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Product news: Japanese studio Nendo has created a range of porcelain with patterns that play on archival designs from a traditional Japanese pottery.

The Ume-play and Karakusa-play collections were created in collaboration with Gen-emon, a 260-old ceramics company located in Arita, the Japanese town famed for its potteries in the Saga Prefecture on the northern part of Kyushu island.

The process involved a re-editing of one of the firm’s most well known patterns, a small plum-blossom repeat known as ume komon.

The ceramics also play with the traditional foliage scrollwork known as kara-kusa-e.

The process involved enlarging and re-arranging the original patterns by cutting them up, turning them upside down and layering the shapes.

The resulting pieces seem to have an eclectic mix of patterns at first glance but are tied together by the same basic shapes and the kiln’s identity of blue and white underglaze with contrasting dark and light blues.

The traditional porcelain method was also reinterpreted by introducing a charcoal-based resist method called sumi hajiki, in contrast to the usual way of filling in outlines. This method allowed for finer lines and reduced cost.

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Photos by Akihiro Yoshida.

Some words from the designer:

Gen-emon is one of the most renowned Arita-yaki porcelain kilns, with a 260-year history dating to 1753.

We undertook an unorthodox re-edit of one of the kiln’s most famous patterns, a small plum flower repeat known as ‘ume komon’ and foliage scrollwork known as ‘karakusa-e’.

Like children playing with paper, we blew up the pattern until it was enormous, as though viewed through a magnifying glass.

We cut it up with scissors, pasted it, lined it up, turned it upside down and layered it, too.

This faux-naïve strategy allowed us to activate Gen-emon’s key visual signifiers – the blue and white underglaze and strong contrast between the dark and light blues – while developing a rich assortment of variations.

The result: a delightful selection of ceramics that may have different patterns, but can be used together on the table without breaking visual unity.

Traditionally, Gen-emon’s porcelains are made by drawing the outlines, then filling in the centre.

We introduced a charcoal-based resist method, ‘sumi hajiki’, that allows both fine lines and an accessible price for the consumer.

The ume-play collection upholds Gen-emon’s long history and traditions and reflects the kiln’s commitment to constant change and evolution.

The post Ume-play and Karakusa-play
ceramics by Nendo appeared first on Dezeen.

Nendo ha collaborato con la prestigiosa azienda giapponese Gen-Emon per questa serie di ceramiche decorate con tradizionali motivi tutti in tonalità blu su fondo bianco. Semplicemente bellissime.

In this movie Dezeen filmed at the opening of the new Camper store in New York, Japanese designer and Nendo founder Oki Sato explains why he covered the interior walls of the store with over a thousand white plastic shoes.

“I’ve been working with Camper for the past few years on their small retail stores,” says Sato.

“The concept [for the small stores] was these shoes walking in mid air, showing that Camper shoes are not for running fast or for luxury or things like that, but something to enjoy walking.”

See Nendo’s design for Camper’s Osaka store with shoes that seem to walk around on their own »

However, Sato goes on to explain that designing the interior for the larger New York store located on Fifth Avenue, one of world’s biggest shopping streets, was much more challenging.

“Camper asked me a few months ago to find a solution for the big stores that have really high ceilings,” he says. “Because the product is obviously very small, we weren’t sure how to use the ceiling height. Before they used a lot of graphics on the ceiling but it looked really empty.”

Nendo‘s solution was to completely cover the walls in the store with white plastic replicas of Camper Pelotas, the brand’s signature shoe design. The current collections are then displayed amongst these replicas in spaces at the base of the walls where customers are able to reach.

“What it’s doing is making the products really stand out – the colours, the forms of the products,” says Sato. “It starts from a single product but by copying and pasting it becomes an interior element. It catches a lot of light and shadow and gives a lot of texture to the space.”

The protruding shoes also provide an important acoustic benefit, Sato says: “It absorbs the sound so it feels much more comfortable as well.”

Sato goes on to explain that he believes physical retail environments are still important, despite the rise of shopping online.

“Just one click on the internet and you can buy any of these shoes from wherever you are,” he says. “But I guess it’s really the experience of the space that is the most important thing. It’s a space that you have to be there, you have to feel something.”

“In the end if a guy comes into the store and he doesn’t want to buy any shoes in the beginning but he gets excited and he buys a shoe I think that’s the victory of design. That is the goal for interior design in a way.”

See all our stories about Nendo »
See all our stories about Camper »

Dezeen was in New York as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour.

Watch all our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies from New York »

The post “We created an interior by copying and
pasting a single product” – Nendo’s Oki Sato appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: this collection of office furniture by Japanese design studio Nendo can be screwed together with a coin rather than tools (+ slideshow).

The two parts of each coin joint lie flush in the flat-pack panels when not in use, but with the push of a finger the screw component springs out to be loosened using small change.

Nendo designed the flexible Ofon range for office furniture brand Kokuyo to be used by companies who are constantly rearranging their workplaces.

Different desks and shelves can be attached by fixing the joints on the top, bottom and side panels.

Small shelving units double as legs for desks or stack on top of each other and side by side to create larger storage solutions.

Pastel-coloured fabric panels fit over the cubby holes to conceal their contents, hinged along the top edges.

Black, white and wood veneer options for each variation can be ordered.

Nendo’s latest projects include bottle designs for coffee flavoured beer and an installation of shower-light hybrids.

Photos are by Hiroshi Iwasaki.

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Nendo provided us with the following text:

Ofon

An office furniture collection designed for small workspaces.

Quick change is important for small offices. They need to be able to modify the office layout to respond to frequent moves, and to employee numbers expanding and contracting flexibly based on the organisation’s growth and the scale of each new project. We wanted our office furniture to be easily expandable and multi-functional, too.

We developed a ‘coin joint’ that can be screwed and unscrewed with a single coin, rather than requiring tools.

Assembling the furniture is almost as easy as pushing a button. The two parts of the joint lie flat when the furniture is not in use, then spring out with the touch of a finger to be screwed together with the coin.

We used this joint to assemble box-type shelves. Shelves not in use can serve as legs for cabinet-type desks.

The upholstered panels that function as cupboard doors also function as partitions between the desks; placed together, they can also partition the office space. The result: a highly functional design that allows workers to focus and relax within the same small space, and offers the physical flexibility required for easy changes to the office layout.

Since the design gives workers both ‘on’ and ‘off’ space and maximizes users’ ability to attach and detach the parts, ‘ofon’ was the perfect name for the collection.

The post Ofon by Nendo
for Kokuyo appeared first on Dezeen.

More showers! These hybrid shower-lights were created by Japanese designers Nendo for bathroom brand Axor and unveiled last week alongside the multi-headed shower by Front (+ slideshow).

Nendo’s installation combines showers with lamps, with the installation featuring ceiling lights and a floor light that produce a cascade of water from their shades.

“My aim was to combine what is most archetypal about the living space, the lighting, with water, so as to give the shower an enhanced sensuous dimension in a way we have not yet seen before,” says Oki Sato of Nendo. “The result is something that is not just a shower, nor just a lamp, but a hybrid – a magic trick with light and water that is available day after day.”

The installation is part of Axor’s WaterDream project, which investigates potential future bathroom scenarios.

“The natural coming-together of light and water is freed from spatial constraints,” says Philippe Grohe, head of Axor, which is part of German bathroom brand Hansgrohe. “What traditionally took place in separate rooms – reading under a lamp in the living room, taking a shower in the bathroom – can now be experienced free from spatial allocations or confinements.”

Nendo’s installation was presented alongside the copper-pipe installation by Swedish designers Front, which we published earlier.

Axor regularly collaborates with leading designers. Earlier this year it unveiled a new water-saving faucet by Philippe Starck and previous projects include a full bathroom collection by the Bouroullec Brothers and a range by Jean-Marie Massaud.

See more projects by Nendo, including a shoe store clad in shoes and bowls that quiver in the wind.

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Nendo for Axor appeared first on Dezeen.