The Kitasato Institute

Transparent Branding Through Stakeholder Involvement

The Kitasato Institute is an educational foundation with various universities, hospitals, and other institutions in Japan under its wing. To support the institute’s mission, we redesigned its brand identity and implemented branding strategies based on this identity. In particular, we developed the concept of "Opening Up the Wisdom of Life", basing it on the organization’s past, present, and future vision and creating visuals to express the concept.

A key feature of the project was its openness, which, through transparent branding, brought an array of stakeholders, such as students, staff, and alumni, right into the project—from its research phase to verification and design. This involved regularly sharing activities and interim deliverables via blogs and live streams. We achieved two-way communication with stakeholders by collecting feedback through online interviews and surveys and through face-to-face events.

"Opening Up the Wisdom of Life": A Concept to Expand Kitasato’s Future

The concept behind the visual identity captures Kitasato’s vision for its future. It removes life sciences from the confines of traditional scientific disciplines such as medicine and biology to embrace other fields such as liberal arts. This approach actively opens up knowledge to the wider world, allowing it to circulate both inside and outside its traditional domains. This circulation, in turn, leads to the discovery of new knowledge, creating a continuous cycle—an idea we’ve encapsulated in the phrase "Opening Up the Wisdom of Life".

Brand Symbol: Inheriting and Innovating Traditional Designs

Kitasato’s brand symbol represents the desire of the member organizations and departments to operate autonomously while also striving for unity, as expressed by the phrase All Kitasato. Featuring two overlapping organic circles, the symbol has at its center a tetanus bacillus motif, which has been used since the founding of the Kitasato Institute to symbolize Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato’s achievements.

Inspired by the brand concept of "Opening Up the Wisdom of Life", this design depicts multiple life forms moving organically, converging, and entwining to “Opening Up new knowledge”. It embodies the dynamic process of diverse elements coalescing to create fresh insights and understanding.

Transparent Branding

A diverse conglomerate primarily comprising universities and hospitals throughout Japan, the Kitasato Institute boasts a rich history spanning over 110 years. Widely recognized for its outstanding contributions to life sciences, the institute is more than a leader in academics and medicine: it also holds a crucial position serving society as a public institution, its stakeholders encompassing a broad spectrum of people including students, staff, alumni, patients, and local residents.

To inspire stakeholders with a sense of conviction, we launched a rebranding initiative under the banner of transparent branding by using blogs and live events to make public all aspects of the initiative—from research to verification and design. This approach encouraged active participation by stakeholders, eliciting feedback from them and creating a more open and inclusive branding process.