Background

Our brief was to create posters and venue design assets for The One Show 2020 Exhibition held at the Ad Museum Tokyo, which is the only museum in Japan dedicated to advertising. Our objective, therefore, was to showcase the winning entries in one of the most prestigious award shows in the advertising industry. We wanted our design to reflect the fact that the One Show Awards honour not just excellence of creative expression, but also ideas that lead to solutions to various social issues that the world needs to address. In addition, we wanted our work to communicate a sense of the important role that creativity can play in illuminating those issues, and thereby stimulate visitors to the exhibition to use their own creativity to achieve social good.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

Our creative idea was to represent creativity as the light of the sun, a powerful force that can illuminate important social issues as well as conventional products and services. We then designed a series of posters to develop this theme and show the various ways in which the light of creativity reveals things that are otherwise hidden in shadow.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

In printing the posters, we paid particular attention to the silkscreen process and the way darker areas of the illustrations were rendered. We carefully adjusted the layers of ink to express the idea of "hidden" product/service values and social issues. We used spot colours to create a bright, vivid impression of the sun as a symbol of creativity, and to express the positive changes that occur when the sun shines. In addition, we created a bright mural of the sun on the wall facing the entrance to the venue, and echoed that graphic with bands of colour highlighting the award-winning works. Visitors to the exhibit were also presented with stickers of the sun symbol to remind them of the illuminating power of their own creativity.

List the results (20% of vote)

The exhibition attracted members of the general public as well as advertising industry insiders, giving everyone a chance to view the work of award-winning creators from around the world. It increased recognition of the One Show in Japan, and was well-attended despite the fact that reservations were required and the number of visitors was limited due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It also stimulated visitors to think about how they can best apply their creative energies in these uncertain times.