HIROAKI SAKAI

Hiroaki Sakai is a Tokyo designer and design director who runs his office, Sakai Hiroaki Design Jimusho. Born in Saitama in 1980, he graduated in basic design from Musashino Art University in 2004 and spent a decade at a home appliance and household goods manufacturer, handling product planning, product and graphic design. He opened the studio in 2014 and is also chief designer at Xenoma.

The office aims to design the essential “mono-ness” of a thing and the “koto-ness” of an occasion — giving objects and experiences the character they ought to have. Its output covers product planning, branding, product design and graphics: packaging for KOKUYO’s WP series, the paqo paper tray, QooSo Plants and Kingyo Balloon packaging for S.A.G. Balloons, and logos for Tiny Bird. He won Good Design Awards in 2017 and 2021 and an iF Design Award in 2019.