Silver Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design · 2019
Plants Trade Concept Book and Poster
- A' Design Award 2019 Silver Winner in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Awarded April 15, 2019
- CLIENT: Plants Trade
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 61,919
- Verification code B4CD346C9F · Verify this award
About Plants Trade Concept Book and Poster
PLANTS TRADE is a series of an innovative and artistic form of botanical specimens, which was developed to build a better relationship between humans and nature rather than educational materials. The Plants Trade Concept Book was prepared to help you understand this creative product. The book, designed in exactly the same size as the product, features not only nature photos but unique graphics inspired by the nature’s wisdom. More interestingly, the graphics are carefully printed by letterpress so that every image varies in color or texture, just like natural plants.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Concept Book was designed in exactly the same size as the products, botanical specimens. Not only photos of nature, the book also features unique graphics which the designer created with drawing inspiration from the nature’s wisdom. More interestingly, the graphics are carefully printed by letterpress so that every image varies in color or texture, just like natural plants.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The Concept Book is a hardcover, 105 x 190 mm, consisting of 52 pages. The Poster is 505 x 728 mm.
- Tags
- Concept Book, Botanical Specimen, Letterpress, Graphics, Plants Trade, Nature
- Production Technology
- The Concept Book used the foil printing on its white cardboard cover, the offset printing for 5 photographs and the letterpress printing for 14 graphics. The Poster used the offset printing for the photograph and the letterpress printing for the graphic.
- Design Challenge
- The difficulty in designing the Concept Book was in what way the designer should create graphics that can make people think of the nature’s wisdom. After consideration, the designer chose the letterpress printing for graphics to depict different colors or textures, just like real plants.
- Project Duration
- The project started in September 9th, 2017 in Tokyo and it is still ongoing. The Concept Book was published in Japan on that date and was exhibited at Tokyo Art Book Fair in October 2017, Shibuya Publishing & Booksellers in August 2018 and at Kamome Books in September 2018.
- Operation Flow
- The Concept Book will be on sales online as well as at exhibitions or events such as art book fair. Not simply as a printed object, the designer hopes people feel the unspoken messages from plants, that is, Nature’s Wisdom.
- Inspiration
- Plants Trade is a series of an innovative and artistic form of botanical specimens, not like the conventional ones that are merely used as educational material. The product was born to build a better relationship between humans and nature. The Concept Book was made to help people understand this creative product.
- Image Credits
- Image＃2:Photographer Takashi Hiramatsu, 2018.
Image＃3:Photographer Takashi Hiramatsu, 2018.
Image＃4:Photographer Takashi Hiramatsu, 2018.
Image＃5:Photographer Takashi Hiramatsu, 2018. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to PLANTS TRADE, 2017
Colors of Plants Trade Concept Book and Poster
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G0E23 ShopDesign Interview about Plants Trade Concept Book and Poster
I feel that all the experiences I’ve had until today serves a drop of inspiration for my design.
My goal for this work was to visualize the wisdom of plants.
The CONCEPT BOOK is on sale on the PLANTS TRADE website http://plants-trade.com and also will be on sale at the Tokyo Art Book Fair 2019.
It took about six months.
I proposed PLANTS TRADE to make a concept book with my design.
I am seriously looking for shops or publishers who would like to have this concept book on their product list.
I designed this concept book because I myself was really attracted by PLANTS TRADE’s beautiful products while I thought they could do more in terms of branding and promotion.
In designing this concept book, I was greatly influenced by Hideki Nakajima, Hideki Inaba as well as the CEO at my previous company.
The main target of this concept book is specimen collectors or those who are interested in letterpress printing.
It is extremely different from typical botanical design both in concept and expression. Additionally, by using the letterpress printing, each book varies in color and texture.
We simply call it with the brand name ‘PLANTS TRADE Concept Book’.
I used Adobe Illustrator CC for this project.
I think the simplicity and artistic design are very unique in this design.
For this design, I received a great support of Mr.Shunsuke Ikai from Albert Design who has a very high level of knowledge and technique about letterpress printing. I’m pretty sure that this work couldn’t have done without him.
With PLANTS TRADE customers, I conducted research about why they bought the products and their satisfaction level with the products.
The efforts, time and cost related to letterpress printing posed a challenge in this design project.
I applied for the competition because I was inspired by a Japanese designer who won an international award ( I learned that via Facebook.)
I acquired know-how on the letterpress printing through designing this book.
Since the images cannot tell the true beauty of graphics and photography of the concept book, I really would like you to touch and feel the book by your hand.