Aiko Koike
Aiko Koike, who works on graphic design, designed a website that overlooks the entire “Creative Island Lab Nakanoshima” project.
A question-and-answer interview that talked about his thoughts and feelings as a designer and his impressions of Nakanoshima.
――How did you enter the world of design?
I originally went to the Faculty of Letters in the History of Aesthetics and Art at a Japanese university, but I stopped there and entered the Department of Graphic Design at the University of the Arts in the United Kingdom. In the first year, I was like a preparatory school, and I was doing all of fashion, graphics, and art, and I was lost in fashion or graphic design, but when I showed my teacher what I made, I was told to do fashion, and I was very disappointed and made it graphic design.
――How did you become a freelance designer?
When I was a college student in Japan, I worked part-time at an art museum, and when I was in U.K., I was an internship at a stylist assistant, magazine editorial department, and design studio, and after graduating from a university in England, I started helping at village®️'s office, and from there I became an employee. Now it's been two years since I left the office and became free.
――How about being independent?
It's fun.
――What makes you decide when you get a job?
This is not the case. I want to do anything.
I like everything, so I don't like this.
――Do you have anything bad? For example, what if you ask me to make a CD package for a enka ballad singer?
I would rather do that kind of thing.
――Do you have any work you want to do someday?
Toraya. I like it the best. It's cool. Logo, package, sweets, etc.
――What designer do you care about?
Designers like Manuel Raeder, Åbäke, and Masayoshi Nakajo. No one can imitate you. But I can't explain it well.
I also like Kazunari Hattori and M/M Paris all the time. And I love the photographer Kyoji Takahashi.
――What if I didn't become a graphic designer?
I don't like it unless it's a graphic, but I want to do anything.
――I can't do it, but what do you like?
Well, I feel like I can now do everything that I couldn't decide when I was doing various things.
I can handle photography and fashion, art, music, magazines, videos, and everything I like was gathered.
I'm sure that it's halfway from around, but I'm very happy that everything I couldn't decide was now connected, and that's my job.
――Is there anything that you can't give up on the design?
I want to avoid being caught in fashion. Also, it is good that you do not know the nationality, age, gender, etc. of the person who made it.
――I think Koike's design is a unique way of using characters and a design that aims to expand rather than adjusting them. What kind of place is Koike-san from the outside?
I'm desperately making it, but I'm told that I'm out of it. “No,” or “no.”
――A lot of pictures are cut out, right?
You want to cut something out, right? It may be shit. I like to choose photos, so I cut it out as soon as I think that it is better to have no background.
Flyer design by Aiko Koike
――I think it will be difficult to summarize the whole thing if you cut it out, but is Koike-san's unique part that does not define the focus or always shifts or escapes?
I don't like so-called graphics, such as making shapes and logos.
I like to combine photos.
I like to take pictures, and depending on my work, I sometimes take pictures myself.
Nakako Hayashi "Reasons to Make"
Nakako Hayashi’s “Tsukuru Riyuu”, open lecture series by Kyo Takemuraat Tokyo University of the Arts.
Flyer design by Aiko Koike
Images by isshuumawattetsurai, mister it., Nakako Hayashi, and PUGMENT.
――When you choose a photo, what are you looking at?
That's right? I choose what I think. The first thing I noticed was uncomfortable, uncomfortable.
――Why do you choose something that feels uncomfortable?
Maybe because I have a lot of rebellion.
If you know what you want to do from the client, you want to reverse what is being asked for. That's why it doesn't work well.
――Do you have a favorite color or shape?
I'm not good at writing. I think the font can be anything. I prefer how to place letters. So I'm trying to break down the prescribed characters and free fonts.
The color is just black. Black or white or transparent.
Packaging design by Aiko Koike
http://aikokoike.com/
――Transparency feels like Mr. Koike.
Transparent, I love it. I also like vines.
But since I only do client work, I feel like I don't have my own color.
――Is that right? What are the criteria for choosing a job?
No. I'm doing everything that came.
――What was your impression of visiting Nakanoshima this time?
It was shiny. It's a little gigantic.
I like the staggering things, but I thought it would be a place where I usually go.
――Did you feel the possibility of something?
I thought the island was funny. It's the water.
The boat was fun. I felt like something wasn't realistic.
It doesn't look like everyday life like manga or anime.
――Like a “created reality”?
That's right. I thought I was on the boat. There are many places under construction.
――From the boat, you can see the back side, right?
I like the back side. Flyers like the back side too.
If it is a prescribed A4 size, it is fun to make it on the back side than the front side.
I want to work together like a continuation of the front surface, and I don't want to fill it normally.
――What did you think about this website?
It was very difficult. You may not know much because you think too much.
――Did this design develop from the image of an "experimental island"?
This is because the shape of Nakanoshima looks like a cell. Look at the picture book.
――Do you ever use a picture book as a reference for design?
I'll use it well. I like to see a lot of the same things.
I like emojis and the same things continue.
――That seems to be meaningless, right? Do you feel like cutting and repeating the meaning of it?
That's right.
at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
Takashi Honma New Documentary "The First Kakes Comes" at the National Museum of Modern Art
[A3 Poster Omote/Ura] (A4 variant flyer when folded)
Poster design by Aiko Koike
――How did you try this design?
I think we were able to do more and more by creating a bigger concept.
I was too conscious of putting together information, so I really regretted that it was good for me to take pictures, find something and make it like my own work. 。
Next time, I want to do it like that! ！
Aiko Koike _ Aiko Koike
Graphic designer. Born in Tokyo in 1989. After graduating from the Faculty of Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins University, he joined village®️. Freelance since 2016. She has worked on fashion brand ZUCCa, contact Gonzo+YCAM Bio-Research Exhibition, and art direction for live tour goods by musician Hiroko Shimabukuro.
http://aikokoike.com/
