The Art Directors Club and One Club, in partnership with AKQA, have joined together to form Creatives Unite for Japan, a new charitable program that provides the creative community with a direct way to help victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Creatives Unite for Japan is strictly a donation program, with each organization featuring a banner on their home pages with program information and PayPal link. One hundred percent of donations will go to fund The Ashinaga Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in 1963 that provides aid to children who have lost parents due to hardship, economic or natural disasters.

“This is not a call for entries, it’s a call for a cause,” said Rei Inamoto, chief creative officer, AKQA and ADC board member who developed the program mission and logo design. “Because right now, Japan does not need ideas that win gold, silver or bronze Cubes or Pencils, they need our support. We urge fellow creatives around the world to unite in rebuilding Japan. This tragedy was unpredictable, but as a forward-thinking industry, we can create a hopeful future.”

Original impetus for the program came from Kaede Seville, a New York-based Japanese journalist who covers advertising and first approached the organizations with the idea of an industry support effort.

“Creatives Unite for Japan was developed to be an extremely easy, direct way for creatives to make a difference in the lives of the youngest victims of these tragic events,” said Olga Grisaitis, director, ADC. “In cooperation with the One Club, we are making an industry wide, global outreach to the creative community and encouraging them to unite behind this worthy cause.”