How Our Lion Logo Became an Island: The Making of LEONIA Island

Company websites are often closed before anyone reads them, and with seven lines of business, ours was no exception. So we decided to build a way in that people can touch before they read. The result is LEONIA Island, an island shaped like the lion in our logo.

Explore the island

1. The island’s shape comes from the logo

The coastline is the outline of the lion in our logo. We did not draw a likeness; we extracted the outline from the logo data, so seen from directly above, the island is the logo.

The opening came from the same idea. The “LOADING” line keeps drawing until it becomes the lion, gold strokes rise, and the island surfaces from the sea. In about six seconds, the logo becomes the island in one continuous motion.

2. The buildings are our businesses

Every building stands for one of LEONIA’s businesses: core systems that link a head office and its branches with lines of light, a specialty shop in a department store for new business development, a gear factory for business improvement, and a port with a container ship for trade. At the tip of the tail stands a lighthouse for consultations. Touch a building to open its description and go straight to the business page.

3. Real traffic rules on the streets

A playful feature can look cheap the moment something feels slightly off. So the streets around the LEONIA Building follow Japan’s traffic rules.

• Cars keep to the left, and crosswalks use the horizontal stripes found in Japan.
• One signal cycle lasts 41 seconds: 16 seconds of green for cars, 3 of yellow and 4 of all-red, then 12 seconds of walk and 4 of flashing.
• Pedestrians start crossing only when the remaining walk time is enough. Cars stop on yellow when they can do so comfortably.

We checked these rules by simulating about four minutes of the streets. The result: zero crossings on red, zero cars entering while pedestrians had the walk signal, and zero vehicle overlaps. The checks also found one corner where cars briefly jumped, and we rebuilt the turns and braking to be gentler.

4. Streets for everyone

People walking, people in wheelchairs, cyclists, children and older people pass each other and say hello around the LEONIA Building. A team of five works on the rooftop, and the park is a place anyone can drop by. The scene puts LEONIA’s belief into a landscape: creating a society where no one is left behind and everyone can be true to themselves.

The season is autumn, with colored trees and falling leaves. Switch to night and the streets light up, and cars and bicycles turn their lights on.

5. Water and a coin hunt

Stroke the sea and ripples spread. Set off fireworks at night and their light falls on the water.

Somewhere on the island, three LEONIA coins are hidden. While looking for them, visitors turn the island and move close to the buildings, and before long they have met every business. We hid the coins near the buildings so that this happens naturally. Find all three and three more appear in new places.

6. What we cared about behind the scenes

• Japanese, English and Korean, the same languages as our consultation desk.
• A still image on devices set to reduce motion.
• No extra weight on the top page. The island loads only when it comes near the screen.

We went through more than 15 rounds of refinements, down to how a pedestrian turns a corner and which way a coin faces.

Closing

LEONIA Island began with a question: could we tell people about our company in a more engaging way? Creating this kind of small delight inside a business is also part of LEONIA’s work. If you are wondering how to present your company or products, please contact us through our contact form.

The LEONIA Building on the island (completion planned for April 2030) is an illustration and may differ from the actual building.