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.
The brand’s visual identity has been reaffirmed to reflect its East-meets-West philosophy, as well as its longstanding commitment to thoughtful design, lasting craftsmanship and the creation of harmonious spaces.
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, celebrating the environment in which these pieces are made.
The factory formed the backdrop for a portfolio of wide cinematic images and elegant product and still-life shots. Just as a gardener nurtures their flowers, plants, seeds and saplings, a furniture maker treats their materials with the same care; a horticultural thread ran through the shoot to draw the two practices together.
To celebrate the launch of Stellar Works’ 2026 collection, and our tenure as artistic director, a limited-run brand book was produced.
This book honours the work and care that Stellar Works imparts to each piece. Its cover, embedded with natural fibres, echoes the horticultural side of the shoot. The binding is stitched by hand, and the fold-outs unveil the factory behind the craft.
Alongside directing Stellar Works’ new campaigns, TC & Friends worked with Paul Barnes of Commercial Type to create a bespoke wordmark.
Letterforms carry the craftsmanship of Stellar Works, and subtle flares lend elegance and character to the previously geometric, machine-age forms. This change mirrors the company’s new direction, anchored in hospitality, care and warmth.
To execute 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 research-led colour scheme, inspired by Sanzo Wada’s research into colour in Japan in the early 20th Century, was formulated. By softening the logo from black into a deep Suiseki Grey, the identity embraces a warmer, more comforting appearance, particularly in digital spaces. When paired with Washi White, the palette reads as both calm and balanced, encompassing the new brand direction and supporting the omotenashi spirit.
Mirroring the omotenashi tradition of tea ceremonies, Matcha Green adds a natural panache to an otherwise neutral palette.
To launch the new artistic direction, Stellar Works transformed a space in Odd Fellow Palace during 3DaysOfDesign in Copenhagen.
The showcase, aptly titled THOUGHT / FUL, explored quiet luxury as a spatial experience. Across two rooms, each with its own distinct identity, visitors were invited to engage all five senses.
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