研究・産学官民連携 Research

Creative direction of cultural events

Research Projects and Initiatives

Recent Studies at Faculty of Design

creative direction of cultural events

Department of Human Life Design and Science, Faculty of Design
Associate Professor SAITO Toshifumi

I have been working in the creative direction of advertising and public relations mainly related to cultural events for about 30 years. I aim to create new communication by effectively utilizing diversifying media without being bound by the existing frameworks.

■Possibility of a small symbol mark

"Power of Culture Project" (Agency for Cultural Affairs) is a campaign that continues from 2003 to the present. Taking the opportunity of Dr. Hayao Kawai's appointment as the Secretary of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, based on the Secretary's intention to "Energize Japan exhausted by the economic recession from Kansai", I created a copy of "Power of Culture from Kansai" and visualized it as a symbol mark with the motif of the seal.

It became a big topic because it was successful in calling for widespread participation and use of people's cultural activities regardless of their scale. Furthermore, the versatility and expandability of the campaign were highly evaluated, and expanded to a total of eight projects, including "from Marunouchi", "from Kyushu / Okinawa", and "from university" in recent years.

As the official brand of Agency for Cultural Affairs, the small " Power of Culture " symbol mark motivated many people to participate in and understand the independent cultural activities, and realized public relations communication that has been popular for a long time.

"Power of Culture Project" (Agency for Cultural Affairs) https://www.bunka.go.jp/bunkaryoku_project/ 　　　　　　　　　　© Agency for Cultural Affairs. All Rights Reserved.

■Significance of a large statue

GREEN TOKYO GUNDAM PROJECT 2009 ©︎SOTSU-SUNRISE, GREEN TOKYO GUNDAM PROJECT COMMITTEE, 2009

The construction of a life-sized 18m statue of animation character that represents Japan and is popular all over the world was realized in 2019 as a project in which the citizens of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and companies work together to send the message of Tokyo with the aim of revitalizing a city full of greenery and creating an attractive city. The location of the statue was in Odaiba, Tokyo. By connecting attractive contents with the actual "place", the huge statue that presented a new world view that has never existed attracted many visitors and its brave figure was spread all over the world. While digitalization is accelerating, the opposite idea of launching real statue is highly evaluated, and the statue project is still going on in a different location. In addition to matching between the government and the private companies, new communication has been realized that stimulates the imagination of the citizens who participate in it and draws independence. This success also led to a project to create a real moving statue.

Based on creative ideas, I am always looking for unique expressions that create new dialogues among consumers and invite awareness.

Department of Human Life Design and Science, Faculty of Design
Associate Professor SAITO Toshifumi