Throwback Thursdays
OVERVIEW
After years of waiting, Hello! Project (one of Japan's most storied idol families) finally arrived on streaming. Spotify Japan marked it with a Throwback Thursday takeover: a retrospective by year, 1998 to 2019.
It ran across Shibuya billboards, metro platform doors, and in-train screens in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. I designed the campaign assets and animated the train TV ad.
CLIENT
Spotify Japan
YEAR
2025
ROLE
Motion Design
TEAM
Freelance Work
CREATIVE CHALLENGES
Two systems had to hold at once: Spotify's global Throwback Thursday identity (the torn paper, the unmistakable frame) and 28 years of idol history belonging to a fandom that notices everything.
Localization is where global brands usually go flat. This one couldn't. The copy said it plainly: おまたせしました "sorry to keep you waiting." The design had to feel like it meant it.
MY ROLE
I built the year-by-year cover assets with each era of Hello! Project set into the global TBT system, the torn edge carrying a different color per year. Then I animated the in-train TV spot, translating the poster system into motion for the screens above the doors.
THE RESULTS
The campaign ran nationwide and the fans did the rest. Spotify Japan invited people to find the ads and share them; fan posts of the walls pulled hundreds of thousands of views. Work designed for a fandom, photographed by the fandom.
