Kentaro Shihaku

After chancing upon a work that I really adore in Japan and also learning about the designer Kentaro Shihaku, I went to find out more about him and his works. And I have to say that I am greatly inspired by his works and in a way they drive me to work harder. 

I found out that Kentaro Shihaku is born in Sendai, Japan in 1975 / studied in Tokyo and Rome and he is a creative director / copywriter/ conceptor. His works always give the feeling that makes your heart warm up and greatly influenced by the japanese design style. He has quite a number of work achieved over the span of many years. Here are another two projects other than the Aromalize Project which I totally adore and look up to. 

Aromamora

Aromamora is the line of original blended essential oils started from November 2008. Our innovative design combines the functions of a bottle cap and diffuser into one which makes aromamora a lot handy. We have a relationship with not only domestic retails but also Droog, Amsterdam as well. Our products could get huge good reputations and were introduced by both local and global media. 

  

It is just a very simple product but it is ready to use by having the cover of the bottle as the scent diffuser. Plus the branding and art direction inspires me a lot as they are a concentrate of the sense of smell and also the usage of chemistry apparatus to draw people's attention. Which is almost like what I am planning to achieve for my semester two works.

Aromamora books

The next project is called the Aromamora book which is sort of link to the above project. "Aromamora books vol1 Tohoku" is a photo book scented by a blend of special aroma oil, and is a collection of 50 photos that captured beautiful memories of Tohoku areas. The photos have been selected from over 500 submissions from people who wanted to share their special memories for the project. The photo book was created in hopes to keep the good memories and times of Tohoku.

Each photo has a message from the person who took the photo. The book also include a map that shows the location of where each photo was photographed, and a refill bottle of the aroma oil.

after opening the box, Tohoku’s forest scent is immediately coming up

dropping aroma oils when the scent is gone

each photo has a message written by its photographer on the back

50 collected photos, the map and text, 1.5ml-aroma-oil, a smelled coaster, and a pinecone inside

I love the idea of smell + photos + memories, because during my previous research on 5 senses, I found out that smell can trigger a person's memory and that something so small can affect a person's thinking and remembering of a certain period of their life. It also has a pine cone, that also helps people remember a certain place at the sight of it, it is like a resemblance of a place. So I really love the idea of this kit, it has visuals which is one of the main senses which inspires people and at the same time trigger memories. This project is a participatory project and has the usage of sight + smell + touch. It could be a inspiration to kick of one of my project for semester two.