Takuro Nuruki

polaris is a travel magazine based in Japan and the UK with the theme of "journey of contemplation". We currently sell our magazine over 40 bookstores in the both countries.

Journey of contemplation not only makes you move physically but also spiritually through the act of travelling.It is a journey that takes you out of the tiny world that surrounds you now and lets you experience the world with your whole body.

We do not focus on popular scenic spots, tourist attractions, or Instagram-worthy sites. We are compiling ordinary people’s narratives all over the world to acquire different interpretations of the world to contemplate their life

Through travel, you come into contact with the "life" of different people, encounter new values, and find your own way of life. What we would like to propose is travelling as a means to continually broaden one's horizons, no matter how old one gets. Our interpretation of travelling is a space where you can slowly reflect on yourself and the world.

This project will be more than just a magazine, become a platform for people to make their personal narratives. Polaris works as a catalyst for people to embark on a "journey of contemplation" as their personal narratives resonate and create different perspectives on the world.

THE LITTLE BIG ISSUE is a project that creates a bond between the British street paper THE BIG ISSUE and Generation Z youth.

Through the findings of dialogue with GenZ, we restructure our brief to the following question How might we create a space for a generation of followers to find their own voice through social action?

As an answer to this we created The Little Big Issue, a zine co-created with Gen zs for Gen zs. The zine and the system around it works as a trojan horse, creating a safe space for Gen Zers to find their voice, turning awareness into action.

As we have seen through our process, The Little Big Issue is more than just a zine, it is a place and a catalyst for Gen-Zers to actively participate in social issues. 

It is a new addition to the existing TBI ecosystem that while addressing and marketing to GenZ specifically, also generates renewed interest in the overall TBI brand and message.

I was invited as a tutor to the Innovative Design Education program of China Academy of Art in the summer 2023.

In this course, we try to build design interventions for people’s hope. 

In the modern era, the field in which design can affect society has been dramatically expanding. It’s not only to progress innovations in terms of commercialism but also developing interventions for the wicked problems our society embraces.

The author of the book『Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need』,Sasha Costanza says that the design justice is to rebuild a design to sustain, heal, and empower the community which is under the threat of oppression, vulnerability, and prejudice. In this course, our theme does not be limited to a social issue. From students' own perspectives, we explore a gap which society has, and envision a new system for people's hope, even student’s their own hope.Designers should understand the language, tradition, and ethos of the community. Designers should create safe spaces and environments as catalysts for people to raise their voices and find their own hope.

In this course, I propose three perspectives to enhance students’ practice, in terms of strategic design, communication design, and service design. I anticipate that students find the issue in society from their own perspective, establish their own direction from the chaos and complexity modern society faces, and cultivate tolerant minds to touch someone else’s lives profoundly.