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. To this end, we focussed on designs that would help create an intimate, organic and comfortable ambience. 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.

Our creative idea was based on papillon, the French word for both butterflies and moths. We chose papillon because it is a non-discriminatory and inclusive word that reflects a worldview focussed more on the way living things are the same, rather than how they are different. It was this spirit of inclusivity that we sought to capture and express in our design work. With this as our starting point, we named the building the 'Papillon Building', and used butterflies and moths as a visual motif in posters, leaflets, coasters and other promotional materials for the building's pub restaurant and event space. This allowed us to express the idea that the Papillon Building is a 'safe space' where names and labels don't matter, where a diversity of people can come together, spread their wings, and enjoy each other's company both during the day and at night.

In executing our designs, we kept three keywords in mind: 'inclusivity' ,'anarchy', and 'informality'. Guided by these keywords, we designed the building's logo, as well as thematically linked posters, leaflets, coasters, craft beer labels and other promotional materials. 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. Thematic design elements were also featured on coasters and posters, along with aphorisms, whimsical poems and musings penned by the pub owner to stimulate customer conversation and social interaction. Our designs also made strategic use of colour gradations to evoke a sense of night and day, and incorporated multi-lingual text to reflect the multi-ethnic dishes offered on the pub restaurant menu.

The Papillon Building’s grand opening, on March 1, 2023, was covered by many media. In the months since, the pub restaurant has attracted a diverse range of customers, including many overseas visitors who have found it offers a different way to enjoy Japan. The pub’s custom-designed coasters and leaflets have also proved to be very popular as souvenir items. As a cultural centre, the event space on the third floor has been used to host various events and exhibitions, giving artists and people of all ages a chance to meet and exchange ideas. And for the client, the Papillon Building project as a whole continues to serve as an important experimental proving ground for potential future business development plans.