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Beauty And Visual Impact Are Essential Hokuto Kudo On Why The Visual Experience Is Never An Afterthought
Hokuto Kudo emphasizes the importance of beauty and visual impact in design, arguing that the visual experience should never be an afterthought in branding and marketing strategies. His approach to design prioritizes collaboration with clients and a deep understanding of the emotional connections that visuals can create, particularly in music packaging and publishing. This perspective suggests that brands should focus on creating visually compelling narratives that resonate with their audience.
Creative Boom: Inspiration Graphic Design 'Beauty and visual impact are essential': Hokuto Kudo on why the visual experience is never an afterthought The designer talks us through his recent projects and why design "can be clear, beautiful and full of wit at the same time". Written By: Ayla Angelos 10 August 2026 We often hear that a person's childhood surroundings have a great impact on the type of work they will do in the future. And sometimes, if the parents are creative, they'll likely pass the creative bug to their offspring too.
For Hokuto Kudo, both of his parents are graphic designers, so design wasn't a hobby he stumbled into but the wallpaper of his childhood in Tokyo. "I grew up surrounded by design and naturally loved drawing from an early age," he says. "In fact, the Japanese language textbook I used in junior high school was designed by my father." In high school, when he encountered the artwork for Mr Children's album Shifuku no Oto, he realised he could pursue graphic design seriously as a career. He later found his way into the Department of Graphic Design at Tama Art University – the same course the album's designer had studied on.
He graduated in 2012 and spent the following decade at an advertising design studio in Tokyo before going independent in 2022 under the name H.K.DESIGN, working across advertising, editorial, packaging, and visual identity for clients including Sony, Fujifilm, Bridgestone, Calbee, and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Growing up around his parents' design books and visual references gave him an early, near-constant exposure to the field's history.
Two names stand out from it: Shigeo Fukuda, whose "bold, playful and non-verbal visual language" still amazes him, and Helmut Schmid, whose typography he describes as "remarkably refined and timeless". Between them, Kudo says, they taught him that design "can be clear, beautiful and full of wit at the same time". More recently, his partner introduced him to secondhand bookstores around Shibuya and Setagaya – "quiet, nostalgic places filled with old books and forgotten publications" – where flicking through vintage design annuals can ignite fresh ideas and perspectives.
Another source of inspiration comes from working on musicians' visual identities. "Every collaboration allows me to step into someone else's creative world, and those conversations continually challenge and inspire my own way of thinking." Kudo's process has shifted a lot since his agency days, and he's candid about why. Back then, a typical brief meant producing three developed concepts – Plan A, B and C, each around 60 per cent finished – only for two of them to be junked. "It often felt strange knowing that two of those ideas were created only to be rejected," he admits.
These days, clients tend to reach out because they're sold on a specific piece of his work, saying, "I contacted you because I loved this project". From there, he has an in-depth conversation, develops the direction, moves on to rough sketches before transferring into the final artwork.
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The article discusses a significant aspect of branding—visual impact—highlighting its importance in design strategies, which is relevant and actionable for brand professionals, though the concepts are not entirely new.