KEIJI ASHIZAWA DESIGN

TOHOKU STANDARD is a souvenir shop specialising in crafts and handmade goods from the Tohoku region of Japan. As part of the store design, the shop requested furniture from Ishinomaki Laboratory, which is also located in Tohoku, to be used in this new retail location in Sendai. 



We put together a design proposal that featured an interior space with store fixtures made from Ishinomaki Laboratory products, which could also theoretically be sold piece by piece as well. Once it was approved, we grappled with how to tap into the possibilities of the furniture itself. Over six hundred units of the Carry Stool, a small stool that can act as a tray or container, were combined and stacked to form a display system along the surface of the walls. Other simple pieces from the Ishinomaki Laboratory collection, the AA Stool and MA Series, were reimagined as display platforms for the store’s merchandise.

One of the guiding concepts behind the design of Ishinomaki Laboratory products is using basic materials to make utilitarian and functional furniture. The shop itself can then be described as an ‘experiment’ in creating a space with furniture made from this idea. Combining the simplicity and dynamism of the wood, the result is a space that reflects the unpretentious design behind Ishinomaki Laboratory’s furniture – allowing everything in the shop to stand out beautifully.