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English | Japanese
5 - The Joy of Working Together
| Sonya | Before I had the opportunity to work with you, I had this perception that you had a brand, "Hobonichi," and in order to protect it you were going to have specific things in mind. Turns out I was wrong. I was impressed to see your comfort with renewal and change. |
| Itoi | I don't really focus on objects themselves. I focus more on the recipient. What's important are the eyes of the person using the object or the act of getting someone excited. |
| Sonya | Ah, I see. The atmosphere felt really free and open, like hey, you’d have fun, we’d have fun, why not? Both I and my staff had such a great time working on it. We're still a small company, so working on something for Hobonichi was a tall order. |
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| Itoi | (laughs) |
| Sonya | No, really. We ended up working on both the English version planner and the planner cover, but the quantity of the products was so large the staff was saying, "Do we really need to make this many?" and "What do we do if these don't sell?" Our factory has never made more than one or two hundred of any product at a time, so people were shocked. It was such a large order that they were practically asking me if the numbers were correct. |
| Itoi | Is that so? But it was a lot of fun working together. |
| Sonya | And we were chatting the whole time. |
| Itoi | It's important to align our thoughts, so we spent quite a bit of time volleying ideas in conversation. I mean, once you actually sit down to decide a color for something, it takes about two seconds. But we talked forever, saying "not this," and "not that." Our workplaces are nearby, so it was easy to meet up. |
| Sonya | That's right. |
| Itoi | I don't know if it was because we were speaking personally between the two of us rather than two companies working together, but for some things I figured, "If that's what Sonya says, let's do it." |
| Sonya | Yeah. It's all about people, not individual companies. If I'm going to incorporate a product into my company, I want to be able to speak extensively and enjoy full communication. It's not fun, otherwise. |
| Itoi | I know exactly what you mean. I'm also glad your office is so close by. Even as I'm connected with hundreds of millions of people over the internet, I haven't worked face-to-face with more than a hundred people. Even as we've become an online company, I'm keenly aware that the number of people we work with in the real world hasn't really changed. I OK'd writing "techo" in kanji on the cover of the English planner because it was done by our neighbor, Sonya. If we were far apart from each other I wouldn't say, "Good idea." |
| Sonya | (laughs) It's because we're neighbors? |
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| Itoi | No, that's a joke, but we've always looked up to all your work as a stylist and how your shop succeeds with your own personal taste. So we're honored to work alongside you on the English planner. It may sound like sweet talk, but I'm being honest. (laughs) |
| Sonya | Thank you very much. Every time I'm making something I think: the customer will see absolutely everything. All our thoughts during production show up in the product. |
| Itoi | They sure do. |
| Sonya | So when a person looks at it, he'll feel it. We can't trick him. All our thoughts are evident in the English planner, so when people use it they’ll see us feeling like we should have spent a little more time on a few parts. I’d like to make some improvements over time, but… I might give up halfway through. (laughs) |
| Itoi | But we've only just begun! (laughs) I’m sure you’re the kind of person to let something go once that motive to create something you want to use wanes. I'm sort of the same way. Well, let's check up on each other's motivation every year and edit it as we go along. It's boring to just brush it off and say we're working on it. |
| Sonya | That's true. I want to relish our creation of things we personally want. |
| Itoi | Well then, what shall we make next? The planner is finished, and it's too early to discuss next year's planner. |
| Sonya | How about a planner t-shirt? |
| Itoi | Huh? |
| Sonya | A Techo-T for company presidents only. |
| Itoi | Techo-T, I like it. Let's make two. (laughs) |
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| (This is the end of the interview. Thank you for reading.) |
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2012-11-12-MON
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Stylist: Michio Hayashi Photographer: Masahiro Sanbe |
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