To 2010 Daily Vancouver Homepage
Info, Tips, and News about the 2010 Vancouver and Whistler Winter Olympic Games
 XML feed
Home

Ilanaaq - The Emblem for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

Submitted by Roland Tanglao@... on Sat, 2005-04-23 19:51. Vancouver 2010
Ilanaaq - The Emblem for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Ilanaaq, the emblem for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, was unveiled today.

What do you think? Love it? Don't? Leave a comment!

It's a stylized version of a inukshuk, a traditional stone sculpture used by Canada's Inuit people. Some people think it looks like a hockey goalie. Some people think it looks like the head is a internet chat icon. The word Ilanaaq is Inuit for friend. It's pronounced ("ih-lah-nawk").

» 10559 reads
Ilanaaq
Submitted by Jean SmilingCoyote (not verified) on Mon, 2006-02-27 11:49.
When I first saw this on TV last night, I recognized it as a simplified inukshuk. I'm not sure it has the highest artistic merit, but getting down to brass tacks, it's at least better to have an indigenous(-inspired) symbol than something representing only outsiders. I think there is a lot of ignorance in the rest of the world about the native peoples of the USA and Canada, and this will help them get educated. For example, I have long thought that Nunavut should be explained to the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq as an example they might learn from regarding the political-ethnic fault lines in those regions, but the western leaders operating there never tell them. I wonder if many people in Afghanistan and Iraq have even heard of Nunavut or the Haudenosaunee. Yes, the stylized inukshuk is not "Vancouver" but I assume there will be more local native flavor as their Olympics get closer.
login to post comments
I am not surprised at all tha
Submitted by Richenda (not verified) on Sat, 2005-05-07 14:05.
I am not surprised at all that the IOC would choose a design representative of the Indigenous community in our country....In just the past few years, after 500 years of trying to hide the Indigenous peoples of this land, Canada has exploited our peoples even further by using our culture and arts for their own greedy gains. I see our cultural art and symbols on products and events everywhere now, and it doesn't surprise me at all. It is simply more of the colonizing Europeans doing what they can to get paid for every last drop of blood from our hereditary bloodlines. The choice to let the World know that this is in fact INDIGENOUS country was a good one, but turning a sacred symbol into something 'popcultured' is blasphemy - they've made Ilanaaq look like Pacman. I reject the Olympics and their logo.
login to post comments
I think it's a fantastic logo
Submitted by easily amused (not verified) on Sat, 2005-04-30 21:52.
I think it's a fantastic logo... if the Olympics were being held in Somak'e, Igloolik, Kingait, or some other place in the far reaches of Canada. Not the best representation of Canada or Vancouver.
login to post comments
Interview with Vancouver 2010 Logo Designer, Gonzalo Alatorre
Submitted by Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily (not verified) on Wed, 2005-04-27 21:25.
If you only read the newspapers and watched the news you may have thought that the 2010 Vancouver Olympics logo was developed solely by Elena Rivera MacGregor, owner and principle of Rivera Design Group who was mentioned several times as the logo's design
login to post comments
"Ilanaaq," the newly chosen V
Submitted by Liam White (not verified) on Wed, 2005-04-27 14:15.

"Ilanaaq," the newly chosen Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Logo is a bad representation of Vancouver, and its games. Apart from being overstylized and unattractive, the design has many errors.

First of all, inukshuks (or more appropriately, inunguaks) were used only by Canada's Inuit people, living in the Arctic regions of the Territories, literally thousands of kilometers from Vancouver. The emblem has as much to do with Vancouver as a coyote in rural Arizona.

Second, inukshuks were used primarily during summertime, when Inuit hunters would direct caribou into hunting grounds. A symbol representing summer to be a part of the Winter Olympic Games makes no sense.

Third, Ilanaaq does not have the spirit to represent the Olympics. Looking back upon the Winter Olympic Games emblems of the past, it is noticeable that almost every one has something to do with movement, or the olympics. Even highly stylized emblems such as Lillehammer's 1994 symbol of a person carrying a torch makes you think of action. An inukshuk that sits on the arctic tundra for months at a time is a concept completely contrary to the Olympics.

Fourth, tourists and foreigners not familiar with Vancouver's new logo will not know what Ilanaaq is, let alone understand its signifigance, and will see it as five blotches of colour floating amonsgst each other. The colours would also be confusing to a unfamiliar viewer, as only four of the five colours are the same as that of the Olympic Rings. Why aren't Ilanaaq's "arms" black?

The appearance of the emblem is boring, as there is no background, and an awkwardly visible trademark symbol flahes below Ilanaaq's left leg. Even if the idea of an inukshuk was the designers' only choice, they could have incorporated the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) into the background to give foreign viewers something familiar about Canada to look upon.

In conclusion, I am thoroughly disappointed at the first failure of the Vancouver 2010 plan.

login to post comments
Imagine 2010 - Catriona Le May Doan, Chief Gibby Jacob and Elena
Submitted by Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily (trackback) (not verified) on Sun, 2005-04-24 23:22.
login to post comments
Could Be Worse
Submitted by filmgoerjuan (not verified) on Sun, 2005-04-24 08:17.

I really think they should have left the mouth off of the logo. I think that's more in keeping with what the logo is trying to represent and it would make it look a heck of a lot less goofy.

I still prefer the bid logo to this one, although I understand that they are trying to fit in to a certain theme that Olympic logos have had over the past number of years.

It could have been worse, but hey, it's no Expo Ernie ;)

login to post comments
Photos from Imagine 2010 - Unveiling of Ilanaaq, the 2010 Vancou
Submitted by Event Blogging Services (trackback) (not verified) on Sat, 2005-04-23 22:53.

Tonight, Roland and I went to GM Place to catch Imagine 2010 and the unveiling of the new Vancouver 2010 Olympics logo. You can read more about all that over at UrbanVancouver or login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.