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Team member

Mei Tanaka

Head of strategy

Portrait of Mei Tanaka

At the studio since

2017

Based in

Your City

Leads

Positioning, research

Favourite typeface

A plain serif for long reading

Currently reading

Thinking, Fast and Slow

About

Mei

Mei leads the first weeks of every project: interviews, audits and the one-page brand truth that everything else is built on.

She spent six years in research before joining the studio and asks the questions most clients have been avoiding.

Mei's workshops are short, a little uncomfortable and always end with one sentence everyone agrees on.

9

Years in strategy

80+

Workshops run

120

Customer interviews a year

In their words

If you cannot say it in one sentence, you cannot design it.

Short questions

Ten minutes

with

Mei

.

What makes good work last?

Saying the same true thing for long enough that people repeat it for you.

What do you say no to?

Positioning that tries to please every audience at once.

Best advice for clients?

Write your one sentence before you hire anyone to design it.

Where do ideas come from?

Customer interviews. People say the best lines without noticing.

Recognition

Awards and talks.

2025

Speaker, Strategy Day

Brand Strategy Forum

2024

Shortlist, Positioning

The Brand Annual

2023

Mentor, Founder Programme

Startup Studio

2022

Essay of the Year

Brand Quarterly

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