A major problem in the mass produced sunglasses space is that many of the popular brands today are produced by 1 company, Essilor Luxottica. Their portfolio consists of over 150 brands, where it’s estimated they control 30% of the global sunglasses market. Many of the brands produced under Essilor Luxottica consist of high-end Italian brands where many of their identities are so synonymous with one another, there’s little to no brand differentiation.

When tasked with providing art direction for Opto, there was an opportunity to truly deviate from the standard norm of what a high-end sunglasses company could be visually. To highlight Opto as a Japanese company, the strategy was to lean into the principle of “wabi sabi” – a Japanese world view of imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete aesthetics in nature. This direction was 2 fold: although design and hand craft in Japan is done with the upmost care, no 2 products are truly the same. Utilizing the concept of wabi wabi created an opportunity to mix conflicting but complimentary visual styles (1 imperfect married with the beauty of the subject (person). This direction not only created a distinct identity when compared to their Italian counterparts, but reinforced cultural values while embodying their DNA.