Naonori Yago designs a sophisticated identity for a Japanese department store

I’m all for a bargain but when I hear about people queuing up at 4:30am for the big Next sale every year I can’t help but sigh. Surely sleeping is more preferable to numb lips chapping in the wind as you stand next to other haggard shoppers? Even bigger than Next’s sale is Japanese department store Laforet HARAJUKU’s annual “Grand Bazar,” which has taken sale shopping to a new level.

With screams, fights and claustrophobia common themes during the sale, it comes as a surprise that the identity is so serenely sophisticated. A different designer is commissioned each year, and Laforet HARAJUKU had graphic designer Naonori Yago weave his magic into the 2015 campaign. Well-dressed ladies with lusciously long legs hurdle across red ribbon-like bands, surrounded by thick black text. The effect is beautiful and so different when considering the client is a department store. It’s great seeing Naonori’s work in situ as well, emblazoned on billboards and car parks injecting some life into the grey landscape.