Bridging Design and Japanese Craftsmanship / Keigo Honda, Product Designer (本田圭吾)
by Hiroki Yanagisawa on February 4, 2010 8:15 PM
Keigo Honda／本田圭吾
Want to take a full advantage of material's characteristics to create a new product? Then, have a chat with Keigo Honda. His extensive knowledge and network on Japanese craftsmanship and past work experiences surely be a big aid to your creation.
How did Keigo come to acquire such creative and traditional knowledge? Its answer lies in Tsubame City, Nigata, 200km north of Tokyo, also known as a home of Snow Peak Inc.
Want to take a full advantage of material's characteristics to create a new product? Then, have a chat with Keigo Honda. His extensive knowledge and network on Japanese craftsmanship and past work experiences surely be a big aid to your creation.
How did Keigo come to acquire such creative and traditional knowledge? Its answer lies in Tsubame City, Nigata, 200km north of Tokyo, also known as a home of Snow Peak Inc.
Keigo joined Snow Peak, a company specialized in camping goods, in 1995. As a designer, his responsibility was not only designing particular camping products, but also ... everything.
"Everything means literally everything. At Snow Peak, each designer is responsible for planning of a product, design of a product/package/instruction manual, negotiation with a factory and craftsman, conducting quality check of a final product, hearing from the customers, etc. Speaking of a craftsman, Tsubame is known for having a strong skill in metal-works, so Snow Peak designers frequently collaborate with the local talents to produce the finest from the finest."
One of Keigo's first products was "Take Chair", a chair used in camping. Its frames are made by bamboo, and the bamboo part was made by the local bamboo workshop. (Take means bamboo is Japanese)
Other than the chair, he and his colleague created a dutch oven, the US invented cooking pot, by using Yamagata's over-400-years-iron craftsmanship. Another creation was a camping-ware by using Ishikawa area's craftsmanship, lacquerer-ware.
Many unique fusions of camping products and Japanese craftsmanship emerged from the hands of Keigo and Snow Peak.
In 2004, after spending nearly a decade at Snow Peak, he relocated himself to Tokyo and became a lecturer for Kuwasawa Design School, one of the renowned design schools in Japan. Yet, he still continues to design products for clients as a freelance basis.
His freelance design practice is something that pertains from the Snow Peak experience.
"When it comes to designing camping goods, it's all about the utilization of material's characteristics and multi-functionality----there is no redundancy. I think these ideas still remains as a DNA of my design philosophy."
KNIFFORM is one of the products that Keigo designed with a maximum utilization of material's physical characteristic. Leather is semi-rigid and when it is folded or bended it can sustain its form for a period of time. This characteristic is utilized to produce a pen/eye-glass/card holder. When folded (as if you were peeling a skin of banana), it can sustain its shape and stand-alone.
Another product is supporting chair for elders. This chair is for a person who strive to move (in here, standing up and down) by herself, and it aids such movements. The chair is bean-shaped (to be sat on the center) so that a person can lay both hands to stand up. On the back of the chair, a small frame is aligned on the edge, allowing a person to put fingers to get a grip when standing.
Keigo's work extends to design consultation to the local productions. A typical craftsman is usually specialized in one particular skill or product. For instance, Ishikawa is an area known for its lacquer-ware and one craftsman is specialized, say, a bowl and the other is specialized in a plate. The idea of "set" or "line-up" has been non-existent. In order to people to buy a set of dishes, they need to purchase each of them separately from different craftsmen.
"Though a customer can purchase a bowls and plate separately and use them in a meal, it is hard to have a uniformed design as a whole. (Consider eating rice with a wooden bowl and drinking miso soup with a paper-made bowl.) So I've introduced a line-up of Ishikawa lacquer-ware, HASU, (lotus). All the dishes have a same design philosophy."
When asked why Keigo still continues to design while having a full-time teaching job, "When I was studying design at Tokyo Zokei University, there was a professor who proudly talks about design without any recent practices of design. I thought that in order to teach design, you need to be an active designer. Since I am on the teaching side now, I must not contradict what I've thought." Keigo grins.
NAME: Keigo Honda (本田圭吾)
EXPERTISE:Design
BASED: Tokyo
If you wish to contact Keigo for project opportunities, please contact via edgyjapan.jp.
"Everything means literally everything. At Snow Peak, each designer is responsible for planning of a product, design of a product/package/instruction manual, negotiation with a factory and craftsman, conducting quality check of a final product, hearing from the customers, etc. Speaking of a craftsman, Tsubame is known for having a strong skill in metal-works, so Snow Peak designers frequently collaborate with the local talents to produce the finest from the finest."
One of Keigo's first products was "Take Chair", a chair used in camping. Its frames are made by bamboo, and the bamboo part was made by the local bamboo workshop. (Take means bamboo is Japanese)
Other than the chair, he and his colleague created a dutch oven, the US invented cooking pot, by using Yamagata's over-400-years-iron craftsmanship. Another creation was a camping-ware by using Ishikawa area's craftsmanship, lacquerer-ware.
Many unique fusions of camping products and Japanese craftsmanship emerged from the hands of Keigo and Snow Peak.
In 2004, after spending nearly a decade at Snow Peak, he relocated himself to Tokyo and became a lecturer for Kuwasawa Design School, one of the renowned design schools in Japan. Yet, he still continues to design products for clients as a freelance basis.
His freelance design practice is something that pertains from the Snow Peak experience.
"When it comes to designing camping goods, it's all about the utilization of material's characteristics and multi-functionality----there is no redundancy. I think these ideas still remains as a DNA of my design philosophy."
KNIFFORM is one of the products that Keigo designed with a maximum utilization of material's physical characteristic. Leather is semi-rigid and when it is folded or bended it can sustain its form for a period of time. This characteristic is utilized to produce a pen/eye-glass/card holder. When folded (as if you were peeling a skin of banana), it can sustain its shape and stand-alone.
Another product is supporting chair for elders. This chair is for a person who strive to move (in here, standing up and down) by herself, and it aids such movements. The chair is bean-shaped (to be sat on the center) so that a person can lay both hands to stand up. On the back of the chair, a small frame is aligned on the edge, allowing a person to put fingers to get a grip when standing.
Keigo's work extends to design consultation to the local productions. A typical craftsman is usually specialized in one particular skill or product. For instance, Ishikawa is an area known for its lacquer-ware and one craftsman is specialized, say, a bowl and the other is specialized in a plate. The idea of "set" or "line-up" has been non-existent. In order to people to buy a set of dishes, they need to purchase each of them separately from different craftsmen.
"Though a customer can purchase a bowls and plate separately and use them in a meal, it is hard to have a uniformed design as a whole. (Consider eating rice with a wooden bowl and drinking miso soup with a paper-made bowl.) So I've introduced a line-up of Ishikawa lacquer-ware, HASU, (lotus). All the dishes have a same design philosophy."
When asked why Keigo still continues to design while having a full-time teaching job, "When I was studying design at Tokyo Zokei University, there was a professor who proudly talks about design without any recent practices of design. I thought that in order to teach design, you need to be an active designer. Since I am on the teaching side now, I must not contradict what I've thought." Keigo grins.
NAME: Keigo Honda (本田圭吾)
EXPERTISE:Design
BASED: Tokyo
If you wish to contact Keigo for project opportunities, please contact via edgyjapan.jp.
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