When National Symbols Are Lacking

I've always said that if there is no concerted effort at keeping national symbols alive and well, something else will come along and take up the space.

This is just what happened with the Canadian Summer Olympics team uniform, under the direction of the Hudson's Bay Company Suzanne Timmins.

One of the designers, Tu Ly, apparently designed the "award winning" uniform for the Canadian team at the 2006 Winter Olympics. I tried finding Tu Ly's other works online, including his supposed knitwear for Saks Fifth Avenue, but came up with nothing. Same thing for his co-designer Vivienne Lu.

Tu Ly's 2006 work was commissioned by Roots Canada, and I get the feeling that he was under strict directions by Roots to follow their austere "everyman" designs and probably didn't have too much creative leeway.

Well, now that he does, here's what he, and his design team, has come up with.

Here are some of the design elements of the Canadian Olympics team uniform:

Font: Bamboo
Font direction: Up to down to mimicking Chinese script
Main background color: China Red
Style: Hip-hop camouflage
Inspiration behind the designs:
- Chinese tattoos
- Chinese astrology elements: Fire, Wood, Water, Earth Metal
- Chinese lucky number eight
- "Organic" maple leaf

I thought Olympics, as friendly as they are, are about giving strength to your own team, with dynamic home-grown symbols and designs.

What the designers have come up with is not Team Canada, but a subversive act to make Canadians into pseudo-Chinese.

At a CBC interview, critic Stig Larsson, a designer and owner of sports store Level Six and himself a national athlete, was concerned that designs makes the clothing too prominent, diminishing the athletes. I agree with him, and upon viewing his company's products, it is a real surprise that he wasn't part of (if not leading) the Olympics design team.

One last thing, 80% of the clothing were made in China, which given the direction of the design should come as no surprise.

Left: Chinese tattoo prints with "organic" maple leaf
Right: The number 8 as an emblem

Left: The Village-wear print with China red background
Middle: Close-up of print with mixture of Chinese and Canadian symbols
Right: "Organic" maple leaf, looking like a marijuana leaf

Left: The five Chinese astrological signs
Right: Bamboo font text from top to bottom (instead of left to right)