When we came across the tradition of Ekiden, a long-distance relay race held annually in Japan, we knew it was something we’d love to get involved in. Having first made its way to the UK in 2024, the FT Nikkei UK Ekiden Year 2 took place on Friday, June 20, 2025, with TDL Creative as a proud supporter responsible for the Ekiden running event route map design. This project allowed us to combine our love of maps and information design with our love of running and community spirit. Read on to discover how we brought our design thinking from studio to starting line.
Discovering Ekiden
Our Managing Director, Oliver Tomlinson, stumbled upon the Ekiden concept through a book called The Way of the Runner, by author Adharanand Finn. Curious to discover more, he turned to Tomoko Furukawa, TDL Senior Designer, and Japanese national, who shared how Ekiden is a beloved tradition in Japan, with events taking place throughout the year, and a flagship Ekiden broadcast to millions annually over the New Year’s holiday. Rooted in centuries-old messenger routes, Ekiden is more than a race; it celebrates teamwork, pacing, and shared effort, with runners passing a sash (tasuki) instead of a baton. It felt like something we wanted to be part of.
When the team heard that Ekiden had launched in the UK, Oliver posted a call-out on LinkedIn to form a corporate team, which even caught the attention of Adharanand Finn himself. While it ultimately proved difficult to form a running team, we realised we could still be part of the event by doing what we do best: using design to connect people with ideas, information, and each other. After chatting to Anna Dingley, founder of the UK Ekiden, we took on the challenge of creating an engaging Ekiden Route Guide, with sports graphics that illustrate the event’s 114km Thames Path route between Windsor and Reading, and back again. With Tomoko proud to share the project with her Japanese family, and our recently joined Designer (and keen runner!) Nelly Bridger Morales on board, the project felt like a natural fit.
“It was a nice opportunity for us to not just use our design skills, but also work on something we really cared about.”
Oliver Tomlinson, MD & Founder, TDL Creative
Mapping the Race
To kick off the project, we began immersing ourselves in both the traditional Ekiden format and the specific location and logistics of the UK race. We also gathered other sports maps, drawing inspiration from events like IRONMAN, Tough Mudder, and international marathons, analysing them and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. This initial research also made us even more aware of the challenge we faced with mapping the Ekiden route, which ran out and back along the Thames Path, rather than in a single direction or circuit, and required levels of information for two audience types; participants running legs of the route and spectators who were interested in the whole event. We realised this was going to be a great opportunity for some classic TDL deep-thinking!
A big difference from traditional running route maps was the leg element of the Ekiden, with the running audience likely to only be interested in the segment they were running. We plotted GPS Exchange Format (GPX) files provided by the UK Ekiden team over tools like OS Maps to help us create 10 elevation plots for the 10 legs, all editable so we could highlight key elements and turn into easy-to-compare schematic ‘mini-maps’. More on these later…
With the route starting in the East and heading West, we had to make the counterintuitive decision to plot the route and elevation profile from right to left, in alignment with the geographic map. As most graphic visuals and diagrams conventionally read from left to right, we knew it was important to draw the eye towards the right with a darker colour for the start box and the ‘Key Information’ box in the bottom right corner. We also included small directional arrows alongside the route, with accent colours to differentiate the Westbound and Eastbound legs of the race. “On the map, we used a yellow line for the route out, while the route coming back uses pink,” explains Tomoko, Senior Designer. “We decided on these colours to match them with the route signs used in the physical environment,” she continues.
“As information designers, our goal was to make the route easy to follow, but the geography didn’t always make that easy.”
Oliver Tomlinson, MD & Founder, TDL Creative
With the Ekiden being a relay event, it was also important to capture information about each leg of the race. Keeping the participant audience in mind, we aimed to highlight key details for each leg, including distance, elevation, terrain, and handovers. In order to effectively capture all this information in a small space, we decided to use schematic visuals. To distinguish the direction of each leg, we again applied pink and yellow accent colours. “The schematics were done to simplify the route for the readers, because we knew that each reader is probably only interested in the route that they’re going to be running,” reflects Oliver.
Connecting Cultures
While our primary focus was on making the Ekiden route easy to understand, we also saw the design as a chance to honour the event’s Japanese roots. Throughout the Route Guide, we wove in subtle cultural references, from using university colours in sash-shaped icons (inspired by the traditional tasuki) to including Japanese translations and bilingual headings on the front cover. Following a request from the Ekiden organisers, we also highlighted running teams hailing from Japan.
Ahead of race day, our team attended the unveiling of the FT Nikkei UK Ekiden trophy (aka The Ridding Cup). The event, held at Linley and hosted by FT Nikkei Ekiden UK, reflected the event’s mission to celebrate the best of both Japanese and British culture, with The Ridding Cup itself crafted from 1,000 year old Japanese Yakusugi wood and London Plane timber. Also in the lead-up to the Ekiden, we were surprised to see Hiroshi Suzuki, Japan’s UK ambassador, holding up a copy of our Route Guide in a pre-event social media post. It was a slightly surreal moment – and one that made us even more proud of our work.
Passing the Baton
In true Ekiden spirit, the project itself became a relay. After the initial research the design phase was a collaborative effort between different team members, with our Creative Director Craig Melvin stepping in to offer some finishing touches and, importantly, take our designs from screen to print.
While much of the printing was dictated by the leaflet format and client requirements, we also focused on the practicalities of how the guide would be used on the day. “We knew runners and supporters would be opening and closing the Route Guide multiple times,” explains Craig Melvin, TDL Creative Director. “So we had to think carefully about how it folded, down to the millimetre, to avoid any important information getting distorted.” Rather than applying a rigid visual system, it came down to a series of thoughtful, user-focused decisions guided by how people would interact with the guide in the real world.
“We had to think carefully about how the Route Guide folded, down to the millimetre, to avoid any important information getting lost.”
Craig Melvin, Creative Director, TDL Creative
From Studio to Startline
While the project was underway, Nelly was coincidentally invited to run in the Ekiden as an alumna of the University of Reading. Although the rest of the team was slightly envious, we were also excited to see the project come to life through Nelly’s race-day experience. “I ended up running one of the toughest legs, full of elevation, and on a hot day…but the atmosphere was amazing! And I think they captured the Japanese spirit of the race really well,” says Nelly Bridger Morales, TDL Designer.
Oliver and Tomoko also came along to cheer Nelly on and see the Route Guide in action, wearing their trainers so they could run parts of the course and soak up the experience. And in a lovely moment of recognition, TDL got a shoutout over the tannoy speakers for our work on the Route Guide.
Anna Dingley, founder of UK Ekiden, also gave us some excellent feedback. “The Route Guide was a great way for people to get a huge amount of information about the race in a really stylish way,” she says. “It was informative for runners with all the details they may want on terrain and elevation, and fun for spectators too, thanks to the map and points of interest.”
Finishing Thoughts
The project didn’t just result in a successful Route Guide; it also served as a reminder of the role design plays in shaping how people experience the world around them. What began as a simple moment of curiosity when learning about Ekiden in a book, resulted in a collaborative project that blended design, culture, and sport.
For Oliver, the journey has highlighted how unexpected connections can grow from small creative sparks. “Being part of the UK Ekiden has created ongoing connections that never would have happened otherwise,” he says. This project has shown us that when you follow your interests, link them with your craft, and put ideas out into the world, meaningful opportunities tend to follow. In that way, the legacy of this project feels like it’s still unfolding – and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
“The superb Route Guide design helped convey how much work and preparation had gone into the race itself, as well as being a clear and concise way of giving people the information they needed.”
Anna Dingley, Founder of UK Ekiden
A thank you from TDL
Thank you to The FT Nikkei UK Ekiden team for the opportunity to work on such a fantastic project. Your initial brief and ongoing feedback during the production process were crucial. You had a clear understanding of the Ekiden route and the map’s target audience, drawing from your experiences from the 1st race in 2024. We wish you luck in bringing Ekiden to the UK and look forward to 2026!