Tokyo Design Studio Australia launches three ventures as AI search and rising costs drive a shift from cheap design to strategic services.
— As Google Ads ROI flatlines and AI search reshapes how buyers discover brands, a Sydney–Saigon studio launches three specialized ventures built for a market that’s done paying for decoration
A Market in Transition: From Volume to Strategic Value
The global design services market is valued at USD 55.44 billion in 2026 and projected to reach USD 88.7 billion by 2035, but underlying dynamics are shifting rapidly. Traditional search is declining as AI driven discovery rises, while Google Ads costs continue to increase and click through rates fall. At the same time, a growing share of searches now end without any clicks, reducing overall marketing efficiency.
These changes are structural rather than cyclical. The long standing model of prioritizing low cost, high volume design is losing relevance. While platforms and tools made design widely accessible, they also highlighted the limitations of output without strategic intent.
The market is now splitting. Commodity design continues to become faster and cheaper, while demand is rising for strategic, high impact work. Businesses are increasingly seeking design that delivers long term value, including brand systems, packaging, and investor materials that perform across multiple channels.
This is the landscape one Sydney-based studio saw as an opportunity, not a threat.
Tokyo Design Studio Australia (TDS Australia) is a brand design and digital agency operating between Sydney and Saigon, co-founded by Jess Tran Tavitian and Victor Tavitian. The studio, a DesignRush Best Logo Design 2024 winner and IDA 2025 Honourable Mention recipient, has launched three specialized ventures built for the market that’s emerging on the other side of the AI search transition.
The founders bring complementary expertise across strategy and operations. Jess Tran Tavitian combines a background in social science and communication design with experience in Tokyo’s advertising industry. She leads creative and strategic direction across the TDS portfolio. Victor Tavitian is a commercial strategist with leadership roles spanning enterprise technology, digital publishing, blockchain, and AI security, alongside board experience across multiple sectors.
The newly launched entities, TDS DaaS, TDS Game Outsource, and TDS Geo Agency, operate independently but share a common thesis: that the future of creative services lies in specialization and strategic depth rather than speed and volume.
“We kept seeing the same pattern,” said Jess Tran Tavitian. “Brands would come to us for identity work, then ask for subscription design, AI search optimization, or other assets. Instead of forcing that into one model, we gave each its own lane.”
Victor Tavitian added, “The market no longer rewards generalists. It rewards those who fully own a problem space. That’s what these three ventures are designed to do.”
The timing is not accidental. AI search advertising spend is projected to grow from $1 billion in 2025 to $26 billion by 2029. Fifty-four percent of US marketers plan to implement generative engine optimization strategies within the next three to six months. And brands that are cited in AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than those that aren’t. The infrastructure of digital discovery is being rebuilt in real time, and most creative firms haven’t noticed yet.
What Is TDS DaaS and How Does Design-as-a-Service Work?
TDS DaaS, offers unlimited design requests through a flat monthly subscription supported by a dedicated senior team, removing hourly billing and hiring overhead.
The service is positioned around strategic depth rather than volume. While many providers focus on template driven outputs for SMBs, TDS DaaS targets mid market and enterprise clients requiring brand systems, packaging, and investor materials built with long term application in mind.
This positioning is supported by senior talent. Brand strategist Kristine Bell leads advisory, bringing experience with global brands, while Claudia Marulanda serves as Creative Director, contributing a cross disciplinary approach to visual execution.
Why Is an Australian Studio Entering the Game Development Outsource Market?
TDS Game Outsource, provides game art, UI and UX, and visual development services through its Saigon based production team, connecting global studios with Southeast Asia’s growing talent pool.
Vietnam has emerged as a key destination for scalable game development talent, and the venture positions itself between this capacity and the design standards of its parent studio. Alongside production, it is developing mobile positioning technology targeting sub 3 cm accuracy on standard Android devices to support future location based AR applications.
At the same time, the search landscape is shifting. AI Overviews now appear in a significant share of Google searches, with most users no longer clicking through to external sites. As traditional search behavior declines, brands that are not optimized for AI driven discovery risk losing visibility entirely.
What Is Generative Engine Optimization and Why Does It Matter for Brands?
TDS Geo Agency, recognized as a pioneering generative engine optimization consultancy and one of the first research-backed GEO agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, helps brands get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude. Not ranked. Cited.
The methodology is research-led, built on a proprietary 77-signal trust framework mapping the factors that determine whether an LLM cites a given source. The practice spans schema markup, question-format content architecture, E-E-A-T signal strengthening, AI crawler configuration, and cross-property citation flow strategies.
Senior Partner William Mallet, formerly Vice President at Barclays, has joined TDS Geo Agency, bringing institutional credibility and cross-sector strategic weight to a discipline that most of the market is still trying to name. Separately, the studio’s affiliated research programs have drawn senior figures from intelligence and institutional backgrounds, reinforcing the analytical rigour behind the methodology.
The agency tests everything it sells across a network of owned properties, including Design Magazine, Ex Nihilo Magazine, and the parent TDS Australia site, running GEO strategies at scale before deploying them for clients.
“Traditional SEO isn’t going away, but it’s no longer sufficient,” Jess Tran Tavitian noted. “If an AI assistant answers your customer’s question and your brand isn’t in that answer, you’ve lost a touchpoint you didn’t even know existed.”
What Does This Signal About Where the Industry Is Heading?
The specialized design services market, valued at $177 billion in 2026 and projected to reach $243 billion by 2030, is undergoing a structural split. At one end, AI-powered tools and gig platforms are automating the bottom of the market faster than anyone predicted. At the other, enterprise buyers are consolidating spend with fewer, more strategic partners who can deliver brand systems, not just brand assets.
TDS Australia’s multi-venture model is a bet on the second trajectory. Each arm feeds the others: GEO research informs the consultancy, game outsource projects drive technical R&D, DaaS clients benefit from brand strategy depth that commodity subscriptions can’t replicate. The parent studio’s award-winning design practice remains the foundation.
Whether the model scales will depend on execution. However, the market conditions it addresses, including declining advertising returns, AI driven search disruption, and a shift away from volume based design, are expected to persist. Tokyo Design Studio Australia can be contacted at [email protected] or by phone at +61 420 720 992, with additional information available at tdsaustralia.com.au.
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Name: Tokyo Design Studio Australia
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Organization: Tokyo Design Studio Australia
Website: https://tdsaustralia.com.au/
Release ID: 89187311
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