Our work for the 2023 D&AD Awards Exhibition in Tokyo is relevant not only for the way it used illustration to promote exhibition attendance, but also for the way it encouraged people viewing the exhibits to consider the functional purpose of advertising design. Since D&AD award-winning works adhere to the highest standards of craftsmanship, our work also had to meet those standards. But we went a step further, and in addition to attracting visitors to the exhibition, we encouraged them to think about the important role that craftsmanship plays in successful brand communication.

The English word ‘design’ has been fully assimilated into the Japanese language as a loanword, and is used by Japanese people in many different contexts. It is, however, generally used in a relatively superficial sense, referring only to matters of style, fashion or appearance. But design—particularly as it is used in many D&AD award-winning works— also plays an important functional role in facilitating communication. We therefore felt it was important for the Japanese audience attending the D&AD exhibition to think deeply about the functional aspect of advertising design.

Our brief was to develop a cohesive design concept that could be applied to posters, promotional materials and venue décor for the 2023 D&AD Awards Exhibition at the Ad Museum Tokyo. In addition to attracting visitors to the exhibition, our objective was to encourage people to consider the role of design in today’s world, and how D&AD award-winning works perform that role while also reflecting the trends and values of our times.

Poster A: As natural as breathing.

Poster B: Positive energy.

Poster C: It doesn’t happen overnight.

Poster D: Silently working. All day, every day.

Poster E: Everyday beauty, endlessly pursued.

Our illustrations use the transmission towers that support high-voltage power lines as a design motif. We chose them because they are a familiar feature of landscapes everywhere, and although they have a certain geometric beauty of their own, it is ultimately the function they perform that gives them value. We also paid particular attention to the way the power lines that carry electricity were depicted. We used a combination of silk-screen printing and offset printing to give the lines an organic, analogue appearance with slight shifts and inconsistencies in ink application. What appears at first to be a single line, on closer inspection is revealed to be composed of multiple coloured lines overlayed on each other, with variegated gaps between the coloured segments. This gives the transmission lines a sense of movement that represents the flow of electricity and the dynamic nature of functional design.