Australia-Japan 2006 Year of Exchange logo

Artist's statement:
"The design incorporates two cultural representations from Australia and Japan: the yellow ochre stipple and the red oriental-style brushstroke. The interaction between the two shapes symbolises initiatives and efforts to connect, to share, to exchange, and to find common ideals between Australia and Japan. The yellow stipple suggests a capital letter A to stand for Australia while the red brushstroke suggests a capital letter J to stand for Japan."

Logo Design Competition Winner

Mr Ivo Widjaja, a doctoral student and digital artist from Melbourne, is the winner of the joint Australia-Japan 2006 Year of Exchange logo design competition. The winning logo entry features the stylised and interconnected letters A and J in the form of a yellow ochre stipple and a red oriental brushstroke. The logo represents the fusion of two art traditions.

Over a hundred entries to the competition were received in Australia and Japan. A short-list of 12 outstanding entries was judged by a joint panel of representatives from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The selection criteria included design simplicity, ease of reproduction, effective representation of Australia and Japan and ability to convey a sense of friendship between the two countries.

Mr Widjaja, originally from Indonesia, is currently pursuing a PhD degree in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. His research areas include usability, enterprise content management system, and image data analysis.

Mr Widjaja's interests are digital, interactive, and computational art. Identity design has long been his special interest and this competition came as an opportunity to express his passion in visual design.

He has previously received a number of 5k Design Awards and won the Asia-Pacific Comgraph 2003 Digital Art Competition.



Mr Widjaja is presented with his award by Australia's Foreign Minister, the Hon. Alexander Downer, MP (centre), and Japan's Ambassador to Australia, HE Mr. Hideaki Ueda (left).

The logo design will be used on all official promotional material for the Year of Exchange in Australia and Japan.

Both DFAT and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appreciate the generous assistance provided by Mr Widjaja in developing additional Japanese and bilingual versions of the logo and converting the image into a range of formats for different applications.