Meet the designer behind the poster of the Japan-based Kadoma International Film Festival which was just elected Best Film Festival Poster of 2020 by our contest’s numerous voters!
To wrap up 2020 and celebrate the great work done by festivals in a very tough year, we allowed the public to vote for their favourite film festival poster of the year in our inaugural Best Film Festival Poster Contest. We were excited by the impressive number of votes cast, from over 80 different countries. The competition was fierce but, with 20,23% of the points at stake, the poster of the Kadoma International Film Festival is the deserved winner of our contest, right before the poster of the Imaginaria Film Festival, which gathered a very honourable 18,79% of the points.
To celebrate the winner, we talked with Designer Saeko Komiya, who is the creator of the winning poster. We talked about her style, her collaboration with the Kadoma International Film Festival and her inspirations behind this amazing poster.
“I wanted to show my kids I could make a living by doing what I enjoy doing and feel fulfilled.”
Hello Saeko! Can you introduce yourself?
Saeko Komiya: Hello Film Fest Report! I live in the city of Izumi, Osaka, Japan, with 3 kids, a cat, and a dog. I grew up loving drawing and hand-crafting all the time. About 6 years ago I became a freelance graphic designer/illustrator and help making art with town folks.
How did you get into designing/illustrating?
Saeko Komiya: I never thought that doing what I love could be a career choice. So, I’m mostly self-taught. My only (sort of) education is an illustration correspondance course that I took after I gave birth to my first child. I kept drawing freely as my heart tells while raising my kids. Looking back, the divorce might have been the turning point. I wanted to show my kids I could make a living by doing what I enjoy doing and feel fulfilled. Now, I manage to keep freelancing and learn from so many wonderful things coming my way.
Can you describe your style?
Saeko Komiya; I don’t consider my drawing skills superb. There are a million other artists who can draw more meticulously and color more harmoniously than I possibly can. Instead of going crazy with competing in those areas, I simply enjoy creating the world that I feel cozy in my drawing. At the same time, I feel like seeing the worlds and skills of other artists makes my world richer. I don’t stick to one style particularly, but rather try old and new things with curiosity. I try to stay as a wide-eyed girl in love with drawing.
Can you share with us a work that you are proud of?
Saeko Komiya: “RAKUGAKI” (10m wide) is a wall painting we did at Joshin Denki, Izumi-Chuou store. It was a collaboration between the kids from my home art school (sadly closed in March due to the pandemic) and the kids in New York. I first thought I could start filling my surroundings with arts, and now it grew bigger, not just me alone, but with other like-minded people or cities, I’m getting involved with a variety of art projects. For this wall-painting in particular, I was able to get connected with the kids in New York I never met. I felt so grateful with many people who generously helped make it happen.
How did you end up working for the Kadoma International Film Festival? How did the collaboration start?
Saeko Komiya: There was this event called “Artistic Pool Opening”, in which kids drew with their whole body inside a soon-to-be demolished swimming pool. I was on the staff, and the director and members of Kadoma International Film Festival were there to film the event. They looked very joyful and enjoying the shoot, so when I heard they were looking for board members, I got in touch. I wasn’t thinking about making posters for them particularly, but the director suggested me to do so.
“The poster deals with imagination and freedom which offers a world filmmakers and moviegoers can relate to. It makes them recall their colorful childhood memories. I also felt it would add colors to the festival and people’s lives in those difficult times.”
When you started designing the poster, what were the guidelines you were given? What was your intention?
Saeko Komiya: Kadoma International Film Festival treasures total freedom and individualism from every single film submitted. Likewise, I had total freedom in coming up with the visual concept of the poster. The poster size was all I was told! This way, I felt responsible for my work and could love it.
Can you describe the poster? What does it tell?
Saeko Komiya: I love movies, but I have never made any. Still, I love stories and read a lot of picture books. Looking for the conceptual ideas and resources for the poster, I came to think that films have stories like picture books. To express the 3D world of movies on the 2D world of the poster, I thought of borrowing the world of picture books. So, I gathered in the poster my imaginary heroines from the kind of books I used to read. I felt that the visual of imagination and freedom would be the world filmmakers and moviegoers can relate to, like making them recall their colorful childhood memories. I also felt it would add colors to the festival, for the people living this hard time.
What type of feedback did you get after this work?
Saeko Komiya: I received so many compliments from all kinds of people who saw the poster. I got an offer to make a picture book, too. Thanks to the positive feedback for the poster, I started thinking about creating a picture book that eventually becomes a movie.
On the poster, one can read that “movies connect the world”, can we say that “visual expression in general connect the world”?
Saeko Komiya: For me the term like “world” means not just a whole planet, but also means what every single person sees in their mind. By the visual expressions such as films, we not only peek in the world inside the creator’s mind, but also the viewers digest the movie’s world they saw, which in turn makes a connection with their own world. That’s how I feel about the connection, so it’s more like “connecting the worlds”. Plural and mutual.
Looking ahead, what type of projects would you like to work on?
I’d love to take on any challenge anything as long as it makes me feel joyous, in creating from deep inside me. I want to create a work people can touch and feel in their lives. And if it becomes what describes me as an artist, that would be most delightful.
In February 2021, Saeko Komiya received a decoration from the Mayor of Izumi, Japan, for her triumph in our inaugural film festival poster contest. We are excited and proud of her work, and we look forward to welcoming her as a jury member of the 2021 film festival poster contest!
We were grateful to chat with Designer Saeko Komiya. Her inspiring words made us love her work even more! Make sure to connect with Saeko to follow her next projects. We also wish to congratulate the Kadoma International Film Festival for their impressive work and for their fruitful collaboration with Saeko Komiya. Filmmakers interested in sharing their work with the Kadoma Film Festival can visit their website and Film Freeway page to submit their films.
