Poster Creation Project with Professional Designers - Elementary Japanese Class at CGK International School

The poster creation for this year's CGK School Festival 2024 was primarily led by students from the 4th and 5th grade elementary classes during their Japanese classes. The 5th graders took on a leading role, managing the entire process having direct communication with the designer regarding the order and completion. Meanwhile, the 4th graders engaged in practicing how to shape their ideas in preparation for next year.

This project had two main goals:

1. Give students insight into society.
2. Give students real world experience in collaborating with professionals to create high-quality deliverables.

This initiative simulated real-world economic activities while also incorporating elements of career experience.

The poster creation process progressed through the following stages:

Understand the Concept of Ordering

First, students began by learning the basic concept of "what is an order?" They had in-depth discussions about the poster's target audience, the purpose and reasons for holding the School Festival, and the information that should be included on the poster. Through this process, they considered the significance of the School Festival and the importance of promotional posters from various perspectives, including parents, school, students, and the community.

Create Catchphrases

Next, they worked on creating catchphrases that encapsulated the message they wanted to convey and the appeal of the CGK School Festival. The task of combining attractive words and messages while being conscious of the target audience greatly contributed to improving the student's vocabulary and communication skills.The students realized the power and influence of words by fully exercising their creativity. Through group brainstorming, they also became aware of the importance of diverse perspectives.

This experience of creating catchphrases seemed to spark the student's interest in the world of advertising and marketing. Moreover, by expressing the appeal of the event in their own words, their attachment to and pride in the CGK School Festival deepened even further.

Create Purchase Orders

After determining the direction of the poster through catchphrase creation, the students began preparing order request forms for their meeting with the designer.

They discussed and completed the following tasks in groups:

They worked on this while experiencing actual business processes and learned specialized terminology. Through this process, the students learned the importance of teamwork while developing their creative thinking and decision-making skills. By creating an actual order request form used in real business settings, they also gained hands-on experience in project management basics. This experience provided a valuable opportunity to spark their interest in future career choices and entrepreneurship.

Collaboration with the Designer (Order Request and Proofreading)

The order request was made through direct meetings with the designer, where each group presented their ideas and directions. They made efforts to convey not just the contents of the request form, but also their reasons and thoughts in easy-to-understand language. After the presentation, they spent a lot of time discussing with the designer and listening to professional perspectives to shape their ideas.

After the designer submitted four initial design proposals, the students prepared for their second meeting (proofreading). During class discussions, they maintained an inclusive attitude, with students voluntarily providing English translations and incorporating English explanations as needed.

The students meticulously proposed modifications from various perspectives and expressed their opinions politely. The revised version arrived the next day, and the students were not only surprised by the professionals' swift production, but also greatly excited that their ideas were realized as the poster neared completion.

In the proofreading meeting with the designer, a girl asserted, "I think adding a gradient at the bottom would be good." Even the classmates who couldn't visualize the actual image reacted, "The gradient, it's wonderful!" The last issue the children struggled with was the font, debating between a round, soft impression, or an angular, gothic-style impression. After considering various elements such as the overall atmosphere, their catchphrase, and the target audience, they ultimately decided on the angular font. In this way, the opinions of each individual came together, and the final version was completed.

Reflection & Placement Consideration

In the project review, they summarized what they had learned from the designer, their feelings about the project and the completed poster, and the challenges they would like to tackle next, while paying attention to the composition and paragraphs. Some students expressed their gratitude and respect for the designer, and even wrote about the skills required to become a designer.

Additionally, the students themselves will be conducting promotional activities using the poster. They will visit stores directly and ask for their cooperation in posting the poster. This project is also related to the Business UOI, and they reviewed the purpose of creating the poster and relearned the importance of "promotion."

In this project, the students were able to gain valuable opportunities to improve a wide range of skills, such as information gathering and organization, layout and design thinking, effective word choice and creativity, group work and consensus building, and communication with professionals.

In this way, the "CGK School Festival 2024 Poster Creation Project" went beyond just preparing for a school event, and became an educational initiative of high value, providing children with real-world experience and opportunities to acquire diverse skills. The final poster, completed with the full display of the children's creativity and execution ability, will surely play a role in deepening the connection between the school and the local community.

Sayuri

*If there are any companies, organizations, or individuals who are willing to help display this poster (A2 size) or flyer (same design, A4 size), we would greatly appreciate it if you could contact us.

Message from the School President

Just before this project started, I (Minoru, School President) received a consultation from Ms. Sayuri, the Japanese teacher, and as an idea, I suggested collaborating with professional designers. Normally in a typical Japanese school, children work hard using their own skills to draw posters and that would be the end of it. Of course, there is great value in this approach, and they may develop a deeper attachment to their own creations. However, they will have many opportunities for such self-driven experiences throughout their school life, so for this project, I wanted to emphasize a different type of experience.

In addition to Ms. Sayuri’s explanation of the project goals, I would like to share what I personally wanted to focus on in this project. I know this is a bit long, but I hope you’ll read it through to the end.

Project Goals

• Give students insight into society.
• Give students real world experience in collaborating with professionals to create high-quality deliverables.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Society functions through mutual support, where people complement each other. Instead of comparing yourself negatively to others when faced with something you're not good at, it’s important to focus on the positive aspects of yourself by both yourself and others. This is a key principle in education.

In Japan, education emphasizes caring about others in terms of cooperation, but when it comes to tackling challenges, especially in schools, it often feels like an individual effort. While students study diligently on their own, there’s little deep discussion with others to gain new insights or refine their own thoughts. As a result, communication skills tend to be underdeveloped. Yet, the old educational system and its assessment methods allow this isolated individual approach to prevail.

However, once you step into post-graduation society, things shift 180 degrees. You quickly realize that your own limited expertise won’t be enough to cover all the bases or produce high-quality results. In traditional school education, there’s often no opportunity to notice this. One key to achieving great results is making use of existing resources, leveraging past knowledge, and working collaboratively with others. To do this, you need the critical thinking skills to apply knowledge, the ability to take action, and strong communication skills. Naturally, one of the methods for achieving high-quality results is relying on professionals in their respective fields.

In the creation of this poster, we may not know which method would have given the children the greatest sense of accomplishment. However, by collaborating with professional designers this time, they earnestly thought through and generated ideas. By leveraging the expertise of professionals, they were able to create a wonderful piece that they could not have achieved on their own (at least at this point in time). They gained the excitement of accomplishing something remarkable and learned one method to achieve it. This experience has likely added another option for them when tackling challenges in life and society moving forward. It means they have become more flexible in recognizing the option of utilizing other resources.

With the advancement of technology, it's evident that merely cramming knowledge and scoring well on traditional exams is entirely meaningless. Now that AI has become accessible at the civilian level, is there a path where we do not utilize AI? Those who have vaguely felt a sense of despair about Japan's old educational system may now have a clearer understanding of the reasons. The human abilities that should be nurtured are not being developed, and holistic education toward a clear learner profile is not being implemented. Saying "Therefore, overseas is better" is simplistic (as overseas varies greatly depending on the country, region, and even the school), but it's extremely important to constantly update from a global perspective. Schools like CGK, which are not yet large in scale, have the great privilege of seriously considering what and how the children who are here now should learn for the society of the future and being able to flexibly incorporate it. The introduction of the International Baccalaureate (IB) was one such initiative.

This time, when I consulted the professional designers, we told them, "There's no need to adjust your language to match the children's level of understanding. If they don't understand something, they'll ask questions. More importantly, I want you to showcase your professional side and be someone the children can look up to." Just as the IB places importance on conceptual understanding, ultimately, what remains in memory and leaves a lasting impact over the years are fundamental concepts, sensations, and small moments of inspiration rather than detailed bits of knowledge. These are points not emphasized in education that focuses on exams. In that sense, CGK, being an integrated school, has the advantage of being able to pursue ideal education.

What must not be forgotten this time is that this entire project was conducted within the "Japanese" class. Starting from the original project plan of "thinking up catchphrases for posters," it developed into subjects beyond Japanese, and the project proceeded with goals that would never be set within the confines of a Japanese class. It was truly a project that vividly showcased the transdisciplinary characteristics of the IB PYP.

Because it was a special project, we included children who are in the JAL (Japanese as an Additional Language) class. Then, when it came to group discussions, including the native Japanese-speaking children, everyone suddenly started speaking in English. It was a very symbolic scene where, even though it was a Japanese class, it was not limited to the original purpose of "thinking up catchphrases for posters" in Japanese.

Although I don't usually get to observe classes often, watching the group discussions made it clear that they have been engaging in many discussions on a daily basis. I was deeply impressed by how the children themselves conducted lively exchanges of opinions, advanced and summarized their discussions, and how facilitators naturally emerged in some groups to lead effective discussions.

It was a wonderful project where both educators and learners could truly feel the joy of education. We plan to compile this entire project into a video work, so please look forward to it.

Minoru Kai

Professional Designers Who Assisted with This Project

Akihiro Suzuki
Graphic Designer
After graduating from Nippon Design Welfare College in 1991, he joined a design company in Tokyo.
Since 2001, he has been working as a freelancer.
He has produced a wide range of design works including MOOKs, books, flyers, and more.

Noriko Masuda
Graphic Designer
After graduating from Joshibi Junior College of Art and Design in 1992, she joined a design company in Tokyo.
Since 2010, she has been working as a freelancer.
She mainly produces designs of entertainment magazines.