How did despair turn into conviction? Behind the scenes of production revealed through "emotional curves" by mount inc. | iDID 2025 DAY SUMMIT

Paper bag redesign after 35 years, conveying the "Hyakuyōzu" philosophy online.

First, Ms. Okabe and Ms. Hayashi spoke about the Daimaru Matsuzakaya "Hyakuyōzu" project.

The request came from the Haruka Misawa Design Office at the Japan Design Center (NDC). They wanted us to create a website featuring the new design, "Hyakuyōzu," for the paper bags of Daimaru Matsuzakaya, which had been redesigned for the first time in 35 years.

According to Okabe, NDC's request was not just that "the paper bag has changed," but that "people should understand the mechanism and philosophy behind 'Hyakuyōzu'," and that "an animation that conveys that it is a 'dynamic pattern' was essential."

After mount was contacted, NDC and mount considered using live-action footage and CG, but ultimately decided to present it on the web.

An intuition that "it seems possible" and an ambitious ideal image that came to mind.

Creative director Hayashi said that the moment he saw Misawa and the others' materials during the orientation, he felt this way:

Hayashi:"That's an incredible idea. It must have taken a lot of trial and error. I definitely felt that it's important to convey the story behind it, not just the surface. And I thought a website would allow for an expression that could reach a lot of people."

And without any basis whatsoever, they felt that "we could take that idea and turn it into something tangible!"

What came to Hayashi's mind was a presentation that was pleasing to the eye, a composition that naturally conveyed the origins of the patterns, and a powerful expression that evoked a sense of surprise never seen before. Hayashi himself reflects on this as "an overly ambitious ideal."

The more you work, the more you are confronted with reality.

However, once the entire team actually started working on it, the situation changed completely. The schedule for the internal release was from the orientation at the end of the year to March 7th of the following year, but with the New Year's holiday in between, the actual working period was only about 1.5 months. During that time, we had to proceed with design, tool development, and WebGL implementation in parallel.

Hayashi recalls his feelings at the time as follows:

Hayashi:"The more I worked with my hands, and the more I saw everyone else working with their hands, the more I was confronted every single day with the greedy high bar I was aiming for and the seemingly endless distance to reach it. If things continued like this, I would end up with something mediocre and half-baked. It would be too explanatory, and the creativity would be half-baked. I was afraid I would ruin what NDC had built up... I was afraid I would even tarnish the reputation of Daimaru Matsuzakaya... Honestly, I became more and more despairing every day."

Hayashi's emotional curve went from high spirits during the orientation to a sharp decline towards the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.

The technical team was worried because they couldn't see the big picture.

Meanwhile, Technical Director Okabe also harbored similar concerns, but from a different perspective.

The prototype during the planning stage wasn't bad. The concept that the act of moving paper itself would be the experience was decided, and there was also the idea of ​​it transforming into a paper bag. However, when they actually started making it, even though the individual parts (design, implementation, etc., each area of ​​responsibility) seemed to be going well, they couldn't get the confidence that "this will work" as a whole.

Okabe-san:"It's still flat and lacks a sense of depth, so I wasn't really sure if it was good enough, and I hadn't decided how to develop the tools either, so I was just experimenting."

Tool development, paper layout verification, WebGL implementation. Each seemed to be progressing independently, but only when the meticulous design, sound, and implementation all came together in the end would it feel like "it's going to be okay." But I couldn't see when that moment would come.

Okabe's emotional curve also declined, just like Hayashi's.

The "principles and interpretations" that brought about a turning point

The situation changed during the interim meeting with NDC.

The proposal presented by Ms. Misawa involved explaining each of the five principles in a step-by-step manner, and finally showing a video. It was a logical and easy-to-understand suggestion. However, based on their previous testing, the mount team was strongly convinced that "being too explanatory would prevent the sense of excitement from being conveyed."

It is said that Hayashi made a different proposal on the spot.

Hayashi:"During the meeting, while looking at the cards we had created, I suggested on the spot that instead of just looking at them, we could convey the principle and interpretation alternately, non-verbally, and show that there are infinite patterns."

The atmosphere in the room became tense for a moment. Hayashi himself thought to himself, "This looks intense, I don't like it." However, he was convinced that "it has to be this way."

Ms. Misawa also agreed with the proposal. "This is definitely the better option, let's go with this."

Hayashi:"At that moment, I had an experience that seemed to resolve the anxieties I had been feeling. What had been despair transformed into a conviction that if I continued in this direction, I could accomplish something."

From this point onward, Ms. Hayashi's emotional curve takes a sharp turn for the better.

Until everything falls into place

Once the direction was set, it was literally a matter of "just getting started."

The creation of onomatopoeia that represent the patterns, such as "Zapp" and "Shu," was a collaborative effort with NDC. The tool created by Okabe was shared not only within mount but also with NDC, and both teams made extensive use of it. These onomatopoeia not only show how the 140 patterns can be seen in various ways, but are also an important element in characterizing the site, and Okabe recalls, "NDC created an incredible number of them."

The expression of paper texture, sound production, and design refinement—all progressed simultaneously. The moment the meticulous design, sound, and implementation finally came together, Mr. Okabe's emotional curve began to rise.

Perspective and co-creation that were emphasized in the project

Finally, Hayashi spoke about what he focused on during this project.

First, "Never forget the hurdles you set." Website creation involves many steps, and there are many points where you might have to give up. Even so, he says he made sure to maintain a high perspective and, as the team leader, focused on boosting everyone's morale.

Next, "to always propose something that exceeds the expectations of Mr. Misawa and his team." It's not easy for fellow creators to collaborate. To maintain that, we focused on co-creation.

And, "In the web domain, we will continue to be the ones who uphold justice."

Hayashi:"From the beginning, our domain and NDC's domain were clearly defined, and we were conscious of maintaining our pride in the web domain being our domain. To that end, we made it a point to constantly maintain a high volume and speed of thought."

Maintaining mutual respect while striving for the best possible output in each of our respective fields—that attitude ultimately led to our success.

A challenge to "losing conditions"

Next, they discussed KOKUYO's special content for their 120th anniversary, titled "Curiosity is Life." It was primarily produced by art director Yonedo.

The goal was not only to increase awareness of the tagline, but also to create content that would function as a "self-introduction for Kokuyo" as it enters its 121st year. The metaphor proposed by Mr. Yonedo was a "pop-up notebook (picture book)" that mainly used illustrations rather than live-action footage.

Yonedo-san"I thought it would be great if it could be a metaphor for a 'pop-up notebook' or a 'pop-up picture book,' where it would appear three-dimensional and convey the mood of KOKUYO, including its past, future, and present."

However, Mr. Yonedo understood that this idea carried significant risks.

Yonedo-san"The phrase 'turning the page' is a rather unconventional expression, but we have no choice but to use it."

The imagery of turning pages in a notebook is so overused in the web industry that there are very few successful examples. Nevertheless, in order to convey the appeal of Kokuyo, a stationery manufacturer, we felt it was necessary to deliberately choose this imagery.

I gave a presentation to the president using a handmade notebook.

To finalize the plan, Ide created a handmade "pop-up notebook."

According to Mr. Yonedo, when Mr. Ide presented to the president of Kokuyo, he placed a handmade pop-up notebook on the desk and said, "Please open this," as part of the presentation. The idea was to share the vision of what they wanted to do on the web through a physical experience. This proposal was accepted, and the project officially began.

Next, the team created storyboards, visualizing exciting scenarios on screen. They tested design patterns, drew illustrations, and then broke them down one by one, converting them into 3D data. They 3D modeled over 100 stationery items and placed them on a notebook to create the animation.

Never-ending performance optimization

The price for taking on the challenge knowing it was a losing battle was high.

It all started with selecting a physics engine, comparing and evaluating options like Cannon.js and Oimo.js. We had to adjust shadows to match page-turning behavior and calculate notebook distortion. The performance optimization required to run 3D models in real-time on the web seemed endless.

Mr. Yonedo recalls the situation at the time as follows:

Yonedo-san:"The thing that made me the most anxious this time was that the game kept crashing and I couldn't watch it at all until the day before the release."

They had even prepared materials to replace everything with video in the worst-case scenario. However, they managed to get it working late at night the day before the release.

Looking at Mr. Yonedo's emotional curve, it rises only once when he first saw the moment when all the 3D models simultaneously leaped out of the notebook (around Christmas time). However, when he actually ran it in a browser, it crashed due to poor performance, and he plummeted back to rock bottom. As the release date approached, his emotional curve remained consistently low.

Meanwhile, Technical Director Umezu's emotional curve followed a completely different trajectory. "I can't come up with any good ideas," "So we're finally going to use Three.js. I was looking forward to it," "I'm excited about the 3D animation," "It's not working...", "It's never-ending...". He was alternating between excitement over the technical challenge and despair over the never-ending adjustment work.

After battling it out until late into the night the day before its release, KOKUYO's special content was finally launched. The emotional curves of Mr. Yonedo and Mr. Umezu, each following different paths, spoke volumes about the difficulties of this project.

Gritty and sincere

Through the two projects by Daimaru Matsuzakaya and Kokuyo, what was revealed was the raw emotional ups and downs behind the glamorous output.

At the end of the session, when the moderator asked them, "What kind of company is mount?", they described themselves as follows:

All:"We're a company that does this kind of thing in a down-to-earth way. But we're honest about what we create, and we strive every day to be sincere about the act of creation."

Rather than presenting it as a polished success story, Mount openly shared its despair and struggles. Hayashi's emphasis on "continuing to elevate one's perspective," and Yonedo and Umezu's technical tenacity—all of these were demonstrated through the visualization of emotional curves, showing their unwavering commitment to continuing to create despite the challenges.

Final thoughts

iDID DAY 2025 began with the statement, "This time, it will be the most serious learning experience yet." Mount's candid revelations about the behind-the-scenes aspects of their production provided an opportunity to reconsider the true value and essence of digital creativity.