Shoichiro Takei

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved drawing comics. I especially liked creating my own worlds and making stories in them. I didn't dream to become a designer, but I was hoping for a job where I could use these skills.

On the southern tip of the Japanese archipelago, in Kagoshima, with all of Kyushu as business territory, Our company manages five factories and with a firm foothold in the packaging industry. We mainly produce and sell cardboard and cardboard boxes, but we have also started to produce and sell cosmetic cases. We offer all kinds of packaging services using all kinds of different materials to create packaging that not only keeps the products intact, but also increase the sales. Our design division has six employees - three are pattern architechts, the other three are graphic designers.

To see through the object and find its true nature, then put it through the filter of all of the designer's senses, and coming up with an original expression to create a physical embodiment of this.

The moment when you've drawn an illustration or some letters and scan it and use it for layout in a design. Or, the moment when you get a printout of the sample.

Fukuro's baked donut package. A design that takes the round shape of a donut and likens it to the eye of an owl. To make that circle come alive, I used a grid pattern for the background. Too bring out the soft texture of the baked donuts in the design, I used light coloration and created an overall soft feeling. I turned the 'O' in the title ("OWL RING") into a donut with a bite mark. It took me long time before I was satisfied with the look of the bite mark, so I bit the donut til the perfect bite, I almost got sick... now, that's a fond memory.

When I use a pencil to draw an illustration. I'm not a big fan of straight lines. I especially like analogue expressions.

When I see an excellent design or illustration. Regardless of when, where, or who made it. For example, there are times when a coffee cup stains look truly brilliant.

Whether the design is rich in imagination or not. Excellent design is the designer themselves. When the design is soaked in the designer's very way of life. To me, it's important whether I can sense the designer's body odor when I see a design.

Happiness, pain, ecstasy, depression, contradicting feelings intersect and intertwine. From that chaos, a light breaks forth. At first, suspicion gives rise to more suspicions, but as you gain experience, all of that turns into confidence.

Ecstatic! To feel like you were the ruler of heaven and earth, as if you had solved the mystery of life.

Whether that product's meaning of existence matches my own world view. And then, when you have the preparation and determination to become a slave to the design and pour your everything into it, you succeed with that.

To make people rich in heart. Through the design, you can raise the level of that area's cultural level, and make the people who see it richer in heart. Design has the power to make people happy.

Design makes people rich in heart. On the material side, our desires have already been satisfied. In the next epoch, what will matter is emotional richness. The importance of design will become easier to explain.

April 2008, in Kagoshima, Japan. If it's possible, I'd like to do one abroad, this year.

My life until this point is the source, a life of insatiably absorbing every single field of arts, and always tackling new challenges.

My own design style is emotional and melancholic, and there's also a nostalgic feel to it. I think this style has the power to delve deep into the hearts and souls of people, and heal their souls, so to speak. The most distinctive characteristic of the design is how it can make people peaceful. I place special importance on an "analogue" mood. I particularly like hand-drawn pencil art. I place the greatest importance on imagination, though.

Living in Japan. I think I'm able to use the expressions of the untranslatable Japanese aesthetic sense known as "wabisabi," to accomplish depth by not showing everything, because I live and experience the Japanese culture. I think that the design on the Airaguma site's top page is rich in this aesthetic. In Japan (Kagoshima), the awareness of design is still pretty low. I hope that my winning this prize overseas will help raise the consciousness.

I would hope the designer would learn and appreciate the importance, necessity and the effects of design in our lives. How design affects our society, and how design solves various problems we have in our world. In a way, a good designer is an outlaw, because he is never subservient to the societal norm but always questioning and unsatisfied with it. That unfulfilled energy is the button that pushes him out of the innovative boundaries to create something revolutionary. The next generational norm is foreign to us now. When we start to see the creation on its own merit not where the designer’s pedigree, we will be going in the right direction. (Being a good employee to a company is another matter however)

First, I do an orientation to absorb and digest what our client wants and needs. Then I imagine the scene in which I accomplish the goal of the project. In my imagination, I verify freely if my plan will be effective. If yes, I start drawing up some mock-ups, while looking for the sweet spot of the design plan. Most of the time, I know already what is the best thing to do but also know that it would be a hard work, so I attempt to escape from it. Thus most of the mock-ups tend to be the easier and not the correct solutions. Once I am not satisfied with my own escapist easy solutions, I brace myself to commit to create the right and best solution. It takes tremendous energy to get to that point, and my whole existence is concentrated for that point.

A Mini Cooper / Apple Cinema Display / A business card case my grandmother was using during the Maiji period (1868-1912) / A LeKlint lamp / Nike Caddy-bag Athletic 14x14

I awake at 6:30, leave home to work at 8. Work until about 18:30 then relax at home. I’m usually in bed by midnight.

Get to know yourself. What interests you, what do you like, what is important to you? What it means to live? What can you do to not regret anything when you die? What makes you the happiest? What is the priority in life? To know the answer to these will give you hints and shortcuts to creating something that only you can. The techniques and sensibilities can wait.

The positives could be that designers can put our all into the job that we are excited about. The reverse is true of the jobs that we are not into. Especially we tend to be influenced by how we like our clients.

The imagination is the key. Draw on your heart’s canvas over and over. And create a comfort zone in order to be in the mental state receptive to inspirations.

The ability to draw pictures. And the ability to come up with images.

Pencils, colored pencils, papers, the internet, MacPro by Apple, Adobe softwares(Illustrator, Photoshop), books that gather brilliant designers’ ideas from around the world.

I stop when I start to lose efficiency. Nothing good comes out of strain. I do most of my creative works in the morning when my head is clear. From the afternoon to the evening, I get operational works done.

When one package design job turned into a whole branding project; from designing a retail space to web site to advertising campaign.

Our clients are from the so-called secondary sector such as processed foods, and the first sector such as fruits and vegetables.

Confectionery packaging. The design appropriate for them and my sensibility seem to be a good fit.

I would like to be connected with clients from all over the world even when I live in Japan. I am especially interested in package designs of sweets overseas. I also would like to continue writing and drawing children’s books.

Depends on the project, but most of the time I complete projects by myself.

We are working on designing cardboard box for shipping that also can be displayed in storefront. The idea is that the package is not just a box to put things in, but it contains the entire brand image, so that the box can have multiple functional possibilities.

I have always wanted to be in a creative line of work, but never imagined to be recognized abroad. With the availability of the Internet, there are things that are possible now that we never could have imagined. Individuals with the will and the energy are able to and ought to get connected with the world and expand the platform in which to be appreciated. My heartfelt gratitude goes to the A Design Award for giving me such an opportunity. Thank you very much!