tokujin yoshioka: camper store in london now open

inside the store image © designboom

during london design week, designboom met up with japanese designer tokujin yoshioka to discuss his concept behind the new camper store located on regent street, which officially opened on september 25th, 2009.

what were the starting points for developing the concept of the store’s design? the idea for this new store, which incorporates principles of nature, is derived from the ‘bouquet chair’ which I designed for moroso that are on display in the store. while there are a variety of unique designers involved in the collaboration with camper, I have thought about how to express camper’s corporate color not simply by applying a red paint. I have wanted to create a strong concept, which expresses the camper brand identity and the originality of my design.

how did the collaboration between you and camper come about? in july, 2008, I was commissioned to design both a store and a pair of shoes for a collaboration project called ‘camper toðer’. the shoe design is still in progress.

what were your goals for the space? to design a space where visitors will have a new experience as they step into the space. perhaps I would like to create an aura of mystery, which could somehow change the entire air around the space.

what has been the most rewarding part of designing the store? it is very rewarding when I see people being happy in the store I designed.

now that the project is complete, if you had more time, what else would you have included in the design? because there is a great distance, we make the design proposal and work further on the plan in japan and the rest of the work is handled on site by the client. in order to develop the project smoothly, frequent communication and clarification in every aspect in details are very important. conducting many experiments is also necessary when creating new value in design.

image courtesy of tokujin yoshioka