[Faculty of Architecture & Arts] Open Badge Design by Yusuke Yamami

The "Campus International Exchange Certificate" is a system that evaluates and certifies the efforts and challenges of campus international exchange activities using our university's unique evaluation criteria. Students who have deepened their intercultural understanding, acquired communication and language skills as international people, and completed a training program will be issued an "open badge" as proof of their growth. The person in charge of designing it is Yusuke Yamami, a fourth-year student Faculty of Architecture & Arts. We asked Yamami about the difficulties he faced in the production process and the thoughts he put into the design.

■Please tell us what you focused on
I was told from the beginning that the design would be used in more situations in the future, so I was particularly conscious of its versatility. I learned that many universities have adopted open badges, so I did thorough research beforehand. When you think about versatility, it tends to become simple, but it was difficult to make something that was original and versatile, rather than something common. I created many patterns under the guidance of my seminar instructor, Professor Matsumoto Hisashi, but he repeatedly criticized me, so I spent about three months, including spring break, on the creation period. I think I was able to express the university's unique style with an icon that uses a handshake design that evokes international color and exchange, and the Otemae blue color, and show originality.

■ Did you realize anything through the production process?
I realized that even if I understand something, there are things that I can't convey to others. In the past, in classes, I made things that I wanted to make and things that I liked, but this was the first time I had the experience of "making something for others." After redoing it many times, I realized that the most important premise of design is that it must be something that "communicates to others." I think that design can convey to others things that cannot be put into words or that cannot be conveyed by words alone.

■ Future aspirations
I would like to use what I have learned in university classes to create designs for society in the future. Through this experience, I have come to want to create works for people. I have always loved product packaging, so if possible, I would like to be involved in package design. I think the appeal of packaging is that it allows companies to communicate their worldview to consumers. In the future, I would like to be able to communicate a company's message to many people through design.

Yamami is very attached to the completed design, as he has been looking at it every day for the past three months. He put meaning into every single detail of the design, and Yamami's comment that he wants the design to feel like a culmination of many twists and turns was very impressive. Going forward, the school hopes to use Yamami's "open badges" in a wide variety of ways, sometimes adding their own adjustments, and to treasure them for a long time to come.

(Source: School Public Relations)