KYOTO Design Lab [D-lab] accepted the offer from JST [Japan Science and Technology Agency] to take on the rebranding of “Science Agora 2017”.

Satoru Miyata [DRAFT], D-lab’s director directed the project and recruited students who were willing to take on rebranding design. Five selected students, then, explored how to design a method to further facilitate science communication under the direction of Mr. Miyata.

Creating a Concept for Branding

After initiating the rebranding of Japanese largest science communication event, the team discussed on the concept of Science Agora with JST and organized a list of areas where better design was needed for branding. In order to solve the lack of a coherent communication strategy and design, the team created a concept that gives them a unified perspective.

In formulating an event concept, they first researched the context of Science Agora and its science communication thus far. Then, they extracted keywords that relate to science communication and explored the direction Science Agora should move towards. Eventually, they agreed on a policy to see Science Agora not only as a forum for discussion among scientists but as a place where intellectual curiosity, that is often triggered by the discoveries and astonishment of daily life can be shared and which in turn becomes a starting point for scientific inquiry.

the Design of Venue Organization

In addition to this event concept, the logo design team created three logos that clearly communicate Science Agora’s theme of sharing the curiosity associated with scientific inquiry with a diverse audience. These logo proposals were displayed on the panel at Science Agora 2017 to gather visitors’ opinions on them. After examining by Planning Committee of Science Agora 2017, new logo was decided.

Then, students were divided into 3 teams, one responsible for main graphic design, another for signage and pamphlet design, the last for the design of venue organization. The team designed the main graphic that visualizes the theme of Science Agora 2017: Beyond the Boundaries. The main graphic reflects the theme of crossing the boundaries among various fields and facilitating cross-disciplinary communication.

The signage and pamphlet design team organized the necessary information for visitors to navigate the venue and designed appropriate presentation methods for high visibility, while also making sure that a unified representation was created so that the signage and the pamphlet could be linked and read without any difficulty.

The venue design team created a layout method for different booths and also designed installation art with three-dimensional arrangements of colorful cloth tapes crossing each other. This expresses the theme of “Beyond the Boundaries” in the atrium. The team also experimented with construction techniques and created an original structural feature that helps improve work efficiency.

The students also designed the panel that gathers public comments and the front panel on the stage. Through the exercise of branding the event as a whole under a unified concept, they sought facilitate to communication.

Project team
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Soyoko Konda
Taijiro Ishiko
Ken Kishimoto
Noriko Miyazaki
Naoko Katase
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Director, KYOTO Design Lab, Satoru Miyata
Professor Yoshiro Ono
Professor Eizo Okada
Associate Professor Kaoru Iwamoto

Acknowledgements
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Japan Science and Technology Agency [JST]

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