Creating a place where ideas could meet
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Designing the identity for HIKARI TV’s collaborative space
When collaboration needs a place to happen
Ideas rarely emerge in isolation. They take shape through conversations, chance encounters and the gradual exchange of different perspectives. As digital media became increasingly competitive, HIKARI TV recognised that innovation would depend not only on technology, but also on creating more opportunities for those conversations to happen.
The ambition was to create somewhere people from different industries, disciplines and experiences could come together, exchange knowledge and discover possibilities that might not have emerged otherwise.
That ambition became Aoyama Lodge, a collaborative space in Tokyo designed to make those encounters possible.
Designing an identity around how people connect
The name offered the first clue.
Like a mountain lodge, Aoyama Lodge was imagined as a place of gathering. Somewhere people could pause, exchange stories and continue their journeys with something they did not have before. The identity needed to capture that sense of openness without becoming overly symbolic or sentimental.
Designing for a Japanese audience also meant recognising that meaning is often expressed differently. Visual identities are rarely expected to explain themselves immediately. Instead, they invite closer attention, allowing symbolism and intention to reveal themselves gradually.
Rather than beginning with aesthetics, we began with the purpose of the space itself. Conversations with the HIKARI TV team centred on what they hoped people would experience when they entered Aoyama Lodge, and how those experiences might be reflected through a visual language.
The resulting identity draws on the geometry of the honeycomb. Three interlocking cells represent networking, communication and the sharing of knowledge. Individually, each serves a purpose. Together, they form a structure that depends on connection, reflecting the belief that collaboration is not simply about bringing people together, but about creating the conditions for ideas to grow between them.
Designing with culture in mind
Projects like this are a reminder that identity is rarely about making something distinctive for its own sake. More often, it is about making an organisation’s intentions visible in ways that feel natural to the people it hopes to reach.
Culture shapes that process as much as aesthetics. The same symbol can carry different meanings across different contexts, and the same idea can be understood in different ways depending on how it is expressed.
Designing for Aoyama Lodge reinforced something we continue to encounter. The strongest identities rarely ask people to notice them first. Instead, they create a sense of recognition, allowing people to feel that they already understand the place before anyone has explained it.
