Conversation with Aiko Koike
Aiko Koike, a Japanese graphic designer based in Tokyo surrounded by her numerous shelves of books, is one of our favorite art directors. Aiko challenges traditional branding with playful lines and physical human installations for Kyoto Experiment—she is also producing prints that never must die! With her tongue-in-cheek, still razor-sharp aesthetic, she opens the door to a cultural sector that is often exclusive or reserved for the elite. Disarming logos and fonts leaves us grounded and excited.
Attendees: Divijah Rajendra, Nanna Svane,
Aiko Koike
Nanna Svane: Hello. Hi.
Divijah Rajendra: Hi.
Aiko Koike: Hello. Hi.
Nanna Svane: Pleasure to meet you!
Divijah Rajendra: How are you?
Aiko Koike: Nice to see you.
Nanna Svane: Nice to see you.
Aiko Koike: How are you?
Divijah Rajendra: I need a bit more sound here.
Nanna Svane: We are very good. How are you?
Aiko Koike: I'm good, too.
Nanna Svane: Amazing. Where are you?
Aiko Koike: I'm at home in Tokyo. Yeah.
Nanna Svane: In Tokyo, amazing, lovely. Yeah, we were actually not sure where you're based. Thank you so much for joining us.
Aiko Koike: No, thank you so much for having me.
Nanna Svane: We're very excited to speak to you.
Aiko Koike: Yeah, me too.
Nanna Svane: What time is it in Tokyo right now?
Aiko Koike: It's six pm.
Nanna Svane: There's quite a time difference.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: We just more or less woke up here.
Aiko Koike: Really? It's 9 am or something.
Nanna Svane: In London, it's 9 am.
Divijah Rajendra: And here's 10, so on a regular Sunday, this is when I wake up.
Aiko Koike: And good morning.
Nanna Svane: Yeah, good morning! Haha.
Divijah Rajendra: Good evening to you.
Nanna Svane: First of all, do I pronounce your name correctly; Aiko?
Aiko Koike: Aiko Koiko, yes
Nanna Svane: Aiko, perfect. Thank you Aiko.
Divijah Rajendra: And I'm Divijah. Yes.
Nanna Svane: I'm Nanna, pleasure to meet you.
Aiko Koike: Nanna, Nanna, okay. Divijah.
Nanna Svane: We're so happy you wanted to join us for this conversation. We are the founders and the only ones working on us2u, which we've already sent you all the information about, but most importantly it's a project where we start conversations with people that we really admire.
Aiko Koike: Okay.
Nanna Svane: And we have been following you on Instagram for quite some time and we find both your aesthetic and your projects so interesting, and we really wanted to speak to you, because we couldn't find much information about you online.
Aiko Koike: Okay. Thank you.
Nanna Svane: Tokyo, can you describe Tokyo for us in three words?
Nanna Svane: Amazing.
Divijah Rajendra: What we've been noticing on your Instagram is that you post quite a lot about this Kyoto Experiment. Could you maybe explain a bit about what it is? And how are you involved with it?
Aiko Koike: I'm doing art directing for them.
Divijah Rajendra: Okay, cool.
Aiko Koike: For now, four years.
Divijah Rajendra: So you do like graphic design and art direction?
Nanna Svane: Wow.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: What is the Kyoto experiment?
Aiko Koike: Yeah, it's an International Performing Arts Festival in Kyoto not in Tokyo.
Divijah Rajendra: Mmm
Aiko Koike: And once a year in October
Divijah Rajendra: Once a year in October. Okay right.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: And is it something you do with friends or how do you know the people from the Kyoto experiment?
Aiko Koike: I know one guy out of the 3 directors And… because we used to work together on many projects, he just asked me to join.
Divijah Rajendra: What kind of Performing Arts Is it? Like Internationally you invite people in or?
Aiko Koike: Yeah. So many countries.
Nanna Svane: It really looks so interesting.
Aiko Koike: Uh-huh.
Nanna Svane: Both everything you post about the Kyoto experiment looks so exciting and also lately you've been posting videos with a lot of people in it. A performance I think.
Aiko Koike: Yeah. Yeah.
Nanna Svane: Is that your project or someone else's project?
Aiko Koike: It is my project.
Nanna Svane: It looks very very interesting. Can you explain a little bit about it?
Aiko Koike: Thanks…
Divijah Rajendra: This is what?
Aiko Koike: But I just shot with my iPhone. So it's not like a video or something more like casual and easy thing I guess yeah.
Nanna Svane: Fun, but is it a part of the experiment in general or is it only art direction for the experiment?
Aiko Koike: I think it's for a visual identity thing. No, not like Performing Arts.
Nanna Svane: Yeah. Okay.
Aiko Koike: Just not yeah,… just for a poster or video or something.
Nanna Svane: Amazing. I have to comment on all the amazing books you have in your background. You have a lot of books on the shelves.
Aiko Koike: I have more!
Nanna Svane: Do you collect books? Amazing, amazing.
Aiko Koike: Yes. A lot!
Nanna Svane: I've seen you working a lot with Takashi Homma.. are you a close friend or…
Aiko Koike: Uh-huh.
Nanna Svane: Because you've been collaborating a lot with them? Yeah.
Aiko Koike: Yeah, because he's like a neighbour. Yeah.
Nanna Svane: Funny
Nanna Svane: I think Divijah lost her connection. She's probably gonna come in again.
Divijah Rajendra: I just disappeared for a minute. I lost my connection. You just pick what you talked about!
Nanna Svane: We spoke about how Aiko and Takashi Homma are actually neighbours.
Divijah Rajendra: No way! That's how you know each other?
Aiko Koike: Only five minutes from my house. Yeah.
Nanna Svane: Fun!
Divijah Rajendra: That's one of my favorite photographers of all time. Yes, I love the work.
Aiko Koike: Over there (pointing her finger).
Divijah Rajendra: His book is right here!
Aiko Koike: I have that one.
Divijah Rajendra: That's The Narcissistic City. I love it. It's so good.
Aiko Koike: Yeah, so beautiful.
Divijah Rajendra: really beautiful
Nanna Svane: Yeah, it is very beautiful. Are you sitting at home, Aiko?
Aiko Koike: Yes.
Divijah Rajendra: Is that all your books in the background?
Aiko Koike: But I have more upstairs.
Divijah Rajendra: I love a good library. It's a good way to find inspiration.
Nanna Svane: Very much. Did you grow up in Tokyo?
Aiko Koike: Yes.
Nanna Svane: So you've been there your entire life?
Aiko Koike: I have been living in Yokohama as well. Next to the city.
Nanna Svane: Did you .. sorry, keep on going.
Aiko Koike: I sometimes go to Kyoto as well.
Nanna Svane: Nice, I've never been to Tokyo or Kyoto. I really want to go.
Aiko Koike: No?
Divijah Rajendra: Also me, that's one of my biggest dream destinations right now.
Nanna Svane: Aiko, did you paint and draw a lot as a kid? Because We’ve seen the way you do a lot of your both art Direction and projects. It's always about doodling. There's a lot of doodling in it.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: Did you paint and draw a lot as a kid?
Aiko Koike: Actually, not so much. And now I'm more into digital things. Yeah. I don't draw usually.
Aiko Koike: Only because some projects or work wants it.
Nanna Svane: Interesting. Yeah, but then how did you end up with graphic design like why graphic design?
Nanna Svane: Yeah?
Aiko Koike: or fashion stylist or…
Aiko Koike: maybe magazine editor
Nanna Svane: Yeah?
Aiko Koike: But now I don't know.
Divijah Rajendra: But did you study graphic design? No. Yes,…?
Aiko Koike: Yes, yes.
Divijah Rajendra: You did. Okay. How many years did you study graphic design and…
Divijah Rajendra: What's that in Tokyo as well?
Aiko Koike: Three years Yeah,…
Divijah Rajendra: So when you are working which album would you put on?
Aiko Koike: You mean the music album?
Divijah Rajendra: Yes music album.
Aiko Koike: I think I sent you something.
Nanna Svane: Yeah, you did.
Divijah Rajendra: Which one would be your favorite one right now?
Aiko Koike: one?
Divijah Rajendra: just one
Aiko Koike: Let me see: the first one …!
Album : Eucalypt… For Dance by Peter Mumme.
Nanna Svane: The first one yeah.
Aiko Koike: Yeah, it's cute.
Nanna Svane: It is very cute. So I've been listening to all of the albums that you sent through. I knew some of them.
Aiko Koike: Really?
Nanna Svane: Yeah, so I love diving into music. So I was very excited when you sent me five different ones and I love the Vince Staples one the Big Fish Theory and that's one of my favorite albums, too.
Divijah Rajendra: It's so good.
Nanna Svane: It's so good. But the first one actually you sent…
Aiko Koike: Yeah?
Nanna Svane: I've never heard that one before, that's very nice, too.
Divijah Rajendra: Did you see that Vince Staples has a new show on Netflix? It's called the Vince Staples show.
Aiko Koike: No.
Nanna Svane: No.
Divijah Rajendra: And I've started it's … in Atlanta. The one with, what's his name… Childish Gambino? What's his real name? Do you know but it's kind of wanting to go that direction. But it's all about Vince Staples in this kind of weird world and everyone knows him and he's like this famous person. It's kind of weird but funny, so I would recommend that for you.
Nanna Svane: Okay.
Divijah Rajendra: And it's quite short. It's not that many episodes.
Nanna Svane: the Vince Staples show?
Divijah Rajendra: Yeah, it's pretty new. It just came out. So if you like to check it out..
Aiko Koike: I have to check it. Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: You have to check it out. It's really a strange one.
Nanna Svane: I'm just gonna write it down. Otherwise, I know I'll forget it.
Divijah Rajendra: We should chat about things after this conversation if we have something we should share with each other. So another thing I've noticed is, we really went deep diving into your Instagram. But another thing I noticed is that I have this bag right? So this is one of my favorite bags.
(Divijah pulling up a very worn ‘zucca’ bag.)
Aiko Koike: It's vintage?
Divijah Rajendra: It's a zucca bag. And we noticed that you worked with zucca. I love this logo. It's just so simple and pure and I love that. So you've been working a bit with zucca?
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: Can you talk a bit about that?
Aiko Koike: But now the designer quit the job. So he left the company.
Nanna Svane: Okay?
Aiko Koike: So I'm not working there anymore.
Divijah Rajendra: Okay.
Aiko Koike: I think. yeah, it's getting more like a commercial brand…
Nanna Svane: No..
Aiko Koike: Yeah. Not really.
Divijah Rajendra: But you used to do a lot of fun cut outs and stuff like that with them.
Aiko Koike: Yeah, I know.
Divijah Rajendra: I really love those elements to it.
Aiko Koike: Me too.
Nanna Svane: Me too!
Aiko Koike: Especially like the 90s. Let's go!
Divijah Rajendra: Yeah, yeah. But it's just something with that logo. I'm obsessed with it. It's not a regular bold logo because I feel like both logos are always all caps big the letters and…
Nanna Svane: Mm-hmm
Divijah Rajendra: This is not, but it still feels, because the wording is small and then it's blown up, so somehow it feels like It's all caps but it's not because if you look at it's just kind of signifies that it's not all bold.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: And I think it's so genius.
Aiko Koike: I think so too.
Divijah Rajendra: I also remember the zucca book. You've also seen Nanna, this legendary zucca book,…
Nanna Svane: Yeah, I know. So goood.
Divijah Rajendra: with the canvas cover.
Nanna Svane: Yeah, exactly!
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: It’s one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen. The cover is just genius.
Aiko Koike: mmm. I know.
Nanna Svane: What is your favorite bag Aiko?
Aiko Koike: f***. I like leather bags.. Vintage.
Nanna Svane: Mm-hmm
Divijah Rajendra: Do you like big bags or small bags?
Aiko Koike: super big or super small
Nanna Svane: Yeah, same. Either huge. I was just about to say it in Danish huge or…
Aiko Koike: Yeah. Yeah,…
Nanna Svane: Tiny. Yeah. Same for me!
Aiko Koike: Me too.
Divijah Rajendra: But I just don't understand the tiny one. I'm like what you put in it?
Aiko Koike: Nothing.
Nanna Svane: I only put my cigarettes, nothing else.
Divijah Rajendra: cute.
Nanna Svane: Yeah, it's funny with bags.
Aiko Koike: yeah.
Nanna Svane: I never wear bags. I have a backpack for my computer for when I travel a lot, but I never really wear bags. I don't do it. There's a lot of people that really collect bags and there's so much about it.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: I have so many shoes I'm obsessed with all the weird shoes. I always wear the same though. I always wear military desert boots. Canvas nude boots, but I love all these crazy shoes. And right now I'm just wearing slippers. So nothing impressive. …
Aiko Koike: Foxy, right.
Nanna Svane: What are you guys wearing?
Divijah Rajendra: I have socks on. But I have this shoe right next to me. Actually this one.
(Pulling up Balenciaga rubber heel.)
Aiko Koike: That's cute.
Divijah Rajendra: It’s a Balenciaga shoe…
Nanna Svane: That's very cute.
Divijah Rajendra: But this is my favorite heel because it's so weird and it's like a rubber shoe. So it's really nice and easy to walk in. I love that.
Nanna Svane: Nice.
Divijah Rajendra: I'm just like pulling out my bags and I'm pulling out shoes. It's just about shoes and coats. I just love good coats.
Nanna Svane: Yes..
Divijah Rajendra: It makes a whole outfit. I barely ever buy clothes because I just have one pair of jeans. I have three Juicy Couture hoodies and…
Aiko Koike: I want!
Divijah Rajendra: I just switch it up.
Nanna Svane: That's it.
Divijah Rajendra: I love these (juicy couture hoodie) they are just like… get it?
Aiko Koike: yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: You can get it on Vestiaire and it's so cheap, but you always need to find the ones that has this little ‘J’
Nanna Svane: Yeah. The old ones!
Aiko Koike: Okay.
Divijah Rajendra: So I found another thing besides your Instagram. We also absolutely love your website.
Aiko Koike: Okay! Haha.
Divijah Rajendra: Yes, it's amazing the way you show your work and… what you do. It's just so playful. So what do you think? What is the future of websites? Do you think it's more important that it is playful or that it is functional?
Nanna Svane: No.
Aiko Koike: only like Instagram or tiktok or…
Nanna Svane: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: I think also something. That's been on my mind about Instagram as you mentioned. As you also mentioned that no one checks websites anymore. Instagram turns into this work platform with your portfolio somehow it's quite interesting…
Aiko Koike: Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
Divijah Rajendra: how it went from very ‘Just life’ to really work related.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: So I don't know. I like it. I think it's genius. It's a free platform for people to actually reach a lot of accounts. I think that's super great.
Aiko Koike Mmm
Nanna Svane: But I think everything comes down to those people, who don't go to the websites, don't Google their names, don't read about them in articles.
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Nanna Svane: And that's a miss. I think it's like ‘do you have a link in BIO or not?’ Otherwise, I won't go further. I think that's terrible. Yeah.
Aiko Koike: Yeah I agree. Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra:. Aiko, how do you use your Instagram?
Aiko Koike: Actually, I only use it for my work. It's more like a portfolio.
Nanna Svane: Yeah.
Aiko Koike: And I don't post about my daily life or what I ate or anything.
Nanna Svane: It's fun because I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but Divi, you and I suddenly used iMessage or Whatsapp a lot for this, what I mean, so right now I just send pictures and inspiration directly to my friends. I live far away from both friends and family. So then I just collected 10 pictures for the last month. So it gives an inside of what I've been doing and then I send it off to people so it's kind of like a postcard. I call it Postcards to friends.
Aiko Koike: Yeah! That’s nice.
Nanna Svane: So this way I use WhatsApp or iMessage much more in the way that I normally would be using Instagram.
Aiko Koike: That's you. Cool.
Nanna Svane: What about you Divijah?
Divijah Rajendra: But what do you think shifted because you used to do it or has it always been like this?
Nanna Svane: When I was 13, I was posting new cool shoes and a café kind of vibe, on social media I don't even know it was probably on Facebook. I think; ‘status of the day’ like: ‘school was shit’..
Aiko Koike: Yeah. haha.
Nanna Svane:’ I slept through math’, kind of rebel online.
Aiko Koike: and Tumblr…
Nanna Svane: Yeah. God, a lot but I kind of want to go back to that era or…
Divijah Rajendra: I loved Tumblr Yeah.
Nanna Svane: I lived on Tumblr. Yeah, it was amazing.
Aiko Koike: Me too. It was so fun.
Divijah Rajendra: It was so fun. And you take from a book and then get the pages on there and then somehow you get a tiny sense of the Tumblr.
Nanna Svane: Yeah, I know what you mean.
Divijah Rajendra: Yeah. It's interesting. Right, how the platforms evolve into something new and what the future is like. What do you think is the future of graphic design and art direction Aiko?
Aiko Koike: But now I feel like my clients don't want to make paper things.
Nanna Svane: Sad.
Aiko Koike: All they want is only digital things, like websites or…
Divijah Rajendra: Okay. Yeah.
Aiko Koike: Instagram images or like jpeg or some short five seconds movie or yeah, so it's sad.
Nanna Svane: It's so sad!
Aiko Koike: Yeah, I know.
Nanna Svane: We have to do something about that. Maybe us2u and Aiko should make a paper project together.
Aiko Koike: Wasted. Yeah!
Nanna Svane: We need to make a book or…
Divijah Rajendra: Yes. We should make a book.
Nanna Svane: something. Yeah, We should do a book or something. Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: Yeah. Yeah, that would be so much fun.
Nanna Svane: What projects are you working on right now Aiko?
Aiko Koike: All right. Now I work on a book. This is something new but I do a costume styling thing for performance
Divijah Rajendra: Okay?
Nanna Svane: nice.
Aiko Koike: It's so fun.
Divijah Rajendra: So you do the costumes?
Aiko Koike: Yeah, but I never tried anything like it before, so I don't know how to do it.
Nanna Svane: amazing!
Divijah Rajendra: I'm sure you can do it. Try something new and it's interesting because you mentioned how you ended up in graphic design, that you were interested in photography and styling and then somehow this…
Aiko Koike: Yeah. That's right.
Nanna Svane: And also I'll send you guys the different stuff on WhatsApp so we can keep connected and send references.
Divijah Rajendra: Amazing to have this conversation with you Aiko and…
Aiko Koike: Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: to get to know you a bit more and thank you so much for taking the time to do this with us.
Aiko Koike: I think it's so fun. It was good.
Nanna Svane: Thank you so much. It was very fun.
Divijah Rajendra: It was such a pleasure.
Aiko Koike: Pretty please come to Tokyo.
Nanna Svane: Yes, we will!
Divijah Rajendra: Yes, yes. We have to!
Nanna Svane: We have to and when you come to Copenhagen you tell us and I'll make sure to be there.
Aiko Koike: Okay. Thank you.
Divijah Rajendra: Yeah. Thank you Aiko.
Nanna Svane: And thank you Aiko. Let's stay in touch!
Aiko Koike: Have a good weekend. Yeah.
Divijah Rajendra: Have a good day. Bye.
Nanna Svane: Thank you.
Aiko Koike: Okay, bye-bye.
Nanna Svane: Bye. Bye.
Aiko Koike: Thank you.
Conversation ended after 01:00:04 👋
Some links Aiko wanted to share:
Impressions of Aiko. Need more! Read here!
yay
Which instrument is your favorite?
I don't play music
What is the color black for you?
comfortable
Favorit album cover of all time?
https://www.discogs.com/ja/release/1817333-Barnes-Barnes-Fish-Heads-Barnes-Barnes-Greatest-Hits
Sweater or hoodie?
Both
Favorite dish for lunch?
Eggs
What does the smiley mean to you?
emoji
Jeremy Deller hot or not?
I don't know him
The next big typo?
Super basic fonts
February the month of..
Depression
My bff is…
My piggy dog
Next place to live?
Okinawa (south island in Japan) or Hawaii