The third class of Moripass Club members, who joined this spring, are finally graduating.
"FONT SWITCH MAGAZINE Vol.3" was created over a six-month period under the theme of "Turning on the sensitivity of fonts." An event to celebrate its completion was held at the Kansai Moripass Club.
The Moripass Club is made up of students who love fonts and have been working to learn more about fonts from their own perspective, and to share their experiences with others. This event provided an opportunity for the students to present their thoughts and ideas about the production process of "FONT SWITCH MAGAZINE," as well as what they wanted to communicate.
In Kansai, we welcomed guest Iguchi Kota, who we interviewed for a feature article, and also held a talk event that included content that could not be conveyed in the magazine alone.
This event was the last chance for all the members to get together after overcoming so many hardships. We will report on how they have persevered through the past six months!
Click here to see details of graduation ceremonies in the Kanto region.
There's plenty of behind-the-scenes stories and laughs at the completion presentation!
The Kansai Moripass Club consists of a total of 15 members, who have been divided into four teams to produce the pages based on their individual interests: the Visual Team, the MOTC Team, the Typeface Research Team, and the Special Feature Team.
At this commemorative event, each team presented the production process of how they had been working.
First, Ms. Nakahara Yu, representative of the Kansai Moripass Club, gave the opening presentation. She proposed the theme of the booklet, "Wearing Letters," and as a leader of the Kansai members, she always livens up the atmosphere, and on this day she once again played a major role in leading the group.
Next was the visual team, which was responsible for the cover, table of contents, advertising pages, and editor's notes. Each of the four members had their own responsibility, and they supported the visuals that could be said to be the key to this booklet.
For the cover, he used fabric to connect "letters" and "wear," and he explained that he chose the typeface "Akashi" to express the elegant and delicate image of the theme.
"Hello everyone, here's today's lineup. Let's start by digging deeper into the interesting news from the Moripass special feature newspaper in the morning paper!"
The special feature team's presentation began with these words. They were in charge of the interview article with Iguchi Kota, who was invited as the guest for the day. It seemed they had been preparing for the presentation the day before, as they handed out a newspaper called the "Moripass Special Newspaper" and gave a presentation in the style of an information program.
The reasons for choosing Iguchi for the feature article and the details of the interview were explained, and the atmosphere in the venue, which had been a little tense, became relaxed.
The Morisawa Type Design Competition (MOTC) team, which held a workshop with typeface designer Tomomi Kanda, commented, "We created this not only to capture the atmosphere of the workshop, but also to make people who read it see the letterforms from the perspective of the creator." It was clear that the team had the end readers in mind when creating the font.
The typeface research team focused on Michikusa, a Japanese font released in 2017 that features vertically-written continuous strokes using OpenType functions, and explored the latest developments in typefaces while devising ways to attract readers' interest.
During the presentation, there was a moment when visitors voted to choose the "strongest roadside path" by selecting the coolest combination of continuous lines, a project that had been scrapped due to space constraints.
This presentation really showed the enthusiasm to make the visitors enjoyable, and I was impressed by the high level of hospitality shown by the Kansai members.
A new experience with letters? A guest talk packed with new discoveries!
The second half of the event will be a talk event with guest Iguchi Kota, who we interviewed for a feature article.
Iguchi has many roles, including creative director, art director, video director, and motion graphic designer. This time, we focused on motion graphics, and he talked about them while showing us some of his actual work.
Regarding the theme "Wearing Letters," he commented, "When you move letters that someone else has created, there are times when you have to possess those letters. In order to understand the way of thinking and rhythm of the people who created them. You could say that you are wearing the letters in order to feel the physical part that lies beneath the form."
Iguchi continues to pioneer the world of type by dealing with the time-based expression of "character movement." Listening to this creator at the forefront of his field, the members were sure to have their new font sensibilities "ON."
After the talk event, a social gathering was held for those who attended the event.
Among them were teachers and designers who had been involved in the production of the booklet, who came to congratulate the students.
Some members chatted with those who helped them about things they hadn't had the chance to ask during the event or things they hadn't had the chance to discuss.
The MOTC team taking a commemorative photo with Mr. Kanda, who was so kind to us.
Laugh, cry and laugh some more, and end up with a graduation ceremony full of smiles!
After the social gathering, Kansai Moripass Club members looked back on the past six months and gave each other feedback.
"It was very beneficial to be able to create a piece with members from various universities."
"There were a lot of hardships, but I also felt a sense of accomplishment and I'm glad I did it."
"There were so many corrections that I almost gave up, but I think I've definitely become stronger."
Each of the 15 members experienced a variety of things through the creation of the booklet, including fun and hardships. However, in the end, everyone was positive and realized that they had carried out a meaningful activity as a Moripass Club.
And finally, the graduation ceremony.
Each member received a handmade diploma decorated in their favorite font. Advisor Hashizume greeted each member and shook hands firmly.
Finally, he gave a message to the Kansai members, and the third class of Moripass Club graduated.
"These past six months have flown by in a flash, and I'm sure they have been very intense and difficult. I'm sure there have been many times when you felt like giving up. But I hope that this experience will add even a little to your life."
The Moripass Club was brought together by a single commonality: a love of fonts. I'm sure there were many members who could not have met anywhere else. But it was a fateful encounter, and we inspired each other, and have grown a lot since we first met.
We will cherish the connections they have made here and continue to support them as they continue to soar high!
You can read FONT SWITCH MAGAZINE Vol.3 here!