Design: Strength Backed by Gentleness

Fun design, its origins

It is early April, and the cherry blossoms have almost all fallen.
Afternoon light streams into the office of Kankaku, a design firm in Matsuyama City.
Creative Director Kohei Okanishi (49)'s gentle tone, combined with the stylish and cute trinkets lined up, creates a soft space.
Suddenly, that atmosphere is broken.

"When I was young, I sometimes ate mayonnaise on toast."

Okanishi-san's creative work, such as newspaper advertisements, websites, packages, and T-shirts...
Many of his works are full of fun, sprinkled with a touch of humor.
He usually doesn't let on about the hardships of his youth.
I was convinced.
That is why this person's designs are gentle.

#Hikidashi: Designing a space on the internet?

A service on LINE developed by Kankaku, the Ehime Shimbun, and others called "#Hikidashi".
If you register as a friend, anyone can ask questions, and registered professionals and experts will answer them.
Okanishi-san is said to be the one who named it and came up with the template idea.

"Actually, I want them to answer even more freely."
With "#Minna no Hikidashi," you can get answers and tips, which is a great deal.
The companies and organizations answering can encounter various worries and opinions from many people, gaining insights and business opportunities.
It is fine just to watch the exchange of questions and answers.

There are mechanisms to get excited about in services other than #Minna no Hikidashi.
You can get good deals with coupons issued by local shops.
In "#Kaisha no Hikidashi," you can learn about new initiatives by companies and local governments through press releases and increase your knowledge a little.
He aims for a service that people will check once a day.
He designed a slightly relaxed space in a corner of the internet where efficiency and speed are demanded.

From being designed to being the designer

His own life was not relaxed.
During his high school days in Ikazaki (now Uchiko Town), the family business collapsed, and he gave up on going to college in Matsuyama.
Desperate, he went to Tokyo and lived in a Sangenjaya apartment with a shared bath and toilet.
Because he had no money, he tried to challenge himself in the exact opposite, glamorous industry.
He kept going to model auditions.
"I don't say it because it's embarrassing," he reflects.
He appeared in a famous fashion magazine, but the spotlight was fleeting.
He made ends meet by working part-time at a bookstore. That was when he lived in extreme poverty.

While chasing his dreams, he was surrounded by books to survive, but one day, he began to find the bookbinding interesting.
Tens of thousands of books each wear different costumes, or designs.
He had been searching for his role as someone being designed, like a model, but his consciousness shifted to the side that does the designing.

He visited many offices in Tokyo, begging them to let him work.
At the end of the 90s, the world was digitizing, and the design industry was moving from phototypesetting to DTP (desktop publishing).
He managed to sneak into an office that needed extra hands.
At first, his take-home pay was 50,000 yen. The first computer he bought was a used Mac with a model number he barely remembers.
Tokyo is full of universities that train design professionals. There are many art universities.
There, one would learn the concepts of design and acquire artistic literacy.
But Okanishi-san's path to design began with a humble, small step: watching his seniors' methods and learning operations.

Operations, the importance of the basics

"That's why I still value operations very much."
Indeed, when you ask Okanishi-san for work, you are surprised by his speed.
Moreover, the content of the data that arrives is organized and beautiful.
Modern computing can sometimes be a world where "as long as you get the result, it's fine."
Even if there is waste in the program, powerful computers process it vigorously.
The same goes for data for printed paper. Even if the appearance on the screen is similar, there is good and bad, beauty and ugliness in the internal structure.
When corrections or revisions are needed, bad data takes time and effort.
I have seen colleagues click their tongues at poor newspaper ad data many times.
Okanishi-san's data has no deception, conveying accuracy and sincerity.

From operator to designer

Step by step, stage by stage, Okanishi-san walked the path to becoming a designer.
So when asked, "What is design?" he thought for a moment and replied: "Everything is already designed. Even objects, and ultimately, living things."
He proposes shapes that are easy to accept now and color combinations that are considered good now.
He says shyly that maybe that is industrial design.
It is a simple answer, but it has weight because it is backed by a down-to-earth journey.

In his mid-20s, he returned to Ehime and joined a company that mainly did production.
The bubble had long since burst, but there were still many newspaper advertisements.
There were times he stayed up all night with colleagues.
He became hooked on the appeal of newspaper advertising and wanted to do not just operations, but design and direction.
After working at an advertising agency in the prefecture, he became independent 15 years ago.

The rapid progress since then is well known.
Anyone involved in advertising in Ehime should know the name Kankaku.
He has undertaken advertisements for companies and local governments in the prefecture, mainly in the Ehime Shimbun, and has won numerous awards.
If you look at his work on the site (https://kankaku-ad.com/product/), you can enjoy his unique worldview.

Perhaps because he often deals with historical things like Dogo Onsen, many of his illustrations and fonts are retro or hand-drawn.
"It is also fun to pick up things that have disappeared or are not appreciated and propose them to the present."

The gaze of Mr. Okanishi is not directed only at physical spaces or the internet.
It transcends time and space, reaching out even to things that might otherwise be forgotten.
That is why his words are free of strain.

"I just hope that design can make everyone's lives a little bit richer."

In this notebook, we will introduce the people involved with #Hikidashi.
This was the third installment.

#Hikidashi is a service provided by the Ehime Shimbun and others via LINE.
First, let's become friends on LINE.

Inquiries: #Hikidashi Secretariat
Within the Digital Development Department, Sales Bureau, Ehime Shimbun Co., Ltd.
089-935-2323