Last December, Indonesia’s Sports Ministry unveiled their mascot design for the next Asian Games, which is being hosted by both Jakarta and Palembang in 2018. The mascot, named Drawa, was supposed to represent an Indonesian bird of paradise, but netizens quickly panned the character’s design, derisively declaring it looked more like a chicken than anything else.
Taken aback by the negative feedback, the ministry decided to take Drawa back to the drawing board and come up with a whole new design for the Games’ mascot.
Today, they’ve finally revealed the new design and in a surprise move, have replaced the old mascot with three new ones:
According to the accompanying text, the three new mascots are Bhin Bhin, a bird of paradise (presumably the reincarnation of Drawa) who represents Eastern Indonesia and symbolizes strategy; Atung, a Bawean deer that represents Central Indonesia and symbolizes speed; and Ika, a one-horned rhino who represents Western Indonesia and symbolizes strength.
Along with the three new mascots, the graphic shows off the the stylized logo of the Asian Games consisting of a stylized sun.
In our humble opinion, these new mascots are definitely a huge step up in terms of design over their fowl predecessor. Do you think they do a good job of representing Indonesia?
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