Creative Boom is on the ground in Milan to experience how the Japanese brand blends tradition, technology, and tactile design through its Black Butterfly concept and a new wave of emerging creators.
The theme of Milan Design Week 2025—Design is Human—couldn’t be more appropriate for Lexus. Since launching in 1989, the luxury carmaker has made ‘human-centred’ innovation its calling card.
“While we make cars that are machines and adopt the latest technology, we want people to have a more emotional connection,” explains Koichi Suga, general manager of the Lexus Design Division. “That’s been true from the beginning.”
It’s a sentiment that threads through the brand’s latest exhibition at Superstudio Più. With a confident yet considered approach, Lexus is presenting a pair of installations that reflect both its design legacy and its vision for the future: A-Un, an immersive centrepiece created with Japanese studios SIX and STUDEO, and Discover Together, a collaborative project showcasing emerging talent and a refreshed direction for the Lexus Design Award.
At the heart of both installations is the Black Butterfly, which Lexus describes as a dual-interface cockpit control concept from the Lexus LF-ZC, their next-generation EV. Far from just a tech showcase, the Black Butterfly is a motif for how technology can quietly enrich our lives rather than distract from them.
“Experiences today are more complex, more connected,” says Suga. “But Lexus wants to simplify the user experience with Black Butterfly – not to remove the joy of driving, but to make it more intuitive and natural.”
As autonomous driving becomes more prevalent, Lexus is resisting the urge to automate everything. Instead, it’s doubling down on emotion. “Cars have life,” Suga says. “They’re one of the rare objects that you can attach love to.”
That philosophy is brought vividly to life in A-Un. Taking its name from the Japanese concept of “harmonised breath,” the large-scale installation features a monumental butterfly-shaped screen woven from 35 kilometres of bamboo fibre.
As visitors approach, the sensor responds to their heartbeat in real-time, pulsating and shimmering in synchrony with data captured from their bodies. It’s both beautiful and strangely calming—a blend of traditional craft, biofeedback, and speculative design.
Designers Takeshi Nozoe (SIX) and Tatsuki Ikezawa (STUDEO) worked closely with Lexus’s in-house team to translate the brand’s Black Butterfly concept into an artwork that is deeply human in its expression. Their work shows how future mobility could be shaped by anticipation, not reaction and imagines vehicles that don’t just respond to commands but that evolve with us by growing through constant interaction and learning.
That blend of AI and intuition is echoed in the cockpit design itself. “It’s a big change from what we’re used to,” says Moto Takabatake of Lexus’s Vision Design Division. “We’ve shifted from physical buttons and levers to a touch-based interface that feels safe and fluid. Everything is connected through software, which creates a smarter, more elegant experience.”
But Lexus’s presence in Milan isn’t just about showcasing the cutting edge; it’s also about nurturing the next wave of thinkers and makers. That’s where Discover Together comes in: a triptych of interactive works from Bascule Inc., Northeastern University, and Lexus’s own design team. The installations were developed as a legacy project from the Lexus Design Award, which will relaunch later this year in a new, more collaborative format, with a dedicated showcase planned for Milan Design Week 2026.
Each of the Discover Together works responds to the Black Butterfly concept in a unique way. Bascule’s Earthspective repositions human voices as imprints on the future, captured as glowing artefacts drifting through a cosmic void. Northeastern’s Our Energy Nexus uses real-time air quality data to visualise collective environmental impact, turning positive action into radiant stars. And Discover Your Butterfly, created by Lexus’s in-house team, turns each visitor’s motion into a digital butterfly, fluttering in a shared space to suggest the potential of small actions to create big change.
Yuri Tamura, one of Lexus’ in-house designers behind the Black Butterfly concept, shared how the project challenged and expanded her own creative practice. “I’m an in-house designer at Lexus, but this time, I was able to collaborate with the brand as a creator, and it allowed me to express myself in a completely new way.
“I had to learn everything from scratch with new tools and new ways of thinking, and it expanded my perspective and my approach.”
Through that shift, Tamura discovered something deeper about Lexus’s design philosophy: “True innovation comes not just from technology but from creating a meaningful emotional connection.”
It’s no accident that these experiences are tactile and participatory. As Lexus continues to refine its approach to software-defined vehicles – which can evolve through updates rather than physical redesigns – it’s also thinking about how to bring users along on that journey. Imagine if you could update your car the same way you update your phone, getting new software and a more intuitive experience without having to start from scratch.
That tension between digital evolution and emotional continuity is at the heart of Lexus’s approach to design. And for Suga, now in his 36th year at the company, it’s a challenge worth embracing. “When Lexus first launched, it was a huge turning point for Toyota,” he reflects. Now, we’re at another one where the future is unclear, but we keep asking ourselves: What is Lexus, and what do we want to be?”
Events like Milan Design Week help Lexus keep that question alive. As Suga puts it: “It’s very important for us, and the outcomes this year have been so diverse. That helps us grow too, as it shows us different perspectives.”
Perhaps that’s the real power of the Black Butterfly—not just as a control system but as a delicate, quiet, and full-of-potential symbol for transformation. In the context of Milan’s fast-paced, hype-heavy design scene, Lexus’s slow-burn approach stands out. It’s not here to disrupt; it’s here to connect.