New conference logo is utterly baffling, but we kind of love it.
We've encountered countless weird and wonderful logos, but every now and again something leaves us completely perplexed. That's exactly the case with the brand new logo for Japan's Osaka World Expo logo – and it seems most of the internet feels the same.
It's difficult to describe the design for the 2025 World Expo, but we'll give it a go. It seems to be a ring of several red blobs or dots of various sizes, some of which have been given googly white and blue eyes – naturally. It also features the words OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN EXPO 2025 (in a very sensible sans serif font). Like many online, we can't decide if it's joyously fun or a sheer abomination. We feel much more decisive about the examples in our best logos list.
The surreal new design (Image credit: Osaka World Expo)
According to a news post on the expo's website, the design was selected as the best among 5,894 submitted entries. The logo is said to symbolise "the brilliance of life", in keeping with the 2025 expo's theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives". The expo aims to foster "worldwide cooperation in building a society where everyone can pursue their own way of life and demonstrate their own potential to the fullest."
While there's no denying this isn't your average conference logo, that starts to make sense in the context of the Osaka World Expo's theme of diversity and individuality. The logo is certainly one of a kind, and with its sporous shape and huge eyes, we'd go so far as to say it looks positively alive. For an expo celebrating the brilliance of life, perhaps a refreshingly imperfect, characterful logo is just right.
Still, that hasn't stopped Twitter from having an absolute field day with the design. From horror movie comparisons to a real-life tomato salad recreation, it's fair to say that Twitter users have done what they do best with this one (ie. mocked it mercilessly).
so about that new Osaka Expo 2025 logo... pic.twitter.com/6mmSkAxfsXAugust 25, 2020
55 years after Gamera defeated Devil Beast Jiger at Expo 70, Osaka will once again host the event at Expo 2025. Here’s the official logo. When I look at it I can only see that scene in Shin Godzilla where they found a chunk of his flesh. Should’ve used the Devil’s Whistle. pic.twitter.com/DCrMNJtUYFAugust 26, 2020
EXPO 2025 Osaka reveals the logo. ......it's Shimada in Parasyte ? pic.twitter.com/BkIbO68XgEAugust 25, 2020
Still, the new logo has certainly got people talking. We're coming round to the googly-eyed blobs – the design is certainly unusual, and perhaps even bordering on cute (even if, as several tweets show, it's only a few steps away from turning into a nightmarish creature). But as we well know, Twitter does love to meme-ify an unusual design – one of its most recent victims being Sony's WiFi router-shaped PS5 console.
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.
