The 10 Best Graphic Designers & Creatives from Japan

Have you been keeping up with our Studio series? So far we’ve shared our 10 Favourite Irish Creatives, 10 Favourite Italian Creatives and Our 6 Favourite Brazilian Design Studios. For this feature we’ve turned the spotlight on the enchanting country of Japan to share 10 studios that we’re crazy about. 

Scroll down to discover intricate packaging from Sekiala Design, stunning print colours from Shikako Oguma and dreamy branding from Yuta Takahashi.

1. Kissing Kourami

Kissing Kourami are a self described ‘cute’ branding studio with offices in Tokyo and Geneva. They specialise in brochure, digital and more! Don’t leave their site without checking out their blog—full of design and travel updates.

2. UMA

Who can resist this minimalist packaging from UMA studio? Not us, that’s for sure. Flick through UMA’s full portfolio to see more packaging gems like this.

3. Nosigner

‘Nosigner‘ stands for ‘professionals who design intangible things’, which is clear from their impressive list of projects. We absolutely adore the striking yellow Nosigner have used in the above job for Tokyo Bosai.

4. Nottuo

Anyone familiar with Japanese popular culture will be aware that they’re a country well known for their character design. We couldn’t do a studio round-up without including some quintessential ‘duck’ packaging from studio Nottuo, designed as part of of a branding job to design packaging that can be picked up by anyone.

5. Ryogo Toyoda

We were absolutely blown away by the work of Yyogo Toyoda, a 30 year old 3D Illustrator/Motion Graphics Designer from Tokyo. His work has been featured as part of campaigns for YouTube, Adobe and Warner Bros!

6. Sekiala Design

Japanese designers are known for their impressive packaging and calligraphy and Sekiala Design is nailing it on both fronts. We’re loving the geometric patterns on this specific packaging project—although it was a real challenge picking just one project from their beautiful portfolio!

7. Agata Tamaguchi

Our second solo designer from the list, with a seriously impressive portfolio. Agata Tamaguchi is a Tokyo based designer with a range of print, packaging and branding work under his belt. We loved the simplicity behind this packaging for sparkling apple juice.

8. Alnico Design

Another studio absolutely killing it with their packaging talents. Alnico Design provide branding services for a mixture of small to medium sized restaurants and confectionery stores. This juice packaging really caught our eye with it’s paired back colour palette and playful illustrations.

9. Chikako Oguma

Fans of print design look no further than Chikako Oguma, a studio renowned for their expressive use of colour and format across the genre of print. From brochures to book designs they’ve got it all.

10. Yuta Takahashi

Last but not least we have the wonderful work of Yuta Takahashi with their clean, minimalist style their goal is to produce sustainable design. How satisfying is this design for the traditional autumnal festival in Shikoku, Japan.

Do you feel inspired by this design round up? Scroll through our resources category to see lots more design and don’t forget to check out work from our very own Shillington students in pieces like 20 Shillington Student Packaging Designs You Wish Existed.

Want to take your design career to the next level? Study design and take the online graphic design course at Shillington!