The city of Tokyo is truly the perfect picture of a metropolis. It's streets sprawl out endlessly and wind into a labyrinth of hidden alleyways. What's more, with all of its flashing lights and gigantic billboards, every inch of the area is essentially a canvas for the advertising of a litany of products. However, how would the city look if those ads were taken away?

Nicolas Damiens seeks to find out the answer to that with an interesting graphic design project, "Tokyo No Ads". This works as both expressing the idea of an advertisement-less Tokyo, but is also a Japanese pun as Tokyo No Ads translated to "The ads of Tokyo." The series of photos (presented as gifs on the original site) offers us a glimpse of what the buzzing streets of Tokyo would look like sans advertisement. As you can see below, things get quite empty!

I'm not quite sure if I feel refreshed or creeped out, but it certainly reveals just how ubiquitous advertising is in Tokyo! Whether you are at a major crosswalk or exploring the back alleys, it's a city that thrives on grabbing your attention with its signs and ads. Maybe in a place that tightly packed, it's the only way to find out what's what.