Press Release
Kuwasawa Design School 2022 Guidebook by Kazune Watanabe Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Print and Published Media Design
Kazune Watanabe acknowledged for print and published media design by the international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ Kuwasawa Design School 2022 Guidebook by Kazune Watanabe, designed for Kuwasawa Design School, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Print and Published Media Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Kuwasawa Design School 2022 Guidebook
School guide for Kuwasawa Design School, the first design school in Japan. In recent years, online communication has been increasing, and the line between reality and virtual is becoming blurry. In such a situation, The design team pursued the possibility of design by expressing what was recognized as digital with analog (paper and print). At first glance, it looks like an ordinary book, but the animation works when it is pulled out. The guidebook is divided into separate volumes so that people can enjoy it in various ways. They aimed for a digital expression using typography.
About Kazune Watanabe
Kazune Watanabe is the esteemed founder and art director of There There Ltd. After graduating from the prestigious Kuwasawa Design School in 2005, he gained invaluable experience working at KUDO Tsuyokatsu Design Laboratory and Soup Design Ltd. (now known as BOOTLEG Ltd.). In April 2018, Mr. Watanabe embarked on an independent venture, founding "There There" which was later incorporated in March 2022.
Award Record
With this recognition, Kazune Watanabe is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Print and Published Media Design Award
The A' Print Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good printed and published media by leading designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to print designers, published media designers, graphic designers and typography experts from all countries. Entries typically include brochures, posters, magazines, catalogs, flyers and business cards. Awarded print designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/print
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/149958
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/149958
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!149958
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/343594
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://therethere.tokyo
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Kuwasawa Design School 2022 Guidebook
- Function
- Guidebook
- Category
- Print and Published Media Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Branding & Advertising and Entertainment
- Colors
- White Smoke, Black, Dark Slate Gray, Light Gray and Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Kuwasawa Design School
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Kazune Watanabe
- Country
- Japan
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2022 - 2023
- Design ID
- #149958
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- They created a "Kinetic book" that is different from other school guides. They used analog methods (paper and print) to recreate digital images. At first glance, it looks like an ordinary book, but when the book is pulled out, the animation works naturally and surprises the person who sees it. The guidebook is divided into separate volumes so that people can enjoy it in various ways.
- Inspiration
- School guide for Kuwasawa Design School, the first design school in Japan. In recent years, online communication has been increasing, and the line between reality and virtual is becoming more and more blurry. In such a situation, There There pursued the possibility of design by expressing what was recognized as digital with analog (paper and print). For students who are about to study design, they aimed not only to convey basic information about the school's curriculum and facilities but also to serve as a medium for designers to experience and recognize design as something exciting for the first time they are exposed to it.
- Research
- As the coronavirus spreads around the world, society has shifted to a teleworking work style. And communication has shifted from face-to-face to online. Now that people see two-dimensional expressions online as a matter of course, There There wanted to redefine the value of the existence of objects. They created this design with the idea of designing an object that exists with a digital look and the sense of strangeness and unreality that comes with it.
- Challenge
- Slit animation has a narrower range of expression and is extremely difficult to express dynamically compared to ordinary animation. After more than 100 prototypes, they aimed for a digital expression using typography.
- Realization and Technology
- The case is slit, and the animation is worked by the expression of the cover partially visible through the slit. Although the cover appears to be printed only in black, it is not printed in one black color but in a combination of special colors. The slightest deviation of the color plates creates an optical illusion, reproducing the flicker of RGB colors that can be seen when the monitor is magnified. Under normal conditions, the colors are barely perceptible, but when the slit is passed through, the colors appear as a frame-by-frame feed.
- Operation and Interaction
- The target audience is students who want to study design. The objective was to reach as many people as possible and get them interested in design. On social media, the information was shared by many media in Japan and overseas, an unprecedented spread as a school guidebook. The number of requests increased compared to previous years, increasing the school's recognition dozens of times over.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started from July 2020 to April 2021 and was released in Japan in May 2021.
- Specifications
- Dimensions Width:182mm x Height:257mm x Depth:25mm
- Keywords
- Kuwasawa Design School, Slit animation, Scanimation, There There, Kazune Watanabe
