A century later Kodansha rebrands for the first time

The new identity and logo is Kodansha’s first brand update in 112 years, and is themed around a fresh statement of purpose: inspire impossible stories.

The Tokyo-based publisher Kodansha owns many literary and manga magazines and first published the much-loved manga series Akira in the early 1980s. It also released some of Haruki Murakami’s earliest novels, as well as Attack on Titan – 100 million copies of which have been issued.

Gretel, a New York agency, has overhauled the company’s visual identity that’s suggestive of an art gallery or cultural institution in the branding. The new logo features intersecting lines in a square – a nod to the layout of comic book pages and represents “Kodansha’s position at the crossroad of all cultures, where many ideas, voices and stories intersect”.