Making "Buttons" More Interesting

Introducing "Ideas to Make ○○ More Interesting" from a young art director at Dentsu Inc. This time, it's "Making Buttons More Interesting" by Aya Yagi.

Turn the constellations you saw as a child into buttons

──Why did you choose "buttons" as your theme?

Yagi: I wanted to create something new since I was given this opportunity. I also hoped it would become something tangible, something lasting as my own work. When I thought about how to utilize a small, minimal idea, buttons came to mind.

It turned out to require quite a bit of testing. First, the size. If they're too small, you can't tell they're constellations. I experimented a lot with the thickness of the thread and how it worked with different button sizes. Also, choosing which constellations to make into buttons took some thought. Complex constellations are tricky. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper worked perfectly.

Come to think of it, I used to gaze at the stars a lot when I was little. I grew up in the countryside. Now that I live in Tokyo, the chances to see stars and the number of stars visible have both decreased, which is a bit sad.

Over the years, I've thought up and created all kinds of designs. I've admired cool and stylish things, but I've come to feel that only the things that fit my own scale and life truly stick. Lately, I've been thinking I want to connect my designs to things I find naturally beautiful in daily life, or things I feel are important.

Artwork: Go Suehiro / Photography: Atsushi Yoshihama / Photography Assistance: Yusuke Shimura

Cooking and tableware are connected to design

──Tell us about things or objects you're currently interested in.

Yagi: I've started cooking a lot more recently. When I cook, I've become particular about tableware too, and I've been collecting plates and such. Both tableware and cuisine have regional characteristics and differences, which is really fascinating.

Also, I feel like cooking and tableware are connected to design. They're things created by human hands. While design is often done on computers now, back in the day, even drawing lines was done by hand with pencils or pens. I want to incorporate more of that sense of lines and shapes created by hand into my design work going forward.