EN JP
WE DO 3 THINGS
We are London based Designers, Advisers and Japan Experts. We do three things :
Design your Difference
In the 2000’s, products, services and experiences look and feel the same. We help you to stand out by finding, clarifying and designing your differentiation.
Advise your Team
Innovation is dependent on the experience, management and motivation of your team. We advise, educate and support your team with new inspiration, processes and skills.
Navigate Japan
Japan is a desirable but complex market. We help companies research and design products for export to Japan. And help Japanese companies research and design for export overseas.
Overview PDF here.
About us
The Division was founded by David Tonge and Nicole Hodgkinson in 2003. They both trained and worked in the UK before spending a decade working in Silicon Valley with technology companies and have been working with Japanese brands for over thirty years.
Their client work includes industrial & user interface design, brand communications, colour materials finish, user & market research, business & design strategy and advising & educating.
They believe ‘design is about removing not adding.’
Current and past team members include:
Akinori Asatomi, Richard Bone, Yuya Kurata, Ai Mawaribuchi, Afshin Mehin, Bikram Mittra, Robin Richmond, Tim Sharpe, Luke Sturgeon, Manabu Yoshida.
We partner with:
Greyspace (UK and Denmark), Sketch Collaborative (USA), Infield Research (Tokyo), MCT Communications (Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya).
Our Clients
Think of a brand name and we have probably worked with them, here are a selection:
Azuma
Brother
Buffalo
Chargebox
Daiwa House
Denso
DreamWorks
Equitance
Hewlett Packard
INAX
Infiniti
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical
Kohler
LGE
Lotus
Logitech
Makino
Mira
National
NEC
Nissan
Ora 2
Pace
Panasonic
Pearson
Plastic Logic
Ricoh
Samsung
Shark Ninja
Shiseido
Sunstar
Toshiba
TOTO
Transtek
Webb Electronics
Zojirushi
Love for us
We receive regular love letters from our clients, here are a few favourites:
“We have been working with The Division for around 20 years. We rely on their extraordinary flexibility and range to strengthen our corporate design expertise and conduct research activities.”
– Yasutake Yamaguchi, General Manager, Design Department, Brother Industries, Ltd.
“We have a long-term collaboration with The Division led by David. Their knowledge and experience taught us the importance of design thinking, strategy, and collaboration, as the role of the car itself and its design are changing drastically. What impressed me most is not only their great results, but also the process of getting them. It has also influenced our attitude towards manufacturing.”
– Taro Ueda, VP UX Design, NISSAN Motors Co., Ltd.
Awards
We don’t enter awards (we know we are good), but our clients enter our collaborative output and we have won multiples of these awards:
Chicago Antheneum
Good Design
D&AD
Japan Good Design
IDEA Business Week
IDSA
IF Die Industrie Forum
Red Dot