Since 2003, Wieden + Kennedy TokyoLab has embraced the term "hybrid" with full force, using its connections in the music, art and design worlds to foster high-concept CD/DVD packaging for Japanese musicians such as DJ Uppercut, Hifana and Takagi Masakatsu. On the occasion of its 10th album release, the label is hoping to shift its "hybrid" projects into long-form, live action territory.

This month, the record label will celebrate the completion of "Tokyo Ten", a blog/book/DVD project that features a retrospective on the past five years as well as all-new artwork and an original music video directed by Kosai Sekine.

"The word 'ten' in the Japanese language means a point or an exclamation - for us as a record label, it also means a turning point," says W+K TokyoLab creative director Eric Cruz. "A lot of our stuff has been animated; we come from a design background and frankly film is not something we can afford. But we're increasingly getting into digital films."

To date, W+K TokyoLab's output has been heavily influenced by Cruz's design/animation background, as evidenced by the 10 music videos and much of the artwork contained in the Tokyo Ten book and DVD. In January, he sent out a brief to 42 visual artists and designers who'd previously collaborated with the label to create new work that would give global viewers an insight into what they find inspiring about Tokyo. The process of the book's creation was chronicled on the project's blog so the artists involved would be exposed to each other's work.

"In 2008, a book can no longer be just a book," the brief states. "But rather a media hybrid, connected to forces from the online world, interactive and motion media."

The initial idea for W+K TokyoLab grew out from a limited edition album of Japanese hip hop Wieden + Kennedy, Tokyo produced for Nike in 1999. Tokyo's music establishment approached the agency to start a label that would be completely free of client sponsorship. A few attempts to partner with Japanese music execs failed but in 2003, an internal push got TokyoLab off the ground. It has since formed a partnership with EMI and grown into an outlet for creatives to build briefs beyond advertising thanks to an in-house team of artists, animators and Flash programmers.

"Even though the market has shrunk, consumers here still treasure the idea of buying the package," says Cruz. "Our packaging is an experience in and of itself. Instead of downsizing our thinking, we're going in the opposite direction. Our audience here has a tradition of collecting."

A landmark project was the label's sixth release, a hybrid CD/DVD for breakbeat duo Hifana called "Channel H" for which the visual concept - the DJs hijack a TV station - evolved in tandem with the songwriting. The accompanying DVD featured animated idents, music videos, security camera-style footage of the band covertly breaking into the station and spots hyping Hifana's next record.

Future projects will likely involve digital and mobile music releases and visuals that take the label's "hybrid" concept into feature-length territory. "We're also challenging ourselves to rethink how music videos are being made," says Cruz. "We want to create a long-form narrative involving a band, something similar to a feature film."

The first step in the live-action direction is director Kosai Sekine's video "Maledict Car" (pictured) for newly-signed TokyoLab artist Jemapur, an inverted collage of quintessentially Japanese urban imagery, inspired by the song's flat, looping melody.

"I decided to look behind Tokyo by developing an intricate visual montage or series of patterns of a certain cityscape of Tokyo," says Sekine. "I tried to show the ordinary view of Tokyo graphically using simple effects - inversions or split screens. A little bit of inversion can change the look of Tokyo into something unique, beautiful, and even eerie sometimes. Burning the multiplied cityscapes into viewers' memory was my intention. Therefore, in a way, I can say what you see in this video is in some parts the real Tokyo and partly not."

To see the video flyer for the Tokyo Ten launch party, click here.