Work · Led by our founder in a volunteer capacity, not a commissioned engagement
Festival, game, brand, and revenue-model design
Akimatsuri Festival
Our founder led a volunteer reinvention of the school festival: a new revenue structure, eleven designed games, a festival identity, spatial graphics, and operations for 110+ volunteers.
New York Japanese Saturday School · 2022–2024
The design decision
When food could no longer fund the festival, play became its engine.
- 2024 festival revenue
- $10,114.25
- 2024 festival profit
- $8,614.25
- 2025 game revenue
- $3,376
- inherited to designed games
- 3→11
01 · The model broke
The old fundraiser could not simply return.
Through 2018 and 2019, the festival generated roughly $10,000 or more in annual revenue largely through food. Parent volunteers working in food businesses supplied donated or heavily discounted products. After the COVID pause, restrictions, lost suppliers, and changed school operations meant the 2022 festival could not rely on that structure at all.
02 · Strategic shift
Games became the new revenue pillar.
The inherited festival had three small game booths. Research into ennichi games produced four criteria: learnable by watching, playable in one or two minutes, enjoyable from kindergarten through high school, and visible enough to create demand outside the booth. Three inherited games became eleven original games.
03 · Brand and place
Design the place around the games.
Game concepts, prototypes, booth fronts, noren, tickets, prize exchange, wayfinding, and volunteer flow were treated as one service system. The visual identity gave independent booths a shared festival language while student proposals and annual testing kept the event open to change.
04 · Recovery
A different structure rebuilt revenue and profit.
Festival revenue rose from $3,596.38 in 2022 to $9,986.25 in 2023 and $10,114.25 in 2024. Profit rose from $1,686.44 to $6,082.94 and then $8,614.25. This was a recovery after the donation-dependent food model ended, not a return to that model.
| Year | Festival revenue | Festival profit |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $3,596.38 | $1,686.44 |
| 2023 | $9,986.25 | $6,082.94 |
| 2024 | $10,114.25 | $8,614.25 |
05 · Game revenue
The game system kept growing after the reset.
Game revenue was $1,486 in 2017, $1,345 in 2018, $1,240 in 2019, $1,546 in 2022, $3,111 in 2023, $3,275 in 2024, and $3,376 in 2025. Games represented 17% of total revenue in 2022, 35% in 2023, and 32% in 2024.
| Year | Game revenue | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $1,486 | — |
| 2018 | $1,345 | — |
| 2019 | $1,240 | 9% |
| 2022 | $1,546 | 17% |
| 2023 | $3,111 | 35% |
| 2024 | $3,275 | 32% |
| 2025 | $3,376 | — |
- Client
- New York Japanese Saturday School community
- Role
- Volunteer chairperson and creative director
- What we made
- Eleven games, festival identity, spatial graphics, flow, and volunteer operations
Credit, clearly.
Built and operated with students, a small construction crew, and more than 110 parent volunteers.
This was volunteer leadership by our founder, not a commissioned engagement. Financial figures were supplied by the owner from the festival records.
Bring us the part that has not resolved yet.
Tell us what you are building, what is getting in the way, and what has already been tried. We reply from New York.