Takeuchi Makoto

President, Takeuchi Design Inc.

President, Japan Sign Design Association

Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1961.
Specializing in information and environmental design, he has designed signs for public facilities, major complexes, and railroad facilities, and has been involved in the formulation of outdoor advertising guidelines in various regions. He is a lecturer at the Toyo Institute of Art and Design, a landscape and community planning consultant for Shinjuku City, and a first-class registered architect. Representative works include “Shibuya Sign Project”, “Akasaka Sacas”, “Fujiya Hotel”, and “Makita General Hospital”. He has won many awards, including the SDA Grand Prize, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, and the General Press IJP Visual and Advertising Award (Grand Prize).
Director of the Kukan Design Organization.

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).

Takeyama Ryozo

Director and Vice President, University of Toyama

Executive Director, Japan Sign Design Association

Born in Osaka in 1956. After graduating from Kyoto City University of Arts, he managed a design office and engaged in education and research at the university since 1997.
He specializes in “sign design” and is practically involved in outdoor advertisements and landscape formation, which are becoming an issue in various regions, as well as value creation in local cities.
He is the editor-in-chief of “signs” magazine, which specializes in sign design.

Hiromura Masaaki

President, Hiromura Design Office

Graphic Designer

Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1954, he established Hiromura Design Office in 1988.
Focusing on graphic design, he has been involved in CI and VI planning and signage design for art museums, commercial and educational facilities. Major works include art direction for Sumida Aquarium, 9h Nine Hours, the National Taichung Theater, Artizon Museum, Ishikawa Prefectural Library, Nagoya Zokei University, Sogo & Seibu, and Loft. He was involved in the development and designed the Tokyo 2020 sports pictogram.

宮崎桂

Representative Director, KMD Inc.

Creative Director

Major signage projects and awards: Nakaya Nakahara Memorial Hall, Tokyo International Forum, Dentsu Headquarters Building, Aoyama Gakuin University Sagamihara Campus, Kyoto National Museum, Taiwan Hakka Culture Development Center, Shin Yamaguchi Station Station Square, Nagano Prefectural Museum of Art, etc. SDA Grand Prize, METI Minister Prize, GD Prize, Red Dot Award, IIID Award.
Author of “Experiencing Sign Design” (Rikuyosha).
Visiting professor at Maebashi Institute of Technology.

Bo Linnemann

Kontrapunkt

Partner and Chairman of Kontrapunkt Japan

Creative Director

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.

小林章

Monotype KK

Creative Director

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.

飯島直樹

Iijima Design

Interior Designer

Born in 1949, Naoki Iijima graduated from Musashino Art University in 1973 and worked at Super Potato led by Takashi Sugimoto on “Bar Radio” and “MUJI Aoyama” before establishing his own design office in 1985.
He has worked on a wide range of space design projects including “Juzo Itami Residence,” “5S New York,” “PMO,” “Kogakuin University Learning Commons,” and “STONES,” etc. He was President of the Japan Commercial Environment Design Association from 2004-2014 and Professor at the School of Architecture, Kogakuin University from 2011-2016. He is the author of “casuisutica Naoki Iijima Works 1985-2010.”

Tezuka Yui

Representative Director, Tezuka Architects

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, he 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. His publications include “Takaharu Tezuka + Yui Tezuka Architectural Catalogue 1 – 3.” He 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).

Hanazawa Yuji

Editorial board member, 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 “