5 questions with decoylab

While working busily as a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, and animator out of her quiet home studio in Kansas City, Missouri, Maiko Kuzunishi (aka Decoylab) dreams up new projects to expand her range of creative endeavors. After leaving renowned motion graphic company MK12 in early 2006, Kuzunishi returned her focus to a belief in creativity's boundlessness and rediscovered the fun of various mediums outside of motion graphics, such as traditional graphic design, image making, and web design. She also tapped a DIY nerve and began designing one-of-a-kind and limited-edition products and vending them at various events. Her colorful melamine plates have been featured in Lucky and Nylon magazines, and have been well-received by many design weblogs.

Kuzunishi's design work has been featured in many other publications, too, such as IDN, Curvy, Yen, Neomu, Semi-Permanent, and various Die Gestalten Verlag books. When Kuzunishi is not working, she channels her creative impulses into cooking, building furniture, petting two demanding cats, and curling up on her couch.

decoylab

01. Describe the concept(s) behind your interpretation of Select Flavor.

MK: I wanted to depict girls who are strong-minded and determined. They live by their own code and go after what they believe in. They are not afraid to step out of the crowd and be different — be individuals — because they know they'll be much happier with themselves for doing so. Visually, the girls are depicted as frameworks. From there colors, shapes, and patterns stem out like crystals, representing the girls' bold attitudes blossoming like beautiful flowers.

02. Give a brief sketch of the creative process you used to realize your Select artwork.

MK: I started out with creating the girls' outlines in Illustrator and combined them with crystalline shapes. Then the images were placed in Photoshop, where patterns and splashes were added to each shape. Lots and lots of layers and masks!

03. If you could set up a studio anywhere, what location would you choose, and why?

MK: I would love to set up a studio in a forest, deep in the woods. The studio is like Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House: glass all the way around to maximize the view of the woods. Of course, Internet is magically there so I can conduct my business online. And if any client felt like hiking to come see me, I would bake fresh cranberry-orange scones and we could have them with wonderful tea, and enjoy the view and stillness.

04. Who or what inspires you to make art?

MK: Whenever I find beauty in anything, it's inspiring. Beautiful song, beautiful sunset, beautiful flowers, beautiful people, beautiful conversations, etc. When something is so beautiful and touches my heart, I become still, receptive, and appreciating. And it's such a great feeling. I hope to make someone feel that way with my art. Also it's inspiring to see people marching to their own drum beats; people who believe in something so strongly and want to make a difference in their worlds. It inspires me to have the courage to do the same.

05. What other projects are you working on-or dreaming about working on-right now?

MK: I just finished making Anemone 01, my first 16-page booklet, with images that are constructed from the idea of the "Law of Polarity." Besides that, I would like to design a tea set! I used to be a big-time coffee addict, drinking it more often than water ever since I was in college. I gave it up five months ago and now I'm a big-time tea addict. I love drinking all kinds of tea, and it would be wonderful to design a tea pot, cups, and tea towels as a set and have my own designs on them, and of course design the package as well.