Moon Creative Lab Annual Report
About
Moon Creative Lab is a venture studio that powers the creation of new businesses.
My Role
Visual Designer collaborating with Moon's Design Director and UX team.
Duration
01-04.2023
Brief
Moon Creative Lab invited me to design their FY2022 Annual Report website (published early 2023).
As a venture studio backed by Mitsui & Co., Moon needed to communicate their year's impact to multiple audiences: corporate stakeholders at Mitsui, potential venture partners, and the entrepreneurial community.
However, they didn't want a typical corporate publication. They wanted to reimagine the annual report as a living reflection of experimentation — the core of their creative process.
The team had collected references emphasizing sketching and marker scribbles, meant to evoke the feeling of a real creative notebook.
The Challenge
Moon Creative Lab operates globally with offices in Tokyo and Palo Alto, employing diverse creatives and working with entrepreneurs worldwide — while reporting to highly corporate-oriented stakeholders at Mitsui & Co.
The annual report needed to:
Communicate credibility and professionalism to Mitsui executives and potential investors
Express Moon's experimental, creative culture to entrepreneurs and venture partners
Bridge Japanese and American cultural contexts without favoring one over the other
Present complex data engagingly without sacrificing clarity
The risk: Too corporate, and Moon would feel stiff and unapproachable to entrepreneurs. Too creative, and Mitsui stakeholders might question Moon's business rigor.
The Exploration
Version 1: Experimenting with sketching
I began by exploring the team's initial vision of sketching and scribbles. Using Moon's brand colors, I created various scribble styles and inserted them into layouts to mimic notebook drafts.
It looked fun and creative — but the scribbles served as decoration without functional purpose. More importantly, they risked sending the wrong message: the report was meant to present achievements, not works in progress.
This exploration revealed an important insight: creativity doesn't require literal "creative" elements. I needed a more sophisticated approach — one that felt experimental without looking unfinished.
Version 2: Experimenting with negative space
Next, I explored minimalistic layouts that introduced creativity through mixed typography and bold use of negative space. This version balanced clean corporate tone with expressive, poster-like energy.
While this successfully balanced professionalism with creativity, it felt generically modern — it could work for any tech company. The cultural bridge between Moon's Japanese heritage and American presence was still missing.
I took a break
I stepped back and reframed the challenge: what visual language is recognized and loved in both Japanese and American cultures, expresses creativity and experimentation, yet feels structured enough for corporate stakeholders?
Version 3: Experimenting with cultural fusion
The answer: comic books and manga.
Both share structured panel layouts, strong graphic rhythm, and instant cultural recognition across all ages. American comics bring bold color and energy; Japanese manga brings sophisticated black-and-white contrast and "bento box" grid systems. This wasn't just a visual reference — it was a meaningful cultural connector.
I developed a visual system that merged both languages:
From American comics: Bold, pop-colored graphics and textures that brought energy and accessibility.
From Japanese manga: High-contrast black-and-white photography using offset printing aesthetics, plus structured "bento box" grid layouts that echoed Japanese newspaper design.
Square-based grids provided stability and structure (appealing to corporate stakeholders), while playful graphics and dynamic layouts expressed Moon's experimental culture (resonating with entrepreneurs).
This version achieved everything the brief required:
Expanded Moon's visual identity through new graphics built from existing brand colors and typography
Connected Japanese and American cultures through universally recognized visual language
Balanced creativity with structure
Remained true to Moon's brand narrative around experimentation
The Moon team agreed — this was the direction.
The Process
Working closely with Moon's UX designer and developer, I built a comprehensive visual system for the annual report website.
I created custom icons, illustrations, and infographics, exploring various layout and color combinations to establish consistency across both Japanese and English versions.
Each page featured its own color scheme and visual accents — maintaining individual character while feeling part of a unified ecosystem.
Together, we developed a component library documenting all design variations, ensuring the system could be implemented responsively across devices and maintained by Moon's team after my involvement ended.
The Outcome
The Annual Report launched in 2023 and was well-received by Moon's leadership, employees, and external partners.
The Design Director noted that it successfully elevated Moon's brand perception and effectively communicated the venture studio's impact.
The infographics and illustrations I created were later adopted into Moon’s Visual Identity 2.0, demonstrating the long-term strategic value of the design.
Following the launch, Moon immediately commissioned me for another brand collaboration — a clear signal of satisfaction with the results.
The project gained recognition in the design community, earning over 10k views, a Behance feature, and ongoing client inquiries for editorial and brand work.
While I couldn't directly measure the report's impact on Moon's venture partnerships or Mitsui stakeholder perception, the adoption of visual elements into Moon's core brand system suggested the creative direction successfully expanded their visual vocabulary without compromising professional credibility.
This project reinforced an important lesson: true creative experimentation isn't about adding decorative elements — it's about finding meaningful visual language that bridges different perspectives and serves multiple audiences simultaneously.