http://www.wonder-wall.com/profile/
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2518
--excerpt from Metropolis Mag --
The 40-year-old head of Tokyo firm Wonderwall has created furniture, lighting, bars, and offices, and has even collaborated on the studio set for a BBC program about design, but it’s fashion boutiques—from an elegant space for Marc Jacobs to a hip series of A Bathing Ape T-shirt and sneaker outlets—that have made him famous.
A whimsical presentation of apparel is often the centerpiece of Katayama’s designs. “He has redefined the term showman by focusing on product concepts and the lifestyle of the brands rather than on any personal design style of his own,” says John C. Jay, who oversees American ad agency Weiden + Kennedy’s Tokyo offices. For a 1999 Bape Exclusive shop, Katayama packaged T-shirts like canned goods in a refrigerator. Foot Soldier, a 2001 A Bathing Ape shoe store, features a giant glass-enclosed stainless-steel conveyor belt carrying sneakers that loops over a colorful checkerboard carpet. At Beams T (2002), T-shirts rotate through the space on the kind of carousel used by dry cleaners. “The first thing I do is narrow my use of design elements,” Katayama says. “Once I’ve cut out every unnecessary detail, I add a touch of playfulness that may seem needless in terms of usability. But ultimately I want interior design to be magical. The key in this process is to make sure that the products effectively intertwine with the space and exist as the shop’s protagonist.”
This is in now way promoting bape/kaws.. I think the design of the shops is brilliant.
BAPEXCLUSIVE AOYAMA, JAPAN
ORIGINAL FAKEL: AOYAMA, JAPAN
BAPE KIDS : HARAJUKU, TOKYO
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