Design Works
The Store by C'
The Store By C’ is a unique shopping experience devised to look like a glimpse into “a beautiful life” inside of a home. Studio Early Birds, in collaboration with Ms. Kambayashi’s predecessor studio, Jamo & Associates, led the building’s space design to resemble a scenic house in order to give visitors perspective on an idyllic lifestyle. We transformed a renovated mid-century building into an eco-friendly modern living area, conveyed by breaking down barriers between nature and the domestic interior and by reconstructing the building as sustainably as possible. To achieve this, certain sections of the building have been preserved and restored instead of removed. We also used landscaping and natural materials, such as a terra cotta brick wall adorning the exterior that turns into a corridor as the visitors enter the building, which serves as a gentle transition to the displays.
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By presenting the store as an example of ideal living, Studio Early Birds invites visitors to consider what objects in the store would match their own beautiful life. These items, both for retail and display, reflect refined longevity, which are goals to strive for when considering one’s lifestyle. Therefore, Studio Early Birds curated all items and displays in the shop from the client's product line to match the store's values. Studio Early Birds then led creative direction of the video and photo shoots, which involved guiding specialized teams of photographers and models from California, while also designing each photoshoot set.
#Space Direction #Interior Styling #Creative Direction #Others
Slow Flower Life
When the Slow Flower Life campaign was created, indoor plant decor was emerging as a new trend in Japan. However, most products at the forefront were trimmed, dyed, and grown to be unnaturally perfect. This campaign highlights the beauty of local, natural flowers in protest. This concept is drawn from ikebana, the Japanese art form of flower arrangement, which relies on the seemingly chaotic quirks of nature to form each composition.
Along with the graphics campaign, Studio Early Birds also designed the “Hug&Kiss,” a reusable flower tote bag, as a part of the branding. The name reflects the organic materials of both the bag and flowers, in that one feels as though they could hug and kiss the gift and be safe from artificial chemicals. While it still feels strong and hardy, the canvas texture adds a tactile complement to the delicate but also natural feel of the flowers. Meant as a gift bag, the tote is made from canvas to reduce waste as a long-lasting product, thus promoting a "slow" life: one that takes into account the impact of products on the environment through generations.
#Creative Direction #Interior Styling #Graphic Design #Others
The Artisan Table DEAN & DELUCA
With a rotating selection of guest chefs and weekly menu changes, The Artisan Table by DEAN & DELUCA is an upscale experimental restaurant with a farm-to-table policy. The architecture of the restaurant site reflects the transparency of The Artisan Table's food sourcing with literal transparency: a building exterior comprised mainly of glass in order to admire the natural surroundings. From this policy, Ms. Kambayashi of Studio Early Birds set out to design the interior as an extension of this idea. Materials follow suit, such as serpentine stone, Japanese mud tiles, wood trim, and earth-toned paints. Finally, to tie it all together, the restaurant hosts a carefully selected curation of indoor plants that stand out from the typical restaurant selection.