The client, Sunshine City Corporation, is a commercial real estate leasing and management company that owns and operates Sunshine City, a large, mixed-use commercial centre in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district. The company had also acquired a 60 year-old, 3-storey building nearby that they were converting into a pub restaurant and event space, and asked us to develop a branding and design concept for the renovated building. From the outset, we felt the best way to maximise the building’s value would be to give it an identity that contrasted with and complemented the soaring urban modernism of Sunshine City. We also felt it was important to reflect the character of the Ikebukuro area, which was historically a rather chaotic place made up of a maze of back alleys and byways. To help us achieve these objectives, we defined 'informality', ‘anarchy', and 'inclusivity' as keywords to guide our design development.

Our art direction sought to reflect the character of the Ikebukuro area, which was historically a rather chaotic place made up of a maze of back alleys and byways. Using the keywords 'informality', ‘anarchy', and 'inclusivity' to guide us, we designed the building's logo, as well as thematically linked posters, leaflets, coasters, craft beer labels and other promotional materials. We used butterflies and moths as a visual motif, and subtly graduated background colours to evoke a sense of night and day. For the primary brand illustration, we created a cutaway view of the building that evokes the image of a cruise ship bustling with onboard activities and passengers bound for exciting and exotic destinations. We also designed a custom font for use in the logo, signage and promotional materials, and incorporated multi-lingual text into the leaflets to reflect the multi-ethnic dishes offered on the pub restaurant menu.