Challenging Frontiers

Rei Yoshimura's 1985 logo for Japanese office furniture company Itoki.

Itoki was founded on December 1st 1890 as an inventor, manufacturer and retailer of office equipment. Initially, these were small items such as paper clips and staplers but later included the pioneering development of the Japanese typewriter and expansion into cabinets and lockers. Itoki would also launch the first range of steel furniture in the country, which began to characterise the modern Japanese office of the 1950s. The 1970s saw the company expand globally, enacting the corporate spirit of ‘Challenging Frontiers’.

In 1985, ahead of Itoki’s 100th anniversary, it embarked on the development of a new corporate identity (CI). This would help strategically position it for the future. This would continue to build on the founding principles of ‘good design, good system’, and support its international growth by standardising various corporate assets and marketing materials.

It was decided that the theme of ‘environmental creation to enhance people's strengths’ would be the driving force behind the rebrand as Itoki entered the 1990s. As well as the visual change, the corporation intended to implement a policy under which ‘each and every worker would be able to perform to his or her utmost capacity in a plan that envisions the fruition of the individual within a corporate scheme to create a harmonic working environment’.