We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Yukino Shunme about their original and creative Double Sakazuki design work. Yukino Shunme is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original double sakazuki works.
Yukino Shunme ("YS") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Tsuzumi Double Sakazuki. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
YS : I want my work to be beautiful, comfortable to touch, and easy to clean.
YS : I want to achieve modernity in the tradition. In other words, traditional art should be expressed in a modern form without any compromise.
YS : I would like people around the world to know this shikki design.
YS : I could not remember exactly, but it suddenly came to mind while I was trying picturing something unique.
YS : I definitely decide to pursuit my inspiration.
YS : Though it should be hard for me who is a new comer to this industry, I am producing my work myself. I always think the promotion of my works.
YS : Great fondness for authenticity of the traditional things or anything.
YS : I guess all the things that have persuasiveness and beauty.
YS : Affluent people who love traditionally sophisticated things to use in everyday life.
YS : This design focuses on the beauty that can be realized only through traditional production process with totally natural materials. And also, all the main items of shikki that I have designed so far are easy to clean after using them because they have no corners. Furthermore, they are repairable and one of technical examples to repair is Kintsugi which uses gold powder. The items would artistically reborn getting new expression with Kintsugi applied.
YS : Tsuzumi is Japanese hand drum. I named my design just because of its shape.
YS : Honestly speaking, I did not use no design tools. Just drawing an image and put down the description on a page of Pages on Mac. I want tools for design.
YS : My design is fine to look, to use, and to maintain.
YS : Yes, artisans. Artisans for wooden base, shitaji, urushi, makie, and roiro respectively. They are truly excellent, especially on the point that they are cooperative with my project in spite of the fact that I am an outsider.
YS : Turning machines for Wooden Base and Shitaji might be said as examples. However, my design is enabled by artisans' professional skills which are accumulated on tradition in a sense.
YS : I just wanted to realize my design to see what I wanted to get.
YS : Because this design should be realized in the world of traditional craft, it was a little hard for me to make my design understood and welcomed. However, passing through a few adieus, excellent artisans with an open mind accepted me.
YS : From the start, I have wanted to globally introduce my design, and I found A'Design Competition should be the best one for me.
YS : I have learned that I should not loose my concept even if nobody understand it. Furthermore, I came to know that the artisans want to understand what a designer is trying create, provided that they are the ones who truly have skills to meet the designer's needs as well as an open mind.
YS : I believe this design would make people happy with its appearance and comfortableness for use, and it also makes people, even in Japan, wonder why authentic shikki has been shunned.
