Creating a global visual branding for UD Trucks, Volvo Trucks’ first Japanese truck brand.
- My role: Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, and Presentation
- Design: Landor Associates
- Infusing a sense of “Made in Japan” to differentiate amongst Volvo’s EU and US truck brands.
- A new global brand symbol design reflecting UD’s heritage brands (see UD Trucks VI movie below)
Theme: “Road to Your Success”, The UD Way
UD means “Ultimate Dependability”. It represents UD Trucks’ unswerving commitment to being a company on which customers can depend. This commitment is similar to the discipline needed for success in Martial Arts.
The diagonal line in the logo formed in the space between the U and D represents the “road” that the customers and UD Trucks will journey down together as they build a long-term trusting partnership. UD’s heritage color, red, reflects the passion demonstrated by UD Trucks as they pioneer new roads in the consumer and commercial truck categories.
Creating a prototype global visual branding system:
- My role: Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, and Presentation
- Design: Landor Associates
- Creating a graphics system to stage Takeda’s global legacy logo, expressing technology and integration, while providing an extendable platform of design that visually connects branded images.
Theme: Essential Connection
Just as the gentle ocean soaks into the earth, Takeda’s medical solutions are seamlessly integrated into people’s lives. Our customers’ needs are constantly evolving and so is technology. Takeda is committed to being an essential partner for healthy living. Takeda is connected to people by continuously striving for excellence through ingenuity and integrity.
優しい波打ち際に潮水がとけ込むように、タケダのソリューションは人々の生活の中にとけ込んでいます。人々のニーズが進化するように、タケダのテクノロジーも進化し、常に人々と一緒により充実した未来の豊かな生活の欠かせないパートナーとして、人々のコネクトし、誠実さと共にたゆまない努力を続けます
Rejuvenating a global visual identity for KNIME, an open-source data analytics, reporting, and integration platform company.
- My role: Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, Design Management, and Presentation
- Design: Ono Brand Design
- Leveraging KNIME’s original logo, my task was to increase the sense of sophistication and overall appeal to be more competitive in the US market
Theme: Dynamic Focus
Building on the triangle with an arrow logo created in 2004, the new logo further reinforces KNIME’s dynamic and open-source platform that enables researchers and scientists to find the crucial data they seek to support their analysis. The brand logo expresses a dynamic “focusing-in” process. Support graphics add a sense of movement, energy, and memorability to the overall visual branding system.
Tradition and Innovation meet in the rejuvenating 80-year-old Japanese abrasive company known for its high-quality whetstone. We’ve created a new, memorable brand packaging design and branding strategy for the global market.
- My role: Brand & Creative Strategy, Design Management, and Presentation
- Our goal was to identify Naniwa Abrasive’s brand values and reflect them in a new brand design system that expresses the superior professional quality made in Japan, a sense of user relevancy, and global competitiveness.
Theme: Sharpening Your Essence: The Art of Japanese Whetstone Sharpening
In recent years, the popularity of Japanese cuisine has led to an increase in interest in the art of sharpening knives with Japanese whetstones. Naniwa Abrasive, a leading manufacturer of high-quality whetstone and abrasive products such as grinding and polishing agents, diamond tools, and stone processing and fabrication supplies, has become a popular choice among chefs, both professional and amateur alike.
Naniwa Abrasive's commitment to producing superior quality products has earned them a reputation for excellence. Their Japanese whetstones are a trusted tool for achieving professional-grade results in the kitchen. But, beyond just manufacturing top-notch products, as the company mission, Naniwa Abrasive is also dedicated to supporting and nurturing the development of human skills and potential, paving the way for a brighter future.
Discover the power of Japanese whetstone sharpening with Naniwa Abrasive. Whether you're a professional chef or a home cook, Naniwa Abrasive's products can help you sharpen your essence and unlock your true potential.
Brand Positioning
The visual key element of the design is the 15-degree line - Perfect Angle - which is the optimal angle between the blade and the whetstone when sharpening, and the initials of each product are drawn in a stripe pattern that evokes the movement of a kitchen knife as an eye-catcher for identification.
Rejuvenating a 90-year-old Japanese seafood brand for the South East Asia market
- My role: Brand Strategy & Workshop, Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, Design Management, and Presentation
- Brand Application & Guideline Design: Ono Brand Design
- Sea-delica Package Design: Anthony Luk Design
- Identifying Kanetetsu’s brand DNA and equity to maximize opportunities for new overseas prospects without alienating existing Japanese customers and B2B clients
Theme: Hello!
The brand spotlights “Tecchan”, a household Kanetesu mascot character since 1951. Tecchan has been underleveraged and shown inconsistently. The new brand identity promotes the character more prominently as a company ambassador, reinforcing the company’s authenticity and reputation for delivering high product quality.
Sea-delica Premium Imitation Crabmeat, a new packaging design for the US market
Expanding GAP’s Old Navy brand to the global market by creating a design intent package and partnering with regional in-market teams for on-brand activation/implementation.
- My role: International Design Management/implementation, Design, and Presentation
- Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
- Creating various design intent documents supporting overseas in-market teams for on-brand implementation.
- Cross-function project coordination for the USHQ international brand marketing teams and China, Japan, and the Middle East in-market teams
1. Beijing, China Grand Opening Design Intent Kit
2. Old Navy Arabic Logo
3. The Middle East Grand Opening Design Intent Kit and Touchpoints
4. Dubai Airport illuminated Sign
5. Dubai Grand Opening, Hoarding Design Intent Kit
6. Kashihawa, Japan, Hoarding
As part of government compliance, a new Arabic logo was created.
Here are several package design solutions.
- My role: Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, Design Management, and Presentation
1. H&S (Head & Shoulders), Japanese Packaging Design, Design: Landor Associates
2. Kumai Harvest, Premium Japanese Rice Packaging Design, Design: Profile Design
3. Carneros Alambic Distillery, Packaging Design System, Design: Profile Design
4. Science Diet, packaging design, Design: Landor Associates
5. Clorox Total 360 System Sanitizing and Disinfectant Clear Solutions, Packaging Design, Design: Clorox Internal Agency
6. Beverage and Food, Additional Packaging Designs, Design: Profile Design
7. Beverage, Packaging Design Explorations, Design: Profile Design
P&G’s Head & Shoulders is famous as an anti-dandruff shampoo, however, when it comes to marketing the product for the Japanese, a new package design was needed to express a sense of “premium beauty” rather than functionality. This was done because Japanese women feel that cleaning hair is an important beauty regiment and there is a cultural embarrassment about buying an anti-dandruff shampoo. Also, renaming to H&S (Hair & Skin) supports the new product positioning as an effective sculpt care brand (as cosmeceuticals).
As a well-known kitchenware and gourmet food company, Williams-Sonoma introduced premium Japanese rice in three different varieties under the “Kumai Harvest” brand, a brand owned by JA Zenchu in Japan. The vacuumed-sealed packaged is wrapped in a paper container with a string top closer. The overall presentation is one of individually crafted, imported premium quality rice.
Brandy distillation is a fascinating process of vaporizing wine and collecting the vapor drop by drop to create an aromatic golden mahogany spirit. The mid-night blue paper stock of the packaging sets up a grounded background upon which a touch of copper-foil graphics creates a sense of quality in a quiet moment.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition’s Science Diet pet food is a well-established pet food brand with many loyal customers in the Japanese market. Over the years, Hill’s Science Diet global brandmark evolved. It was time for the Japanese package design to be updated without losing the loyalty of existing customers. A proposed design incorporated familiar design cues reflecting the Japanese market while updating and modernizing the overall look and feel.
Many people are very familiar with Clorox as a retail and household cleaning brand, but many consumers may not know that their disinfectant and sanitizing products are also used widely in a B2B market like hospitals, clinics, food services and school cafeterias. A new design was created for Total360 system that met the needs of the commercial market without losing the value of the consumer brand.
1: Pokka Corp., The Coffee, Ready-To-Drink Coffee
2: Apple-Apple brand, Fruit juice
3: Rice Growers of California, Hinode brand, RiceBowl frozen food
4: Jimmie’s Asian Cuisine, Eggrolls and Potstickers frozen food
1: Pepsi-Co, Vitaqua brand, Vitamin Fortified Water
2: Lipton, Green Tea
Here are several samples of logos.
My role: Creative Direction, Design, and Presentation
1. Project Open Hand, Meal Service for seniors and critically ill who are infected with HIV/Aids, Design: Profile Design
2. Nutiva, Organic Foods, Design: Profile Design
3. Old Navy Arabic Logo, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
4. Mitsukoshi, Japanese Department Store, Design: Addison Design
5. Mila Vista Golf & Country Club, Design: Anthony Luk Design
6. KNIME, Open Source Platform, Design: Ono Brand Design
7. Co-Active Network, CTI Coaching Network, Design: Profile Design
8. Quantum Shift, Data Storage, Design: Profile Design
9. Circo Porto, an Arcade Center, Design: Profile Design
10. Odor Icons, Design: Clorox Internal Agency
“There is no second chance for the first impression”, a phrase I hear often and it is so true. What grabs your attention is often more than words or benefits but something you feel. Here are a few examples of 3D promotions.
- My role: Creative Direction/Strategy, Art Direction, Design Management, and Presentation
1. Mazda Motors Auto Show, Stage Backdrop Design, Design: Landor Associates
2. Fiesta Texas Amusement Park, Promotional Mall Exhibit, Design: Profile Design
3. Clorox Total 360 Electrostatic Disinfecting Sprayer, Wearable Costume Design, Design: Clorox Internal Agency
Theme: Feel the Wind: Dynamic curvature form and elegant design are Mazda’s signature design elements. To complement this principal, a dynamic wing shape graphic and color was added to express the sense of wind, a smooth sailing feeling but with speed.
Theme: Larger than Life: Remember how you felt as a child walking into an amusement park and surrounded by the big rides, sounds, and colors? My idea was to create a similar kind of excitement by surrounding the visitor with large expressions of Texas and festive music. Your eye level is low, so your sense of curiosity, discovery and interest is heightened.
Theme: Germ Busters: Clorox Total 360 Electrostatic Disinfecting Sprayer is a revolutionary way to electrostatically adhere a disinfecting spray solution to anything, but the dispensing spray unit is a cold metallic box and not very attractive. The idea of this program was to add a playful & approachable personality to the brand by characterizing it as a superhero, maximize memorability during tradeshows and demonstrations.
Expanding the GAP’s Old Navy brand to the global market and creating various brand tools necessary for effective and efficient implementation.
- My role: International Design Management/Implementation, and Design Strategy
- Cross-function project coordination between USHQ international marketing/brand experience team and China, Japan, the Middle East in-market teams
- Identifying regional, cultural compliances, nuances and conventions necessary to create a set of appropriate guidelines that achieve on-brand and on-target implementation
1. Global Ad Deck, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
2. The Middle East Photography Guidelines, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
3. International Translation Guidelines, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
4. Sales Promotional Poster Typographic System, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
5. Bi-lingual Store Signage, Design: Old Navy Brand Creative
In order to support an on-brand implementation and activation of a seasonal campaign, Global Ad Deck sets up the basic direction and guides each international, in-market team requires for proper design implementation (photo cropping, brand element placement, grid, etc).
The Middle East region has strict censorship when showing any photography. Especially when it comes to clothing. Sometimes the limitation can vary by region or even the medium: (Saudi Arabia vs. Dubai, Outdoor vs. Indoor vs. Print vs. Internet, etc). Understanding these restrictions prior to preparing any seasonal photography is a key to providing a wide range of design options.
Understanding how to communicate and apply appropriate translation techniques for each country (local vs. bi-lingual, direct vs. trans-creation) can support an effective and efficient on-brand implementation. Working closely with an in-market team is key for a successful implementation.
Setting up typographic guidelines for a messaging hierarchy and font style that will aid in on-brand consistency and implementation
Setting up typographic guidelines for size hierarchy
