Interview with COPA / CONCENT LAN
Art director COPA is surrounded by the most up-and-coming artists and photographers. Maybe because of this, her work and attitude to it often get thought of as cutting-edge; as something that those who get, get, and those that don't, don't. This is perhaps because most of COPA's art direction so far has been mostly in the more subcultural territories such as fashion, art, music, film and the like. Yet looking at her recent work, and listening to what she has to say about it, it quickly becomes clear to view her work like this is to misunderstand it. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that her most recent projects are the production of the CD jackets for idols of phenomenal national prestige: KARA, and 'Not Yet', a unit formed of members of the bands AKB48 (Ōshima, Sashihara, Kitahara and Yokoyama). Rather, when you understand her take on her own work, it appears rather as an entirely natural development. We had the privilege to speak to the usually media-shy COPA.
Not yet "PERA PERA PERAO "(a talkative man) / NIPPON COLUMBIA CO.,LTD. / 2011
You've always said that you wanted to do the artwork for idols, and now your dream has come true! You started with 'KARA', and you've now produced the CD artwork for 'Not Yet'. Why did you have such an interest in working with idols?Be it AKB or Johnny's or whatever, I like that kind of culture which encourages this kind of wild enthusiasm about other people. I like having star crushes on people too, and I like people who have them. It's that same obsessive feeling that gay guys get, that kind of 'Oh, I'm totally in love with Seiko Matsuda'¸ or whoever.
I get the impression that your previous projects have been more towards the sub-cultural end of the media spectrum, rather than the straighter cultural and fashion forms. But idols are obviously the total opposite of that. Have your design leanings changed?
I don't think so. I always liked quite fantastical things, and rather than particularly wanting to do something with 'AKB48', with idols, it was more a question of liking the things that Yasushi Akimoto (AKB48 and Not Yet producer) and Kankurō Kudō produced. With Johnny's, too, I liked the sort of cultural phenomenon that Johnny Kitagawa generated.
What is it that you particularly admire about the kind of work made by those people?
Their passion. It's in a different league. Maybe what I like about it, be it 'AKB48' or Johnny's is the way that they take the path that lies right in the middle.
How did you go about doing the design for Not Yet's 'Peraperaperao'?
When we had the first meeting about 'Peraperaperao' (meaning 'male chatterbox' in Japanese), we looked at Akimoto's lyrics and talked about the way that he wanted to take the songs, but the schedule we'd been given was pretty tight, so at midnight that evening I called a stylist and asked her over dinner if she'd take the project. Then after that, I returned to the studio, came up with three different plans... It was that kind of project! (Laughs.) The plans I made were titled 'Monday', 'Wednesday', 'Sunday'. At that point not even the titles for the song was fixed, but it was about the feelings of a hesitant boy who falls in love with a waitress at a café but is too shy to speak to them, so I tried to imagine the sorts of women that he was fantasizing about through his eyes. Monday's fantasy is her making him coffee. Wednesday's, it's everyone eating and drinking in the back yard. Sunday, he sees the girls on their day off and they're going somewhere. The visuals are all Peraperao's fantasies.
Do you do the same thing with other CD artwork, of thinking up your own stories after receiving the music?
Yes, that's the basic approach I take with everything I do. I never have the story right there visible, but it's always there, at the presentation stage. You could say that I have a plan-oriented approach, I guess. Even if the story comes to me after the visuals do, I don't feel like I want to do projects that I don't have stories for, and so in that sense it's similar to the way that I feel when I'm making music videos - to think up a storyline, and then think of the things in the background of that storyline. Once that base is decided, then when I'm giving stylist details, for instance, I can ask them to come up with their own interpretation using the plot as a starting point.
Do you combine your own ideas with those of your staff?
Rather than giving my staff specific instructions, like, I want the lighting for this photo to be like this, I tend to give a lot vaguer instructions like, telling them what the image is of and the direction I want to take it, and then asking for their ideas.
Are there certain things that crop up again and again you create stories? If so, I know you work with different artists and songs every time, but are there some with whom your ideas don't really fit?
I think there are things that I tend to do... But I make visuals for a living, so I have to know how to be flexible. Maybe it's just luck, but so far I haven't created a story which really doesn't fit with the subject. I meet the artists and talk to them, and I tend to be pretty receptive. Rather than letting the visuals take over, the stories are created very much tailored to what the artists want.
Shikao Suga "FUNKAHOLiC magazine 2009"／Office Augusta／2009
Shikao Suga"FUNKASTiC magazine 2010"／Office Augusta／2010
Shikao Suga"FUNKASTiC magazine 2010"／Office Augusta／2010
Maybe this is a silly thing to ask, but do you think the position of Art Director entails doing something different from self expression?
Of course, I have to be really careful about that. Not to have a style. I don't want to become the sort of person with a fixed style where people think, oh we'll go to her if we want this. Making artists and musicians do better, helping their estimation increase - those are the things that I tend to think about more.
I'd like to ask you a little bit about your graphic design. Your design, and this is particularly the case with the 'Not Yet' stuff, has a kind of tackiness to it, a low-fi quality, which I like. Would you agree?
Yes, I think you're probably right (laughs). I like to stay low-fi. I like the grid systems which form the base of the design and typography enough to study them at university so I don't want to leave them behind, but I want them not be immediately obvious. Leave out the rigid bases, and I don't quite want to say strive towards visuals that don't seem mainstream or big, but certainly I try to give them a sort of comic feel.
A lot of your works use sets. Have you always like making work with sets and similar spatial structures?
I like sets. It took me a while to realise that I did, but when I look back now I see that I was definitely always thinking in terms of creating sets.
When did you realise it?
I only realised it suddenly when I got into a role where I was working very closely with sets. I was doing that kind of stuff for television and the stage for about a year and then I realised, oh I like doing set stuff... It started off when had to draw up a plan, for something I had no experience of doing, and instead of asking the artists that had I had been asking up until that point, I asked a sort-of set designer, and then buried the studio in things that I'd made myself, and it had really big impact. Then, in the programmes 'Tanagoko Lodge' and 'Tanagoko Lotus' made by Kansai television, there were stories behind all the motifs used in the set, and we'd agreed that it was an imaginary room, that once you'd left it once you'd never be able to find it again, and we did things like putting grass on the floor and growing flowers there.
"Tanagokolotus"/ Kansai Talecasting Corporation Network /2009
That was all stuff that you thought of yourself?
The overall direction of the shows are decided by the general producer, but having heard those ideas I would come up with stories for the artwork, and then produce designs. I designed everything, down to the labels on the products placed around the set. The greatest thing about working on TV programmes, in contrast to other forms of media, is that the budget is on another level, which means that you can call in artists for all kinds of tasks. It was great to be able to ask artist friends of mine like KYOTARO, Urata Spancall and WHO YOU to do the set and the opening video without having to stress about it, because I knew the budget was sufficient to pay them properly.
You often say that you want to support artists.
I think that probably it won't be an overstatement to say that that's the reason that I am doing this job. If I wasn't doing it, I would probably be an artist myself. I think those are the two choices for me - doing it myself, or helping others who are doing it to succeed.
Stuff for television is particularly so I suppose, but what you do seems to be very much about forming a team - of cameramen, set designers, directors - rather than working alone. It's got a kind of a school festival feel to it! You gathered together a group of female artists and put on the exhibition 'Super Delax' at the poussez gallery in 2003.
Yes, I really like that school festival-like feeling. I was asked to put on that exhibition by the artistic unit, Namaiki. If I think about it now, it was amazing that I got a group of only female artists together and that such a random event came out well. I have all this school kid-like enthusiasm, like I really want to do films, or own a gallery. I like looking at things that other people have made, and I like artists. I like extraordinary people, like photographers and illustrators, and I want to involve myself with them.
Why do you think you want to associate with extraordinary people?
Because I aspire to that myself? No, I think it's more a matter of making my own limited contribution to those people. If you want to go forward, it's much more fun to do so with another person. I'm not an artist myself, so I've always felt the need to sort of prime them. Like, okay, I'm going to come up with something that will benefit this person.
poussez gallery／2003～2004
As far as I know, you haven't done many adverts. Do you have a policy of not doing them?
At the beginning I had a big argument with an advertising agency and determined never to do them. (Laughs.) No, that's not true. I do do them.
I suppose they're a bit tricky with your way of going about things, right? The purpose is kind of different. (Laughs). I mean, the job of an artistic director for adverts is to make the products themselves appeal to the consumer, whereas your priority is to bring the artists themselves to the fore.
No, that's not true. I'm more well-rounded these days. (Laughs.) I've got so much kinder, become much more of an adult. When I started out I had a real tongue on me and with argue with a lot of people, but I'm totally different now. I want to make things that will sell properly, and I think you have to begin with agreement. (Laughs)
And before you would begin with disagreement?
Yes. Begin with disagreement, end with disagreement, Yutaka Ozaki-style. At that point I was really rebellious, in a way. But as I've grown up, I've turned the other way, and so I understand a lot better.
Maybe that's why you've been able to do these projects with idols. If you were rebellious it might have been difficult.
Yes. It's only these few years I've been able to get to the end of jobs and say, yes that was really fun, although I admit that in terms of working hours it's been too much. It's just that you get to the point where it doesn't have to be 100%, 150%. I'm not talking about compromise, really. Of course if lots are people involved then you have to make compromises, but it's my role to persuade people in order to end up with a truly good results. In the end, I'm in the position where I can see most clearly how hard all the people are working, and think of a certain decision 'they're good kids, so it's okay'. I've become more of an adult, more capable of accommodating things.
Can you say that of yourself?
Well, it's something that isn't at all related to design. But then design too is a lot about beliefs. My job is to put everyone's idea together and give them shape. If there are ten people involved, then you have ten sets of ideas to work with. If my job is to fit all together well, like Tetris blocks, then that's just what I've got to do. I think I've got better at doing that.
Has your style of communication changed?
I think it has. Now I've built up a little experience, I don't let myself get walked over as much. When I was young people would turn me down without listening what I had to say. I'm a girl, after all. At the time I used to say, I'm going to take a bearded old man along to meetings so that people will take me more seriously (laughs). What with that, the only people that I could really trust then were artists. So now I think I'm returning the favour.
Photos_ Akihisa Okumoto
Text_Yoshiyuki Ishii
Translation_Polly Barton
COPA/ CONCENT LAN
Artistic Director/Graphic Designer
Studied under SEE GEE GEN and Junichi Tsunoda. Afterwards formed the Design unit CONCENT LAN with Junko Tanaka. Has been working solo since Tanaka's 2011 announcement that she 'wanted to go back to being a normal girl'. Now dabbles in design forms spanning from media to conventional art forms, including fashion, music, film, literature and art.
Click here for the profile page
Tweet
