Shorts: Urban Frontier – Tokyo '96
Shorts: Urban Frontier – Tokyo '96
The logo proposals created in 1991 for Urban Frontier – Tokyo '96.
From the Editor: We have a lot of stories to tell, some of these are short but fascinating. Logo Histories’ Shorts is an additional free post that bring these to our readers. To access our longer illustrated Logo Histories and to support the project, upgrade to paid. A special thanks to those who have already done this. I hope you enjoy these additional insights. Keep scrolling to see logos submitted by Milton Glaser, perhaps the first time these have been shared with a Western audience.
The ‘Urban Frontier Movement’ was a new city planning initiative that happened in 1990s, advocated by the Metropolis of Tokyo. It was founded with the intention of creating the ideal cities of the future.
The first public event of the movement, ‘Urban Frontier – Tokyo '96’, was held in the city between March 24 - October 13, 1996 under the theme of ‘Meeting the Challenge of the 21st Century City’.
The facilities and functions of the Tokyo Teleport Town, a newly developed area situated on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, would be introduced to both national and international visitors, and was one part of a multi-frontier vision for Tokyo. In addition, planning projects of cities in other countries and state-of-the-art technologies which would benefit the lives of citizens would also be exhibited. In tandem, a number of cultural exchange programs as well as events and attractions were created to inspire.
The Tokyo Frontier Association organised a public competition among a select number of designers to find an appropriate symbol for the exhibition. With such a visionary and global ideal in mind the association invited eight internationally recognised designers to submit between 3 to 10 proposals by February 2, 1991.
Designers invited to participate included Ikko Tanaka (Japan), Ken Cato (Australia), Jun Chan (Korea), Shigeo Fukuda (Japan), Milton Glaser (USA), Grapuus (France), Saito Mokoto (Japan) and Rosmarie Tissi (Switzerland). Designers were given free reign to interpret the theme of urban expansion and development, the location by the bay and the national and international audience, but were required to limit the design to only one or two colours.
The winning design, created by Ikko Tanaka, was selected by the ‘Symbol Mark Selection Committee’ and officially revealed to the public in March, 1992, and used in the lead up to and throughout the event.
Thank you for subscribing to Logo Histories. If you enjoy reading this short you may also enjoy these resources from the same team:
Brand Archive – Research tool for brand designers.
LogoArchive Website – Searchable modernist logo archive & research tool.
LogoArchive Shop – Vintage design books & LogoArchive Zines.
BP&O – Contemporary design editorial.
I could only take advantage of a short course with Fokke Draaijer who, apologies, was not a founding member of Grapus but Atelier de Création graphique created with the main founder of Grapus, Pierre Bernard… I was unfortunately not in a graphic design school which I could not join given my path in literature and languages (education was organised in tight silos in France in the 90s) and the only school I could join in the hope of finding a way to graphic design was the newly created École Nationale de Création Industrielle the gouvernement of Francois Mitterand had wanted to relaunch the public education of a new generation of industrial designers.
Draaijer made us work on poster type exercises.
I wish I had more classes like his :)
Bonjour Richard :)
Thank you for this article. I remember how Grapus was influencing design when I was in design school. One of their founding members taught us and I loved the class. To this day I think of them whenever visiting the Louvre, which new identity project made them part ways.
My favourite ones are Fukuda’s and Glaser’s middle logos.