Stellar Works
Timeless craft meets cultured hospitality
Since 2025, TC & Friends has overseen the artistic direction of Japanese-founded furniture brand Stellar Works. Responsible for brand strategy and creative direction, the agency has set a renewed design ethos, focused on craft and tailored for the global hospitality sector.
TC & Friends has reaffirmed the brand’s visual identity to reflect its East-meets-West philosophy and its longstanding commitment to thoughtful design, lasting craftsmanship and harmonious spaces, all grounded in the Japanese spirit of omotenashi: the principle of understated, wholehearted hospitality.
Client
Stellar Works
Services
Artistic Direction
Brand Strategy
Visual Identity
Creative Direction
Logo Design
Set Design
Catalogue Design
Campaign Photography
TC & Friends worked alongside photographer Matthew Donaldson to shoot the latest campaign at the Stellar Works factory in Shanghai.
The factory formed the backdrop for a portfolio of wide, cinematic images and elegant product and still-life shots. A horticultural thread ran through the shoot, drawing a parallel between two practices: a gardener nurtures their flowers, plants, seeds and saplings, and a furniture maker treats their materials with the same care and attention.
To mark the launch of the Stellar Works 2026 collection, TC & Friends produced a high quality, limited-run brand book.
This book honours the work and care that Stellar Works imparts to each product. Using fine papers, including a cover embedded with natural fibres, the brand book echoes the horticultural theme of the 2026 campaign. The binding is stitched by hand, with fold-outs revealing the factory behind the craft.
To ensure the correct execution of the new direction, TC & Friends developed a comprehensive brand guide that covers all applications of the new visual identity, including printed assets, photography and physical space.
A colour scheme was devised, inspired by Japanese colour theorist Sanzo Wada and his research in the early 20th century.
Principle colours were pared back to a dark ‘Suiseki’ grey and a warm ‘Washi’ white, supported by a ‘Matcha’ green. This calm and balanced palette embodies the brand’s new outlook and supports the omotenashi spirit, whilst a suite of seven secondary colours add depth and variety where necessary.
Integral to the artistic direction was an identity rebrand and the development of a new logo.
The updated letterforms better reflect the craftsmanship of Stellar Works, lending elegance and character more representative of the hand-made nature of their output. This change emphasises the company’s renewed direction, anchored in hospitality, care and warmth.
TC & Friends worked with Paul Barnes of Commercial Type to create a bespoke wordmark.
Launching the new 2026 collection during 3daysofdesign, Stellar Works and TC & Friends transformed two rooms in the Odd Fellow Palace in the centre of Copenhagen.
Working with designers Space Copenhagen, Keiji Ashizawa, Yabu Pushelburg and LAYAN, the space acted as a showcase for Stellar Works’ new omotenashi spirit.
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