ART&CULTURE / 2020.10.30

Re:BIRTH!

The visuals of Michihiko Yanai and Koichi Kosugi (1/2)

The visuals of Michihiko Yanai and Koichi Kosugi.

Red and blue eggs, Sosuke Ikematsu and Comey hatched from eggs. During the months of COVID-19 pandemic spent by Michihiko Yanai, creative director in charge of open advertising for Shinsaibashi PARCO, and Koichi Kosugi, art director. He talked about what he thought, felt, and his thoughts in visuals.

"Eggs" that feel the heartbeat of energy

――How did you first receive the opening of Shinsaibashi PARCO?
 
Michihiko Yanai: It wasn't a completely new existence from scratch, but it was interesting and rewarding to "revive, return after a long absence." I was very excited about what kind of building Shinsaibashi PARCO, which will be revived as a new one, and how it will affect the city. Kosugi-kun and I have a style of working while interacting with LINE, but looking back at the history, the idea of "eggs" was born in April of this year, the first day Parco-san consulted.
 
Koichi Kosugi: Mr. Yanai had a direction called "Eggs that feel energy". What I've been saying all the time was an egg that feels energy from the inside, not superficial. I was told something like "Become an egg artist!" (laughs). It was a few months when I continued to make every egg.
 
Sennai: I expressed the state just before the eggs hatch in Tizer's advertisement, and compared the existence that comes from it to this opening. It's a very sticky idea, but I thought the ease of conveying and straightness without escape from the fact that it's a sticky idea is appropriate for the opening of Shinsaibashi PARCO. I had Kosugi think about various eggs anyway. I wondered what eggs are not chickens, dinosaurs, crocodiles, or lizard, and they laid down the form, color, expression techniques and all kinds of eggs.
 
Kosugi: In my interaction with Mr. Yanai, when I thought about what energy was, there was a place where I came to the expression of gradation. Red and blue have the meaning of blood in the colors of arteries and veins, and it is also a color that imagines two emotions with a swing of passion and calmness, so the expression of gradation that combines those two colors has made Aiko Nic feel energy.
 
Sennai: On the way, when Kosugi embed Shinsaibashi's word "heart" in a gradient, I thought that once the soul entered, it became a unique egg. After all, I wanted to create a three-dimensional expression that is packed with contents and can hear the fetal movement of life, but I thought it was not like PARCO if I just wanted to add shadows. It's flat, but it's deep, or it's on paper or display, but you can feel the temperature.……。 Kosugi-kun brilliantly expressed the difficult image.

"Poster"




Mr. Yanai;

Designer who speaks with visuals

――What kind of LINE interaction did you get close to completion?

 

Sennai: When graphic design is made on the head, there are words and concepts, and it sublimates visually, but in the case of Kosugi-kun, that is not cut off. Since the head and fingertips are directly connected to Mac, I feel that graphic design exists in parallel, such as "Japanese, English, Spanish, Chinese, and Kosugi visuals". Isn't LINE stamps clearly replaced by words? I think it's like a stamp. I feel like that, so it's not very suitable to explain the work in words in such a place (laughs).
 
Kosugi: Mr. Yanai says so (laughs), but until now, I think it was easier to design after defining it in words. However, with regard to this project, considering the sense of the times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the work with Mr. Yanai, in my case, it was better to talk visually. Rather than taking it to the completed form and seeing it, I would send a graphic design as a conversation, and look at it and return what words would be returned. It may be angry, but Mr. Yanai organizes it in a crever manner, so even if you are worried, it seems like "Let's send it once!" I felt that if I sent it, Mr. Yanai would be verbalized.
 
Sennai: It's quite difficult. If you receive a visual from Kosugi on LINE, you will see it. But it's a shack that I had imposed on me to read and send sharp instructions within a few minutes. Even if this returns the ball after an hour, Kosugi-kun is sending a picture instead of words, so it doesn't become a rally. I think Parco interacted in a very short time so that he thought, "Let's spend more time thinking." However, I think there is absolutely something that comes from that speed.
 
Kosugi: It wasn't in such a way that all the instructions were conveyed in detail, so I was trying to understand Mr. Yanai's emotions based on the gaps born during the conversation and when I recall, the time axis.

Sennai: Thankfully, Kosugi-kun will continue to return to these words at all times. There are some interesting expressions that come out of it by shifting a little, but Kosugi-kun never shifts and does not escape. I think it's a rare thing.
 
 

Mr. Kosugi, Mr. Yanai;

 

 

 

Mr. Kosugi, Mr. Yanai;