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Yasusuke Murai
HELM.INC. CEO / Creative Director / Art Director / Founder
After studying engineering at Kobe City College of Technology and Nagaoka University of Technology, he moved to the US to study media arts in Santa Monica. Back in Japan, he spent seven years at STOIQUE working on corporate branding, logos, fashion advertising and web design, went independent in 2008, and founded HELM.INC. in 2023.
Logical thinking from engineering, and an aesthetic sense honed in fashion and advertising. He brings both to every stage — from deciding what to deliver, to the design, to the systems that keep it reaching people.
He keeps experimenting outside of client work, too. His personal blog, built through trial and error with SEO and article writing, grew to 500,000 page views a month, and a product born from it reached 720% of its goal on the crowdfunding platform Makuake. Testing things himself and getting real results is the foundation of the strategies he builds.
A lifelong love of music has led him to collect records for years — an ear that comes through when he syncs film with music.
- 1976
- Born in Kobe
- Graduated from Kobe City College of Technology and Nagaoka University of Technology, then moved to the US. Graduated from DH Institute Media Arts (Santa Monica, USA)
- Back in Japan, joined CAP, then spent seven years at STOIQUE on corporate branding, logos, fashion advertising and web design
- 2008
- Went independent
- 2015
- Good Design Award and JCD Design Award (Silver) for the NOCO Building, Ginza
- 2016
- Personal blog reaches 500,000 page views a month
- 2020
- A product born from the blog reached 720% of its goal on Makuake (crowdfunding)
- 2023
- Founded HELM.INC.
Selected Works
Selected work
STOIQUE — IN-HOUSE
- Hankyu Department Store — window project Graffiti Meets Windows
- Isetan — annual advertising campaign
- Puma × stoique Paintura pitch project
- yohji yamamoto — catalog
- villa moda (Kuwait) — store design and website
- HOYA CRISTAL — branding and store design
2008 — INDEPENDENT
- CONVERSE — campaign and packaging design
- adidas — advertising catalog
- The Tokyo Ballet — logo and The Nutcracker projection mapping (national tour in year two)
- NOCO Building, Ginza — art direction and branding
RECENT
- APIF International Conference — art direction
- Johnson & Johnson VISION — advertising, web and sales tools
- Asia Pacific Initiative 10th Anniversary — art direction
- Satoshi Furuno, Japan National Ski Cross Team — official website
- Tokyo Knit Wholesalers Association — website and English site
About HELM.
A helm is the wheel that steers a yacht — the name comes from my family's yacht-building business. The helmsman sets the course and guides the boat to its destination. We don't stop at delivering a design: we want to be the partner that shows self-driven companies and projects their direction, and travels with them to the goal.
Contact
Talk to us before it takes shape.
A renewal, a logo, a multilingual site, bringing AI into your team. Even if your ideas are still loose, we'd be glad to hear from you.
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