Uniting the geometry of Japanese Zen gardens with Olympic track iconography into a functional reflective print for night running, created for ASICS ’ 2020 Lite-Show collection.

For the ASICS Lite-Show collection, surface design became a way to explore focus as a shared value between culture and performance.

Released in the year of the Tokyo Olympics, with ASICS as the main sponsor, the project offered a natural moment to connect Japanese heritage, elite sport, and the discipline of running.

The design translates this context into a visual language that merges stillness and speed, intention and motion, allowing cultural reference and functional performance to coexist within a single, purposeful surface.

The graphic language draws from two related systems of line and rhythm: the precise markings of Olympic track and field, and the contemplative patterns of Japanese Zen gravel gardens. 

Though originating from different worlds, both are rooted in repetition, intention, and focus. 

One expresses speed and competition; the other stillness and control. 

The design brings these qualities together into a restrained, coherent visual system.

Executed as a linear reflective print, the graphics serve a clear functional purpose. 

When activated by light, they enhance visibility for runners in low-light conditions, allowing the design to respond directly to movement. What remains subtle during the day becomes dynamic at night, reinforcing the idea that meaning and function are inseparable.

This project reflects my approach to performance design: using cultural context and narrative as a starting point, and allowing function to emerge naturally from concept. 

The Lite-Show graphics demonstrate how heritage, symbolism, and technical performance can coexist within a single surface, focused, purposeful, and in motion.

The Lite-Show print became a key visual element of ASICS’ 2020 running collection, aligning brand heritage, Olympic context, and performance innovation.

By embedding cultural meaning directly into a functional reflective system, the design strengthened the Lite-Show line’s identity as both safety-driven and conceptually grounded, illustrating how surface design can operate simultaneously as performance feature, visual signature, and narrative carrier.