FANTASTIC MUSCLEHEADS

TitleFANTASTIC MUSCLEHEADS
BrandTHE AD MUSEUM TOKYO
Product / ServiceTHE ONE SHOW 2018 EXHIBITION IN JAPAN
CategoryG02. Illustration
EntrantDENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Additional Company AD SEEDS Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Yuya Furukawa Dentsu Inc. Chief Creative Officer
Yoshihiro Yagi Dentsu Inc. Creative Director
Haruko Tsutsui Dentsu Inc. Copywriter
Yoshinaka Ono Dentsu Inc. Art Director
Nao Arai Dentsu Inc. Copywriter
Keita Asaoka Dentsu Creative X Inc. Designer
Tomomi Iizuka Dentsu Creative X Inc. Designer
Kenta Nakayama Ad Seeds Printing Director
Takaharu Hatori TYO inc. MONSTER Executive producer
Mizuhiro Mizuhiro Mizuhiro Animation director
Kazuna Hirose aiin CO., LTD Music produce/composer
Ric Ric HAPPY(band) composer/keyboard

Background

The One Show Exhibition in Japan is presented each year by the Ad Museum Tokyo. In the past, the event has been attended primarily by professionals working in the fields of advertising and design. But the museum wanted to attract a wider audience, and commissioned us to broaden the exhibition's appeal and make it more accessible to the general public.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

Only creators with exceptionally well-developed “brain muscles” can win a One Show award. We named this elite group, “Fantastic Muscleheads,” and reviewed their work from the past 10 years. We analyzed the factors that made their work award-worthy, and gave them “ring names” that encapsulate the essence of their creativity. Finally, to reflect the fact that most creators remain unrecognized by the general public, we created a stylized “wrestler’s mask” for each one.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

Our execution used distinctively patterned masks to visualize unique creator skillsets. To reflect the great diversity of creator personalities, all of the items we made (posters, exhibition venue banners, movie) show multiple “masked wrestlers” simultaneously. We used psychedelic neon colors and silver to evoke the heated passions of martial arts and wrestling matches. For printed materials, we used coarse, thin paper to reflect the rough-and-ready nature of wrestling and the mass-production, mass-consumption nature of advertising. At the exhibition venue, our goal was to create a display environment that would focus attention on the individual personalities of the award winners.

List the results (20% of vote)

With their “masked wrestler” motif, the posters transformed the image that people have of the One Show awards. Humorous and visually arresting, they attracted the attention of passersby, boosted walk-in traffic, and increased visitor engagement and exhibit viewing times. In addition, the posters challenged creative staff who attended to consider how their own talents might be portrayed.