Three Emotions: A Powerful Design Advocating for Hansen's Disease Patients

Conveying a Message of Hope and Remembrance

Design Name: Three Emotions

Designer Name: Tsuyoshi Omori

Design Labels: Brand Identity

Design Inspiration: Our challenge was to tell their noble mission to a wider audience. Their strong will not to repeat negative history is elaborately expressed here. Today, amid the prolonged Covid-19 crisis, we are seeing heartless and cruel behaviors or utterance more often. The strong message behind the logo resonates with us furthermore.

Design Unique Properties: The logo and poster of a non-profit organization that aims to have Hansen's sanatoriums inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List conveys the message that the tragic past of Hansen's disease patients must not be forgotten.

Design Realization Technology: First, we designed pictograms that illustrate three emotions - Agony, sadness, hope - that patients have experienced for years. Then we arranged the mouth parts of each pictogram into a bridge shape to show the will of serving as a mediator of tragic history for future generations. It also looks like an alphabet H, taken from the first letter of the disease.

Design Specifications: Poster: Width 594mm x Height 841mm

Design Tags: leprosy, non-profit organization, Hansen Disease Sanatoria, Hansen Disease, Logo

Design Team Members: Arte Director and Designer: Tsuyoshi Omori, Photographer: Hikaru Kodani, Translator: Yukiko Nishikawa

Design Interaction: Posters with the logo are put up on walls at nursery schools, kindergartens, and hospitals today, helping raise awareness of youngsters who will support our brighter future. To support their action, the logo and key visual can be downloaded. Such as smartphone standby display or sticker can be downloaded for free from the website.

Design Location and Timeframe: This logo was released in May 2019, updated in April 2020.

Design Research: The bridge design was inspired by the actual Oku-Nagashima Bridge. It opened in 1988 on Nagashima Island, where two sanatoriums are located, as the result of efforts and struggles by sanatorium residents. Dubbed as the Human Recovery Bridge, it has been a symbol of the residents' fight against discrimination and prejudice. Now that their average age is over 85, we need to act for them.

Design Challenges: To reach a wider audience regardless of nationality or generation, we have struggled to design a straightforward, catchy, and intuitive logo as much as possible. Successfully, the logo has profound implications, and posters that tell those stories are put up on walls at nursery schools, kindergartens, and hospitals today. The logo also appears in the text for history class at local schools.

Design Notes: Hansen's Disease Sanatoria World Heritage Promotion Council is a non-profit organization committed to helping the Hansen's Disease Sanatoria in Japan to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List. Their logo and posters feature three different emotions that Hansen's disease patients were long subjected to - agony, sadness, and hope, speaking to what people can and should do to realize a society that is free of discrimination and prejudice. Today, amid the prolonged Covid-19 crisis, the strong message behind the logo resonates with us furthermore.

Image Credits: Image #1: Photographer Hikaru Kodani, 2020. Image #2: Photographer Hikaru Kodani, 2020. Image #3: Photographer Hikaru Kodani, 2020.

Intellectual Property Notice: Copyrights belong to NPO Hansen's Disease Sanatoria World Heritage Promotion Council, 2019.

Awards and Accolades: This Design was awarded Iron in A' Design Award in 2021. Iron A' Design Award: Awarded to well-designed, practical, and innovative creations that meet professional and industrial requirements. Respected for integrating industry best practices and competent technical characteristics, they provide fulfillment and positive feelings, contributing to a better world.