Professor Ron Newman comes from Sydney, a city whose name is familiar for most Chinese people, after it beat Beijing and became the host for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Newman, a professional designer and also dean and director of the Sydney College of the Arts with the University of Sydney, said that the newly selected logo for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games blazed a new trail in the field of logo design.

"When I see all the other ones that they could have chosen, I am glad they chose this one," Newman said. "It's a very difficult process to go through, and I think they've done it very well.

"It's interesting because it's a new type of Olympic logo," he said.

Newman said the design of "seal" is one of the important elements of the graphic which brings people back into an ancient Chinese tradition.

What concerns Newman is where the logo goes from the designers' studio and from the office of the organizing committee.

"Beijing should be cautious and on guard against misuse of the Games logo," he said.

Newman has held various design and design management positions in Australia and Europe, besides teaching and managing the Sydney art college. He convened the Design Institute of Australia's Sydney Design 99 conference in 1999 for some 1,800 delegates from 47 countries.

While Sydney hosted one of the best Olympic Games in history, Newman said the Sydney Olympics "may be a good example and a bad example" in his presentation entitled "Design Management and the Beijing Olympic Logo."

According to Newman, the first designed Olympic Games started with the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in which graphics, visual communication, urban planning, architecture, product marketing, interior decoration and the logo were all specially designed for the event for the first time.

Newman believed that the image design for the Sydney Olympic Games was successful, but the artists and designers had to travel a zigzagging path to achieve success.

The first selection of the logo for the Sydney Olympics failed because of confused management.

Professional designers then became involved in the management and decision-making process, and they finally came out with an excellent logo for the Sydney Olympics two years before the Games started.

"The design process is a very sensitive process, during which proper management guarantees a good result," he said.

Newman also warned against misuse of the Games logo, which Sydney had paid much attention to correcting.

He showed a blue name card with the logo of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where some decorations and extra colours were added around the logo. "It became too complicated. We had to get rid of the complications and bring it back to being simple again," he said.

"The logo of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is simple and striking and they need to keep it that way," Newman stressed. "They need to resist people who want to change the surroundings for the wrong idea and complicating the message it presents.

"Beijing has a very good start, because the Games is five years away and you have plenty of time to do it right," Newman said.

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