Art director. Born 1974 in Tokyo. Formerly studied sculpture at Musashino Art University. Began working as a designer while still a student in 1995. Founded Bluemark in 2000 before disbanding it in 2011. Launched an independent firm the same year. Handles design for many art galleries and fashion brands. Also runs a book label that publishes artist books. Major awards include the JAGDA New Designer Award and the New York TDC Award. Has released the collection PLAY.

Formed in Kyoto in 1993. GROOVISIONS has become famous by making films and graphics for a Japanese pop group, PIZZICATO FIVE. After moving to Tokyo in 1997, they became active as a design studio involved in a variety of media and working for diverse clients, with a focus on graphic and video production. In 1994 they created an original character known as “chappie.” In 1999 chappie released three singles and an album. The character has served as brand images for Japanese companies.

Tokyo-based graphic designer. Acclaimed for revolutionary design work in magazines like +81 and SAL magazine during the late 90s. Launched the solo project “NEWLINE” in 2004 and began focusing on independent work. Has done graphics and visual production for shu uemura, agnès b, and Louis Vuitton in recent years.

Established Nakajima Design in 1995. Nakajima produces a variety of advertising and package designs as well as photo books and book covers. He is also active as art director of the magazine CUT. His notable publications include Revival, TYPO-GRAPHICS, and a collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto titled S/N. Nakajima's works have received first prize at the New York Art Directors Club five times, and he has been awarded second prize seven times. Nakajima, moreover, is frequently honored by the Tokyo Art Directors Club. His works are sought after by many museums and university collections outside of Japan.

Born 1965 in Hyogo prefecture. Head designer of GRAPH. He has shown his works at ggg gallery (Tokyo) and Milano Salone. His works are in the permanent collection at Bibliotheque nationale de France. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and has judged for D&AD, NY ADC. He has also received several awards, including the JAGDA New Designer Award and the Tokyo TDC award.

Graphic designer/Art director based in Tokyo. He has been working on +81 since Vol.15. A member of the multi-talented collective team, Hatos.He has encountered and created graphics for clients with policy through the underground all the way to the majors, including to SPANOVA, Kuniyuki Takahashi, DJ KRUSH, and THE NORTH FACE.

Born in Tokyo in 1965. Creative director / art director / graphic designer. President of Butterfly Stroke Inc. Not only does he handle advertising, also works on graphics and images. He is an artist that handles from the planning stage to the presentation. Uses scribble like sketches and photos or computer generated graphics with ease. He is well known for his audience striking and sharp visual creativity, and has many corporate clients.

Art director/creative director. Established “Samurai” after leaving Hakuhodo. Major projects include Uniqlo, the Rakuten Group, the National Art Center, Tokyo, the NTT docomo “N703iD”, and SMAP. Has received numerous awards such as the Mainichi Design Award and the Tokyo ADC Gran Prix. Associate professor at Meiji Gakuin University and Tama Art University. Author of the book The Creative Thinking of Kashiwa Sato (Nikkei Publishing).

Born in Tokyo in 1964. Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (the present-day Tokyo University of the Arts) in 1988 with a degree in Design. Since 2001, he has actively worked as an independent graphic designer and art director. Major Works: Advertisement Director for the Kewpie Corporation. Conducted art direction for magazines Mayonaka and Ryuko Tsushin. Designed logo and corporate identity for the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo. Designed exhibition posters and announcements for the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Designed covers for photography books as well as catalogs and literary books.

Born in Osaka in 1970, Masayoshi Kodaira is the principal of FLAME Inc., a graphic design studio based in Tokyo. Kodaira has designed posters and books for the exhibition of Yoshitomo Nara, LOUIS VUITTON, ART FAIR TOKYO, etc. Most recently, he has collaborated with ISSEY MIYAKE to create a line of bags and designed graphics for UIA2011 TOKYO: The 24th World Congress of Architecture. Also directed advertisings and commercial films for Laforet Harajuku(a major fashion department store in Tokyo). Awards include D&AD Silver, THE ONE SHOW Silver and Tokyo Art Directors Club ADC award.

Born 1961. Majored in educational sociology and linguistic sociology at the Hokkaido University of Education and Shinshu University, researching mainly rural education. Later went to art school named Bigakko staffed by modern artists like Genpei Akasegawa to learn painting from Mokuma Kikuhata. Appointed art director of WIRED JAPAN in 1994 to work on a fully DTP commercial magazine with experimental page design the likes of which had never been seen before in Japan. Went independent in 1997 and now works systematically as “ASYL”.

An illustrator. Born in 1977. Creators depictions of women using ancient Japanese implements of brush and ink with a bold yet subtle touch that are at once modern and striking. Has also in recent years created many advertising images for department stores and fashion brands around the world using original techniques and perspectives that defy classification under any one genre. Has also appeared often in international media like art books and exhibitions.

Founded in 2003. The team consists 3 parts : Design (Ryoji Tanaka/Hiroshi Sato/Emiko Kashiwagi), Device (Toshiyuki Sugai) and Program (Yusuke Shibata/Shunya Hagiwara). Semitra has awarded many prizes such as Spikes Asia, London International Awards, Cannes Lions, NY ADC, D&AD, Clio etc.

Born in Tokyo in 1969 and began his career in the music industry. He entered CBS/Sony Group, Inc. (currently Sony Music Entertainment Inc.). In 1991, Hishikawa moved to NY and made the transition from music to the film industry. After returning to Japan, Hishikawa gained experience as a freelance set director, cinematographer, and theatre director before establishing DRAWING AND MANUAL, a company that merges graphic design and film as its creative base. He achieved the triple crown in 2011 after taking top honors in the Cannes Lions for directing the NTT DOCOMO commercial “Xylophone.”

Born in Tokyo in 1977. Represents artless Inc. Kawakami has been actively involved in a wide array of creative endeavors including art, design, branding, interactive, video, product, installation, and space production. In 2010, he won the Gold Award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for the work he produced for a TV channel in Finland (ch4). Kawakami has been energetically involved in sponsoring exhibitions and projects in Japan and overseas as well as curation while also submitting his art works to different media.

Born 1970. Graphic designer. Began working freelance in 2003, mainly on print design like CD jackets, posters, fashion catalogs, books, and editorials as well as related graphic production and visual direction. Also heads the online screen magazine “tiger”.

Founded in 1991, by Yuichi Miyashi and Naoyuki Suzuki, based in Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The agency is dedicated to produce visual communications across virtually every platform with philosophy that creating aesthetic, loving and striking design leads ultimate unity among humanity and society.

Yasushi Fujimoto established the design studio Cap in 1983. Fujimoto worked as an art director for many Japanese editorials, such as Marie Claire and Tokion. Recently, he has been directing for VOGUE JAPAN, BRUTUS and CasaBRUTUS. He has designed over 100 magazines in his career. In 1996, Fujimoto opened a gallery ROCKET in Harajuku. And he also established the creative production Rocket Company*/RCKT Co.,Ltd. in 1999 and publishing label ROCKETBOOKS in 2007.

WOW is a visual design studio based in Tokyo, Sendai and Florence. They are involved in a wide field of design from advertising and commercial works to installation works for exhibition spaces, and also invent new user interface designs for prominent brand names. They are also very passionate about creating original art works, holding exhibitions not only in Japan but also internationally. They are continuously discovering the tremendous possibilities of visual design, and the visual designs that are useful for society bring out the best talents of each artist and designer.

+81 is a visual magazine launched out of Tokyo in 1997. From graphic design to fashion, photography, film, and music, +81 covers creative scenes around the world with a different theme every issue through interviews with artists along with samples of their artwork. +81 has also won much support for the distinctive editorial design of its pages. All articles are printed bilingually in both Japanese and English, which has lead to +81 being carried at booksellers not only in Japan but many other countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia as well.