Creative at the Core of the Brand: The FUJIMI Rebranding Project Led by a Solo Art Director Inside the Company

Dentsu Inc.'s cross-functional creative organization, the Future Creative Center (FCC), is a group of over 70 members supporting future-building domains with creativity beyond advertising. In this series, FCC members discuss their upcoming initiatives under the theme "Future × Creativity."

FUJIMI is a brand that performs personalized user analysis online and provides customized supplements and protein tailored to individual characteristics. It is a brand of the startup Torico, founded in 2018, and has grown steadily, including joining the POLA ORBIS HOLDINGS Group in 2021.

FUJIMI underwent rebranding in January 2023. For this project, an art director from Dentsu Inc. FCC worked independently within Torico, collaborating closely with management to drive the rebranding. The scope was extensive, defining the brand's core and worldview, establishing brand guidelines, and even planning new products.

FUJIMI's key visual after rebranding

What kind of rebranding was achieved through this approach, and what results did it yield? Torico co-founder and CEO Kana Hanabusa, FUJIMI Business Manager Yasuha Ogura, and Dentsu Inc. FCC Art Director Aya Yagi gathered to reflect on the project.

Background of the rebranding: Defining "FUJIMI's essence" to drive further growth

Hanabusa: FUJIMI is the first brand we launched at Torico. It originated from my own experiences working in the beauty industry and struggling with my own skin issues. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if there were personalized supplements tailored to each person's specific concerns?" That was the spark for starting FUJIMI.

As the service grew, our staff expanded, and the business scaled up, I felt that for FUJIMI to grow further, we needed to clarify our brand concept and worldview.

Of course, we founders had a concept and vision, but we lacked the visuals, language, and guiding expressions to articulate it. This led to misalignment among team members.

Ogura: I joined Torico in 2021. Looking at FUJIMI's products and designs, I saw that while the company had many talented designers and engineers who were meticulous about each output, there was a challenge in terms of consistency. The quality of each piece was high, but I believed that if we could establish a distinct "FUJIMI essence" that ran through everything, we could grow even further.

Hanabusa: Around this time, I met Yagi-san through Twitter. I found his designs comfortable, and when we talked, I sensed a good rhythm and compatibility in his choice of words. So I proposed working together on the rebranding. What I asked for then was for Yagi-san to join Torico as an individual and proceed by collaborating with us.

The reason was that for projects like this, I felt involving a large external team inevitably slowed things down. I wanted to define the brand's worldview by talking directly and quickly with Yagi-san, without intermediaries.

Yagi: This structure was new to me personally. I was uneasy about handling such a broad scope alone—not just design, but everything from defining the brand and planning to copywriting.

However, around the time I received the proposal, I was thinking, "Design is often used fragmentarily in advertising materials, but it shouldn't be like that. It's truly an asset for the company and a brand that can be used broadly and long-term." That's precisely why I wanted to try a different way of entering and engaging with a company. Mr. Hanabusa's proposal aligned perfectly with that sense of challenge I felt.

Defining the brand core and guidelines. Moving forward while presenting "options"

Yagi: The first step was defining FUJIMI's core, right? Through numerous discussions with Mr. Hanabusa and the management team, a major goal emerged: FUJIMI would become "a brand capable of offering comprehensive personalized solutions."

Further examining FUJIMI's strengths revealed two key areas: creativity and technology. Creativity is supported by our large in-house team of designers and engineers. Technology is underpinned by our proprietary personalized analysis, which enables us to recommend supplements tailored to each individual. We decided to leverage these strengths to grow as a "personalized beauty care brand."

Brand Core

Hanabusa: This is expressed in the brand concept we established: "Beauty, My Way." The accompanying statement, "FUJIMI uses personalized beauty care to increase authenticity rather than options in the world," encapsulates the brand's core and strengths.

We've also updated FUJIMI's personalized analysis to enhance its accuracy and improve the UI/UX. Seasonal lotions and emulsions based on this personalized analysis will be our first new products after the rebranding, scheduled for release on March 15th.

UI/UX Design

First New Product: "FUJIMI Personalized Skincare Seasonal Lotion & Emulsion"

Ogura: Beyond that, we spent nearly a year developing the four keywords defining the brand's worldview, brand guidelines, logo, brand colors, key visuals, and more.

Four Keywords Defining the Brand's Worldview

Yagi: What we prioritized in our discussions was visualizing the worldview of the FUJIMI brand that existed in Hanabusa-san's mind. As you mentioned at the beginning, FUJIMI is a brand born from Hanabusa-san's own struggles. So, rather than proposing things I thought were good, we proceeded by presenting Hanabusa-san with various options and asking, "Which one feels closest to the brand you envision?"

This approach ensures the brand concept is reflected in the products

Yagi: In typical branding, the people developing strategy and planning are often separate from those expressing it creatively. So even if the strategy is well-developed, there can be struggles over how to express it creatively. This time, however, I moved back and forth between strategy and creativity, between the conceptual and the emotional aspects. I believe this strengthened the overall consistency.

Ogura: Because Yagi-san immersed herself in Torico and worked alongside us, I think the core brand values and worldview we defined this time were easier for the members to internalize. When questions arose, they could ask Yagi-san directly, and through these exchanges, the members' understanding deepened. When you have an external party create something, it often feels like only the final finished product is delivered to the team.

Hanabusa: With rebranding like this, it's crucial that the worldview permeates the internal team, and then each member continues to produce outputs reflecting that worldview. For example, when outsourcing creative work externally, even if the deliverables are excellent, the subsequent outputs created by internal members might not maintain that direction or quality. This can result in it feeling like a one-off branding effort. We've had that experience before, so it was great that the worldview permeated each member this time.

Yagi: Branding truly delivers results only when every member genuinely understands the worldview and can communicate it or reflect it in products. In that sense, your words are very valuable.

Ogura: Maintaining this structure for nearly a year has elevated everyone's perspective. Design and branding are highly abstract concepts, making communication and expression challenging. Even when everyone seems aligned, misalignments can occur.

Watching you, Yagi-san, share your thoughts through materials and communicate in a way that prevents such misalignment—younger members rarely get opportunities to learn such methods, so it was incredibly valuable. It had benefits for the company beyond just the rebranding.

Yagi: Hearing you say that makes me really happy (laughs). Lately, with the term "design-driven management" becoming more common, there might be cases where companies just bring in an art director but it doesn't work out... But I hope people can see that there are various approaches, including the one we used this time.

When design is used effectively, it has the potential to elevate a brand by one or even two levels. I believe companies like Apple and Starbucks exemplify this. That's precisely why I think increasing the involvement of art directors in a more holistic, less fragmented way could contribute even more to companies. I believe this can invigorate companies and, in turn, invigorate Japan.

Hanabusa: For FUJIMI, we aim to strengthen the core concept we clarified through this rebranding—"Personalized Beauty Care Brand"—and become even closer to our customers. While personalized products are increasing, no other brand champions total beauty. We will cherish this newly defined core and strive to make FUJIMI a truly unique brand.

Rebranding Details Page: FUJIMI https://fujimi.me/brand