Brief Explanation

The tragic tsunami of March 2011 dramatically affected all industries in Northern Japan. Our client was one of them. They came to us, their channels of distribution damaged, their business hurting, and asked us to create an online campaign for them that would help to rebuild their business. But it¹s hard to think of a product that could spur less interest online than a black square of seaweed. The design of a square of nori has not changed since its creation in the 15th century.

The Brief

Client's original Nori (seaweed), a fusion of traditional Japanese design and latest cutting technology

How the final design was conceived

We applied the design-thinking to the product on top of packaging. Choosing the right designs was also important, as we wanted to convey the classic brand heritage and our positive hope for the future, so that our customers could sense our values and feel more optimistic when seeing our designs. We carved into Nori various Japanese classic patterns that signify happiness, long-life, etc, creating an unprecedented type of Nori as a result of the combination of a traditional product with a modern laser cutter, thereby conveying both our wish for the future, as well as our respect for the past

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Site traffic increased in the blogs that featured the campaign, which also went viral on social media including Twitter