Our brief was to design the announcement materials and venue space for the “D&AD 2020 Exhibition in Japan” at the Ad Museum Tokyo. We wanted our visual design to reflect the fact that the D&AD organisation does not just host the world's most prestigious design awards contest, but that it is also deeply committed to fostering new creative talent. We therefore sought to communicate a sense of D&AD’s role in supporting the evolution of design and its unlimited potential for change and growth.

Our creative idea was to represent the concept of design as a train that repeatedly sets off on a new journey. Because no matter how great designs are, their creators never rest, but continually move forward in search of newer and even better design ideas. By using the image of a train carrying everyone's hopes as it sets off again and again on a never-ending creative journey, we sought to communicate to exhibition visitors a sense of the limitless possibilities of design.

Our posters depict a “design train” as it travels through an amorphous grey landscape, with smoke rising from its engine to express the creative passion that drives it forward. We used slightly different paper for each of the posters to give each one a subtly different character and tonality. At the head of the train we silkscreened the D&AD logo in bright yellow to make it the focal point of the scene, and to symbolise the D&AD organisation’s role as a leader of the design community.

With the design assets we created for the exhibition, we successfully communicated to our Japanese audience a sense of the important role that D&AD plays in the global design community. Not just as a prestigious, sought-after award, but as an engine that fosters new talent and continuously drives the community forward—with design after design—on the never-ending quest for creative excellence.