Emblem of ASEAN

History

The ASEAN emblem traces its roots from the logo designed by Mohammad Radzi Hanif of Malaysia. That logo was a winning entry of a design competition held from 1977 to 1978, when Hanif was still a design student at the MARA Institute of Technology (now Universiti Teknologi MARA) in Shah Alam, Selangor. ASEAN at the time still had five members. The ASEAN logo was adopted in 1979.

The logo was based on a sheaf of paddy, or specifically the result of the practice of farmers of reaping and binding called segemal padi in Malay.

The current logo was adopted on 31 May 1997 alongside the current flag, the same year which Laos and Myanmar became ASEAN members. Priorly, a design competition was held for a new logo with five winning entries picked among 3,000 entries. However, ASEAN opted to just increase the number of stalks in the emblem to ten.

Design

Construction

Set upon a red circle background, ten yellow paddy or rice stalks are drawn in the middle. Under the rice stalks the organisation name abbreviation 'asean' is written in lowercase bold Helvetica font in blue. The red circle is drawn with a white and blue circumference.

The colours of the emblem are specified as follows:

Symbolism

As per the ASEAN Guidelines adopted in 2010 set at the 6th Meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC), the ASEAN emblem represents a stable, peaceful, united and dynamic ASEAN.

1. The colours of the Emblem – blue, red, white and yellow – represent the main colours of the state crests of all the ASEAN Member States.
2. Blue represents peace and stability, red depicts courage and dynamism, white shows purity and yellow symbolises prosperity.
3. The ten bound stalks of rice in the centre of the Emblem represent the member states of ASEAN. They represent the dream of ASEAN's Founding Fathers for an ASEAN comprising all the countries in Southeast Asia, bound together in friendship and solidarity.
4. The circle represents the unity of ASEAN.

The paddy stalk as originally designed by Mohammad Radzi Hanif represents ASEAN unity and was used as a motif since rice is a major staple in Southeast Asia. The logo originally designed in yellow ochre evokes "mature paddy" envisioning that ASEAN member states can only grow by depending on each other.

Notes

References

References

1. [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/int-asea.html Flags of the World]
2. (8 August 2020). "The Story Behind the ASEAN Logo – An Interview with the Designer Mohammad Radzi Hanif". ASEAN Foundation.
3. "Birth of a Flag". The Straits Times.
4. "Guidelines for the ASEAN Flag & Logo".
5. (26 July 1997). "Special logo for 30th anniversary gets approval". New Straits Times.
6. (4 October 1997). "Asean having trouble finding the right tune". [[The Nation (Thailand).
7. (2021-05-12). "PANTONE® 286 C – Find a Pantone Color {{!}} Quick Online Color Tool {{!}} Pantone".
8. (2021-09-16). "PANTONE® Red 032 C – Find a Pantone Color {{!}} Quick Online Color Tool {{!}} Pantone".
9. (2021-07-27). "PANTONE® Process Yellow C – Find a Pantone Color {{!}} Quick Online Color Tool {{!}} Pantone".
10. "Guidelines on the Use of the ASEAN Emblem". [[ASEAN]].