Anonymous

4 Sep 2020

Field Notes
Instant Ramen in Tokyo


Everyone has a story about how they formed a philosophy for their work and life. It could be a mentor, a book, a film, or a quote. Ours? It started with a bowl of instant ramen.

In 2005, the year we started Anonymous, we visited Tokyo for the first time. With little money to spare, we booked the cheapest flights, stayed in a small but clean hotel, and had a strict daily budget of US$60—for food, transport, and maybe a small souvenir.

One late night, we stopped by a Japanese combini (convenience store) for a snack. If you’ve ever been to one, you know the feeling—it’s like an amusement park, filled with endless rows of snacks, bento boxes, magazines, toiletries, and drinks, both hot and cold. Everything looks cool, functional, and intentional.

I picked up a bowl of dry instant ramen that didn’t require a pot or stove—just hot water and a simple drain mechanism. Back at the hotel, I studied the packaging, trying to decipher the instructions written entirely in Japanese. Fortunately, the numbered steps were clear enough:

  1. Lift corner A, add condiments, pour hot water, seal, and wait 3 minutes.
  2. Peel off corner C and drain hot water through perforated holes.

At first glance, nothing unusual. But then I remembered how instant noodles were packaged in Singapore and most other places:

  1. Lift corner A, add condiments, pour hot water, seal, and wait 3 minutes.
  2. Peel off corner B and drain water.

It seems like a minor detail, but that small addition—the perforated holes—made all the difference. Without them, you’d have to balance the bowl over a sink, trying not to spill noodles or scald your hands. The holes made draining effortless. That was good design.

Not the graphics on the packaging.
Not the logo or branding.
Not the advertising.

Just the simple act of adding perforations to make life easier.

Be Useful. Not Popular.

That moment shaped our approach to design. We believe in creating things that feel natural for the person using them—even if they go unnoticed.

But applying this philosophy to communications design hasn’t always been easy, especially in recent years when more design is often mistaken for better design. Between 2014 and 2015, I started rethinking how we could be useful. That’s when I realized: strategy and planning is a form of design.

Designing a system, a plan, or a framework to make things better and to make better things—it’s an invisible but powerful form of design. The difference? It’s presented in words, diagrams, and data instead of physical objects.

So we evolved. From a design company to a planning and creative direction company. The shift was natural because, unknowingly, we had already been applying this approach to our studio projects like A Design Film Festival and FoodCine.ma, and later as the lead agency for the UNIQLO Global Flagship Stores in Singapore and Manila. It also aligned with our deeper purpose: to find the right problems to solve and to help others do their best work.


Evolving With the World

The world moves at warp speed. Value shifts constantly. To stay relevant, we have to evolve, adapt, and rethink what it means to be useful. Whatever work you do today, chances are you’ll need to reinvent yourself soon. The process will be uncomfortable. But if you have a philosophy to guide you, the ride becomes a little easier.

Fun fact: Most instant noodle bowls outside of Japan today still do not have perforated holes.

—
Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous

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