D-BROS — DESIGNING THE WAY WE SEE TIME

I came to retail from a background in graphic design, so perhaps it is natural that I have always had a particular appreciation for D-BROS.

We have carried their work at ZAKKAsine since we opened the shop in 2017. And even after all these years, whenever we bring out a new selection of D-BROS products, I still have the same feeling: they make the shop feel fresh. They are products I feel confident putting in front of our customers because there is always a strong idea behind them, yet they never feel like design simply for the sake of design.

D-BROS was born in Tokyo in 1995 from the design company DRAFT, as a place where graphic designers could take their ideas beyond the printed page. Typography, photography, colour, paper and printing became starting points for objects that could actually be used.

Perhaps this is why their work still speaks so strongly to me. Moving from graphic design into running a shop changed the way I look at objects. Something can be visually beautiful, but in a shop it also has to earn its place in everyday life.

And calendars are a particularly interesting example.

A calendar is one of the most ordinary and temporary things we buy. Its basic function hasn't really changed: it tells us the date, stays with us for twelve months and eventually has to be replaced.

But because it remains in the same place for an entire year, I think its design matters even more.

D-BROS manages to add another value to this very functional object. Their calendars don't feel like something we simply need to have on the wall. They become part of the interior — something we are happy to keep in view every day, all year. The design is sophisticated, but the calendar never stops being useful.

For 2027, we have selected three D-BROS wall calendars for ZAKKAsine, together with their long-running Creator's Diary. Each is very different, but all four show something I have admired about D-BROS since we first brought their products into the shop.

D-BROS Typeface Calendar, 2019 - Clarendon. One of the earlier editions of a series that turns something as functional as a calendar into an exploration of typography.

THE DIARY THE DESIGNERS WERE USING THEMSELVES

The Creator’s Diary has a particularly practical beginning.

It originated from a schedule book that designers at DRAFT were actually using in their own work. In 2004, the idea became a D-BROS product, and more than twenty years later it is still being made.

At first it looks like a rather restrained diary. Then you unfold it.

The pages form one continuous accordion, allowing weeks and months to remain physically connected. Daily schedules run vertically, while projects can be mapped horizontally across time. You can open only the section you need, or spread out a much longer period and see deadlines, overlapping projects and the route towards a goal all at once.

As someone who constantly has different orders, deliveries, projects and deadlines running alongside each other, I can immediately understand why a designer would come up with a diary like this. It isn't really about decorating a conventional planner differently. They reconsidered the structure itself.

The accordion construction uses Japanese bookbinding techniques, and when everything is folded back together, this long timeline becomes a compact book again.

There is much more behind how this unusual structure is actually made, which deserves a story of its own. We will take a closer look at the making of the Creator’s Diary in a separate Journal.

Creator’s Diary opened out — its accordion-fold structure connects the schedule continuously, making it possible to see daily plans and longer projects together.

Creator’s Diary — D-BROS introduces a new colour combination each year, giving its long-running design a different character with every edition.

 

 

WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN TODAY AND TOMORROW?

For TOMORROWS 2027, designer Ryosuke Uehara of KIGI takes a much more poetic approach to time.

The theme is utsuroi — a Japanese word expressing gradual change or transition.

Look closely at the dates and their colours overlap. The idea is that there is no clear boundary between today and tomorrow. Time gradually shifts, with one day continuing into the next.

Above them are photographs Uehara had taken and collected in his everyday life. Rather than choosing photographs with an obvious subject or story, he selected images that leave something unexplained and allow the viewer to imagine.

Even the construction has been reduced to the essentials: six double-sided sheets of paper simply hang over a slender stainless-steel rod.

This is one of those D-BROS designs where a very small graphic decision changes the way you look at something completely familiar.

TOMORROWS 2027 — twelve months printed on six double-sided sheets, simply suspended over a slender stainless-steel rod with cotton cord. A small message carries a wish for 365 tomorrows filled with blessings.

 

FROM HOBONICHI CLOTHING TO THE WALL

The story behind CACUMA Patterns 2027 takes another route.

CACUMA is an apparel brand created by graphic designer Yoshie Watanabe together with Hobonichi. For this calendar, twelve patterns previously created for CACUMA clothing have been selected from the archive and given another life — one for each month.

There is a lovely circle to this.

Watanabe has been closely connected to D-BROS for many years and created numerous products for the brand during her time at DRAFT. In 2012, she and Ryosuke Uehara established the design studio KIGI.

Her work moves between graphic design, illustration, textiles, products and clothing. Here, designs that travelled from graphics into fashion return to paper and become part of the interior.

For the 2027 edition, every month is also finished with gold foil. It is a detail that is difficult to appreciate completely on a screen: as the light changes, so does the way the pattern appears.

WHEN THE TYPEFACE IS THE PICTURE

The 2027 Typeface Calendar is probably the most immediately recognisable as a piece of graphic design.

The concept is wonderfully direct: let the typeface be the main character.

For 2027, D-BROS chose Souvenir Bold, based on the Souvenir typeface created by American type designer Morris Fuller Benton in 1914.

Its rounded forms and relatively low contrast give it an unusually friendly character. Enlarged across an A3 calendar, details in the letters and numbers that we would normally never stop to notice suddenly become the visual identity of an entire year.

As a graphic designer, I particularly enjoy this idea. Typography is something we encounter constantly, usually without noticing it at all. Here, there is nowhere for it to hide.

For twelve months, the typeface becomes the picture.

Typeface Calendar 2027 - Souvenir Bold, a typeface created in 1914, becomes the visual character of the year.

LOOKING AGAIN AT ORDINARY THINGS

Perhaps this is what has kept D-BROS interesting to me since we first opened ZAKKAsine.

They don't need to turn an everyday object into something extravagant in order to make it special. Instead, they look closely at what the object already does and find another possibility within it.

A fold changes how we understand a schedule. Overlapping numbers make us notice one day becoming another. A textile created for clothing finds another life on the wall. A typeface from 1914 becomes something we live with in 2027.

After almost ten years of having D-BROS in our shop, I still enjoy unpacking their work and finding out what they have done next.

And with calendars in particular, I think they understand something important: if an object is going to stay in front of us every day for an entire year, it deserves to be something we genuinely enjoy looking at.

Explore the D-BROS collection →