&Form’s Groundbreaking Adaptive Identity Design System for Tokyo Dome City
The 2024 D&AD Awards saw many incredible creative projects highlighted and appreciated. One such project was the Tokyo Dome City Adaptive Identity Design System by Tokyo-based visual communication design studio &Form, which was awarded a Wood Pencil at the D&AD festival last May. Many are familiar with the renowned Tokyo Dome stadium located in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Home to the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, the sport and live event venue and the surrounding greater entertainment complex dubbed “Tokyo Dome City” attracts approximately 40 million visitors annually. Even with its unwavering popularity, Tokyo Dome City as a whole lacked a unifying and cohesive brand identity and connectivity between its various facilities. Grafis Masa Kini had the opportunity to talk with Design Director and Founder of &Form, Arata Maruyama, who, with his team, faced this challenge head on.
With the number of large displays around the complex rising with large-scale renovation, it became imperative to find a streamlined strategy to maintain high-quality in the face of increasingly complex visual content. As Arata puts it, “The goal was to establish a cohesive brand identity, raise awareness of Tokyo Dome City as a unified complex of facilities rather than just Tokyo Dome alone, and enhance integration among facilities, and develop a cost-effective system for managing and updating visual content while ensuring consistency and engagement in design. To address these challenges, I proposed implementing a comprehensive Brand Identity Design System—not merely creating logos or motion graphics, but establishing a holistic design system to unify the brand identity.”
The main challenge that the new identity system had to address was the need to bridge the gap between analog and digital design. Arata and the &Form team created what they named an Adaptive Identity Design System. Arata describes it as “a design system that aligns with the identity of the specific company or brand and comprehensively integrates those elements into a unified brand identity design.” While we had previously followed a traditional design process in the development of the brand identity—starting with static designs, then progressing to motion design, and finally attempting to consolidate everything into a single design system.. However, this approach often faced hurdles when trying to fully realize the early designs. “To address this, we adopted a reverse-engineering approach, shifting our focus to creating a systematic design microcosm, where assets remain flexible within its framework, rather than treating the ‘system’ as the culmination of designs. This new methodology involved iterative prototyping, ensuring that early-stage designs seamlessly adapted to technical requirements while preserving creative integrity,” Arata explained.
The Adaptive Identity Design System is a unified framework generating visual identity designs while remaining flexible for ongoing development. The final brand identity system involves a sophisticated combination of several key elements including a bespoke variable typeface and a versatile variable grid design. The variable typeface was designed to represent the diversity of the facility and its visitors—allowing adjustments in weight, width, and height, capable of scaling its vertical and horizontal proportions up to 76 times. To support this incredible flexibility, the typeface includes a massive type family with 180 masters. This works in conjunction with the versatile variable grid design, which enables flexible and dynamic arrangement of visual components. The &Form team also developed a proprietary internal design software to synchronize text, motion, and media, facilitating the seamless creation of static and video outputs. A client-specific design software was also created to provide an accessible tool for producing professional-quality visuals, even without technical expertise. “By thoughtfully integrating these components, we created a system that meets the demands of a complex, evolving design landscape while supporting creative freedom and long-term adaptability,” Arata elaborated.
This new brand identity system also involved the development of a new logo for the Tokyo Dome City. According to Arata, the core concept of the new logo lies in honoring diversity and fostering a connection to individual contribution. He further elaborates, “Using our custom-developed design algorithm, our unique software automatically generates logos tailored to various proportions. This allows anyone, even without specialized design expertise, to effortlessly create their own distinctive logo—no two are identical. For instance, 1,000 employees can each have a personalized variation of the logo on business cards or ID badges, instilling a sense of pride and responsibility as vital members of the company. Externally, the logo reflects the variety of facilities and experiences, the evolution of the company, and an adaptable, forward-thinking outlook toward the future.”
The Adaptive Identity Design System also categorized the Tokyo Experiential Values into four key areas; “Exciting”, an active area where you can enjoy sports and live events; “Relax”, a relaxation area featuring hot springs and spas; “Playful”, an activity area filled with playful attractions like amusement park; and “Modern”, a sophisticated area offering spaces like hotels and restaurants. The &Form team then proposed designing music production based on the four themes by sampling various sounds from the Tokyo Dome City area, rather than simply playing jingles and tunes. “The goal was to create music that flows lightly in the background of the city rather than overwhelming it with the noise of urban life. One of the four themes, “Modern,” was designed not only to play within the facility but also to be broadcast simultaneously at 5:00 PM around the nearest station, Suidobashi. It serves as a time signal while conveying a message of gratitude, such as “Thank you for your hard work today,” to workers, homemakers, and students alike,” Arata explained.
The creation and implementation of &Form’s Adaptive Identity Design System is no small undertaking. In Arata’s own words,”teamwork was pivotal in achieving the final outcome.” The entire adaptive design brand system creation process was undergone in parallel with the architectural design team. “This approach allowed us to align creative and technical elements from the outset, fostering a more cohesive result,” Arata explained. “Additionally, we established a structured partnership process involving internal graphic and digital designers, coders, and external system engineers. Traditionally, we would complete the design internally before requesting implementation from an external developer. However, in this project, we conducted engineering internally while sharing our progress with the developer on an ongoing basis—even during prototyping—ensuring a smooth and collaborative realization process. This proactive approach not only expanded creative possibilities but also ensured a unified vision throughout the project,” he further elaborated.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the project began as an exploratory initiative, with no prior examples to draw upon in Japan. “The ambition to develop a comprehensive brand identity design system on such a scale—encompassing vast premises and enormous signage, such as one of Japan’s largest displays spanning over 120 meters, along with numerous other displays of varying shapes and sizes—was groundbreaking. Employing a variable font with an exceptionally wide range of flexibility and custom made design software for this purpose was unprecedented, even on a global level,” Arata explained. Every stage in the development process posed different challenges. Sometimes the designs would work conceptually, but fall short in its implementation. There is also the challenge of ensuring smooth communication across such a large team of designers and engineers.
“Despite these hurdles, the results were remarkable. Tokyo Dome City recorded a 107% increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year,” Arata noted. The Adaptive Identity Design System was clearly successful not only in terms of functionality and fitness for purpose, but also in pushing the boundaries of visual identity design. On top of the D&AD Wood Pencil, &Form’s Adaptive Identity Design System also received a Best 100 accolade from Award360° and the Typographic Excellence Award from the Type Directors Club. The new identity clearly stands its ground and we can’t wait to see what &Form will bring to the table going forward.
