now perceived. At our first meeting he told
me: ‘I want your design to be invisible’, mean-
ing ‘please erase your ego’. Mr Yanai believes
design should serve business performance- his goal is to make products look appealing
and lead to sales. I’d never received this kind
of comment before, but it made so much
sense. My concept was to therefore create
a store that used the products as a material,
stacking them from floor to ceiling to show
the colour and size variations that only Uniqlo
can offer. Supported by the company’s smart
strategy and a huge ad campaign, this project
was a huge success, making its substantial
debut to an international audience.
I was lucky to work on Uniqlo’s numerous global flag-
ships and watched the brand’s sales output triple in the
decade following 2006. My experience with Uniqlo
reminded me once again how important stores are for
building brand identity. Uniqlo is not a luxury brand, but
this shop also had a huge impact on high-end retailers.
Sarah Andelman, owner of former concept store Colette,
loved my approach and asked me to redesign the Rue
Saint-Honoré space in Paris.
I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to work
across a wide range of fields beyond fashion
retail: restaurants, confectionary shops and so
on. We’ve recently been involved with concept
buildings with the likes of Lexus, and govern-
ment projects such as Japan House London,
part of the Japanese foreign ministry’s
international branding platform. Each client
has a different target audience and different
goals they wish to achieve, so my approach to
spatial design or branding will naturally differ,
too, to suit the situation.
With each project, clients ask me for a unique space that is
unlike any other, but at the same time, most clients come
to me because they’ve seen my previous work. People
may think that over the last 20 years I’ve built up a design
language that can be adapted to other projects. Yes and no.
Yes, because I learn from past experiences. I love working
on projects in Japan because the details are realized impec-
cably. But now that I have many international projects, I
have come to learn how to realize spaces without compro-
mise, in any country. If we have a strong design concept,
slight adjustments to materials and finishes don’t affect
the result – you just have to be flexible. But on the other
hand, my language can’t simply be adapted to other pro-
jects because I approach each one as an amateur-minded
professional. You can never beat the passion of someone
who creates their own store with their own hands, and I
always design spaces as if they’re my own. The outcome
will be great if that passion is supported with professional
skills. I need to have two sets of eyes – from the consumer’s
and client’s points of view. I think my consumer side edges
out my client side, but since I’m creating new business
platforms for my clients that are enjoyed by consumers,
I definitely need to think in both ways.
Even though I’m still willing to work on new
projects myself, I’m also keen on teaching
design students, future designers. I’ve been
a professor at Musashino Art University in
Tokyo since 2011, where I now teach once a
week. It’s a time- and energy-consuming task
when you have many projects under your belt,
but I want to encourage students to uncover
the excitement of creating space. I don’t teach
which design tools to use; my class is more
about concept building and case studies.
I want to pass on my knowledge to students
and young interior designers who may not
see retail design as such an exciting field,
especially in an era when people are content
with online shopping. But physical and online
retail can coexist – you just have to find the
right way to entertain people.
I established Wonderwall in 2000 – 20 years ago now.
I figured I would retire once my clients no longer needed
me or I lost confidence in what I was doing. But whenever
I see a new store, I can’t stop thinking about how I would
design it if it was assigned to me. This is what has moti-
vated me over the years. Design is my life’s work: I can’t
live without it.•
wonder-wall.comMasamichi Katayama received the Frame Lifetime
Achievement Award during the Frame Awards 2020
ceremony in Amsterdam on 20 February.‘Physical and online
retail can coexist – you
just have to find the right
way to entertain people’
52 In Practice