StudioKanna: A Meaningful Approach To Design

16 May 2007 Category: Features, Graphics, Japan

StudioKanna: A Meaningful Approach To Design

Cute and simple packaging design for hair salon "4th floor" in London, designed by Kanna. What a nice play with geometric forms: the "4" on the package gives you different impressions depending on your viewing angle.

Though StudioKanna was only established last September in Tokyo, she has a lot to show us: Kanna’s design carries a strong concept and its logical simplicity has a comfy feeling thanks to its careful structure. Today, PingMag introduces StudioKanna and talks with her about an approach to meaningful design - something young designers around the world - and in Japan - easily tend to forget about.

Written by Chiemi
Translated by Natsumi

The Syn Entertainment CD sleeve design is one of Kanna’s works at NORTH. The same track came as a package together with the Japanese mobile phone Talby, designed by Marc Newson. The font of the song title, “Free,” consists of Talby phone parts.

Kanna, you studied graphic design at Saint Martins in London and worked for 4 years at design company NORTH before you moved your base from London to Tokyo last autumn. Why did you come back to Japan?

NORTH was very much committed to its creative side, and over the course of the 4 years I worked there, I was able to establish my own creative style. Eventually it came to a point where I wanted to test my own abilities and decided to return to Japan to start StudioKanna.


Another one of Kanna’s designs: DVD jacket featuring Marc Newson and his works.

The letters of “Marc Newson” are made from the shapes of the furniture and cars he designed.

Card for Syn Entertainment’s 15th anniversary: the 15th is also known as the “Crystal” anniversary, which is why the design had a crystal theme. The rainbow-coloured streaks in the back layer also represent Syn Entertainment’s identities.

New Year card 2006, also for Syn Entertainment. Note: The vertical lines depict the sound frequency of “A Happy New Year” in English and Japanese, as spoken by one of the founders and his girlfriend.

I can see from your works that your original style cleverly mixes Japanese-ness with a British taste. This car decor is just so cute, can you tell us a little bit about it?

It is something I made for the promotion of the Aygo car for Toyota’s European launch. 10 young artists from Europe were selected, and I participated as a U.K. representative instead of a designer. I made a camouflage using only things I like. Camouflage usually means to obscure things, but this one is more anti-camouflage by putting the emphasis on myself. (laughs)

Toyota’s “Aygo” – the car was displayed at the Toyota showroom on the Champs d’Elysees in Paris. The illustration only consists of things Kanna liked, thus representing herself.

These next designs are the shop cards and the visual book I designed for a hair salon in London called 4th Floor. The only elements that were in the original briefing were the slightly industrial font and the stripes, so the owner requested a slightly more playful design.

Shop cards London hair salon “4th Floor.” The design is based on the images of materials used in the hair-care products also sold there.

The visual book for “4th Floor” in London. This work was sponsored by the book printer.

Again from the visual book for “4th Floor”, a folded paper with 4 pages.

The “4″ plays a central part on this page too.

And the “4″ again.

The concept of this visual book is “4”, pointing to the name “4th Floor.” Everything here is related to the number - 4 colours, 4 page covers, 4 coloured characteristics, etc.

It’s great to see a simple visual booklet made so carefully under one concept. Perhaps this isn’t only the case in Japan, but we see so many designs that appear to be beautiful - and have no concept at all…

I don’t think design is supposed to be like that. Without a solid concept, it gets out of control. When I work with Japanese clients, I often feel that they insist too much on the details and lose sight of the original concept. I personally find the designing process easier if there is a proper concept, and the finished product would be much nicer if it has a proper meaning.

Then how do you usually get started with a project?

First of all, I will try to understand the client’s demands. Then I come up with several themes from there and choose the most logical one. After that, I make a style board with the images suitable for the theme and show it to the client. Then I start filling in the visuals. When I did these for “4th Floor”, I submitted all kinds of things including an image of a grapefruit with stripes – one of the ingredients of their shampoo.

What do you exactly mean by the themes you come up with at the beginning?

For example, this is my most recent work: an invitation card for the NY style hair salon “Genuine” that has just opened a branch in Ginza yesterday. Special about this store concept is that their atmosphere is a clever mix of old and new. So for this, I chose the theme of expressing old things in a modern way. In the old days, letters used to be rolled up and tied with a ribbon, so I decided to use ribbons as a motif.

The invitation card for the newly opened Ginza branch of the NY style hair salon “Genuine.” A project with Eat, in collaboration with HF.

Lovely! Kanna from StudioKanna.

You’ve now worked both in Japan and the U.K. - what differences are there?

When I was in the U.K., the process leading to the production and the relationship between client, designer and printer were extremely important, so there was a feeling of making things together. But in Japan, there is no such feeling and it’s very hard to be understood without showing something. I suppose that’s the reason for kind of abrupt requests such as “use something like this” or “use this kind of paper.” It would be nice if people involved in the creative side would trust the designers a little bit more.

Kanna, thank you very much for your time today. We are looking forward to see more of your wonderful and meaningful designs!

77 Comments

  1. Wow! I really like her style.

    Posted by: vaneea on May 16th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

  2. cool designs

    Posted by: Balakumar Muthu on May 16th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

  3. oooo! i like it. nice stripes. nice colors. nice shapes!

    Posted by: henry on May 16th, 2007 at 8:59 pm

  4. great stuff

    Posted by: victorb on May 16th, 2007 at 9:58 pm

  5. I love the paired down yet intricate style. Lovely

    Posted by: Helen on May 16th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

  6. nice stripes, nice colors combination.like it so much

    Posted by: Happa on May 16th, 2007 at 11:28 pm

  7. fille futée, grand travail

    Posted by: Vick on May 16th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

  8. fantastic!!! intelligent & beautiful

    Posted by: dave on May 16th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

  9. “…I personally find the designing process easier if there is a proper concept, and the finished product would be much nicer if it has a proper meaning…”. Damn right! I’d even say - everything in the project goes much better and there’s much higher chance to complete it successfully if there’s a solid idea behind the client’s desires. It comes to nothing good if you’re said something like “…we really do not know what it should look like and what should be there…”.

    Posted by: Greg King on May 16th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

  10. big up k!!!! fresh as hell like usual

    Posted by: jody on May 17th, 2007 at 1:21 am

  11. Great article! Love the pictures!

    Posted by: lildrummergirl23 on May 17th, 2007 at 2:18 am

  12. Thats awsome…..impressive!!! Keep it up

    Posted by: J LIM on May 17th, 2007 at 2:50 am

  13. grreeaat! kanna-san. keep smiling!

    Posted by: toru on May 17th, 2007 at 3:15 am

  14. If anyone can, Kanna-san can. Nice work Kanna.

    Posted by: Tom on May 17th, 2007 at 3:35 am

  15. Yo sister! You rock!!!

    Posted by: Bald Marauder on May 17th, 2007 at 5:01 am

  16. well done Kanna, you are very fantastic indeed! xx

    Posted by: Chau on May 17th, 2007 at 5:55 am

  17. Welcome to Japan!!
    Let’s get going!
    We love you, kanna!

    Posted by: Simon and Ayumi on May 17th, 2007 at 9:14 am

  18. いいのできたね。
    応援してるよ！！！

    Posted by: sachiko,W on May 17th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

  19. Inspirational Work, lovely to see

    Posted by: Cassius on May 17th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

  20. kanna you are taking japan by storm with your fantastic designs ! x

    Posted by: annie on May 18th, 2007 at 6:02 am

  21. kanna you rock!!!

    now can I have a t-shirt?

    Posted by: chris on May 18th, 2007 at 10:24 am

  22. All your work looks wonderful, I love the Marc Newson name in furniture!

    Posted by: kate on May 18th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

  23. [...] StudioKanna: A Meaningful Approach To Design on pingmag [...]

    Posted by: “when in doubt, do it” » Blog Archive » the big picture on May 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm

  24. While I like the work please clarify for me Kanna’s relationship with the London studio North. Many of the clients and in fact some of the work like brochure for 4th Floor, Newson and Syn were credited to North in the UK design press.

    Posted by: Unsure on May 28th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

  25. I love her concept! Keep going in Japan!

    Posted by: Anonymous on May 30th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

  26. Nice one Kanna, great stuff as always
    xxx

    Posted by: Tom Stobbs on June 28th, 2007 at 2:43 pm

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