The Sea We Would Like To See
Kazumasa Nagai's symbol and Yusaku Kamekura's mascot for Expo '75.
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Expo ‘75 was a World’s Fair held on the Japanese island of Okinawa, opening on July 20th, 1975 and running until January 1976. Like other Expos, the attractions and international pavilions revolved around a central theme, this time, it was the ocean, presenting to the public various oceanographic technologies and marine life. Expo ‘75 was also conceived of as a commemorative event, celebrating the handing over of Okinawa from the US to Japan in 1972, which was finally completed in 1975.
A closed competition was held between 11 designers to find a symbol for the Expo, and a selection committee was assembled to narrow down the many entries. The chairman of the comittee was Masaru Katzumie. Katzumie was a strong choice, having had extensive experience working with selection committees overseeing the design of symbols for Expo '70, the Meiji Centenary, the BIE and Sapporo Winter Olympic Games. The rest of the committee was made up of designers Kenji Ito, Koya Ooshiro, Iwataro Koike, Ikko Tanaka (Expo ‘85), Hideo Mukai, Ryuichi Yamashiro, Seiji Kaya and Yasaburo Ikeda. Norio Ochi, the secretary-general of the Ocean Exposition Association, also joined the committee.
In selecting the designers to compete, preference was initially given to designers from Okinawa, however, in the case of others, their proven ability was the criterion. The final list of designers was Kazumasa Nagai (Expo ‘75), Shigeo Fukuda, Kazou Kishimoto, Yoshio Hayashi, Jishu Onaga, Masayoshi Nakajo, Takeshi Otaka (Expo ‘70), Tadashi Ohashi and Gan Hosoya. Yusaku Kamekura (Shell & Fuji Bank) was in France at that time, so a telegram was sent asking him to participate.
Chairman Katzumie later recounted that there was the opinion that younger designers should have been permitted to participate, however, acknowledged that it was difficult to find any young designers with a regional and national historical perspective as well as an international outlook.
“A symbol cannot be judged merely as a mark since it will serve as the basis for the design for all the events in the exposition” said Katzumie. “The designer must be fully mature from the standpoint of both character and technique. Otherwise, difficulties may occur at a later stage.”
On the basis of his past experiences, Katzumie believed that a closed competition was better than that of an open one. Saying that, an open competition can appear democratic at first but, since there is no objective basis for limiting the scope of those submitting designs, the screening committee is faced with a huge mountain of all kinds of designs, many of inferior quality. This results in difficulties screening the work, and eventually leads to poor results.
Writing of his selection process, committee member Iwataro Koike was drawn in by a number of the submissions, in particular the ‘heart-warming fullness and charm’ of Kamekura’s dolphin (10), which captivated him to the end. On others, he reluctantly discarded Jishu Onaga’s square mark (19) for having too many lines, and while he also enjoyed the work submitted by Shigeo Fukuda (13), dropped it, alongside Kazumasa Nagai’s symbol (7) for being too similar to another world exposition. That left Nagai’s wave and Kamekura’s dolphin.
These two competed until the very last moment, with the committee finally settling on Nagai’s wave. Since the dolphin mark had shown great appeal amongst the judges, but ultimately loosing out to the waves symbol, Katzumie recommended to the Ocean Exposition Association that it be used if the Ocean Exposition ever decided to also use a mascot.
Kazumasa Nagai’s winning symbol symbolised the great vastness of the oceans with three large waves intersecting a circle and dividing sea and sky. The committee felt that this displayed the individuality and universality that they were looking for and reflected a regional character also accessible to international visitors. Nagai was also responsible for the official Japanese poster which built on the logo with a hand drawn illustration.
Alongside the symbol, it was agreed upon that Kamekura’s dolphin would form a secondary mark and mascot. This would later help promote Kaiyohaku Park (later renamed Ocean Expo Park), where Expo '75 was held.
Kamekura also devised as system for the mascot’s use, and the ability for it to add a dynamic aspect to printed materials such as banners. The mascot could be rotated through a centre-point and used in a sequence to give the dolphin a sense of motion. Kamekura also created a broad and cheerful colour palette that would help promote a sense of fun throughout the Expo.
Akiteru Nakajima was responsible for the coordination of the design, taking the position of an overseer rather than a designer, developing a manual that would accurately communicate agreements made on the design. Referencing the earlier work undertaken for Tokyo ‘64, this design manual took sheet form. Each element that was decided on one after the other was incorporated into the manual. This later included the design of a Japanese and English logotype and a sheets that outlined what not to do with the logo.
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