One of the coolest graphic artists who makes some of the hottest work out there -- Kenzo Minami -- took some time out of his busy life to answer a few questions that I had for him. Make sure to checkout his site and his tees from S/S 2008. Genius as always.

» Name + Age
Kenzo Minami. Age 34.

» Job Title

Designer

» What'd you want to be when you were little?
When I was little, I wanted to be a film director, but my interest eventually shifted more to the technical side of things, so then I wanted to be a production designer for films. But even before that, I remember that I for some reason wrote "A Submarine Pilot" when I was told to write what my future dream was at kindergarten - I guess I always was more comfortable hiding behind (or beneath) something.

» First memory of creating art?
Building things out of metal scrap and wood in my father's die-cast metal factory - If you can call that art. Though I still don't really know if what I am doing now can be called that either, considering that things essentially haven't changed much since.

» Who was your favorite artist as a kid? Now?
I did not really have favorite artists when I was young. I had respect for more of craftsmen (and I still do) - I think because I grew up among factory workers and engineers. Type of people whom I admired and considered my heroes was someone like Douglas Trumbull, who was (and is) a special effects supervisor, or Rick Baker and Stan Winston who inspired me to start making creatures in clay, make a mold with plaster casting, and finish them with latex rubber and bicycle cables for inner working (for eye movement, etc - with sets of fake eyes. Owner of my neighborhood bicycle shop used to ask my mother what the hell I am doing with all the cables I often came in and bought.) And when I bought my first airbrush gear when I was in Junior High, it gave everyone around me nightmares since I could only afford cheap compressor and it made amazingly loud noise when I activated it. And I used to use it all night long. But I was in love with the machine and used it just about for anything - I was the very first and the only one since who used airbrush for homework for art class in my school.

So I had and always will have respect for someone who simply tries to heighten his and her craftsmanship, and ended up standing between art and craft.

» When did you move to New York and where did you live?
I moved to New York from San Diego in early 1993 after being in West Coast for a year.

» Favorite thing about New York? Least favorite?
I like the fact that I can just step out of my place and always run into someone, or even meet new people on the street in New York.

On the other hand, people don't thank the others enough. Roughly about 50% of people thank me when I hold the door for them, and that is a very sad state for civilization to be in.

» What other cities or place do you like to spend time?
Tokyo. I re-discovered it last year.

» Last real vacation. When + Where?
Summer of 2007. Tokyo.

» What inspires you?
-Words.
-Sounds.
-People saying "Thank you".

» You have a very distinct graphic style. Do you remember the point at which your work evolved into the style it is today?
I don't really remember the exact point, but they came out gradually as a reaction to all the commercial works I was doing for TV broadcast back then. Basically by the time I started releasing them, I had almost 2 years worth of finished pieces since I was simply making them just to keep my sanity, and also because people didn't really get what I was doing. All these works were piled up in my hard drive without being seen except by some close friends, or being told that they are too insane or bizarre by some art directors. And even more ideas had been (and has been) sitting in my head.

» I remember seeing the Rebook ads with you in them. That's pretty huge. Was that a trip?
It kind of is and have been (a trip) more in retrospect, but at the time when the ad came out, I was so busy working on next projects and I did not get to really enjoy it. I also developed this strange detachment between myself, and myself as a designer - so seeing my name or works in public does not really effect me emotionally. It is almost seeing someone else or happening to somebody else, but not myself. Kenzo Minami and Minami Kenzo (as my everyday banal self, and as we used the last name first, growing up in Japan. Especially when it's spelled in alphabet, I don't really have emotional attachment to it at all.) are somewhat 2 different people in my head, as I came to realize recently. Which seems to be a healthy way of working since I really do not need to feed more ego into my psyche.

» What's your dream project? If you had all the money and resources, what would you do?
I would love to do a whole theatre piece. Or go back to making monsters in my room again, but bigger (and surely with bigger budget).

» Top 5 songs on your iPod?

Bill Evans Trio - Gloria's Step
John Cale - Paris 1919
Arto Lindsay - Sovereign
Beethoven - Symphony No.7 in A Major
Bob Dylan - I really pondered this and tried to pick one song but I can't. It's just not right and it is a brutal task to pick only one song out of his discography. But one of his songs has to be in here.

» First concert? Favorite concert?
First : B-52's with Violent Femmes opening for them.

Favorite : I went to see the symphony orchestra concert of Mozart's very first composition and his very last, in 2 parts at Lincoln Center a few years ago. He was a genius from the beginning till the end. People say that all those compositions have been refined over the course of years of different symphony orchestras playing them, but still. There were people in history that did what they were meant to do with their lives.

» Any dirty little pop culture secrets you want to share? (Like you watch Gilmore Girls or listen to P!nk when nobody's around?) Anything. Really. This is where you get to write whatever you want.
I don't watch TV, don't listen to radio, and don't really read magazine, so I am usually the last to know what's the latest in anything, what's the trend, and what is going on in general outside of my studio. I am always curious about things and constantly researching and reading, but these things I am curious about always seem to be a bit off from what people are looking at in any given the moment (for example at the moment in June 2008, it is "Russian Cosmism"). I usually seem to be looking into completely different direction from majority of people. So for example, all these hot new bands etc, I have heard of some names when people are talking about them, but I actually have no idea what they sound like or what they look like (though I can easily guess - usually with tight pants and long messy dark hair, finished with ironic handlebar mustache, at the moment?)

On the other hand, I have been listening to a lot of those Japanese mainstream pop music recently (as much as this contradicts from what I was just saying above)- which is bizarre since I had never listened to Japanese music when I was growing up. What I find interesting and great about them is their insatiable anything-goes approach. They would incorporate anything from any genre without any preconceived ideas and rules as long as they work and sound cool. They even often ignore the rules and structure in language grammar - almost treating words as simple sound elements that at most just suggest the feeling and atmosphere, rather than actual coherent meaning. I used to find this idiotic and against my taste, but now, I find it interesting in its approach even when I am not sure if they are intentional. (It is highly possible that their knowledge in English is simply limited in some cases, as opposed to the intentional randomness in Dadaist poem or cut-up technique done by Tzara or Burroughs, or even auto writing. But maybe it is even more interesting because it is unintentional.) And in some sense, western music and its each genre and sub-genre have too much of history at this point, each comes with too many rules, clichés, and stigmas, they all starting to sound formulaic. Rock music sounds rock, Indie Rock sounds expectedly sound "Indie" (This goes same with Indie Films, or even worse - they are too self-aware how "Indie" they are these days. They all speak in those Indie Film dialogues which we never speak in real life unless you are way-too-self-aware art and design student.), Hip Hop all properly sounds Hip Hop, and Punk sounds politely and rightly Punk (which you can already see the ridiculousness of the whole situation).

Another thing I find interesting with these mainstream Japanese pop music is that, they seem to know their place in culture. Some of the album I heard recently definitely sound like they just came to accept themselves as consumed and disposable pop music, or they even decided to be exactly that, and professionally and perfectly fulfilled their part. As a professional designer (I honestly am not sure how "professional" I can claim as a designer, but people are still sending me checks for now, so I will claim it for now.), this hit me somehow and seriously made me re-think what it is to be professional and what our job is in general. It is one thing to try to make "classic" that you hope (or claim) to be appreciated for next 20 years (or in 20 years) and call yourself "Artist" so to speak (I have sinned in this regard), but it is another to see what exactly the function of the product (and a product not an art piece) - in this case, a damn pop album, and as far as from this end, its function is to sell in main stream audience as much as possible and go into top 40 - and do it professionally and perfectly. At this stage, I came to think that it is harder to say "I am making album which sells." and actually goes to No.1 (you can tell me about the controlled hype and mainstream audience with low I.Q. all you want, but that is not an issue here) than to say "I am an Artist, and people who gets it will get it. If you don't get it, you are not my audience (and you are an idiot and got no taste) and I don't want you to get it". This obviously applies to all kinds of art forms.

There is this particular pop album I was listening to, I am pretty sure that it will not survive 10 years. People might even forget about it next summer. But it damn near perfectly captured the moment and feeling of Tokyo, summer 2008, specifically. Hell, I am not even sure if it survives the summer - but then, they can release the album which capture the feeling of Fall 2008 when the fall comes. And it was very refreshing to me how they are openly admitting it. And made me realized that it is all we can really do - to create something which is as good as it can possibly be for now. But professionally and perfectly, with no excuse.