The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-10-05 · by Cameron Atfield
They describe it as the “A-ha!” moment – an image of a pink cockatoo, its crest raised.
asserted
crest → describe → cockatoo
For the consortium of agencies tasked with designing the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic emblems, it was too much to ignore.
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it → task → emblems
“We looked at everything under the sun, including the sun,” Landor creative director Andy Thomas says, after giving this masthead a sneak peek at the emblem last month.
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Thomas → look → emblem
“We had a list of hundreds of different things that the emblem could be – the longest list, the most exhaustive list.
uncertain
emblem → have → things
“We didn’t want to leave anything.
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We → want → anything
We went through them all, and we could see something there, so we put a note against the cockatoo and kept coming back to it.”
A Guardian article about Queensland’s palm cockatoo opened the door, but it was one particular image – a photograph from acclaimed National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore – that sealed the deal.
“When we first saw the image of the pink cockatoo’s crest set against the black background, you can’t help but notice a flame,” Thomas says.
uncertain
Thomas → go → flame
“It came together in that moment.
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It → come → moment
It felt like that could be the one, but we still had to get around the idea of the cockatoo being a character with a strong personality.
uncertain
cockatoo → feel → personality
So there was a little bit more work to do around that.”
And work they did.
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they → be → that
The walls at the design team’s South Bank headquarters are lined with different iterations of the cockatoo logo – some left-facing, featuring distinctive beaks.
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walls → line → beaks
But, hang on, what if you face it the other way?
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you → hang → it
“Then it resembles the shape of Queensland,” Thomas says.
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Thomas → resemble → Queensland
We had six feathers at one stage, so let’s make it five feathers for the five Olympic rings.
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it → have → rings
And what if we just separate them a little bit – then you have a three and a two, as in ’32.”
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you → separate → 32
The Olympic emblem is based on the pink cockatoo, with its fire-coloured crest.
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emblem → base → crest
The Paralympic emblem is based on its cousin, the sulphur-crested cockatoo – testing showed it was easier for people with vision impairments to see.
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people → base → impairments
Thomas says although the end product has many layers, none of it felt forced.
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none → say → it
“The hardest part to design was the eye,” he says.
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he → design → ?
“Eyes are a nightmare because if you just did a circle, it looked weird, but that’s what a cockatoo’s eye is.”
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eye → do → circle
Landor general manager Trish Folan says the cockatoo motif “was definitely a zag” for the whole design team.
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motif → say → team
“The story was the thing we all fell in love with,” she says.
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she → fall → love
“Compared to all the other ideas on the table at the time, the story of the cockatoo – the cheeky personality, that larrikin spirit, the thought that it was quite different for an Olympic emblem – it was a bit of a risk.
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it → compare → risk
“But it was also the most interesting thing we were looking at from the start.
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we → look → start
We all started to gravitate towards it.”
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We → start → it
And the layers of meaning – hidden in plain sight – just reinforced that decision.
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layers → hide → decision
“When you work on something for so long, you can start to find the ways that it has more meaning,” Folan says.
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Folan → work → meaning
“But that was a real moment where we went, ‘Oh gosh, great!’ – that from the idea that we all love, suddenly we’ve found all these extra meanings.
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we → go → meanings
“We knew that was enough to get it across the line.
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that → know → line
“People love to dissect Olympic emblems, and you need all those stories.
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you → love → stories
We didn’t set out to build them all in from the start, but as they popped out naturally and started to appear, they felt so normal as part of the design.”
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they → set → design
Adam Kennedy, the managing director of brand positioning agency VML, had his own Olympic dreams as a younger man – the would-be Olympian tried out for the British canoe sprint team for both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
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Olympian → have → Sydney
Now, Kennedy’s helped shape Brisbane 2032.
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Kennedy → shape → Brisbane
“I finally made it to an Olympics,” he says.
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he → make → Olympics
It started to become pretty clear to the team that the cockatoo motif was the winner late last year, Kennedy says, but not before they had gone through about 400 different ideas.
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they → start → ideas
“I won’t tell you what came close,” he says.
“There were four emblems on the short list, but this was actually always pretty much everyone’s favourite.
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this → tell → list
“There was one other that was there or thereabouts, but this one just immediately resonated with most people.
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one → be → people
“We explored flora – a lot of iconic plant life and flowers, etc.
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We → explore → life
We explored other fauna – the reef was a place that we looked at – and then other natural landmarks or places.
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we → explore → that
“There were definitely some places where we said, ‘don’t play here’ – we probably didn’t want to use a crocodile, right?
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we → be → crocodile
“It was important in that decision-making process early on, as we made some strategic calls about not choosing natural icons that would exclude big parts of Queensland.”
asserted
that → make → Queensland
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
