The Hoshi Awards are named after Shinichi Hoshi, one of Japan's leading science fiction writers, and are presented to authors of science-based works of fiction that exhibit exceptional literary merit. Our brief was to develop a design for a book containing this year's award-winning stories. The design not only had to reflect the spirit of creativity that the awards celebrate, but also make it something that the award winners could cherish for many years to come.

In keeping with the spirit of the Hoshi Awards, our creative solution sought to express the idea that an endless appetite for new ideas has always driven human evolution. Transposing this appetite to the animal kingdom, we used the seemingly unlikely visual motif of a giraffe to create a range of awards-related materials. With visuals depicting a giraffe stretching its neck to explore the world in all directions, we reflected the endless appetite for imaginative ideas exhibited by Hoshi Award winners in a whimsical and engaging way.

The cover and gatefold pages of the book graphically depict the giraffe's journey of exploration, at times burrowing into tunnels before emerging again, and at times peering over walls. In contrast to the giraffe's iconic neck, which was stripped down to its essential elements and used to form attractive repeating patterns, the head of the giraffe was whimsically illustrated to add character and make the viewer curious about the giraffe's journey. The giraffe-shaped bookmark serves as a trail marker of the reader's curiosity and interests. And since the book was presented as a trophy to award winners, we gave it a hardcover design suitable for display as a cherished memento.

In Japanese education, a clear distinction is made between the humanities and sciences, and science-based fiction is generally considered to be a niche genre that lacks wide appeal. Our design worked to dispel this notion by appealing to a broad cross-section of the reading public. Aided by this appeal, the number of works submitted to the award judging committee increased by 11% over the previous year to reach a record-breaking level. It also attracted a greater diversity of entries, and even included a winning entry that was co-created by an artificial intelligence algorithm.