Hidetoshi Kuranari, Creative Project Director & Founder of Creative Project Base, was invited to the Design Commons on the Ohashi Campus of Kyushu University on December 23, 2024, to give a talk hosted by the Center for Designed Futures of Kyushu University entitled, “Think of Something Wonderful. – Projects are About Designing Potential -.” Kuranari has rich experience leading projects in a variety of genres, including diverse advertisements, new project development support for new business departments at various clients, APEC Japan 2010, the Tokyo Motor Show 2011, and others, since originally joining dentsu in 2000. He subsequently formed the dentsu B Team　in 2014 with members who each had alter-egos other than their main occupations (“b-sides”), before establishing Creative Project Base, a project oriented company, in 2020. Given this history and background, Kuranari gave a talk on so-called project-making, covering examples from his own past including client requests, his own initiatives, and collaborations both large and small. A total of 42 students, mainly from the School of Design and Graduate School of Design, participated in the lecture, of which 6 participated online, proving the lecture a great success.

　The lecture began with an ice-breaker, typical of Kuranari as an ad industry veteran, in which participants were asked to create their own catch copy with 10 words, drawing them into the lecture as active participants, and this proved to be a simulated advertising experience that forced the participants to think about how to say what to whom that Kuranari had prepared. Kuranari went on to discuss his specific processes and approach regarding project-making, using case studies from projects he actually led, such as his efforts to work with diverse stakeholders including the Saga prefectural government, to transform the Saga 2024 Japan Games & National Sports Festival for People with a Disability into an event that differed from the standard image of the National Sports Festival, the United Rice Ball Project in which he involved embassies to create rice balls containing rice from different countries which were then eaten together with people from those countries, which he carried out because “he wanted to,” and the Gyakujuku (Backward School) project which aimed to generate new and unique ideas by thinking backwards.

The Q&A session at the end went into overtime with a vigorous stream of questions such as, “Where do you get the motivation to launch projects on your own without being hired?”, “How were you able to act freely while working at dentsu?”, and “What do you keep in mind when trying to achieve a win-win-win?”

　In terms of practical design, there is a need to promote projects that fuse design with diverse domains, commercialize and practically apply the results, and strategically apply them to society. Furthermore, students at science-oriented design universities have an advantage in their ability to properly build a foundation for projects, rather than only coming up with ideas and expression. Kuranari spoke of the skills and approaches required to meet such needs giving specific examples and impressive catchphrases such as, “project design is like civil engineering”, “A career that moves downstream”, and “The person who notices is responsible to change things”, making the lecture particularly meaningful for the students who would lead the world of design in the future.

Lecturer　
Hidetoshi Kuranari 　
Creative Project Base
Creative Project Director & Founder