ADFEST was honored to have Dentsu Inc. create its 20^th anniversary logo. This week in Pattaya, we sat down with key members of the Dentsu design team – led by Yoshihiro Yagi, Group Creative Director – to gain insight into their ideas and execution.

 
How does it feel to have your design used for the 20^th anniversary of ADFEST?
 
We did the basic designs in Tokyo and sent our design manual to ADFEST, so the actual design and representations were done in Thailand. We were looking forward to seeing how everything would be applied. We didn’t expect the ADFEST team to use our design so well in every detail.

  
How would you explain the design you’ve created for ADFEST 2017?
 
The original brief was to celebrate 20 years at ADFEST. We wanted something to express the growth of the festival, and came up with the idea of roots. However, real roots are very organic while ADFEST is very much about innovation and technology.

 
Was it easy to come up with the design, or did you fight?
 
It took quite a long time and a lot of discussion to get to the concept of roots and trees. We did a lot of research and got together a lot of material to decide on the final design.

 
What was your concept behind the animation?
 
The main difference between Asian and European festivals is that Asia is still organic, raw and growing. So although ADFEST has reached maturity at 20 years, it’s going to grow. That’s the message we wanted to send. The festival’s roots are still growing, and when you look above ground, that’s where you see ADFEST. As an example, swans look very graceful above water, as though they’re gliding on the water, but underwater they’re paddling like crazy and it’s what’s underneath that creates the movement.

 
-       Kyle Towb