Tokyo Art Beat

Over the last decade, we’ve been lucky enough to share studio space, growing pains and many successful projects with the creators of one of Tokyo’s most vital art resources, Tokyo Art Beat.

Co-founded by AQ’s very own Paul Baron in 2004 as a bilingual art exhibition listing website, TAB is visited by art lovers 200,000 times a month, and has extended its reach via bestselling iPhone and Android apps, New York and Kansai-based sister sites, and a bilingual free paper, circulation 100,000, all designed by AQ.

Tokyo Art Beat’s non-profit status has inspired us to always make a lot from a little. Our collaborations with TAB have proved a fruitful testing ground for many of the ideas and tools that we bring to our projects today: careful information design, an iterative design process, usability testing, log analysis and search engine optimization, all of which have helped TAB’s audience and influence grow continuously over the years.

Tokyo Art Map is a bilingual, free art guide, published bimonthly by Tokyo Art Beat and distributed at 500 locations throughout the city. AQ worked with TAB to conceive the publication, and art directed its first five years.

In its tenth year of operation, we grew the website’s audience 15% through small, iterative improvements like mobile optimization and redesigns of high traffic pages.

Tokyo Art Beat’s paid iPhone app, Android App, and Museum Coupon App are used by over 100,000 Tokyo art fans, and contribute significantly to the financial sustainability of the non profit organization.

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