04

I’d Like to Ask This Person for Work

Who to Make a Book With 

“I’ve been taking pictures of the sticker scraps that come out of the processing site every day, and I’d like to make a photo book of them. When we do that, would it be possible to have Mr. Ohara do the honour for us?”, says one of our client, who is from a foil stamping company that we have been working with for a long time. When I looked at the content of the photographs, very strange objects that made me question what was being photographed had been enshrined in the gold tooling factory. Based on their appearance that resembled deep-sea fish, the title had already been decided as “Deep-sea Fish.”

Ohara’s direction is based more on working very closely with the customers to carefully fulfill their request rather than proposing original ideas. However, since this request for direction came from his unique viewpoint and inimitable worldview, it was decided that the feelings that he had toward the photographs would be reflected as is in the bookbinding.

Rare Elation from a Group of Adults

There isn’t a cover because of the liveliness of the mysterious creatures that live in the dark deep sea, and the fish are wriggling like molluscs. Soft, thin paper with luster was chosen for the book. Prior to the request for direction, he had already decided on a material that is purposely difficult to turn or handle. Ohara presented the idea of making the 4 corners of the book light up using fluorescent coating because deep-sea fish emit light. Experiments began right away without considering whether this was possible.

 The adhesive used for the perfect binding machine and the fluorescent coating did not react well, meaning that there was a possibility that toxic gas could be emitted when passing it through the machine. I still cannot forget about the joy from the moment that the book with fluorescent coating gave off light in the dark after we were able to overcome these difficulties. It has really been a long time since these adults were excited with a pure heart.

Ideas that Expand as Products

Ohara, who took charge of the direction, states, “Thanks to this project, I found out that the bookbinding company sharing their ideas does not necessarily lead to a clash with the customer’s worldview on the book they want to create. It made me realize that it is fun to freely speak about my ideas.”

Although there are times when it is best to focus on the customer’s request and do exactly as they say, there have been many instances for Shinohara Shiko in which exchanging various ideas at the discussion stage results in a method that is even better than previously imagined. This is like 1+1=3.

This photo collection called “Deep-sea Fish” may be full of choices that are improbable when considering the purpose of a book, such as using paper that makes it difficult to turn the pages and using fluorescent coating. However, I believe that thinking of a book as a product and creating the entire book while linking the content of the book with its form and paper texture is also a form of a book.