The architectural firm, New Material Research Laboratory (SHINSOKEN) was founded by Hiroshi Sugimoto in 2008, together with Tomoyuki Sakakida, partner architect and director of SHINSOKEN. We produced and designed their official site.
Produce: Masashi Wada
Art Direction and Design: Goshi Uhira
Web Direction: Shota Fujii
Coding: Shuji Yamagami
Author: Ryo Sawayama
Publisher: Shoshikankanbou
Printing and Bounding: Shinano
Design: Goshi Uhira
Hardcover | 408 pages
Language: Japanese
SURF Architects is an architectural studio founded by Yasuhito Hiraki and based in Tokyo and Hiroshima. Setouchi, where the Hiroshima studio is based, has a rich natural environment surrounded by the sea and the mountains. We have built their visual identity while getting inspiration from natural materials such as stones and trees.
Text: Yasuhito Hiraki (SURF Architects)
Photography: Shigeo Ogawa
Design: Goshi Uhira
Printing: Sun M Color Ltd.
Binding: Shinohara-shikou Ltd.
I designed the book “Donald Judd: Landscape and Minimalism” (Suiseisha) written by Toru Arakawa. Donald Judd (1928-94) is known as a leading artist in contemporary art. In this book, focusing on his paintings, object works, and renovation architecture to furniture production, the author explores how the art of minimalism has been inspired by artificial landscapes and engineering structures.
Author: Toru Arakawa
Publisher: Suiseisha
Printing and Bounding: Seikosha Printing
Design: Goshi Uhira
Hardcover | 240 pages
Language: Japanese
Geodome 4 is an innovative tent developed by Goldwin Inc., with the geodesic structured 2-Meter Dome developed based on Buckminster Fuller’s theory as the foundation for the design, and the dome developed in 2008 and exhibited at ‘40 Years of The North Face’ exhibition as the concept. It has inherited the design philosophy of Fuller and The North Face, that flows through the 2-Meter Dome, a historical masterpiece. By designing the ceiling to be higher, a residential space where work can be done standing up is made possible. I was in charge of the art direction and design for the catalog.
Published by Goldwin Inc.
Printed and bound in Japan by Shumpousha Co., Ltd.
Art Direction and Design: Goshi Uhira
Writer: Toshimitsu Aono
Photographer: Kenji Takahashi
We presented a proposal for a new product idea to Sony Life Space UX in cooperation with Kensuke Fujishiro. We started by rethinking the process itself, and alongside investigating concrete product ideas, we cherished the time we had for members of the team to share their views on the world with one another. In creating this product idea together, we established as our foundation the question “In today’s society, with individualization picking up speed and schizophrenia ever more prevalent, how can we share our time and space with family and friends?” In order to restore the connection between the part that is the individual, and the whole that includes family and friends, we considered a basic binary of internal (mind and body in harmony) and external (a pleasant environment) elements to be necessary. We developed this into a product idea that recreates a peaceful walk in the forest in one’s daily living space.
Gradually, a connection forms between one point and another.
(Image source: Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato)
Yu-ichi Inoue is known as a pioneer of contemporary calligraphy. We designed the official catalog of “A Centennial Exhibition: INOUE Yu-ichi”, which was held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. The exhibition was a large scale retrospective that marked the centennial of his birth. It spanned the history of the artists’ career, from 1955 to 1985, and was viewed in a publication that compiles important works from his early to late periods. Included are analyses on his work by leading authorities, introducing the entire scope of his art. We chose to adopt a deep black paper on the cover as a metaphor of the ink which is symbolic of his artwork.
Author and Editor: Yuji Akimoto
Editor: Kei Takahashi, Sayaka Hayashi
Editorial Adviser: Masatoshi Ito
Design: Goshi Uhira, Shuhei Nagao
Printing and Bounding: Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.
Printing Director: Takeshi Kobayashi
Hardcover | 396 pages
English, Japanese
I designed the book “Bilder der Photographie: Ein Album photographischer Metaphern” (Getsuyosha) written by Bernd Stiegler. A jet-black paper have been adopted for the cover, and the letters of the title have emerged as the lights from the shadow.
Author: Bernd Stiegler
Translator: Yoshikazu Takemine, Daisuke Yanagibashi
Printing and Bounding: Shinano Publishing Press
Publisher: Getsuyosha
Design: Goshi Uhira
Hardcover | 288 pages
Language: Japanese
The “Daikanyama Book Design Exhibition” is annually held at the Daikanyama T-site, that showcases around 30 particularly well-designed books released each year. These titles are selected by the Tsutaya bookstores’ concierge based on the print, layout, binding, and structure of the book. We took photographs of each book, and designed the official catalog to highlight the best parts of each.
Editor: Yohei Sanjo, Fumiaki Banba
Exhibition Design: Kei Murayama, Naoto Endo
Art Direction and Design: Goshi Uhira, Clara Huber
Photography: Harumi Shimizu
Writer: Masayuki Sawada
Publisher: Daikanyama T-site
ART CRITIQUE is an independent magazine of experimental texts and images, designed to inspire new creations. The magazine aims to instigate societal progress by providing an inspirational platform that rethinks modern society in a dynamic way. I designed this issue of the magazine. The title of this issue is ‘Prostitution of a Medium’, and the table of contents and artworks are shown on the cover directly, instead of being placed inside the magazine.
Editing: Hiroshi Sakurai
Design: Goshi Uhira
Printing and Binding: Sun-M Color Co., Ltd.
Publisher: constellation books
Softcover | 232 pages
Language: Japanese
Jean-Paul Knott is a successful Belgian fashion designer. After working for Yves Saint Laurent, he started his own line JEANPAULKNOTT in 1999. He has been designing garments in his own playful and simplistic style, not only for European, but also for American and Asian markets. I designed a range of printed promotion materials with minimal typography in order to let his elegant and simplistic designs speak for themselves.
Akira Mizuta Lippit is a professor of cinema, comparative literature, and Japanese culture at the University of Southern California. Dreams, x-rays, atomic radiation, and “invisible men” are phenomena that are visual in nature, but unseen. “Atomic Light (Shadow Optics)” reveals these hidden interiors of cultural life. Rainbow foil on the cover represents these atomic lights and the foil on each book appears to be different, which reflects the idea of atomic light, with each one being unique and different from the last.
Author: Akira Mizuta Lippit
Translator: Takeshi Kadobayashi, Junji Akechi
Publisher: Getsuyosha
Design: Goshi Uhira
Softcover | 392 pages
Language: Japanese
AOYAMA | MEGURO is a contemporary art gallery based in Tokyo. They needed a clean and plain identity to go along with their gallery. We designed the logo, business cards and other tools to reflect the clean aesthetic and conceptual, modern principles of the gallery.
