About
Design for
Humanity
An environment where
cross-disciplinary co-creation emerges naturally
KiQ is a studio that works across branding, experience, and Physical AI, supporting new businesses and products from concept through implementation.
Based in Tokyo and active globally, we integrate perspectives from art and culture with design and technology to create new experiences and business value. Our strength lies in moving across brand design, product and service development, spatial experience, and interaction design, then implementing ideas in forms that function in the real world. Through our own projects and co-creation with companies, we start from human behavior and sensation to design new value, relationships, businesses, and experiences for the next era.
Domains
The Fields
We Engage With
Domains 01
Human Experience
How do people feel, understand, and act?
We redesign experiences from that fundamental premise.
Domains 02
Embodied Intelligence
Intelligence cannot be separated from the body.
We design intelligence through behavior.
Domains 03
Aesthetics
Aesthetic sensibility communicates beyond words.
We treat it as an essential element in shaping perception and relationships.
Domains 04
Culture & Context
How people feel changes across cultures and contexts.
We understand those differences and reflect them in design.
Domains 05
Future of Interaction
The relationship between people and technology continues to
evolve. We design what that relationship can become, and
implement it as a new experience.
Value
Design Philosophy
-
(01)
Create the Question (Q).
Everything begins with forming a question that reaches the essence.
-
(02)
Discern What Beauty Means.
By engaging deeply with the subject, we seek the beauty that truly belongs to its essence.
-
(03)
Listen to the Heart of Others.
We understand diverse backgrounds and emotions, and design in ways that resonate deeply.
-
(04)
Attune to Presence.
Through sensitivity, we refine both intelligence and feeling.
-
(05)
Listen to the World
We connect individual solutions to society and the wider experience.
Why KiQ
An Environment Where Cross-Disciplinary Co-Creation
Emerges Naturally
KiQ is not a team built around a single discipline. We integrate diverse expertise and take responsibility from concept to implementation. With members across Switzerland, the United States, and Japan, we design from a global perspective across cultures and industries. We continue to define new roles and create new domains, including Shosa Directors and Physical AI Engineers.
Projects
Employees
Akane Kikuchi
Creative Director / Etiquette Designer
Takehisa Hida
business designer
Kenya Mori
assistant designer
Toshiki Miyauchi
strategic partner
Yurino Sato
project manager
Kou Hirai
project manager
Maki Akai
manager
Peter McAdams
business designer
Masayasu Nakamori
chief designer
Nick Jay Hill
chief designer
Imaizumi kei
designer
Matilde Dorn
designer
Shiori Ito
Cultural Designer
Lee Hye Ji
Cultural Designer
Sarah Mulligan
Cultural Designer
Hiroshi Furuhashi
Design Strategist
Takahiro Imagawa
web marketer
Takahiko Inoue
context director
Message of CEO
Design That Reaches the
Human Heart
for the Age Ahead.
As technology evolves and the structures of society and communication undergo significant change, we believe it is essential to ask once again: what does it mean to be human? KiQ designs across spaces, experiences, and technology, focusing on values that are often difficult to see, such as unspoken emotions, atmosphere, gestures, and human behavior.
Rather than pursuing function and efficiency alone, we believe that people feeling truly understood is what creates a sense of safety, trust, and genuine connection. The age ahead calls for design that goes beyond convenience and reaches people's emotions and relationships.
Guided by shosa, sensibility, and cultural wisdom, KiQ shapes better relationships between people and people, people and society, and people and technology.
Company
- Company Name
- KiQ Inc.
- Representative Director
- Akane Kikuchi
Art Director / Experience Designer / Movement Director - Employees
- 20 members, including partners
- Founded
- April 2020
- Business
- Consulting / Producing / Branding
- Banks
- Mizuho Bank / MUFG Bank
- Main Clients
- Isetan Mitsukoshi / Dentsu / Hakuhodo / Gokurakuji / FRONTEO / Prudential Life Insurance / Yomiko Advertising / Toyota / DMM / siroca / Keio University / Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel / Tokyu Agency / RIKEN / Horipro Yamamura School / PARCO / Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores / LUMINE / JR East Marketing & Communications / NSG Group / Tokyo Metropolitan Government / TV Asahi / Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry / Yahoo / Digital Agency / ATR / Osaka University / NOIN / Dior / Cartier, in no particular order
