Selected work by our director, 1999–2025
02Towel BrandBrand Direction7 yrsBrand DirectionProduct DevelopmentVisual / ECPRRetail
03Bag Brand LaunchBrand Launch2021Brand LaunchConceptLogo & VisualWeb Content
04Jewelry Branding & DesignBranding / Product DesignBrand LaunchRebrandingConceptLogo DesignProduct Design
Director’s Track Record
Brands worked with across categories, from luxury to lifestyle
Brands launched from zero, starting with the concept
First-year sales of a brand launched with the team (approx. ¥400M)
Seven years alongside one brand — from the rebrand to department-store openings and day-to-day improvement
Carrying a brand’s world to every touchpoint — and into a business that lasts.
A brand’s world doesn’t live in its visuals alone. From how an inquiry is answered to how a product is wrapped and delivered, everything a customer touches reveals a company’s sense of beauty and its attitude.
Launching and rebuilding brands
From the business idea to concept, naming and world-building. Finding value in materials, craft and the background of a place, and shaping the core of the brand.
Bringing it to life in product, space and digital
Product, visuals, web and e-commerce, retail spaces. Turning a sense of beauty into things people can hold and experiences they can feel. Photography-only projects are welcome.
Operation and growth
Designing how the brand speaks, then refining product, retail and communication as customers and the shop floor respond — growing the brand as a business.
Finding beauty, and shaping it into something chosen again and again.
LOUV is a studio that launches and rebuilds brands end to end — from strategy to product, retail and operations. For each project, we build a team with specialists in each field.
From brand building and product development to photography-only projects — we’d be glad to hear from you.
Photo direction and web content design
Overview
Finding the light and composition in which a product looks its most beautiful — from photo direction through to styling. Photography-only projects are welcome.
Designing brand websites, along with planning and designing web and e-commerce content. Site development is carried out with external partners.
Turning the value of making into a brand — and a business.
Overview
Rebuilding a factory-born brand whose unsold stock was piling up.
As director, reworked the product design and brand image, and led everything from photography and PR to trade shows and new sales channels. Brought together the specialists needed to form a team, and supported the growth of the brand and its retail business over seven years — widening its accounts and leading to openings at flagship department stores in Tokyo and Kansai.
Launching a bag brand for working women
Overview
Launching a bag brand from an existing best-seller.
While the direction of the bag business was still undefined, proposed building it around an existing style already favored by commuters. Working with the team on a D2C launch, handled the brand concept, logo, web and e-commerce content, and photography. The brand reached first-year sales of approx. ¥400M, and the series developed from that best-seller remains a core line today.
Bags, shoes and accessories
Overview
For an apparel brand, handling bags, shoes and accessories end to end — from planning and material selection to spec sheets, factory coordination, sample revisions and pre-production checks.
Runway accessory design & production
Overview
At an international designer brand showing in Paris, designed and produced runway accessories — shoes, canes and props — from sketch to finished piece. For its Tokyo collections, produced bags, belts and other accessories. Also designed accessories for films and for international artists’ tours.
Launching a brand, and rebuilding an existing business
Overview
Launching a jewelry brandAt an apparel company, led the launch of a new jewelry brand born from an in-house idea, including branding and logo design.
Rebuilding an existing jewelry businessRebuilt an OEM-focused jewelry business as a brand — designing the concept and logo, and leading product design. Jewelry sales grew about 1.5× over two years.
Retail, VMD and exhibition spaces
Overview
Interior direction and design for stores, concept-shop planning, in-store pop-ups and collaborations, displays and exhibition booths. Making the shop floor not a place to line up products, but a place to experience the brand’s world.
Furniture for a public art museum (competition winner)
Overview
Selected in a furniture design competition for a public art museum. Benches and stools that bring out the character of wood, designed for the museum’s space and the time visitors spend in it.
Products made from reused materials
Overview
Created as part of a project addressing a range of social issues — from bags made of reused materials to a shampoo developed from parts discarded in silk production. Products that give new value to things that would otherwise be thrown away.
Products with Tokushima indigo and Ehime regional goods
Overview
Planning products using Tokushima indigo, and directing a sales project for Ehime’s regional goods — through to gift boxes and shop cards. Shaping local craft into something people want to pick up.
Launching and rebuilding brands — from strategy to the shop floor.
We don’t stop at making it.
LOUV is a studio that launches and rebuilds brands end to end — from strategy to product, retail and operations. We have faced daily sales and created products and stores that customers choose. The judgment and follow-through honed in the fast-moving world of apparel and retail are LOUV’s strength.
A brand grows after it is launched. Rather than handing over a strategy and leaving, we step into product, retail and communication, and stay alongside you until the brand can carry itself forward.
Into the field, as a team, until it lasts.
Into the field
We begin by listening — to founders, makers and the shop floor — and find the value at the brand’s core in its materials, craft and the background of its place.
As a team
For each project, we form a team with designers, photographers, architects and spatial designers, editors, and digital specialists.
Until it lasts
After launch, we stay involved in improving product, retail and communication — building, together, a brand that can stand on its own.
Naomi TakebayashiBrand Strategy Architect / Designer
Began her career designing and producing accessories for runway collections and films at an international designer brand showing in Paris. As a freelancer, she went on to lead product design for a wide range of fashion brands, buying in Paris, New York and Milan, brand launches and communication direction. She also develops brands for regional manufacturers across Japan.
Jewelry / Apparel / Fashion Accessories / Footwear / Bags & Leather Goods / Home & Textile / Beauty / Interior & Furniture / Lifestyle / Public Institutions / Regional Industries
From fashion and jewelry to lifestyle and beauty, we work across categories and scales. Due to confidentiality, company and organization names are not listed.
From brand building and product development to photography-only projects — we’d be glad to hear from you.
* Work undertaken by our founder before LOUV was established. Due to confidentiality, company and brand names are not listed. Not all work is shown here — please feel free to ask.
02Towel BrandBrand Direction7 yrsBrand DirectionProduct DevelopmentVisual / ECPRRetail
03Bag Brand LaunchBrand Launch2021Brand LaunchConceptLogo & VisualWeb Content
04Jewelry Branding & DesignBranding / Product DesignBrand LaunchRebrandingConceptLogo DesignProduct Design
05Accessories DesignAccessories Design2011Bag & Shoe DesignProduct DevelopmentSourcingBuying
06Fashion AccessoriesAccessories1999Collection AccessoriesFilm PropsTour AccessoriesProduction
07Retail & SpaceRetail / Vmd / ExhibitionInterior DirectionShop DesignPop-upDisplayExhibition
08Public FurnitureFurnitureFurniture DesignPublic Competition
09Reuse Material ProjectSustainableProduct PlanningBag DesignPackagingSustainable Material
10Regional ProjectsRegional / ProductProduct PlanningProject DirectionGift BoxGraphic Design
