imageMILL K.K. · Est. 2001 · Tokyo
boutique.
specialist.
deeply committed.
imageMILL K.K. is an independent boutique creative agency with over two decades of practice in Tokyo. We bring together a senior core team and an extended network of specialist collaborators — designers, filmmakers, strategists, and community practitioners — assembled for each engagement.
Based in Tokyo. Rooted in Fujino. Working globally.
Why we exist
structural change.
not surface signals.
imageMILL was founded in Tokyo in 2001 out of a specific frustration: the gap between what organisations said about sustainability and what they actually did. That gap hasn’t closed. The language has grown more sophisticated. The performance has grown more polished. The results have not kept pace.
We work with organisations ready to close that gap — not through better communications, but through structural redesign of how they operate, make decisions, and relate to the world around them. The communications follow from that. Not the other way around.
“We are not anti-business. We are anti-noise. Anti-greenwash. Anti-purpose theatre.”
This requires organisations to be honest about the distance between what they claim and what they do. We are experienced in that conversation — and in translating genuine ambition into brand systems, film, and campaigns that hold up to scrutiny.
25 years. B Corp certified. 1% for the Planet. Independently owned and operated throughout. The track record exists because the conviction has never changed.
Founder & Director
Rick
Grehan.
Founder · Creative Director · Environmental Storyteller
Raised by peace activists in Belfast. Over 30 years using design, film, and storytelling as tools for change. Rick founded imageMILL in Tokyo in 2001 — and has run it, stubbornly and independently, ever since. He is the studio’s principal director, lead strategist, and in most projects, its primary creative voice.
His work calls for a specific kind of practitioner: one fluent in both the strategy and the camera, the brief and the field. He has directed films off the Antarctic peninsula for Citizen Watch, shot at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, documented polar adventurers in the Arctic, and produced interactive climate installations in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. The common thread is always the same: organisations navigating the gap between what they claim and what they actually do.
He calls the approach brand journalism — creating regenerative and ethical culture realities within organisations, then telling those stories in truthful and engaging ways. Not advertising. Not content marketing. Something closer to embedded documentary practice applied to brand.
Outside the studio, Rick maintains a daily Zen practice, grows potatoes and tea at The MILL in Fujino, and is currently producing YURIMARU — a documentary about Okinawa’s culture of mutual support. He is a board member and Chair of the Sustainability Committee at the Ireland Japan Chamber of Commerce, and a Climate Reality Leader trained under Al Gore.
In the field
Citizen Watch × History Channel
Shooting off the Antarctic peninsula — Save the Beyond series
Citizen Watch × History Channel
Arctic training with polar explorer Eric Larsen
Citizen Watch × History Channel
Shooting the Kilauea volcano, Hawaii Big Island
How we operate
boutique agency.
senior team.
specialist network.
imageMILL operates as a focused boutique agency built on 25 years of practice in Tokyo. Every engagement is led by senior creative and strategic direction — the same depth of expertise from first conversation through to final delivery.
We bring together a core team and an extended network of specialist collaborators — filmmakers, researchers, brand designers, community facilitators, and regenerative practitioners — assembled to match each project’s specific demands. Expertise at every level, built for the work at hand.
The operational base. Brand strategy, identity, film production, editorial, and client relationships. Tokyo-based, working globally.
Where the practice meets the ground. Workshops, residencies, community programmes, and the regenerative land project that anchors everything we do.
Essays, field notes, film, and the 24 Sekki haiku series. An independent editorial practice — not a content marketing operation.
A curated network of senior specialists — filmmakers, photographers, researchers, brand designers, community facilitators, and regenerative practitioners — built over 25 years of practice. The right expert, for the right project, every time.
Credentials
accountability
as discipline.
We have met the verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. B Corp is not a badge — it is a legal obligation and an annual audit. We take it seriously.
We commit 1% of annual revenue — not profit — to environmental causes. This is a structural commitment, not a discretionary donation. It holds regardless of how the year goes.
Founded in Tokyo in 2001. Independently owned and operated throughout. No investors, no holding company, no external pressures on editorial and creative integrity. This matters more than it sounds.
imageMILL K.K. is a registered Kabushiki Kaisha under Japanese law, with full compliance under Japanese corporate regulation. Tokyo-based, with Japanese and international clients and collaborators.
Let’s work together
if you’re serious
about change —
let’s talk.
We don’t take every project. We take the ones where the organisation is genuinely ready to close the gap between what they say and what they do. If that’s you, we’d like to hear from you.