Our brief was to develop posters, movies, and space design for The One Show Exhibition held at the Ad Museum Tokyo in 2022. Our objective was to promote public interest in the event in advance of the exhibition, and to reflect the spirit of creativity embodied by the award-winning works on display. Our challenge was to develop a thematically coherent design concept that could be applied to all of the materials, resonate with our Japanese audience, and enhance the quality of the visitor experience for all who attended.

Our creative idea was to develop a design motif around turtles—an animal that features prominently in many Japanese folk tales and children's stories. Turtles are also widely known in Japan for their tendency to climb on each other's backs to bask in the sun. With this motif, we sought to reflect the upward striving of creators and advertisers who seek to bring new ideas and products to light. To be successful, they must continually question accepted conventions and "doubt the ground" they stand on. Are their ideas simply riding on the back of others? Or are they firmly rooted and able to stand the test of time? Our design speaks to the need for creators to seek the "solid ground" of what is truly genuine and authentic.

We decorated our turtles and the world they inhabit with a colourful floral pattern, and used silkscreen printing to add texture and depth to the design. Into this seemingly tranquil scene, we introduced a single monochromatic turtle to represent an element of doubt and instability. In both the poster series and movies, we depict the increasingly precarious geometry of the turtles as they stack themselves on top of each other, ultimately resulting in the stack's collapse. At the exhibition venue, we employed the floral-patterned dome shape of a turtle's shell as a linking element and featured it in large-scale graphics applied to the walls, display panels, and floor of the exhibition space.

Visual and copy messaging in our poster series clearly resonated with the Japanese public, resulting in a pre-pandemic level of attendance with a significantly higher visitor count than the previous year. At the exhibition venue, visually consistent art direction and messaging helped increase awareness of the One Show awards and enhanced the quality of the visitor experience.