Takram is a design innovation firm with studios in Tokyo and London.

Projects

Branding, Visual identity, corporate identity

Brand

R&D, design, prototyping of spatial experiences such as retail, installation, exhibition etc

Spatial

Business

R&D, design, prototyping of screen-based and/or digital experiences such as app, web, digital services

Digital

R&D, design, prototyping of hardware products & experiences

Hardware

R&D, concept dev and visualisation of futures and not-for-market products and ideas for external audience

Futures

We partnered with Mercari's in-house creative team and Monotype's Akira Kobayashi to develop Mercari Sans – Mercari's new corporate typeface created to embody the organisation's brand values. Other deliverables for the project included a type specimen book and a website to introduce the typography design.

Mercari Sans

Put your feelings into a flower and letter.
Put on a flower wrapped with words.

FLORIOGRAPHY begins as an incomplete gift.
Inside the wrapping is a piece of paper for you to write on.
Think of someone important to you, and write a message to them.

ISSEY MIYAKE FLORIOGRAPHY

Takram created LEDIX, an interactive website that visualizes ‘The Driving Company for the regional future’ chosen by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2017. ‘The Driving Company for the regional future’ are growing companies that are expected to play a large role in their region’s economy and value chain.

LEDIX by Teikoku Databank

Takram supported the creation of the concept movie of "e-Palette Concept" that Toyota announced at CES in January 2018. In this concept movie, e-Palette, a future mobility service platform, was explained using several  future scenarios.

TOYOTA e-Palette Concept

Takram was in charge of product design of 35-150mm F/2-2.8 Di III VXD | Model A058 and 28-75mm F/2.8 Di III VXD G2 | Model A063, Tamron’s next-generation mirror-less camera lens series.

TAMRON A058 / A063

Takram designed “Chair Neue,” concept furniture designed for our new lifestyle in the time of remote working.

Chair Neue

Together with Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, Takram rebranded “motta,” a handkerchief brand owned by Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, as a pilot case for PARADE.

motta Rebrand

Takram planned and produced NSK’s global campaign “__ with Motion & Control.” The campaign is a sequel to the “Running with Motion & Control” from 2020, and for 2021 we set the theme of “Connecting,” making everything from mechanisms and control systems to final film and graphic design.

Connecting with Motion & Control

Since January 2021, Takram has been working with RAKSUL’s Design Promotion Office and has supported them in implementing design management to their business. RAKSUL’s business idea of “Bringing the internet to and changing the structure of a traditional industry, that has not advanced in digitalization and make them have a big impact on the world stage” is what we want to accentuate through the power of design. For this, the very first thing to be handled is the renewal of the corporate VI.

RAKSUL Visual Identity

To some, pets are part of their family, and their wellbeing is one of their deepest concerns. With our continued partnership with KINS, we assisted their branding of KINS WITH, a D2C probiotic supplement service for dogs and cats. Starting with research and brand concept building, we delivered a holistic design solution ranging from logo and package design all the way to the brand website and online-purchase experiences.

KINS WITH

Takram collaborated with Kengo Kuma on "A Plan for Tokyo, 2020: Five Purr-fect Points for Feline Architecture," a research project that reinterprets the urban environment from a cat's perspective, for Kuma's exhibition "Kuma Kengo: Five Purr-fect Points for a New Public Space".

Five Purr-fect Points for a New Public Space

We jointly conducted a research with the R&D Group of Hitachi, Ltd. and published as a website that explains nine transitions we can make toward a more sustainable world.

Hitachi Sustainability Transitions Research

Commissioned by global air conditioning manufacturer Daikin Industries, Every Air is an exhibition that casts a new light on and challenges our preconceptions about the air surrounding us. We originally developed it as a site-specific experience for Milan Design Week 2020 but produced a film version of the installation when the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Every Air

In June 2020, The Cabinet Office of Japan released V-RESAS, a website for analysing and visualising the economic impact of Covid-19 within Japan. The website shows data such as people's movement, food and goods consumption, and trips and stays. Takram directed the concept making, UX/UI design, and visualisation of the website.

V-RESAS

We conceptualised and produced the "with Motion & Control" global brand campaign for NSK, a world-class manufacturer of ball and roller bearings and linear motion products.

with Motion & Control

In this R&D project, we helped Toppan Printing and b8ta Japan test out IoA Shopping™ – a digital twin business model that enables remote users to switch between virtual and real shopping environments – by creating the Virtual b8ta proof-of-concept.

Virtual b8ta

We helped ORBIS, a Japanese DTC skincare and beauty brand founded in 1987, launch their 'SKINCARE LOUNGE BY ORBIS' flagship in Omotesando, Tokyo. Takram's Hisato Ogata led the creative direction of this project, which included the design of visual identity, experiential content, printed material, merchandise, moving images, wayfinding signage, digital platforms, and in-store music.

SKINCARE LOUNGE BY ORBIS

Shimizu S-Pulse, a football club in the J.League (Japan’s professional football league) unveiled a new visual identity in December 2019. The rebrand, led by Takram's Kinya Tagawa, introduces a modernised logo, which has been used since the start of the 2020 season.

SHIMIZU S-Pulse Brand Renewal

Our London studio is a small team of anti-disciplinary creatives with a strong focus on design research, interaction design and programming. We work on an assortment of future-focused design projects that range from digital product experiences to research reports and discursive artefacts from the studio in Old Street/Shoreditch, London.

Calling for the new London studio residents

We helped design a new verbal and visual identity for J-WAVE 81.3FM, a commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan. Working closely with the leadership at J-WAVE, we redefined its mission and core values by incorporating important themes such as "listeners in Tokyo", "music" and "beyond delivering information".

J-WAVE Branding

The rising awareness of the climate crisis in addition to the arrival of the pandemic has powerfully altered our ways of seeing and understanding the interactions we have with each other and with our environments. It is a time of blurred lines—between work and leisure, urban and rural, global and local. These trends are nothing new. The crises have, if anything, accelerated developments that have been ongoing for some time.

Hitachi EU Post-Covid Futures

We helped Sakahachi Inc. develop the brand identity for DIG THE LINE BOTTLE & BAR, a bottle shop and craft beer bar housed inside the historic ShinPuhKan building in Kyoto, Japan.

DIG THE LINE BOTTLE & BAR

We were approached by adidas to explore the artistic use of technology as an expression of adidas Terrex’s active community. In response to the brief, we developed a generative data visualisation/AI system that tracked the community's social media activity to reflect the richness of content and user engagement in real-time.

Seed for adidas Terrex

KINS is a direct-to-consumer wellness brand dedicated to keeping the 100 trillion probiotics in the human digestive system healthy. Commissioned to create their brand identity, we designed everything from brand concept and naming, to business strategy and advisory, to logo, packaging, website, and online shop design. Apart from this project, we are also been providing design and strategy consulting services to our friends at KINS.

KINS

The humanisation of data is a territory we’ve been exploring for the past five years as a tool for delivering better, more informed decisions in a variety of different contexts.

RISAR Prototype

Takram lead the creative direction of STAMP, a new denim brand by FABRIC TOKYO inc. Together with Ken Okamoto Design Office Inc., meet & meet and FRACTA, we developed their brand concept, logo, copy and website.

FABRIC TOKYO STAMP

As a leading infrastructure company, Hitachi wanted to address climate change by repositioning itself as a sustainable global brand. For this mission, we were tasked with envisioning new environmental concepts for the 2020s and exploring how these ideas might inspire the company's creative practices in the future. Working closely with our studios in Tokyo, London, and New York, we examined global trends and surveyed new approaches through interviews with leading creators from various disciplines to deliver the 2020 Hitachi Environmental Vision Report.

Hitachi New Ecologies Research

Takram is offering design support to Legmin, an agricultural startup with the concept of "Vegetable growing through harmonious human-robot collaboration." We design the robots that they're currently developing, while also creating their presentation keynotes for meeting investors and pitch events, all in the hopes of contributing to their fundraising and growth.

Legmin

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT holds "Secret Source of Inspiration: Designers' Hidden Sketches and Mockups" from November 22, 2019.
The exhibition consists of sketches, drawings and mockups by current members of JAPAN DESIGN COMMITTEE. Unlike final products, such behind-the-scenes items are rarely accessible to the public, and yet 'hidden parts' reveal an important essence about creativity.

㊙展

FLORIOGRAPHY is a flower corsage and personal message to convey various emotions, meant as a gift.

FLORIOGRAPHY 2018

Takram has opened up its new Tokyo studio in Omotesando. The studio holds a total of 1000㎡, featuring meeting space, workshops and studio desks across three floors. The interior consists of light wood and black furniture while featuring some stainless elements as an accent.

Takram Tokyo Omotesando Studio

TUMIX is a next-generation freight management tool for transport companies. Takram was responsible for the concept development, service design, prototype development, user interface design, and branding of the product.

TUMIX

Takram provided branding support for Mercari, Inc. and worked with them in redesigning their logo as well as creating a website to share the redesign process and the thoughts behind it. The logo was redesigned to represent both the casualness and the fairness of the Mercari marketplace, in addition to maintaining the elements of excitement and joyfulness that the old logo possessed.

Mercari Rebrand

20 years after the release of their first mass-market version of the hybrid vehicle “Prius” in 1997, Toyota has marked a global sales of 10,000,000 units of their hybrid vehicles. To commemorate this achievement, Toyota hosted a global campaign Respect Nature, and Takram was in charge of planning and technical direction for Small Planet, one of the contents within the campaign.

Small Planet

For our new studio space in London’s Shoreditch area, we commissioned and collaborated with the Sam Jacob Studio.

An Office Of Stacked Things

To commemorate their 100th anniversary, Teijin Limited hosted THINK HUMAN EXHIBITION, an exhibition showcasing future visions for fibre technology. Takram created future scenarios for these upcoming technologies and brought them to life with visuals and product concepts.

SELFORG

Since 2017, Takram has been supporting Aeon Bank in redesigning their digital products, helping them to fulfil their vision of becoming a "friendly and convenient bank". Along with renewing their products, we created a set of design guidelines to keep the design language consistent throughout the bank's different applications.

UX/UI Design Renewal for Aeon Bank

Takram assisted concept making, branding and creative direction of Monicia, a device proposed by Konica Minolta that helps women in improving their lifestyle before menstruation.

Monicia

As Nikkei's branding partner, Takram created a series of full-page advertisements printed in The Financial Times to celebrate the release of the Asia300 Index. The Asia300 Index is a stock market index focusing on 300 of the biggest and fastest growing companies around Asia. Takram was in charge of both art direction and the design of the advert.

Nikkei Asia300 Newspaper Advert

Takram worked with Data Vehicle Inc. in redesigning their corporate identity and visual assets. Data Vehicle Inc. has been creating tools such as dataDiver to make data science accessible to everyone since its establishment in 2014. To commemorate the release of their newest product — dataSniper — we worked together to renew their corporate logo, website, UI and stationery.

Rebranding for Data Vehicle

At London Design Fair 2016, Takram welcomed visitors to SCENES UNSEEN, an experimental test lab where we challenged assumptions about product conventions, functional narratives and the meaning of purpose.

Scenes Unseen

ARCHI-DEPOT is Japan's only museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting architecture models. For the museum's reopening, Takram created an interactive experience allowing people to access the archive collection that is usually not open to the public.

ARCHI-DEPOT

Once upon a time when being connected meant having a good phone reception, the biggest threat to our health was that we didn’t think about it enough or make an effort to improve it. But with the rise of smart devices, connected homes, and the IoT (Internet of Things), we’ve seen the emergence of a new problem: obsessing about health data that is disconnected from how we really feel.

Better Decisions with Lean Data

Takram collaborated with Pierre Herme in creating two concept products for ‘Jour du Macaron’, or ‘Macaron Day’, a charity event that Pierre Herme originally started from his boutique shop aimed to gather donation for children struggling with the intractable disease.

Macaron Invitation

Yosuke Ushigome of Takram was chosen for Designers of the Future Award, an annual award and commission by Swarovski for emerging talents in design. Together with Swarovski, we created a prototype using crystal and presented the work at Design Miami/ Basel.

Home Shrine

Kubota is a Japanese sake brand brewed by Asahi Shuzo since 1985 which was named after their original shop, Kubota-ya, founded in 1830. Amongst the various sakes in the Kubota family, Kubota Manjyu is considered to be the best — a ‘junmai-daiginjo’ manufactured from 100% Niigata-sourced ingredients.

Kubota Manjyu Gift Package

Takram worked together with Nikkei as a corporate branding partner, establishing a corporate brand guideline, designing a corporate logo, refining their typography, creating a brand site for their staff, as well as design support for their internal events.

NIKKEI Branding

Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first to achieve flight of a powered airplane in Europe with his 14-bis biplane, in 1906. He built and flew many dirigibles and airplanes, gaining notoriety for flying among the Paris rooftops, sometimes even landing at a favourite café for lunch.

Night Flight

Projecting imagination is part of an ongoing collaboration between Takram and Sony to showcase the potential of their LifeSpace UX range. Sony's unique Life Space UX products, including projectors and speakers, invite you to discover new experiences by transforming the environment around you.

Projecting Imagination

Takram designed a set of communication tools for Tamron.

TAMRON Communication tools

Takram’s director Hisato Ogato directed Athlete Exhibition for 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT in 2017, along with Dai Tamesue, a former top athlete who is involved in different activities around sports industry, and Shunichi Suge, a researcher/filmmaker.

Athlete Exhibition

Takram exhibited Furumai at KINARE - Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017.

furumai 2017

FLORIOGRAPHY is a series of flower broaches made from a special textile by ISSEY MIYAKE.

FLORIOGRAPHY

While we all live everyday by moving various parts of our body unconsciously, athletes are specialists at doing this consciously. They control their body extremely precisely and challenge their sports with it. When the motion of athletes are visualized through a motion capture data, one can almost feel the athlete’s breathing from it. Furthermore, by removing elements such as competitiveness and scores from a sport,  we can start seeing the true beauty of motion in a pure form.

Athlete Dynamism

Takram worked on the full renewal of dmenu, one of the largest information portal websites in Japan run by NTT DOCOMO, in collaboration with THE GUILD. We were in charge of the entire process of the renewal from research, concept building, user interface design, prototype-building, and directing user tests.

dmenu

NTT DATA opened a base office for BeSTA FinTech Lab, a laboratory for open innovation in FinTech services, in Otemachi, Tokyo. Takram was in charge of its visual identity design, space design direction, and website design and development

BeSTA FinTech Lab

Takahiro Ueda, a Mishima award-winning writer is releasing his latest novel series "q" on a monthly literary magazine Shincho and on Yahoo! Japan’s smartphone website simultaneously for 9 months starting from September 2017.

Project q

Takram is in charge of branding for The Bee & Farm, a small plantation that was started in Niseko, Hokkaido in 2016. The concept behind the branding is to celebrate our coexistence with nature - like the Bee that carries pollen between the various plants, and trees of the farm on it’s way to making honey.

THE BEE & THE FARM

Takram re-designed a further four photographic lenses as part of Tamron's new SP series.

TAMRON 2016 SP Series

Takram collaborated with Nippon Design Center and Hara Design Institute on the creative direction of the uniform worn by the Haneda Airport POWER LOUNGE staff. The Japanese fashion brand HYKE, which has been attracting both national and international attention, was chosen to design the uniform. We conducted repeated interviews with on-site staff to harmonise HYKE’s aesthetics with practical functionality.

POWER LOUNGE UNIFORM

Takram was in charge of creative direction of the Haneda Airport POWER LOUNGE with Nippon Design Center and Hara Design Institute. Alongside Azusa Sekkei (Tamura Design Room) who was responsible for space and interior design, we have created a lounge space that provides a smooth experience for customers and staff.

POWER LOUNGE

Takram was in charge of creative direction and interaction design of the new "Robot Anatomy" exhibition which opened in April 2017 at Chiba Institute of Technology's Tokyo Skytree Town® Campus.

Robot Anatomy

Takram designed a creative experience for Sony’s unique Life Space UX products such as 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector, Portable Ultra Short Throw Projector, and Glass Sound Speaker. The experience is set within the residence of J.H. Vincent, a fictional sci-fi author, as he is about to begin writing his latest book… “We Build Worlds”. In his apartment, we explored how we can transform our domestic space through the creative use of audio and visual augmentation.

We Build Worlds

Takram was collaborating with MIT's Camera Culture Group to design and develop their embedded, multi-electrode bioimpedance sensing technology.

Zensei

Takram designed the entrance visuals for the reception of Yahoo! JAPAN 's new head office at Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho. These visuals were created using Yahoo! JAPAN content hierarchy data, and express the huge range of Yahoo's content. The hierarchical data used as part of the visualisation is updated daily, showing how the company continues to change.

Yahoo! JAPAN Contents Tree

Takram was a collaborator on the installation "RADICAL BODIES: Dance Dance in VR."

RADICAL BODIES

Takram was responsible for the branding and package design of the Nichiro Corporation's "long life chilled" series.

Long Life Chilled

Takram has developed a web-browser-based framework for visualising geographical big data. Three visualisations were created for Media Ambition Tokyo 2017, presenting data on language, air traffic, and population. The framework is designed to achieve both analytical and immersive visual experience through the use of various techniques such as parallel projection and depth of field.

Planck

Kinkaku, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion was built around 600 years ago in Kyoto.

Kinkaku in Snow

Is our perception of plant intelligence limiting our understanding of their potential? This was a question we asked ourselves as we considered alternative forms of intelligence.

Plantolympics

Fidgety Machines is a response to a situation in which human beings have become machines that obsessively process information fed by social media. Hidden within this dynamic is our subservient relationship with the infrastructure that supports digital communication. Over-checking of social media platforms, being the first to post events, and fear of missing out are pervasive aspects of obsessive compulsion. Rather than lamenting them, Fidgety Machines embraces these behaviours as positive skills.

Fidgety Machines

Heavy Load is a speculative design project commissioned by the Dirty Furniture magazine as part of the exhibition Toilet Break together with the Shit Museum from Italy. In response to the Shit Museum's collection of utilitarian everyday products made from cow dung, Lukas Franciszkiewicz (Takram) proposed to design a problematic product to explore and challenge values driven by social as well as technological changes.

Heavy Load

Takram was asked by the Moovel Lab to help them realise an alternative vision of urban travel based on resources we have readily available to us today.

Personal Mobility Pod

“blue art — a journey in search of blue” is an exhibition to introduce Bombay Sapphire's brand to the Japanese creative community.

blue art – a journey in search of blue

“Lemon Hotel” is an artwork / accommodation produced by Smiles Co., Ltd., with graphic and sound design by Takram.

Lemon Hotel

Japan Duty-Free GINZA, the first downtown airport-style duty-free shop in Tokyo, was opened in January 2016, on the 8th floor of Mitsukoshi Ginza. Takram was in charge of the creative direction and development of an interactive zone. The zone has six ON THE FLY tables, creating a unique interactive experience for visitors to the store.

ON THE FLY for Japan Duty Free GINZA

The gift first appears in the form of a traditional handcrafted bar of facial and body soap, with scent of juniper berry and palm rose. Over time, as the receiver uses it in a shower room, a message on a canvas slip slowly appears from within. Finally, the moment comes when this personal message can be read – poignantly, when one's body and soul are both naked and open to heartfelt words.

"Message Soap, in time"

Takram took part in the production of a web installation for Visit Finland’s official campaign website. The project enables users to experience the beautiful natural phenomenon caused by the 24-hour sunlight in Finland’s northern region of Lapland.

Midnight Sun

Takram collaborated with architect Toyo Ito and SOMA DESIGN’s Tamae Hirokawa and Takashi Mori on transforming architectural facades as t-shirt designs.

FACADE

Takram developed “Theodolite,” a general-purpose programming framework for visualizing big data associated with geographical information.

Theodolite

Takram was responsible for the product design of two photography camera lenses by Tamron.

TAMRON New SP Series

Hydrogen Ball is the first step of a project in which we explore the speculative aesthetics of Hydrogen Fuel Cell product and methods of alternative interaction that might exist in a society created by this technology.

Hydrogen Ball

“letter opener” is a stainless paper knife shaped with a design shaved out of a hexagonal pencil. Its simple form allows the product to be stored on a pen stand or inside a pen case with other pieces of stationery. “letter opener” is made with a familiar size, and makes opening envelopes and wrappings easy. Although the mass-produced version has a matte finish, its original version has a luxurious mirror finish.

letter opener

Takram was in charge of planning, system building, content art direction and technical direction for the exhibition by Toshiba Group Hydrogen Energy Research & Development Center (HRDC) at Toshiba’s Fuchu Complex that opened in April 2015.

Hydrogen Energy R&D Center

Takram, in collaboration with Dentsu CDC, was involved in the design, planning, and development of “DataDiver,” a data analysis tool that was released from Data Vehicle, Inc. in 2015.

Data Diver

RESAS is the world’s largest visualisation system for a nation’s economic big data. It allows users to have both an overview and specific insights to improve decision making.

RESAS Prototype

Morioka Shoten is a tiny bookstore of “a Single Room with a Single Book” in Tokyo. It sells only one book; more precisely, multiple copies of one title that changes weekly, with a small book-inspired art exhibition on the walls. Its challenging, minimalistic philosophy and well-curated shows attract numerous visitors from all over the world.

Morioka Shoten

“Kansu Suppli (Function Supplement)” is an iPad application for Shinken Zemi Chugaku Kouza, a correspondence course for middle school students by the Benesse Corporation.

Kansu Suppli

As part of London Design Festival 2015, we explored new communication technologies and aesthetics. Titled “8h ahead,” our exhibition showcased a series of communication experiments created to both overcome and embrace the geographical and cultural challenges between Takram's teams in London and Tokyo. Each experimental concept explores one aspect of separation –physical, emotional, ambient and temporal– to bring the teams closer together.

8h ahead

Takram was in charge of the character design and art direction for “Mimicries,” a children’s science education program by NHK E-television.

Mimicries

A coffee mill for grinding beans. A trimmer to cut the candlewick. A carving knife to design a Halloween pumpkin… Some products are useful for one specific purpose, but lose all its value elsewhere, ending up just taking up space. Yet somehow that strangely becomes the very reason why we develop this attachment and the desire to treasure them. We took this way of thinking - from an entirely different angle - to probe further into the utility of such products and thought why not discover their new value, new ways to enjoy them.

Inscriptus

Takram was involved in the concept planning, art direction, and technical direction for “Robotic Shadow,” a new content for the robotic screen launched in late May 2014, at the Chiba Institute of Technology inside Tokyo Skytree Town.

Robotic Shadow

Professional Sharing aims to encourage audiences to look at the true nature of a Sharing Economy and discuss the possible future of this hype. At the center of the project is a Professional Sharer, a person who lives by the means of sharing. He inhabits the hypothetical world of a perfect Sharing Economy. The accompanying documentary film depicts, at least by the norms of our present age, his unusual occupational lifestyle and his interaction and sometimes conflict with the larger society: a society that can, and occasionally can’t, accept the demands of his profession.

Professional Sharing

"ON THE FLY" is being permanently exhibited at the Intel® Collaboration Center, a place for communicating new computing experiences. ON THE FLY is an infotainment system that integrates paper and digital media, in which text and video magically appear on the surface of paper cards when they are placed on a table. In this exhibition, we placed five different types of cards on a table to interactively demonstrate Intel’s new corporate identity, "Look Inside." Each card is designed to present a different computing experience of the future.