Design is Play

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Yosei Shibata and Shoshi Kanokohata at Play

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Your stories determine your life. Integrity defines your stories.

“Deeply moved by this quote, we empathize with it and believe that it is our mission as an artist/designer to send products with a story to the world.

“We handmade 15 bowls of the same design and shipped them to various countries. Our recipient: Yves Klein. An iconic figure in French monochronism, Klein patented the color ‘International Klein Blue’ with which he attempted to visualize the invisible. The bowls sent to Klein, now deceased, traveled to countries such as Turkey, Japan, Egypt, and Brazil. They returned to us as invalid mail. One box came back strewn with rough scribbles, while another came back wrapped over with foreign postal tape. After three months, only six returned. The damaged boxes reflected rough travels across borders. Out of the six bowls, five were broken; only one came back intact.

“Our project utilizes a traditional Japanese technique called Kintsugi. Kitusgi is one of the oldest recycling practices, whereby cracked ceramic objects are pieced together using lacquer and gold. Not only utilized for repair, the addition of gold streaks accentuates the aesthetic value of the object.

“Instead of traditional gold, we used the original ‘International Klein Blue’ pigment to revive the bowls returned to us. The blue cracks and the damaged boxes recount the unique stories of each bowl’s long journey to and from their country.”

Yosei Shibata is a Los Angeles designer and a CCA alumnus. Shoshi Kanokohata is a Los Angeles ceramic artist. We invited them to share a moment of play with us.

March Pantry Identity and Packaging System Application

March Pantry

We recently completed a section on our site featuring our identity and packaging system for March Pantry. Hearth and home are central to the store’s concept, and the shop stocks seasonal jams made especially for March by LouLou’s Garden, select spices from Le Sanctuaire, pots and pans from Brooklyn Copper Cookware, and handmade butcher block tables from Union Studio.

Our hand-lettered wordmark is printed and embossed on die cut labels with a laid finish; it is screen printed when applied to apothecary jars. The design is understated but invitational. (So far the system has won awards for typography from both Communication Arts and the Type Directors Club.) Photographer Kirk Amyx documented the work.

See our work to date for March Pantry under Design is Play Studio Systems.

Play Press: Graphis Logo 8

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Four mongrams and one icon system we created are included in the new logo design anthology curated by Graphis. Included are symbols for BlackDog, CCA’s Graphic Design BBQ, Four Barrel Coffee, and Group MB, as well as a system of icons we designed for Wired Magazine’s iPad app. The BlackDog monogram is a Platinum award winner, one of only ten.

The work of a number of our CCA colleagues is included in Graphis Logo Design 8 as well, including symbols designed by Jennifer Jerde and Scott Hesselink of Elixir Design, Christopher Simmons of Mine, and Michael Vanderbyl of Vanderbyl Design. This volume also features an interview with our friend—and Mark’s “boss” in 1985—Michael Schwab. Michael is one of the few designers we know of who still uses a Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph inking pen in the development of his final art.

See more examples of our trademark designs under Design is Play Studio Symbols.

Bob Aufuldish at Play No. 2

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“In 1987 when my wife Kathy Warinner and I moved from Ohio to San Francisco, we took the southern route across the country—it was, after all, February. One evening last November I was curious what the northern route would be so I used Google Maps to follow the freeways across the country as a way of reenacting the trip. In our 1987 trip we tried as much as possible to stay off the interstates so when I was conducting my virtual reenactment I did the same. And I came across a place called Little America in Wyoming. Fascinated, I took a photo of it off my screen and started looking for more interesting places. Solitude, Mt. Olympus, Nixon, and Last Chance followed and I was hooked.

“For the past few years I’ve designed new years announcements for the landscape architects SWA Group and for their 2012 announcement I pitched the idea of evocative place names. These are juxtaposed with landscapes of various kinds—the desert, mountains, agriculture, and the sprawl of cities and suburbs. All photographed off my monitor, visited without leaving my office.

“It was a great project. I even found a place in West Virginia called Bob.”

Bob Aufuldish is a Bay Area designer and educator. We invited him to share another moment of play with us.