When it was 1200 days before the opening ceremony of Expo 2010 Shanghai, the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination announced to collect mascot designs publicly and globally. After the announcement, people responded with great passions and had great expectation for the birth of the Expo mascot. Hence, we have invited some experts concerning about the mascot and asked them to talk about their personal expectations for the mascot from professional perspectives.

Meng Jian Vice president and professor,

Fudan University Journalism School

Zhang Tong President and professor,

Fudan University Visual Arts School, Space and Industrial Design School

Gu Ping Vice president and professor,

Shanghai University Art School

Liang Yongan Professor,

Fudan University Chinese Department

Zhou Jin Associate researching staff,

Fudan University Art Design Department

Expo Shanghai: It is very glad to talk about mascot of EXPO with you in the New Year. So, at first, let's discuss on the definition of mascot and how to understand its underlying concepts.

Meng Jian: Mascot, in a popular saying, is a symbol of peace and goodluck, and refers to people, animal or object that can bring good luck and fortune. In general, it can be classified into two categories, Mascot and Character. Mascot is generally derived from badge or totem, such as mascot of enterprise, mascot of organization, mascot for public events, mascot for election, mascot of games, for example the mascot of Uncle Sam for Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, animal mascots of bear and tiger for NBA teams; Character is business mascot and mainly used for enterprises or their products, such as Uncle McDonald. After the end of WW II, nearly all the business activities in U.S.A. have related with mascots. At the beginning such mascots appeared just as spokesmen for enterprises. Being different from the emblem and poster of EXPO, the mascot is welcome due to its activity and liveliness so that it is very convenient for visual communication and commercial promotion.

Zhang Tong: Because people have nice wishes for one thing or object to some extent and want to express their wishes through a given visualized object. Such wishes will be spread and broadcast through promotion of the given visualized object, the meaning to be expressed will be enriched and enlarged in subsequent promotion and eventually the common understanding on such wishes will be established and accepted by the whole society. This visualized object is so called Mascot. Therefore, mascot's property of society cognition has to be highly identical to the meaning of object to be expressed, and mascot's appearance features have to be highly acknowledged by the society. The complete understanding of mascot shall be that: typical visualized object that carries core meaning of specified thing.

Gu Ping: "Mascot" was an visualized symbol originally and it had conventional meaning and symbolic sense among tribes. At first "Mascot" was an image created in struggle between mankind and the nature. It reflected primitive cultural meaning and represented "lucky" object. From its birth, mascot was a concrete object or was apotheosized by adding some symbols. After that it was gradually used in public and commercial events and "Mascot" appeared. It is the nature of mascot to represent "good luck and peace". Mascot has to be related with the object to be represented and play a role as "spokesman", and at the same time it is more important that it has to be a lovely image welcomed by most people.

Liang Yongan: The cultural symbol similar to mascot has existed in human's history for too far long time. In ancient certain image had the effect of identification and psychological conversion. For example, most emblems of noble families in Europe were designed in the form of unusual animals or noble image accepted by the society in order to reflect good wishes for their families' prosperity for centuries. When the modern society enters into urbanization stage, the refined division of labor becomes a commonly used method for "rationalization" of the society. The social effects of refined division of labor have forced creation of image to be customer-tailored on public demand. Mascot is a typical product of such transformation from "creation" to "production". The production of mascot is in the last analysis merely a production of public visual focus under modern conditions and the goal is to promote certain social projection through attracting public's eyeballs.

Zhou Jin: Mascot is designed by people and such design is a purposive creation activity. Mascot is merely an "object" and this "object" is given some good meanings by people and reflects the glory and dream of the host. The design of mascot equals to birth of a little creature -- a little creature with sacred duty. Mascot of EXPO has to match the thematic concepts of EXPO at first. Since Chicago EXPO in U.S.A. in 1933, every EXPO has its definitive themes and the design in connection with such themes is core content for visual promotion design of EXPO. Design of emblem and design of poster, even design of stamp are all subject to these themes. The first mascot appeared in about 60s or 70s of the 20th century along with economic boom and development of company image design (CI design) and in turn mascot of EXPO emerged on demand. The history of EXPO for more than 150 years is a development history of art design.

Expo Shanghai: The collection of the Expo mascot is in process. In your opinion, what's the meaning of the mascot to the Expo? What should the designers consider while designing the mascot?

Meng Jian: Expo Shanghai will realize the grand objective to attract 200 countries and international organizations to participate, 70 million visitors and about 25 global partners and sponsors, breaking the Expo record.

In order to achieve such objective, the organizers must promote both domestically and overseas to attract participants, visitors and partners. In terms of the mascot collection event, I think it should become a great promotion. We should attract as many as applicants from the world and improve the participation and acknowledgment of the Expo through this event. Hence, the process carries more meanings than the result of the event.

In terms of the mascot design, I think the image needs serious considerations. The mascot should reflect both impressions of China and Shanghai. We conducted research on "Expo Shanghai -- Images of Shanghai". We suggest that the mascot should contain more spirits and elements of Shanghai while reflecting Chinese styles. The mascot should improve the image of China while displaying the image of Shanghai.

Zhang Tong: The collection of mascot basically realizes the purpose to attract attention, consult with the public, achieve understanding and create new ideas. I think there are two specific meanings. First of all, the Expo theme can be further promoted through this collection. The organizers could discover various interpretations of the Expo theme from the average people. The event is a great chance to invite public participation and contribution. Moreover, the organizers could discover a representative mascot design through this broad collection.

As design participants, be it professional or amateur, we need to be concerned with the Expo theme and consider the level of acknowledgement. We should consider properly exaggerating the characteristic of the Expo theme in order to make it closer to average citizens. We also should consider making the illustration simple, vibrant and easy to be transformed to various media forms including 2-D, 3-D, outdoors and small prints. I believe that the mascot for Expo Shanghai will have its own unique charm. It will spread both horizontally and vertically. It will have strong socially common attributions and conquer the regional limits.

Gu Ping: The collection of the mascot is a significant promotion event with its own system operated by the organizing committee. The meaning of the mascot is "promotion" and "representation". The planners will promote the idea of "Communication, Understanding, Happy Reunion, Cooperation" as well as the theme of "Better City, Better Life" through the mascot. We hope that the designers would consider that the mascot is a symbol of our country and a mascot of Expo 2010 Shanghai China loved by people around the world and is an art form, simple and rich.

Liang Yongan: The collection of the mascot is certainly a process to announce to the international community, like every country in the world. I think we need to set up a scientific motivation system. While selecting the mascot, we should consider the perspective of "city -- human being" and we should prefer works that display the history of human cities with simple and advanced visual forms. In terms of design ideas, they should feature "urbanization" because this is the material frame of human culture in the past few hundred years, a development route that no country could avoid. If we limit ourselves within the narrow definition of "city", our understandings of cities are not complete. City is actually a process, a carrier of cultural development and also a stage of the culture. After a few years when the global urbanizations stops, the form of city will change again. Perhaps many cities (especially huge cities) will not exist anymore. Hence, the mascot should not only reflect the material city but also the understanding and prophesy of history.

Zhou Jin: Just like the development of the designing art, the two pairs of eternal designing values (aesthetic and functional, content and form) are always in a dilemma. Such dilemma also exists in the collection and final selection of the Expo mascot. On the one hand, the rich contents and various affecting factors of the Expo might result in overly expressing meanings and contents, which will make the works complicated but less artistic. The mascot, after designed, will become an aesthetic issue, an issue about beauty. Hence, the designers would have to throw away some complicated forms for simple and efficient communication effects. On the other hand, if we select the mascot only from the visual perspective, the selected work might be very charming but less cultural. A good design would form a relatively best balance point between the two, although it might focus slightly more on one side.

From my perspective, in terms of the mascot design for a big event like Expo, the guarantee for success lies in the method to organize designs, because the most important factor is whether the mascot design could represent the highest level of modern design in terms of visual art. After all, this mascot is supposed to display China's art appreciation level to the world.

Expo Shanghai: How do you think of the relationship between the Expo mascot and the Expo logo and posters?

Meng Jian: The logo, mascot and posters, as important carriers, share the responsibility of promoting the World Expo. The important standard to measure the communication effects is always the "contents". The planners have to combine various contents based on different communication layers and platforms in order to succeed.

Zhang Tong: The logo, mascot and posters of an event play different communication roles from various perspectives and functions. The logo, as a reorganization of the event, communicates the specialty of the event on the social communication level and displays the level of the contents through rich artistic forms. The mascot, as a carrier of the spiritual meaning, communicates the events' spiritual contents through various artistic displaying forms. Posters, as special communication form of the event, communicate the core contents and various detailed contents of the event on various timings, regions and layers. The three form the vertically expressing communication system in modern society. In this system, the three are not substitutable.

The World Expo is a special event with great influences, so the capabilities of those three forms need to reach the best. The mascot should focus on artistic expressions and try to discover various displaying images and forms on the same theme.

Gu Ping: They should form an organic group, matching with the theme and ideas of Expo Shanghai. They should each carry their own responsibilities as well as individual images.

Zhou Jin: The logo is serious, the posters are elegant and the mascot is close to the public. In terms of the forms, the logo is the smallest while the posters are the largest. The mascot is in between so can be broadly utilized. In the past few Expos, the influence of mascot exceeded that of the logo. For example, the application of the mascots of Expo 2005 Aichi largely exceeds that of the logo and posters.

Expo Shanghai: Finally, what's your expectation on the Expo mascot?

Meng Jian: I hope that this collection would reflect a charming attribution matching with China's and especially Shanghai's images. A mascot that could nicely illustrate the theme of "Better City, Better Life" will help with promotion of Expo 2010 Shanghai and realize the set objectives.

Zhang Tong: The Expo mascot should illustrate the theme of "Better City, Better Life" straightforwardly. In terms of image elements and structures, it is better to have direct connections with the keywords like "city, life, wonderful". In terms of the image selection of the mascot, I have great expectations for innovative and courageous creations. Designers should not limit themselves within the real material forms in real life; instead, they should try to create from people's imaginations. Image elements that reflect the era usually carry strong symbolic meanings. The design of the mascot image will be the most difficult part in design. The designer should try their best to imagine and to try. The mascot needs to have a clear theme, distinctive meanings, vibrant images, simple applications and need to be close to the citizens.

Gu Ping: I hope that the mascot will be unique to Expo Shanghai, extended from our culture and lead the global fashion guide. It should be both high art and acceptable. The idea behind the mascot needs to be clever. We expect a wise artwork with straightforward and clear contents, reflecting the design in its form.

Liang Yongan: I hope that the mascot will be made by ordinary countryside farmers. China has very high-level folk arts that carry strong visual expression capabilities. Urban citizens are numb and take everything in the city as granted while countryside people look at the city remotely with expectations, which guarantee their uncertain imaginations. Such imaginations could be very touching with huge visual tensions.

Zhou Jin: The mascot has to be one or one group of brand new modern images. Organizers of Expo Shanghai announced the theme of "city", a first in the Expo history, which motivated the innovative spirits and courage for all Expo related explorations. Today, too many designs have utilized the "traditional" form without digging out the "traditional" culture, which results into heavy and fragile works. Moreover, since the mascot needs to carry various meanings, it is reasonable to utilize multiple images.