School emblem of Tokyo Metropolitan Tachibana High School (2006)

Client: Tokyo Metropolitan Tachibana High School

Tokyo Metropolitan Tachibana High School (Tachibana, Sumida City) is Japan's first industrial high school, established in April 2007. The project was to design an emblem for this new school.

The high school came into existence as the result of a merger between a technical and a commercial high school. The school requested an emblem reflecting its double disciplines. Takahashi used a hammer (to represent its technical aspect) and an abacus bead (commercial), and incorporated them in the image of the tachibana (wild orange) flower after which the school was named. "Technical and commercial studies amalgamated and growing into a tachibana flower" was the image she wanted to create. She also used traditional shapes and colors inspired by a well-known Japanese legend "Oto Tachibana Hime" to make it an emblem of the bearers of the future―the students at the high school.