Mischievous Fire Sprits Posters

Long time ago in Asia, people believed that there was fire spirit moving around and setting fire to houses, or mountains. To prevent the fire accident by the spirit, they used to put a big bowl filled with water in front of their house, or next to the door, thinking water could scare them. The proof of this perception can be seen by finding a bowl next to the main main palace, or small artificial river flowing before entering a palace in Korea, Japan and China. People believed that water could diminish the power of fire spirit so that they designed the spiritually safe zone from fire by placing water.

With the development of technology today, we don’t need to put the bowl of water at every door because we have fire hydrants either on the street or on the wall. These fire hydrants today have become more practical, and are designed to get attention easily for emergency situation by using vivid colours of typography, or a lightbulb.

However, unlike other countries, it was hard to tell what and where the hydrants are in Tokyo. They designed the hydrants to match so well with the surrounding and even look beautiful with gradient pink bulb which it supposed to be (sometimes annoying) strong colour to catch attention. That’s actually how I found out it was the hydrant; mesmerised by the design.

It’s how I got inspiration to make this poster - using the beautifully designed hydrant in Tokyo combined with the old perception of fire. By taking photos of different kinds of fireplugs in Tokyo, I assembled it to make a weird shape which could look like a monster - fire spirit - that we used to be afraid of. I made them all black and white not to have instant attention by colours, but by the shape to make audience to find out what it was made of. At last, like our ancestors, that the fire spirits don’t go around and cause mischief. Thats why I put in the safety trick for defence - water. The big blue dot works as a shield preventing them from going around and setting fire to things.

I want people in Japan to be aware, and remind them of where their fire hydrants are through a series of posters indicating the dynamic movement of the spirit and the defence systems.