For: Japanese Welfare Ministry,
The Nippon Foundation

Creative Direction: Omar Vulpinari,
Aaron Siegel
Design: Samantha Ziino (vehicle), David Penuela (data system concept), Anna Kulacheck (app GUI)
Agency: Fabrica
2013

The project was commissioned by the Nippon Foundation, a private non-profit philanthropic organization active in Japan and around the world in the fields of social welfare, education and public health.

The brief asked for a brand enhancing visual design for 2000 Japanese social service vehicles. The aim of the design was first to make the Japanese society more aware of the importance and magnitude of social service work, and second, to motivate the social workers using the cars.

Social work and volunteering is fundamentally about “working together”—this thought inspired the design—whether it be working with colleagues, or with the people receiving care. People joining to help the lives of others. Using the existing Nippon Foundation logo, the design creates a chain of people holding hands embracing the passengers with joy and care. The faces are smiling and the hands are high in the air in an expression of celebration.

A data visualisation service—a video display on top of the car fed by a smartphone app operated by the driver—was also conceived (but not implemented). The system could communicate, to people on the streets, qualitative and quantitative information on the social services offered. This would create value in terms of informed awareness on the magnitude of the impact of the social workers' services.