Studio
Three offices, one practice.
Hashi was founded in 2017 by three designers who had worked together remotely for years before deciding the work would be better if they were anchored in the cities their clients were in. The studio is twelve people across Tokyo, Mexico City, and Berlin.
We work in three languages and three time zones, on projects that almost always involve at least two of them. The geographic spread is the positioning: a brand for a Mexican coffee chain expanding into Japan is a different brief than the same chain expanding within North America, and the studio’s structure is shaped around that.
Founders
Akiko Tanabe
Tokyo lead · brand strategy + editorial
Trained at Musashino Art University; six years at Kashiwa Sato’s Samurai before going independent. Leads brand strategy and editorial work for the studio. Tokyo-based, raised in Sapporo.
Sofía Castillo
Mexico City lead · identity + motion
Trained at Centro in CDMX and the RCA in London. Practiced at Pentagram and then ran her own studio in Mexico City for four years before joining Hashi as a founding partner. Leads identity systems and motion.
Lukas Brandt
Berlin lead · environmental + wayfinding
Trained at HfG Karlsruhe and worked at Bureau Mirko Borsche before founding his own environmental practice in Berlin in 2014. Joined Hashi in 2017. Leads environmental and wayfinding work; teaches typography at UdK.
How we work
- One project, two cities. Every engagement has a lead office and a partner office. Critique is built in, not optional.
- Languages first, layout second. We start any naming or copy work in the longest language the brand will live in, then test that the visual system holds up everywhere else.
- Local production partners. Print, signage, and motion production stays in the city where the work lives.