Exploring Pentagram’s clever spin on a new Tokyo landmark

In 2026, The Museum of Narratives Takanawa opened its doors to the public in Tokyo for the first time, adding a new attraction with a unique proposition to the city’s cultural scene. The name can be shortened to MoN – pronounced “mon”, meaning “gate” in Japanese. This serves as a reference to the southern district of Tokyo it’s situated in, which is considered the gateway to Japan.

MoN is a space for exploring culture in Japan and globally, bridging the gap between eras and geographies through exhibitions, installations and programming all under one roof. “It seems quite poignant right now where there’s lots of very short-term reactive thinking that’s going on in the world and in some ways this is an antidote to that,” says Luke Powell, who led the team at Pentagram London responsible for designing MoN’s brand identity.

The institution’s expansive, non-linear lens on culture offered rich inspiration for the brand identity, which interpreted the constant reemergence and remixing of ideas, traditions, stories and philosophies over time as logo and design system centring on a spiral.

Watch the video to learn how Luke Powell, Harrie Yoo and Alice Sherwin at Pentagram translated MoN’s curatorial outlook into a conceptual yet flexible branding system.

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