Five China elves were born with the illusion of the Olympic Games, conveying the ideas of peace, friendship, progress and harmony ... Childish smiles sent warm invitations to children and parents all over the world-
June 2005165438+1October1Sunday evening. The Beijing Workers' Gymnasium, the oldest sports building in New China, is dressed in festive costumes. As night falls, Beijing will enter the countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games 1000 days. In the commemorative activities held for this important moment, the mascot of the 29th Olympic Games was finally unveiled.
/kloc-at 0: 05: 20, Jia Qinglin, the leader of the Party and state, touched the switch on the release device with his hand, and five laser beams from the release device were projected on the big screen, on which the outline of the mascot was outlined, and five lively and lovely mascots were fixed on the big screen. At the same time, five 2-meter-high inflatable mascots stepped onto the stage from behind the big screen-this is the long-awaited mascot of the 29th Olympic Games.
Judging from the selection of mascots in recent Olympic Games and other major world events, there is a design trend from directly selecting animal images to recreating them as prototypes, and there is also a brand-new interpretation to create new images. In the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the deformed images of three unique exotic animals-mole, kookaburra and platypus-were selected as mascots, representing land, water and air respectively. In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Athena and Fevos, two mascots created according to ancient Greek mythology, won a full house applause with their rich Greek cultural characteristics and lovely shapes, and became the most "hot-selling" featured goods in the Athens Olympic Games. Every Olympic Games will choose a suitable mascot according to the history and culture of the host country. Every mascot is unique. They all have vibrant personalities and embody the Olympic ideal of friendship and fair competition. Mascots personify the Olympic value and give it an actual shape, which is incomparable to other images in today's Olympic symbol system.
Once again, the whole world pays attention to China and looks forward to Beijing! In order to create a mascot that is also loved by the whole world, on August 5, 2004, BOCOG officially sent an invitation to professional design institutions and designers around the world to openly solicit mascot designs for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The solicitation activities have received enthusiastic response at home and abroad. Can Olympic mascots be produced from effective collection of works? It has become a long-standing problem in the hearts of relevant staff.
5: 30 on June 5438, 2004+February 1 is the final deadline. In the past four months, BOCOG Cultural Activities Department, which is in charge of the collection work, has become the busiest place, with consultation calls, letters and emails pouring in from Beijing, the whole country and all over the world. More than 3,000 letters and amateur design drafts, and countless consultation calls have kept the staff in the collection office busy. After qualification certification in accordance with relevant regulations, 662 valid entries were confirmed. Among them, Chinese mainland works 6 1 1, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan works 12 and 39 foreign works.
The solicitation activities attracted great creative enthusiasm of China designers. Except for two provinces and autonomous regions in Chinese mainland, there are design institutions and personnel involved. Overseas Chinese and students studying in China also sent their love works. Many foreign designers are also very concerned about this activity. Designers from Britain, the United States, Canada and countries such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore and India in Asia also sent their works. In their works, there are not only images of giant pandas, the Monkey King, Tibetan antelopes and elk which are very familiar to the public, but also many new shapes with distinctive expressive force and unique style. Most of the works not only show the characteristics of China, but also absorb the creative concept of Olympic mascots.
On June 5438+February 65438+May 2004, according to the Rules for the Selection of Mascot Design for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Olympic Organizing Committee invited 24 experts and scholars who have made outstanding achievements in the field of art and culture at home and abroad to make artistic selection for all valid entries according to the requirements of mascot design. On the same day, 662 works were laid out on the table in the conference hall on floor 0/6 of Bocog/Kloc-the judges had to select 10 works that they thought were satisfactory.