Introduction
A Tokyo-based fishing club called Kaientai（海宴隊） requested to design a pin brooch as the commemorative gift for their 150th meeting.
About the club
Kaientai（海宴隊）is a fishing club named after the Kaientai (海援隊、an organization formed by Ryoma Sakamoto, a ronin who escaped from the Tosa Domain at the end of the Edo Period). They hold regular meetings, mainly for filefish, based on the concept of "having fun fishing and eating them with professional cooking."
Mood board
At the begging of the project, I accumulated images that feature fish and letters in either English or Japanese in a clean manner. Those images helped me when I created thumbnail sketches.
Main image, text and colours
I created several vector art feature filefish that will be the main visual. The request was for a colour that was not too flashy or austere, so I chose colours that were not too saturated.
Draft Designs
I made it both in English and Japanese for drafts. English has a more clean and contemporary visual tone while Japanese has a traditional, formal tone. The ７th design is based on a "大漁旗"（tai-ryo-ki, Big fish flag) which is very auspicious for fishermen. The client loved this idea, so I refined it for the final design.
The Final
First, I chose a font that has the feel of a brushstroke but is even easier to read. The wave pattern is much cleaner than the first—I aimed for a two-dimensional yet dynamic expression of movement by referencing Ukiyoe, and I added more precise and detailed expressions of pattern and body colour to the main fish.
