SELF-SPELLING KANJI

Short List
TitleSELF-SPELLING KANJI
BrandTHE SHIZUOKA SHIMBUN AND SHIZUOKA BROADCASTING SYSTEM.,
Product / ServiceA LOCAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
CategoryG01. Typography
EntrantDENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production J.C. SPARK Tokyo, JAPAN
Additional Company SHIZUOKA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Yoshimitsu Sawamoto DENTSU INC. Creative Director
Daisuke Ando DENTSU INC. Producer
Hirokazu Ueda DENTSU INC. Writer
Arata Kubota DENTSU INC. Art Director
Natsuki Tomoda DENTSU INC. Art Director
Satoshi Takasugi DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Ryuji Sei DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Akito Inokuchi DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Yuiko Tsukuda DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Masahiro Sekimoto DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Wataru Omamiuda DENTSU INC. Agency Producer
Yoh Kitanaka J.C.SPARK Designer
Shinya Tanaka J.C.SPARK Designer
Rikito Fujitani J.C.SPARK Designer

The Campaign

Many Japanese names are made up of Chinese characters, “kanji”. These can often be read different ways and difficult to read for children, and when you see it at first time. but by using so-called “okurigana”, one can see the phonetic reading of a name. In this typeface, we mixed okurigana and kanji, inventing a character that can instinctively be read by anyone.

Creative Execution

This special character’s structure was inspired by old Japanese family crests and sigils, so this type design is somehow familiar for many Japanese people. Bonding the new "Self-spelling Kanji" and Japanese old crests to make everyone easy to access the information and accelate their expections for the fes. (not for only those who know design very well.) The typeface was applied on Newspaper Ad in advance to the festival, and on flags and posters at the venue on the day of festival.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

- The festival had 200936 attendees, - The music stages were consistently filled (about 3500 people) with a lot of times limiting the admission, but this was especially so on the last day in the afternoon when over 7000 people were present when including the audience standing outside, - Ended in success when it easily broke the predicted 150000 attendees to become Japan's largest domestic event. And as result, the client could accomplish a festival slogan "Sizuoka is one" which enhance their brand in the local.