouldn't work as a personified mascot. It may also offend certain segments of society.

"What is a blunder is if some constituencies out there clearly perceive something you didn't intend because you didn't think to test it," he said. "You have to look at if the image you select could potentially miscommunicate things due to symbolism."

Vanoc also needs to find something that isn't easily parodied or ignored.

Just look at the history of three mascots. The 1996 Atlanta emblem, a blue blob aptly called Whatizit or Izzy, went down as the most unpopular mascot in Olympic history, largely because nobody could figure out what it was.

And the official three animal-based mascots of the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, Ollie, Syd and Millie, were quickly usurped by an unofficial mascot called Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat that was created by a pair of television comedians. Fatso was immortalized as part of an official memorial outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium while Ollie, Syd and Millie drifted off into obscurity.

And artists around the world brutally parodied two of the three 2006 Turin mascots, a snowball and ice cube named Neve and Gliz, turning them into a series of political and risque objects.

Silk said Vanoc shouldn't worry if someone parodies its mascot. "People will do that. If people aren't doing that it's perhaps a sign that they aren't communicating effectively," he said.

"I'd say that Vanoc should consider all the different ways people could perceive this mascot, but not get wrapped up too much about possibilities for bad press, because that's human nature."

Gardner said Vanoc is taking care to make sure its mascots aren't easily changed into embarrassing images.

But she also says such parody comes with the territory. "We're Canadians," she said. "We have a sense of humour about things."

jefflee@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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I just can't wait for the mascot. I'm so excited. Don't worry, I won't ask any "when" questions.

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I just can't wait for the mascot. I'm so excited. Don't worry, I won't ask any "when" questions.

-_-

i was excited about the unveiling of the 2010 logo the same way, went to the unveiling at GM Place and you know what happened......the crowd was cheering on the old logo, but they were dead silent when the new logo was unveiled and the fireworks started going off. it took me a year to learn to like that logo.

i'm just saying, don't have too high expectations. VANOC consistently has said they have learned their lesson when it comes to culture, but have they really?

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-_-

i was excited about the unveiling of the 2010 logo the same way, went to the unveiling at GM Place and you know what happened......the crowd was cheering on the old logo, but they were dead silent when the new logo was unveiled and the fireworks started going off. it took me a year to learn to like that logo.

It's funny how it seems noone likes Vancouver Logo.

I have to admit that I found it very strange at the beginning but it has really grown on me:

  • it's original (it's not a snowflake inpired logo like we have seen in Sapporo, Sarajevo, Calgary, Nagano and Salt Lake)
  • it's very Canadian and it taught me something about Canada First Nations
  • I like the message it carries.

I think it does the job.

The only thing that bothers me is that it is very "static".

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^ don't worry about it....it's normal for a host city/nation to not like its logo. The Aussie's hated Sydney, the Americans hated Atlanta, Beijing was questioned, Torino's was also questioned (not sure about Athens).....yet, we still all ended up liking them, at least the world community.

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It's funny how it seems noone likes Vancouver Logo.

I have to admit that I found it very strange at the beginning but it has really grown on me:

  • it's original (it's not a snowflake inpired logo like we have seen in Sapporo, Sarajevo, Calgary, Nagano and Salt Lake)
  • it's very Canadian and it taught me something about Canada First Nations
  • I like the message it carries.

I think it does the job.

The only thing that bothers me is that it is very "static".

Its not very Canadian though, its entirely Inuit, and there is only about 20,000 of them in Canada, not indicative of an entire country.

It is ugly, bluky, and not reflective of the colour and culture of Canada. If you are going to use a symbol already around, use one that reflects all of Canada, not just one small group. That was the beauty of Calgary's, it reflects winter through the snow flake and Canada through the maple leaf and red.

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Its not very Canadian though, its entirely Inuit, and there is only about 20,000 of them in Canada, not indicative of an entire country.

It is ugly, bluky, and not reflective of the colour and culture of Canada. If you are going to use a symbol already around, use one that reflects all of Canada, not just one small group. That was the beauty of Calgary's, it reflects winter through the snow flake and Canada through the maple leaf and red.

Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Sure, the inukshuk is an inuit symbol but they are found all across Canada.

And I am glad, Vancouver didn't go with the mapple leaf that we have found in almost every hot city / bid logo from Canada (Calgary 88, Edmonton 2001, included in TO 2008, Vancouver 2010, Hamilton 2010 and Halifax 2014). I have personnaly learned more about - a part of - Canada culture and heritage with VANOC logo than with past host cities logo...

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Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Sure, the inukshuk is an inuit symbol but they are found all across Canada.

And I am glad, Vancouver didn't go with the mapple leaf that we have found in almost every hot city / bid logo from Canada (Calgary 88, Edmonton 2001, included in TO 2008, Vancouver 2010, Hamilton 2010 and Halifax 2014). I have personnaly learned more about - a part of - Canada culture and heritage with VANOC logo than with past host cities logo...

I am from Canada and the only inukshuk I have ever seen was in NYC at the UN. They are not all across Canada, they are confined to Nunavut, and there most of them have been blown down through the ages, they are not a common costume any more, just symbolic ones in major centres in the far north. The far north is only about 55,000 people, compared to the city I live in now that is 90,000 and were I live during the school year 500,000. .

If they wanted to go through a native symbol, use Hiada or native culture that is in BC.

You are trying to argue against a Canadian about what Canadians are and what our symbols are. Its pretty simple, the beaver, the moose, the maple leaf and red are Canadian. Just like lady liberty and the fleur-de-lis are to france.

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You are trying to argue against a Canadian about what Canadians are and what our symbols are. Its pretty simple, the beaver, the moose, the maple leaf and red are Canadian. Just like lady liberty and the fleur-de-lis are to france.

No I am not.

I was naive enough to think that Canada was a little more than beavor, moose and maple leaf. I thought that the Vancouver Games was a great opportunity to show to the world other aspects of Canada than the traditional cliches.

(BTW, a quick search on the Internet has confirmed that, though the inukshuk is indeed an Inuit symbol, they can be found in many places in Canada - from Vancouver to Nova Sctoia, to Montreal, Quebec and Toronto - and that more and more of them are modern one, meaning indeed that it is becoming a common symbol in Canada)

But if you are happy about that fine.

Just allow me to say that I like the Vancouver logo. But, hey, what do I know, I am French so no clue about anything but lady liberty and fleur-de-lis (and yea, we do see fleur de lis about everywhere in France!).

Edited by cfm Jeremie
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No I am not.

I was naive enough to think that Canada was a little more than beavor, moose and maple leaf. I thought that the Vancouver Games was a great opportunity to show to the world other aspects of Canada than the traditional cliches.

(BTW, a quick search on the Internet has confirmed that, though the inukshuk is indeed an Inuit symbol, they can be found in many places in Canada - from Vancouver to Nova Sctoia, to Montreal, Quebec and Toronto - and that more and more of them are modern one, meaning indeed that it is becoming a common symbol in Canada)

But if you are happy about that fine.

Just allow me to say that I like the Vancouver logo. But, hey, what do I know, I am French so no clue about anything but lady liberty and fleur-de-lis (and yea, we do see fleur de lis about everywhere in France!).

I will agree with you there.

I too would have thought it would be a largely unfortunate outcome if the organising committee had gone down the same road of using some kind of stylised maple leaf yet again - it has been used far too much.

The trend recently seems to have been to use abit more intricate symbols to demonstrate the culture of the host via the different elements of the visual identity of the host.

Often, it is the bid visuals and the handover ceremonies which are a tad more strerotypical. Ric Birch always said that they dont want to get too complicated for those. Then they develop something else.

That is why we saw such awesome design elements as Sydney's *fluid energy* for their look of the games.

However, I would also agree with Faster, in that I personally think something from Haida art would have been more appropriate. The pictograms for the Vancouver bid were great.

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I'm guessing they'll be a series of animals such as moose, bears, etc. wearing RCMP style hats and toting hockey sticks. :lol:

Ok.. I'm just tossing out guesses here, but hey.. :P .. I'm sure whatever they come up with will be AWESOME !!

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When is/are the mascot(s) going to be revealed? Wasn't it supposed to be this summer sometime?

It's confirmed and final that it'll be released in the fourth quarter of this year.

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