DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: I got inspired by Ryoko Iwase’s award wining architecture, “terrace fields” and adopted its concept into the design. Her work creates contrast of light and shadow, which also inspired me to use black and white as the concept colour.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: As the design involved both Japanese characters and the alphabet, I adopted a layout that brings out the beauty in the Japanese characters. Also, in order to maintain a beautiful white balance, I thoroughly adjusted the weight of Japanese characters and the alphabet.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: It will be developed into a self-branding tool such as a website.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: When Ryoko became an independent architect, she asked me to create her brand identity tools. I created one that will suite her work as well as her future visions. I believe that simple designs like architecture, will never become old, and maintain timeless beauty.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: I used Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: The most unique aspect of this design is that its layout is a vertical structure as the main characters will be in Japanese, however it is compatible for a mixture of alphabet and Japanese characters.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: By creating a minimal yet functional design system, I can compose various branding tools from one design format.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
: I sought for a dynamic yet ultimate beauty by inspecting numerous layout patterns.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: I spent the most time on the structure as the composition of Japanese fonts and the alphabet is very different.