Nadkid

Tag: branding

  • Yugen Online Platform

    Yugen Online Platform

    services rendered: project planning, graphic design, marketing

    description: a passion project of mine and a collaboration between myself and my good friend Nathan Heidacker. Yūgen is an e-commerce platform for up-and-coming ceramic artists from across Japan to sell their works abroad. I worked briefly on a similar e-commerce platform over the COVID-19 pandemic, but the timing wasn’t right for a full launch at the time. The idea for Yūgen was inspired by my experience in Japan’s ceramic industry as well as my thesis research in Mashiko, a pottery-producing enclave in Tochigi Prefecture just north of Tokyo.

    During the course of my research and after numerous discussions with young potters, I came to understand that Japan’s art industry is largely dominated by legacy establishments, such as department stores and high-end galleries, both of which can be difficult for aspiring artists to penetrate without the right connections. On the other hand, many artists also expressed some hesitance about selling their works through an online platform: many artists have come to value the experience of a face-to-face transaction where a customer can speak directly with the artist and handle their wares before purchasing. In order to create a better platform for artists, I went into Yūgen with two priorities: an artist-first platform where each piece is accompanied by detailed information on its creator, and a novel approach to displaying pieces via 3D-modeling, allowing customers abroad to emulate the experience of turning a piece over in their hands and view it within the context of their space.

    In order to execute this project to the degree I felt it deserved, I worked alongside Nathan to collaborate and build the web platform in real-time. While I handled business operations on the back-end and designed the brand identity and its associated assets on the front-end, Nathan incorporated these ideas into a cohesive e-commerce platform complete with responsive 3D-model displays. While we initially looked into gaussian splatting as a method to better capture the light refraction of translucent glazes in high fidelity, we decided to go with more traditional 3D models for ease of use and scaleability.

    Items on the site display detailed information using our “cards” system that fetches informational cards for each piece using its associated tags. As cards are continuously added to the backend, they will populate the listings for relevant pieces in order to give customers more clarity on aspects such as clay type, visual styles, and historical relevance of a certain style or locale. In doing so, we hope to provide potential buyers with a repository of Japanese pottery knowledge that was otherwise inaccessible or impractical to incorporate alongside an online listing.

    While most of the backend work for Yūgen has been completed, there’s still much work to be done before the platform can be launched fully. We’re always looking for partners to join our platform, so if you’re interested, please shoot me an email over at kevin@yu-gen.jp!

  • Walnuts Coffee Anniversary Shirts

    Walnuts Coffee Anniversary Shirts

    services rendered: product design, graphic design, marketing

    description: in September, I had the privilege of designing and launching the first piece of merch ever for Walnuts, a cafe and microroastery tucked away in Koenji that’s near and dear to my heart. Both the space and the people of Walnuts embodied a laid-back, unpretentious vibe that I wanted to carry through into the design of these shirts.

    I drew inspiration from brands like Deus Ex Machina, which produce excellent heavyweight shirts with an element of playfulness that I wanted to channel. For the design, I juxtaposed the Walnuts logo in bold, funky Japanese typography with a drawing of Walnuts’ equally bold and funky rectangular coffee cans.

    After the design’s approval, I sourced a local printer and accompanied the owners to the shop for ordering and pickup in order to make sure that the quality of the print was carried through to the finished product. The color ways for these shirts were inspired by the Walnuts space itself; their brand colors of forest green and white were softened to olive green and ivory, and a limited run of bright orange pieces pulled their color from the bold orange cambro that Walnuts uses as a tray for change.

    After the print job finished, I took the lead in announcing the launch. This is just my opinion, but I believe that a product’s launch is what sets the tone that differentiates shirts that make you feel like a walking billboard from shirts that you actually want to wear out in public. I wanted to showcase these shirts as being synonymous with the environment they’re based off of, so I shot and edited the product photos you can see throughout this post within and around the Walnuts space.

    I also assembled a few graphics for the social media launch. The key visual was loosely inspired by Japanese fashion magazines like Popeye, though we opted to keep things simple and lowkey.

    By the way, these shirts are still available for sale over at walnutscoffee.com at the time of this post’s publishing. If you’re interested, I’d recommend snagging one here before they’re gone forever.