| Title | PERSONAL FUEL |
| Brand | NIKKEI INC. |
| Product / Service | THE HOSHI AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION IN LITERATURE |
| Category | B02. Publications & Brand Collateral |
| Entrant | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Idea Creation | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Yoshihiro Yagi | DENTSU INC. | Creative Director |
| Satomi Okubo | DENTSU INC. | Art Director |
| Marina Danjo | DENTSU INC. | Copywriter |
| Natsumi Saino | TAKI CORPORATION | Designer |
| Rurika Suzuki | TAKI CORPORATION | Designer |
Our brief was to develop design assets for the 7th Annual Hoshi Awards, a literary competition named after Shinichi Hoshi, a pioneer of Japanese science fiction literature. The awards were created to honor writers of fiction whose work is infused with scientific imagination. Entries in previous competitions have dealt with artificial intelligence and other topics, and have been recognized not only for literary merit, but also for their impact on ongoing scientific research.
We wanted everyone, regardless of age or sex, to be interested in this award and to challenge. Our strategy was to communicate the value of curiosity that everyone has. The theme of the design is ‘Personal Fuel’. Each one of us has different curiosity. We absorb what makes us interest and use them as a fuel to inspire our creativity or enrich our lives. The diversity of such curiosities makes the world and this award more colorful. We presented this notion by illustrating different snakes swallowing their preys of their choses.
We have illustrated different ways in which each snake chooses and swallow their preys. We presented the differences – what they’ve chosen and how they’ve swallowed and stored inside their body – in a series of 5 posters. Upon printing, we’ve used various fluorescent colors to show the diversity of curiosities. We tried to emphasize the richness of variations in colors by making the shapes of snakes or their motions as simple as possible.
The Japanese educational system has traditionally treated the humanities and applied sciences are entirely separate disciplines. This has reinforced the stereotype of “science nerds” who are out of touch with society. Our design overcomes this by giving visual form to the spirit of scientific inquiry that is common to all people. As a result, the 6th Annual Hoshi Awards successfully drew entries from male and female authors across the social spectrum, ranging in age from 6 to 80 years old.