Our client is a traditional manufacturer of NORI (seaweed) in North East Japan, who has struggled with the long declining category trend and with damage from the tsunami that swept away their factories. The client wanted us to design new packaging that can reinforce its appeal to the modern urban audience.

We needed to make NORI appealing among a young urban audience. It is nothing more than a black square of seaweed, with its primitive design that has not changed since its creation in the early 15th century. People perceived it as a commonplace product and paid little attention on the difference among the brands. A visible difference is needed on our brand.

We decided to apply design thinking to the product itself, instead of focusing exclusively on packaging, Laser cutters are used to carve designs into our NORI - classic patterns from Japanese history called ‘Monyo’ which signify growth, beauty, luck, and so on. Themes we thought that could uplift people in the disastrous year.

By combining authentic tradition with modern technology, we created an entirely new type of NORI never seen before - one that conveys our hopes for the future, as well as our respect for the past.