Adobo Design Masterclass | May 9, 2019

Here’s a chance to think out of the box and take an espresso-shot of creative inspiration in the form of a whole-day Masterclass with no other than Nadya Kirillova and Hidetoshi Kuranari of Dentsu Team B, the collaborative unit under the Dentsu Innovation Institute. With the motto “Curiousity first,” The Team B adapts an approach similar to the ad industry in the 70s and 80s, where work was usually more play. The team follows no brief and projects are worked on together with clients so the unhurried, informal set up gives the team the freedom to explore on different solutions and processes without pressure.

MASTERCLASS MENTORS

Throughout her career, she has worked on events like the “2010 APEC Japan”, and projects such as “Sound of Honda / Ayrton Senna 1989” for Honda. Her excellence in the field has gotten her a Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes and a Black Pencil at D&AD among many others. Now as a member of Dentsu Team B, Nadya creates original creative education programs to innovate and diverse education in Japan.

In less than a year, he had already won international awards like Cannes, NYADC and more for his work in Dentsu Inc. He has worked on projects for the APEC 2010 conference, Tokyo Motor Show, IMF-World Bank Conference Tokyo, and Arita Porcelain Revitalisation project, to name a few.

ABOUT DENTSU TEAM B

Spearheading unusual approaches to solve business challenges and thinking outside the box are Dentsu Tokyo’s forte. The formulation of the Dentsu Team B, a three-year old collaborative unit under the Dentsu Innovation Institute, is a testament of this achievement.

“B side is like [being a ] DJ or novelist, actor or blogger, so each member has their personal B side. So we are combining the A side and B side and making a new business. Our clients and the society needs new innovation; we shouldn’t just approach from the A side, but we need to have an alternative approach. We don’t think typical for our clients. But we think [of] partners to make new ideas. For a good future and a good society,” opines Team B’s Hidetoshi Kuranari.

Kuranari remarks, “Of course we have really great A Teams, like the issues they are getting from their clients are more complex and difficult, and sometimes even if it is hard to put some kind of solution or what kind of idea or what kind of thing they need, so the clients need something beyond Team A, so that’s where they come to us and discuss some good way of innovation or help them understand what they actually want. There are times that there are Account Executives or somebody else from the company would call us to help them do that. It becomes different from a usual team that if the client would want to have of Team A pack, so they will try to collaborate and make it and turn it to one big solution just to make the world better.”

Nadya Kirillova, Team B’s Creative Director, remarks, “Education in Japan is a little bit traditional. So we need to learn how to be more creative and especially when we grow up and go to the society. There is no answer for anything anymore, so we want to teach kids about different ways they can learn and different approaches they can take to education. You have to find the right button to push and open the kid’s innovation or inspiration or those kinds of skills. So you are making a list of programs focusing on that kind.”