Speaking of creativity, there is nothing better than the mascot of the 2022 Beijing Olympics: "ice is ice, snow is melting"
During the mascot review process, the creative work of the candied haws was shortlisted The top ten, this is the original creative source of the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot Bingdundun. This work comes from the design team of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
On October 10, 2018, the promotional team of the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee came to Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to give a presentation. Although the deadline for collection was very close at that time, Xie Changjing, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, immediately stated that the entire school would work hard to collect designs. They formed a mascot design team immediately and submitted the design work on time.
After the preliminary evaluation and re-evaluation, on January 20, 2019, the office meeting of the chairman of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee studied and determined the in-depth modification categories from the 10 groups of mascots selected for the design plan. Among them, the candied haws of sugar program is among them.
On January 25, the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee selected 10 mascot design modification experts and formally established a mascot design modification expert group to provide guidance and suggestions to each design team. On the same day, the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee officially sent an invitation to the design team of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, asking the team to modify their shortlisted works.
After a short period of happiness, the design team faced a long and high-pressure revision process that lasted 7 months. From the initial Candied Haws to the final Bingdundun, they made countless modifications, large and small, with tens of thousands of sketches and related files totaling more than 100G.
According to the requirements of the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, the design team of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts needs to submit the first round of revised plans for this work on the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, which means that their Spring Festival holiday is "in vain." But no one complained. At 8:30 in the morning on the third day of the first lunar month, all members showed up on time at Studio 705, Comprehensive Design Building, Guangmei Changgang Campus. This studio also became the main position of the design team for the next seven months.
The idea of ??candied haws on a stick came from Liu Pingyun, an associate professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He said that the candied haws on a stick was his childhood memory of Beijing, and the "ice shell" on the surface of the candied haws is also related to the ice and snow sports. There is more or less some connection."
The design team submitted the second revised plan the day before the Lantern Festival. After a short but long wait of 10 days, the new revised opinion is to retain the idea of ??the ice shell and try to design around other rare or special animals. The Guangmei design team has made many attempts in the ice shell, including deer, tiger, and rabbit. Considering that the Winter Olympics coincides with the Spring Festival, they also designed Lantern Festival, dumplings, etc.
Due to the need for confidentiality, every time a revised plan is submitted, team members are required to "human express" from Guangzhou to the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee. Some members traveled to and from Beijing nearly 20 times. Sometimes, in order to improve efficiency, they also A day trip is required. Cao Xue, head of Guangmei's design team and dean of the School of Visual Art and Design, said with a smile that the number of times he has come to Beijing in the past seven months has exceeded the number of times he has come to Beijing in the entire first half of his life.
Throughout March and April, Guangmei’s design team repeatedly revised the mascot’s conceptual expression, character modeling, action proportions, decorative patterns, facial features details, explanatory copy and design elements. After countless explorations, the focus of their modifications finally became clear—the panda wrapped in an ice shell.
Jiang Xiaoyu, chairman of the jury, explained that choosing animals as mascots is a common practice for the Winter Olympics, but choosing a panda that has served as a mascot in various large-scale events is equivalent to setting yourself up for trouble. problem. "Choosing a panda is indeed an unexpected feeling, but it makes sense when you think about it."
"The panda you design must be different from the past, and it must also match the Winter Olympics." Jiang Xiaoyu said, " Although it is a difficult problem, as long as we are innovative, we will have unique charm because the panda is our national treasure, a unique and rare animal native to China. When you see the panda in the world, you will know that it represents China without any language explanation. Everyone will be recognized.”
From a design expert’s perspective, making a panda is a double-edged sword, because there are so many pandas used. How to make a panda that is easy to spread, cute, and non-traditional? ?
To this end, the Guangmei design team has set up a data group to collect all the pandas that can be collected, and compare and analyze them every day, whether in the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee office or the Guangmei workshop , are covered with all kinds of pandas.
“It was a very difficult period. I always felt that there was something missing about this mascot. Although it has an ice crystal shell and is directly related to ice, why is it closely connected with the Winter Olympics? Just say it is the mascot of the Winter Olympics and not the mascot of other events?" Lin Cunzhen, a senior expert at the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, pointed out the dilemma encountered at the time.
On April 30, the Guangmei design team once again entered the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee. "We were all discussing that day, and suddenly we had an idea: Can we incorporate the 'Ice Ribbon' into it?" Lin Cunzhen said. This "awoke" everyone. When the colorful halo symbolizing the ice and snow sports track appeared on the panda's face, This mascot wearing an ice shell looks exactly like an astronaut. It has a sense of the future and technology. It is also an "ice ribbon" and has an ice crystal shell. It is also a national treasure of China and an animal loved by people all over the world. It is instantly positioned. It's very clear.
Revolving around the sense of speed brought by the ice crystal shell and flowing lines, the design team also added the concept of 5G, which represents the Internet era, and turned the colorful halo decorated on the panda’s head into an empowering energy ring. The image of "Aerospace Panda" is fuller and richer.
"(After adding 'Ice Ribbon') the effect is very dazzling, completely different from before, so that is a big breakthrough. 'Aerospace Panda' has put aside all the previous (Panda) content and features. That At that time, we felt like it was going to be dawn!" Liu Pingyun said excitedly.
After breaking through the bottleneck, the team made small detail modifications in a more precise direction. On the palm of the panda, in order to express the concept of love and peace, they drew a heart-shaped pattern. In addition, we also drew inspiration from the snowboard graphics in the works of primary and secondary school students who were shortlisted for the top ten. On the back of the panda, the black pattern connecting the two arms formed a snowboard graphics.
In May, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee held a chairman's office meeting to hear reports on the mascot modification plan, social comments, and the opinions of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee. The meeting research identified 4 groups of candidate solutions.
As the plan for the ice-shell panda gradually improved, naming it was also put on the agenda. "At that time, foreigners and children helped us come up with names, as well as literary authors, artists, etc. We received hundreds of names, and among these hundreds of names we chose the mascots suitable for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The name is actually a very difficult job. " Lin Cunzhen said that to make it easy to read and understand for both Chinese and foreigners, the concept must be better, and more importantly, it must pass the trademark plagiarism check.
The original idea of ??the ice-shell panda came from the candied haws, "In fact, the candied haws was also called Tang Dun'er, and 'Dun'er' is a particularly interesting word. It has the characteristics of northern winter, and is also very friendly, like a neighbor." The children at home are also very healthy, lively and cute," Lin Cunzhen said, "As soon as I had this idea, I immediately checked online and found that there was no duplicate. Later I found that it is difficult for southerners and foreigners to pronounce 'Dun'er'. We changed it to Bingdundun, and it passed the duplication check