TOMOHIKO HIRATA

CEO, Ziba Tokyo

Tomohiko Hirata is the CEO of Hyphenate (previously Ziba Tokyo), a strategic design consultancy based in Tokyo, Japan with the mission of bringing order to chaos and passion to life, through the creation of beautiful experiences. Hyphenate applies its originally developed methodology to engage clients through collaborative approaches. Hyphenate also organizes workshops, lectures, and seminars for governmental agencies and education facilities, such as Waseda University’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Kyoto University. On July 1st 2020, Hyphenate partnered with Nomura Research Institute to further provide consulting services in order to carry out product and service design based on their client’s needs. In November 2018, Tomohiko was invited by Saudi Arabia to hold a lecture at the Asbar World Forum.

Tomohiko Hirata’s Biography:
1983 Graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Aichi Prefectural University with a major in Design. He was then employed at Canon Inc. and led design projects featuring printers for office use.

1989 Employed at Bridgestone Corporation and developed a VI Project for IndyCar Race at the PR Department Design Center. Moved to the USA to advance the project and started to simultaneously work at Ziba Design’s US office. After returning to Japan, Tomohiko launched the Product Design Center at AXIS, as Bridgestone Design Center and AXIS had merged.

In 2006 Tomokiho independently founded Ziba Tokyo, now Hyphenate. Tomohiko Hirata has received many awards including Copy of The Year, G Mark, G Mark Grand Price, Reddot, IF, and ADEA.

He has also authored several books such as “Creation of Appealing Experience Value”, “The Magic of White Space” (Hitotsubashi Review), and “The First Penguins: How to Create New Values” (Design Produce, Kodansha).