PLANTS TRADE Concept Book and Poster by Tsuyoshi Omori

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

TO : I feel that all the experiences I’ve had until today serves a drop of inspiration for my design.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

TO : My goal for this work was to visualize the wisdom of plants.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

TO : The CONCEPT BOOK is on sale on the PLANTS TRADE website http://plants-trade.com and also will be on sale at the Tokyo Art Book Fair 2019.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

TO : It took about six months.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

TO : I proposed PLANTS TRADE to make a concept book with my design.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

TO : I am seriously looking for shops or publishers who would like to have this concept book on their product list.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

TO : I designed this concept book because I myself was really attracted by PLANTS TRADE’s beautiful products while I thought they could do more in terms of branding and promotion.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

TO : In designing this concept book, I was greatly influenced by Hideki Nakajima, Hideki Inaba as well as the CEO at my previous company.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

TO : The main target of this concept book is specimen collectors or those who are interested in letterpress printing.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

TO : It is extremely different from typical botanical design both in concept and expression. Additionally, by using the letterpress printing, each book varies in color and texture.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

TO : We simply call it with the brand name ‘PLANTS TRADE Concept Book’.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

TO : I used Adobe Illustrator CC for this project.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

TO : I think the simplicity and artistic design are very unique in this design.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

TO : For this design, I received a great support of Mr.Shunsuke Ikai from Albert Design who has a very high level of knowledge and technique about letterpress printing. I’m pretty sure that this work couldn’t have done without him.

DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?

TO : With PLANTS TRADE customers, I conducted research about why they bought the products and their satisfaction level with the products.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

TO : The efforts, time and cost related to letterpress printing posed a challenge in this design project.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

TO : I applied for the competition because I was inspired by a Japanese designer who won an international award ( I learned that via Facebook.)

DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?

TO : I acquired know-how on the letterpress printing through designing this book.

DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?

TO : Since the images cannot tell the true beauty of graphics and photography of the concept book, I really would like you to touch and feel the book by your hand.