Takeuchi Makoto

President, TREI Co., Ltd.

President, Japan Sign Design Association

Born in 1961 in Okayama Prefecture, he specializes in information and environmental design. His projects include signage design for public facilities, large-scale complexes, and railway stations, as well as the development of landscape and outdoor advertising guidelines across various regions. His notable works include the Shibuya Sign project, Akasaka Sacas, Fujiya Hotel, and Makita General Hospital. He has received numerous awards, including the SDA Grand Prize, the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award, and the Integrated Reporting IJP Visual & Advertising Award (Grand Prize). He has served as a landscape advisor for Ichinomiya City, an urban planning consultant for Shinjuku Ward, a lecturer at Toyo Institute of Art and Design, and is a licensed first-class architect.

Watanabe Taro

Representative, Emotional Space Design Inc.

Art Director

Vice President, Japan Sign Design Association

Born in Tokyo in 1964. Graduated from Tama Art University in 1991 with a degree in graphic design, and established Emotional Space Design Inc. in 1998.

He has collaborated with leading Japanese architects and lighting designers on numerous space design projects, and has received numerous awards including the SDA Award, Good Design Award, and other design awards, including the Grand Prize, Gold Award, and Silver Award. His main areas of expertise include environmental graphics and signage design, including color planning, and visual identity design for the revitalization of companies and facilities.

He is a board member of the Kukan Design Organization and a part-time lecturer at Joshibi University of Art and Design.

Yamada Kozo

Representative, Tsukikage Design Consulting
Design Consultant
Vice President, Japan Sign Design Association

Born in 1954 in Aichi Prefecture. Graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music.

Joined GK Industrial Design Institute (now GK Design Group) in 1979, and became president of GK-DSH, a joint venture between GK and Mazda,  and president of GK Design Organization (GK Design Group headquarters) in 2012. After serving as Senior Advisor, he has been in his current position since 2021. He is convinced that design is “imagination” to go back and forth between the past and the future, and “aesthetic sense” to change society.

He is a board member of the Kukan Design Organization and a fellow judge of the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (G-Mark). 

Hiromura Masaaki

President, Hiromura Design Office

Graphic Designer

Born in Aichi Prefecture, he specializes in graphic design, with a focus on visual identity, signage planning, and branding for cultural institutions such as museums, educational organizations, and corporations. His major projects include the Artizon Museum, the development of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic sports pictograms, art direction for Loft, and work for the Ishikawa Prefectural Library.

Hirano Kotaro

President, Hirano Kotaro Design Laboratory

Design Director

He studied under painter Genichiro Inokuma. His notable works include the Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Marugame, the Kasai Rinkai Park Observation Plaza Rest House, the Horyuji Treasures Museum at the Tokyo National Museum, the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, the JR Nagoya Station New Building Redevelopment Project, and projects for the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Total Design Management for Yahata Neji Corporation, and Good Design Award VI planning. He has received numerous accolades, including the JAGDA New Designer Award, Tokyo TDC Gold Prize, SDA Grand Prize, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award, DDA Excellence Award, Good Design Award & Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman’s Award, and the Intellectual Property Achievement Award by the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Bo Linnemann

Creative Director, Kontrapunkt

Partner and Chairman of Kontrapunkt Japan

Co-founded Kontrapunkt in 1985. Teaches at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Winner of more than 20 Danish Design Awards. He has worked on visual identities for Danish ministries and national brands such as “Carlsberg” and “LEGO”. He has been a visiting professor at Musashino Art University and has a strong connection with Japan. He has designed brands for DNP, a leading Japanese printing company, TASAKI, a luxury jewelry brand, and Andersen, a famous bakery originating in Japan, and has also worked on the rebranding of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and DENSO.

Kobayashi Akira

Creative Type Director, Monotype KK

After winning the Grand Prix twice in the world’s leading European typeface design contest, he has been in his current position since 2001 and lives in Germany.

His main responsibilities include typeface design production supervision, quality inspection, and planning of new typefaces. He also collaborates with renowned type designers Hermann Zapf and Adrian Frutiger on typeface production. He is the author of several books on European typeface design and how to present textual information on signs, has given numerous lectures on all aspects of typeface design, and has served on the jury of several international competitions.

Hanazawa Yuji

Editorial committee member for Nikkei Design

Born in Chiba, Japan in 1966, he graduated from the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in 1989, and joined Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.

After working at Nikkei Business, Nikkei Restaurant, Nikkei Venture (now Nikkei Top Leader), Nikkei Information Strategy, and Nikkei Ecology, he joined the Nikkei Design Editorial Department in 2011. Served as the editor-in-chief of Nikkei Design from October 2016 to March 2023. Concurrently served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Nikkei Cross Trend from April 2018.

Yoshiizumi Satoshi

Principal, TAKT PROJECT

He has conducted experimental self-driven research projects that re-established existing frameworks, and has presented and been invited to exhibit at museums and design exhibitions in Japan and abroad. Using the results of their research as a starting point, they have fulfilled various projects “creating other possibilities” with variety of clients. 

Winner of numerous national and international design awards, he was listed as the Emerging Designers of the Year at Dezeen Awards 2019 (UK).

Exhibition director of 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT exhibition “Material, or “

Orihara Miki

President,  ODO Co., Ltd.

Designer

After teaching herself design and architecture while working as a banker, she spent two and a half years at a design firm specializing in architecture and construction before starting her own business. Her work focuses on commercial spaces, particularly in the hospitality and food service industries, emphasizing the relationship between environment, operations, and visual elements. She strives to create spaces that integrate local and social considerations (“locally sourced design”) and evoke emotional responses (“emotionally moving design”), aiming to build spaces that bring joy to all those involved.

Akamatsu Kazuko

President, C+A Coelacanth and Associates

Professor, Department of Architecture, Department of Design and Engineering, Hosei University

She has designed many spaces for children, including “Fuji Kindergarten,” which was selected as the best school in the world by the OECD and UNESCO, and received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture from UNESCO in 2017. In Japan, she has received the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Japan Institute of Architects Award, the Good Design Gold Award, and the Society for Children’s Environment Award. Her publications include “Takaharu Tezuka + Yui Tezuka Architectural Catalogue 1 – 3.”

She is a part-time lecturer at Toyo University, a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo, and a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley (2006).