How a typographic calendar gives a desire for growth

Everything will come in place, each thread will be complete, any lace will have it’s reason and all these thanks to a collaboration on a very basic and simple idea. When Onitsuka Tiger, one of the oldest shoe in Japan, decided to collaborate with IS Creative Studio for the cultural calendar 2014 of El Duente, it was history in the making, just like it happened back in 1949 when the 32 year old former military officer, Kihachiro Onitsuka started his company with the hopes of raising post-war youth self-esteem through athletics. Richars Meza, the 41 yo creative director from Lima, Peru is the brain responsible for the idea that evolved into a project that is justifiably titled as Grow. “The most common new year greeting is a happy new year. It is said and repeated so many times than people take it as an everyday greeting, not paying too much attention. 

“Given the difficult situation prevailing in Spain, we wanted to give a desire for growth.”

“Given the difficult situation prevailing in Spain, we wanted to give a desire for growth. Growth in business, personal and spiritual growth”. The cover for the cultural calendar sponsored by what became one of the most iconic acronyms in sports nowadays (ASICS stands for “Anima Sana in Corpore Sano”) was an experiment in creativity. “We decided to make something with the shoelaces and start playing with type and numbers. We did several options tying, weaving, passing through holes on different canvases, until we ended up with this one”. By preferring a handmade typographic composition instead of using the computer as his premium medium, IS Creative Studio’s founder once again manages to break new grounds reminding us of his Japanese year of 2002, when the Peruvian graphic designer moved to Tokyo as an Art Director of the design agency Insentiv Media. Mr Meza stays put to his philosophy of form follows function. “As designers we have the duty to communicate, we don’t design to show off” are his words of wit while his hands are busy creating ideas.

“As designers we have the duty to communicate, we don’t design to show off”

“We love doing things by hand. Whenever we have the opportunity to do something by hand we go for it. The process of doing it handmade is very rewarding, sometimes even more rewarding than the result itself” says while the growth everyone is longing for is getting weaved, lace to lace, hand in hand.