Do you know Blue Dull , the cute dog character with blue polka dots? He can be seen at Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra concerts and on their website, so there's no doubt he loves music. Upon further investigation, I found out that Blue Dull was created by Yokohama design company NDC Graphics in 2004 when the Minatomirai Line opened, and is currently active as the official mascot of the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. This sounded intriguing, so I spoke to Kanagawa Philharmonic's PR manager Koichiro Tago and NDC Graphics' Azusa Tanaka about the story of Blue Dull and the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra.
"With the opening of the Minatomirai Line, talk arose of creating a new symbol to represent Yokohama. As we brainstormed for ideas, we came across the story that Dalmatians used to be used as guide dogs for horse-drawn carriages in the West. Inspired by this, we chose the Dalmatian as a symbol to welcome visitors to Yokohama. The local government, local shopping districts, department stores, and others came together to launch the Yokohama Blue Dalmatian Project," says Tanaka.
Indeed, the agile and graceful Dalmatian is a perfect fit for the image of Yokohama. So a Dalmatian with blue dots was chosen as the campaign character. However, initially, the key visual was a real Dalmatian with a color conversion created using CG.
Later, when NDC Graphics held a design exhibition, the idea of "creating a character that would appeal to the Yokohama brand" was deepened. A character called " Blue Dull" was created by a design unit led by the late Kenzo Nakagawa.
Yes, Blue Dal was named after Yokohama's image color, "blue," and "dalmatian."
In order to develop the character into one that will be loved for a long time, we first produced a picture book. This wordless picture book is imbued with the hope that it will be familiar to a wide range of people, regardless of age or nationality.
This is the four-panel comic strip "Blue Dal's Sunday" that ran in the Sunday edition of the Kanagawa Shimbun. It was a popular series that ran from April 2006 until last fall.
After that, Broodal 's adorable character and the concept of "regional revitalization" caught the eye of Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra members, and a collaboration began. In 2008, Broodal was appointed as the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra's support mascot, and Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra version goods playing musical instruments were also released.
"The Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra whose mission is to create a musical culture that is closely connected to the local community. Classical music also has a fun and intellectual image, so the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra's offer was a welcome one for us, as we wanted to nurture the Blue Dal with care," said Tanaka.
"Due to the reform of the public interest corporation system, the Kanagawa Philharmonic had to become a public interest corporation by the end of November 2013, but at the time the financial situation was very tight and it was difficult to continue as it was. We thought that the only way to continue our musical activities was to ask for support from the local community, so we considered opening a fund named after Broodal . We consulted with Mr. Nakagawa, who readily agreed, and so the 'Broodal Fund' was established," says Mr. Taga.
Nakagawa also wove the story of Blue Dull into the launch of the Blue Dull Foundation.
The story goes that when Broodal 's friends "donate" acorns into the tuba, a beautiful flower eventually blooms from the tuba that Broodal is playing.
"Inspired by this story, we had the idea of placing an old tuba at the concert venue instead of a donation box. We didn't go ahead with this because it would have been a pain to collect the coins afterwards (laughs), but I think it gave us a chance to take a more positive approach to fundraising," says Taga.
Currently, Blue Dal has a wide variety of merchandise!
You can purchase them here as well as at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1 and Osanbashi Pier.
The most popular items are the badges. By responding to requests from orchestra members and children, the orchestra now has all the instruments. It looks like Broodal might hold a concert someday.
Broodal might be a genius?!
This is "Kanagawa's Delicious Water, Forest Harmony," a plastic bottled water manufactured and sold by the Kanagawa Prefectural Enterprise Bureau. The bottle features a design of Blue Dull , and a portion of the sales will be donated to the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra.
2020 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first half of the year's concerts were canceled, but with the state of emergency lifted, the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra is slowly starting to move forward.
"Because Broodal is a character living in the present, I'm sure he's looking forward to the Kanagawa Philharmonic's concert," said Tanaka.
I'm looking forward to the day when I can go to concerts and enjoy music freely!
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