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Interview with Taiki Kato |
Home > Designer Interviews > Taiki Kato |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Taiki Kato (TK) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Taiki Kato by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
TK: I believe my relationship between me and design (creative) most likely originated from how I was brought up. I was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan with a father and a grandfather who are craftsman of Kiyomizuyaki, a Kyoto pottery. In my father’s workshop, there were various tools, from paint, brushes, designs, to paintings, which were a great influence on me. I believe that the branding-oriented design work that I’m currently working on was due to my childhood. I did not want to become a craftsman that carry down a legacy of skill, but always wanted to become a person that support these great craftsman or a brand from a different perspective.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
TK: In general, I am teamed up with a creative director/planner and producer/manager and work in as small unit of three. I wanted to create a compact and flexible design team that can quickly handle any types of projects. We team up with other creators when needed. We take on fashion, advertising, graphic design, web projects to branding-oriented projects such as creating brand identities and promotions domestically and internationally. I also run a co-sharing office specifically to creators.
FS: What is "design" for you?
TK: I believe that design is “discovering” from “pursuit” and “quest”, and then “communicating” that properly. I strongly feel both mental and philosophical attitude towards enduring these factors is everything in design. I believe that a good design has a good balance of emotional value and functional value that came out of the above factor.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
TK: Luckily I receive projects from various clients, but what I like best about designing for these clients is when my team is able to communicate closely with a client and come up with a design from scratch as if we were one of their employees. These types of projects are very exciting for me, and I am very blessed to be able to work with these clients.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
TK: Whether that design is suitable for the environment it is being released on. (size/colour/quality)
FS: What makes a design successful?
TK: A truly successful design is a design that have had to overcome various obstacles, for instance not all clients will be able to launch a big campaign. The important thing is to face the brand/client for a long term in order to direct the design so that it becomes successful. The key is to work closely with a client towards the same goal, as well as the physical and philosophical attitude itself.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
TK: I believe that the responsibility of graphic designers is to contribute to society and environment in any way possible. Having said that, at the moment unfortunately a voice of a designer or an art director is so small. There is a great need to raise the level and position of a designer/art director to be able to even be heard. In order to do this it goes without saying that each designer needs to create a good design, but they also need to increase exposure of their design, which in the end will catch the eyes of clients and eventually lead to a greater and bigger voice.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
TK: My inspiration comes from the regular day-to-day input, but it’s really important to remember everything you’ve experienced in the past. Things you experienced in the past might only be dots for now, but as time goes by it may connect the dots and form a line.
FS: How do you work with companies?
TK: When working with a company, as the size of the company expands, so does the number of confirmation. It is like playing telephone game or Chinese Whispers where each time it goes through a person, there is a possibility that a message will be lost. When we work with a company, my creative director/planner will create a strong proposal based on logic and stats. This way the design will not get lost in the telephone game.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
TK: I am sure that most of the companies have issues and problems. In order to properly solve these issues, I think the companies should form a long-term close relationship with a designer or a team. In order to realize this, the designers need to expose and appeal more to the universe. These days, there is a social media called Behance from Adobe, where the works of good designers’ are showcased. They have a strict evaluation point system and it may be a good method to find a good designer.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
TK: I always do a thorough research, brainstorming, contreting ideas, and study.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
TK: I have a distinguished manager/producer who help me run projects with necessary time allocation.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
TK: In the future, I would like to be involved in the education field, but as for the near future, the next step for me is to team up with good designers that are around the same age as me, and to hold a workshop or a talk show that study typography and visual identity.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
TK: Depending on the project, I do form a team.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
TK: I am currently involved in a hat brand as an art director/graphic designer. We just finished our 1st exhibition and it looks like it is going to receive a high degree of attention. The brand is planning to officially launch around September.
FS: How can people contact you?
TK: Please contact me via my website www.taikikato.jp or on instagram @taiki_kato. You can find projects and processes that are not showcased on my website here on instagram.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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