I am planning to travel to Japan in the summer of 2027. For me, this journey will be about more than seeing new places or taking a holiday. I want to study Japan's visual culture, design sensibility, and the graphic language embedded in everyday life—on location. As a graphic designer, I believe every country has a visual language of its own. Typefaces, colors, posters, packaging, signs, and printed matter can reveal as much about a culture as its architecture or cuisine. Japan has fascinated me in this respect for a long time. What do I want to study? During the journey, I plan to photograph the visual material I encounter and, whenever possible, collect physical examples. I want to focus especially on: Street posters and advertising Magazines, catalogues, and brochures Product and food packaging Shop signs and wayfinding systems Typography and the use of writing Color choices and visual hierarchy The relationship between traditional Japanese aesthetics and contemporary design My aim is not simply to share beautiful designs. I want to understand why they were made the way they were. How is information ordered on a poster? Which typefaces are chosen? How are image and text balanced? How does a design reflect the character of its city or region? These are the questions I will pursue through World by Design. For now, I am in the planning stage The journey has not begun yet. I am currently in the project's first stage: planning. I am deciding which cities to visit, which areas of design to examine, and how I will document what I find. I am thinking about how to classify the photographs, archive the material I collect, and eventually turn all of that information into meaningful content. That is why the first World by Design article is not the story of a completed journey. It is the opening record of a journey that has not yet begun. Why does this project exist? Thousands of images of Japanese design are available online. But I do not want to collect examples only from the internet. I want to see design inside the environment for which it was made. I want to observe how people use a wayfinding system in a train station, how packages compete with one another on a supermarket shelf, or how the sign of a small shop relates to the street around it. Design is not simply an image on a screen. It gains meaning through its setting, its users, and the other designs that surround it. First stop: Japan World by Design will be a long-term project in which I document and examine the visual culture of the countries I visit. I chose Japan as the first stop. For now, there is only a plan, a long research list, and many unanswered questions. As the journey approaches, I will share the preparation process, my research, and the decisions I make here. This article exists to record the point where the project began. The journey to Japan has not started yet. But World by Design starts today.

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