The One Show Exhibition in Japan is presented each year by the Ad Museum Tokyo. In the past, the event has been attended primarily by professionals working in the fields of advertising and design. But the museum wanted to attract a wider audience, and commissioned us to broaden the exhibition's appeal and make it more accessible to the general public.

Only creators with exceptionally well-developed “brain muscles” can win a One Show award. We named this elite group, “Fantastic Muscleheads,” and reviewed their work from the past 10 years. We analyzed the factors that made their work award-worthy, and gave them “ring names” that encapsulate the essence of their creativity. Finally, to reflect the fact that most creators remain unrecognized by the general public, we created a stylized “wrestler’s mask” for each one.

Our execution used distinctively patterned masks to visualize unique creator skillsets. To reflect the great diversity of creator personalities, all of the items we made (posters, exhibition venue banners, movie) show multiple “masked wrestlers” simultaneously. We used psychedelic neon colors and silver to evoke the heated passions of martial arts and wrestling matches. For printed materials, we used coarse, thin paper to reflect the rough-and-ready nature of wrestling and the mass-production, mass-consumption nature of advertising. At the exhibition venue, our goal was to create a display environment that would focus attention on the individual personalities of the award winners.

With their “masked wrestler” motif, the posters transformed the image that people have of the One Show awards. Humorous and visually arresting, they attracted the attention of passersby, boosted walk-in traffic, and increased visitor engagement and exhibit viewing times. In addition, the posters challenged creative staff who attended to consider how their own talents might be portrayed.