julien.tokyo



Hi! I am a multilingual and international-minded Designer with professional experience in London, Paris and Tokyo

I’m a seasoned Art director and Design director with a global reach.
At Google Brand Studio APAC, I led integrated campaigns, represented regional creativity to global teams, and drove brand excellence. I transformed the Women Will initiative, launched the Bolo reading app, and mentored international talents. I orchestrated impactful Apple campaigns at Media Arts Lab, directed successful projects for Red Bull and Heineken while at UltraSuperNew, and my freelance experience includes versatile design solutions for renowned clients.
01. Jetski Creative
02. Women Will by Google
03. We Belong—Together
04. Apple World Gallery
05. Brand Identity
06. Typography
07. Space
Instagram
Contact

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01Jetski Creative








Jetski is a creative powerhouse I co-founded with two other ex-Googlers with a love for social. 

At Jetski, our mission is to redefine brand storytelling on social platforms. We navigate the ever-changing digital seas to craft compelling narratives that elevate brands, ensuring their stories resonate authentically and powerfully across the vast landscape of social media.

While social moves at the speed of light, big brands often are forced to move at the speed of cruise ships. This is why we founded Jetski, a nimble and agile team of experts with the ability to get 💩 done. 

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02Women Will
by Google










CASE STUDY #1Full rebrand

Introducing Women Will: Empowering Women through Digital Skills and Community Building.

Women Will is a Grow with Google program supporting women’s potential through digital skills and community building. At the heart of the Women Will program lies a vision of empowering women, nurturing their potential, and fostering a strong sense of community.

As the Design Lead for the initiative, I had the privilege of shaping the visual identity and make it resonate with the spirit of empowerment and inclusivity.

My first task was to establish the brand of this new initiative born in Japan, as well as a solid playbook for further implementation.

Staying away from the stereotypical pink and blue model, we picked two clearly clashing colours, that could blend at times to form a third intermediary colour.







My involvement extended to the comprehensive revamp of the program, beginning with the development of a playbook. 

Subsequently, I curated a diverse collection of assets for specific community moments, (such as International Women's Day and WW Entrepreneurship Day), crafted a calendar raising awareness about the gender pay gap, designed a collection of gif stickers for everyone to use, collaborated with talented artists, and much more. 

Additionally, I spearheaded long-term initiatives, including the creation of a brand-new website for online resources.























CASE STUDY #2The Divide / Data Explorer

In a 2017 Google study about the gender in Asia Pacific, we uncovered data about the way we think we live, and how we actually do - at work and at home.

This tool allows you to explore the study, customize the statistics, and share the facts.

Our objective: tell stories and create experiences that exemplify Google's value and commitment by showing data-driven thought leadership.

The Divide by Women Will 








CASE STUDY #4Instagram channel

After the #MeToo movement, Women Will debuted an Instagram channel to share its take on current events with content focused on inspiration, insights, and creating community.

As the program’s Art director, I oversaw the creation of hundreds of posts, reels, and beautiful collaborations for over two years, organically gathering a large community of 50k+ followers.

Women Will - Thank You Sizzle






















In 2019, Women Will had already trained 10.65 million women globally and we’ve officially extended our online and in-person trainings to a total of 44 countries. 

In Japan, Women Will for Startups held the first-ever event at the newly launched Google for Startups Campus in Tokyo. 

In India, we announced the Internet Saathi expansion to Punjab and Odisha expanding the coverage to 290,000 villages in 20 states, benefitting 30 million women. In Latin America, 19,000 women across Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have been trained in digital and soft skills, helping them create their own economic opportunities through starting new businesses or getting new jobs. 

In Belgium, over 1,200 women were trained in the first ever Women Will Summit in Brussels which included workshops, keynotes and panel chats with female CEOs, founders, and influencers.Awards:
Women Will: The Divide (2019)

• Shortys, Data Visualization, Winner
• Ad Stars, Gender Equality, Finalist 
• Campaign Asia, The Work, Work for Good | Data Visualisation 
• Spikes, Shortlist 
• D&AD, Shortlist

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03We Belong—Together










In June 2022 came the time for employee to return to a pre-covid work style for Google.

We Belong—Together is a campaign that reminds us about the virtues of being together, around four essential pillars (the gems): Being Seen, Feeling Connected, Being Proud, and Feeling Supported.

The identity had to be versatile enough to scale throughout APAC, as each market implemented the campaign, with a website, digital signage and print.





The visual look was buit on the very idea that each and every employee contributes to this beautiful composition, in their very unique ways.

Each one is playing an essential role in the overall symphony.

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04Apple 
World Gallery















I have been lucky enough to be part of the amazing team that created the ‘Shot on iPhone6‘ global integrated campaign, aka the Apple World Gallery

The iPhone World Gallery is the largest mobile photography gallery in history - a true democratisation of creativity through a campaign that transcends language.

World Gallery celebrates the universal love of photography. We looked for stunning pictures from everyday people on photo-sharing platforms and selected 162 non-comissioned, user-created iPhone 6 shots from users around the globe.









OOH ran on over 10500 sites worldwide, including 400+ large format billboards, in 73 cities across 25 countries. We created photo galleries in urban transit areas, and large format dominations that beautifully showcased the user-created images. 

Cannes submission film 










Awards 
Apple World Gallery (2016)

• Cannes Lions, OOH - Grand Prix / Gold / Silver  | Design - Silver 
• Clio awards, OOH - Grand Prix / Gold |Print technique - Gold / Silver |Integrated - Silver | Print - Silver
• ACC,  Film cat. A - Gold.
• Asahi Shimbun, Campaign of the Year
• Yomiuri Shimbun, Campaign of the Year

cisco

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05Brand identity 













Yama Yama

Yama Yama is a brand that creates fair fashion and design, and celebrates the beauty in nature. The visual language borrows organic shapes from nature, for a peaceful-looking universe.

Bolo  / Read Along by Google

Read Along is a free reading app for Android that helps kids learn to read independently, with the help of a reading assistant, Diya. It uses speech-based technology to provide personalized assistance in a student’s reading journey, correcting them when they need help and encouraging them when they get it right.

The app was first released as Bolo in India in 2019, and released globally as Read Along the following year
It was launched in 180 countries and 9 languages.
Over the past three years, more than 30 million kids have read more than 120 million stories on Read Along.

I got involved in the project for the launch as Bolo first, and then for a visual revamp of the overall art direction, visual identity, website, motion, and app UX/UI


Art direction: JM
Illustration: Jérôme Sénaillat
Animation: Thibaud Gayral

Awards:
Bolo (2020)

• D&AD Impact, Shortlist 
• AdStars, Finalist

    






























Google Play All Stars

Google Play is the premier gaming platform for gamers and developers. In 2018, we are bringing Google Play to the huge gaming conference, G•Star in Busan, Korea. Our event will make every gamer feel welcomed and celebrated. Everyone is a star. All Stars.

In just one weekend we racked up 5.9M social impressions / 1.9M organic user reach / 300% increase of Google Play subscribers / 100+ press headlines across the region / 15,000 visitors to Google Play booth!

Google Play All Star at GStar Busan 


Art direction: Jihye Lee, JM











Red Bull event identities

In a six-year partnership, I guided Red Bull's entry into the Japanese market, crafting a narrative of design innovation and cultural resonance. From the inception, we seamlessly blended global brand identity with local nuances, navigating challenges through collaborative problem-solving.

Milestone campaigns, adaptive design evolution, and a results-driven approach defined our journey, leaving an indelible mark on Red Bull's success in Japan. Grateful for the experience, I carry forward the lessons learned, ready for new design horizons."








Heineken

A collection of events and their visual identities meticulously crafted for Heineken, during a few years of collaboration.

The Heineken Star Cab is a London taxi converted into a party machine riding on the streets of Tokyo. Both the well-known sign and out-of-focus city lights are featured in the logo I created.

For the launch of their new K2 bottle in Japan, Heineken Japan wished to create a temporary lounge bar where various events would be taking place. In the heart of Harajuku, a building on borrowed time became the set of the outdoor / indoor lounge bar. Over five weeks, it hosted music & sport events, as well as various talks.







The Universal Menu

Upon landing in Japan, and well before Google Translate even existed, I developed this graphical menu tool, with the goal to make ordering in restaurants easier, until my Japanese reached a good enough level. 

The tool listed all options usually available on a Japanese menu, and was sorted by categories to quickly browse through the whole lot of pictograms, and quickly order the food i so much craved.




My v.2 of the menu was built off a very limited set of geometric shapes (circle, triangle, square, diamond). I loved rising to the challenge of coming up with this whole new set of icons using only a restricted amount of building blocks.








Creative Collective

An exploration in branding for a series of high-level reflexions about creativity and innovation.

Imagery spans from abstract visuals to familiar and personable characters, evoking a sense of limitless creativity. The logo is kept purposefully minimal, so to cater to all yet unknown upcoming visuals.

From printed materials to immersive digital experiences, the design identity adapts seamlessly, promising an enriching visual journey that mirrors the depth and diversity of creative exploration.

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06Typography






36 days of type - day 1

36 Days of Type is a project that invites designers, illustrators and visual artists to express their unique interpretation of the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet.

A yearly open call that explores the creative boundaries of letterforms by challenging participants to design a letter or number each day for 36 consecutive days.

The result is a global and simultaneous act that showcases the ability to represent the same symbols from thousands of different perspectives.






A2co font family

An early bespoke typographic piece meticulously crafted for the world of textile designer Atsuko Someya. Inspired by the rhythmic undulations of knitted fabric, each letter in this font gracefully weaves and flows, mirroring the organic patterns found in textiles. The letterforms, like strands of yarn, dance across the page, bringing a tactile and dimensional quality to the written word.





Variable font

As I was defining the new art direction for Google Year in Search (2021), I suggested making our data points the hero on that particuliar year, and created a font that could stretch and adapt to any format.

Created a variable font for experimentation: based on the existing Google Sans Medium font, I created super condensed and extended versions of the font.



Google Sans Regular is our reference point. I first created the most extremely condensed and extended versions of the type. The first tests revealed a lack of information for the in-between keyframes phases, with distortions and unwanted artifacts. 

I finally created intermediary keyframe sets to make transitions smoother.

Even though we ended up having to pivot the project, this experiment was a perfect opportunity to get familiar with the basic principles of variable fonts.





Media Arts Lab Tokyo

A bit of an lettering experiment, and mostly another excuse to play with the laser cutting machine of the office.

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07Space





Google Japan office interior revamp
Tokyo, Japan

In 2019, Google Japan relocated their Japanese head office to a new 35-storey office tower near Shibuya Station. I was consulted as creative to work on some interior elements within the office. 

Faithful to Google's mission to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, the various installations considered would take the pulse of Shibuya and turn data into beautiful collaborations with local developers and artists.

In front of the office, we also created a giant screen to share Google's magic with the world, featuring installations renewed seasonally. Multiple methods were considered to match creative goals and budget.








Google Japan office
Living History Mural
Tokyo, Japan

We created a mural for the Shibuya Stream office that uses Google Lens to bring the story of Google Japan to life for visitors and employees.

Google Lens is a set of vision-based computing capabilities that can understand what you're looking at and use that information to copy or translate text, identify plants and animals, explore locales or menus, discover products, find visually similar images, and take other useful actions.

So, when you hold up your device an AR layer can appear to help you understand something at a deeper level. We made that layer a living, animated timeline of our story in Japan.




























Red Bull
Bars & clubs collab
Tokyo, Japan

In a world where energy meets ambiance, I created the bespoke interior designs, installations, and DJ booths for Red Bull in multiple clubs around London. Each venue is now a vibrant reflection of the Red Bull spirit. These unique bar interiors are a celebration of innovation, seamlessly blending style with the unmistakable energy that defines the Red Bull lifestyle.


Creative: JM, Yasuko Furuta
Art direction: JM
Photos: Fumiro Sato









Maison de l’Étudiant signage
Lyon, France

The newly-constructed building is home to a university restaurant and various community facilities for Lyon 2 University students.

My signage for this student hub goes beyond directional; it acts as a visual roadmap, leading you through a center of innovation, learning, and community. Vibrant colors and ribbon-like shapes echo the building's design. Die-cut adhesives on walls and carefully designed cafeteria furniture serve as a compass, playing a role in shaping the Maison de l’Etudiant into a space where ideas thrive and friendships flourish.


Architect: AFAA
Art direction: JM






Elementary school signage
Montagny, France

I have been in charge of the creation of the signage system for the newly-built elementary school. The rounded children-sized characters interact with architecture elements, bring colour, and animate the new venue. 

Much attention was put into characters manufacturing details, a long process for a perfectly suited signage for this beautifully crafted school.


Architect: AFAAArt direction: JM






Lyon Part-Dieu library signage
Lyon, France

The new Eastern entrance of the Lyon Part-Dieu library built in 2007 connects the Lyon Part-Dieu business center to the existing library built in 1972 (one of the biggest of its kind in Europe). It is a wide open window onto the hectic Lyon Part-Dieu area, at the confluence of trains, tramway, travellers and workers, culture and consumption.

The signage system I created for the new entrance makes visible the captured energy of the library surroundings echoing within the venue.


Architect: AFAA
Art direction: JM
Photos: Florent Michel (11h45)






Collège Clémenceau signage
Lyon, France

This meticulously crafted signage system was designed exclusively for a junior high school in France.  The large scale signage finds it’s inspirations in the scattered aspect of the outer shell of the original building.


Architect: AFAAArt direction: JM








UltraSuperNew interior & signage
Tokyo, Japan

The freshly created UltraSuperNew gallery & studio urgently needed an interior revamp and signage, as well as for its grand opening night. Done with very lmited budget and a great deal of hand crafting!


Art direction: JM
Furniture: Notcho’s Workshop

julien.tokyo MMXXIV