In conversation with June Mineyama-Smithson
“My mission is to inject optimism into the world. Anything that makes people happy, whether it’s art, branding jobs, creative workshop, I’m keen to do it all.”
- June Mineyama-Smithson
Image: Elaine Potter
June is a freelance graphic designer, branding expert and artist. She’s very much engaged with the “modern” way of working, which includes the multi-hyphen career, and is highly successful in this style of working. June is originally from Tokyo but has lived in London for many years. Her work has been featured internationally on YCN, Cow Parade Niseko and SCMP. She is also a speaker at YOOX Net-a-Porter, UAL and ustwo.
Can you explain what your job, or multiple jobs are?
I am very much on board with the multi-hyphen career. We shouldn’t be ashamed of making use of our skills to our full extent. We were all born to offer something to the world and I’m really trying to offer as much as I can. I like having control over my time and my life. Plus, I like that I am not so reliant on other people and a business.
I have worked in branding for 10+ years and I do this regularly in a freelance capacity, working with brands to translate their strategy into visual expression. Branding is more than logos, billboards, packaging – but it’s the whole thinking behind visuals.
I also create art as part of my self-initiated project – MAMIMU – which I am currently selling pieces from too, including prints and tote bags.
What does an average working day look like to you?
Pre-lockdown life, I used to have a membership where you can go to associated cafés and book your time to work, so that was my co-working space.
Now, I tend to work from home in the morning until I pick up my son. Then I look after my son until dinner time and he goes to bed. Quite often I go back to work after that time. Yes – I’m a bit of a workaholic, but I don’t mind it too much. I think I’m more of a night owl and I’ve accepted that.
I do emails and social media in the morning and then I get on to design and more marketing later in the day. The cycle is: I create something, then I move on to promote and marketing.
How did you get into the art and graphic design industries?
My first job was actually at an airline company in Tokyo – wearing a uniform and everything, it was quite different. Whilst working there, I decided to go to night school to learn how to be a web designer. But this just opened my eyes to how web design is a mere drop in the ocean of the wider design process.
After attending this course, I was going to study in the US and even went to visit a university in Fort Lauderdale, but the course looked rubbish. Whereas, the UK art scene was really flourishing at the time with the YBAs like Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst which really attracted me. And so, I moved to the UK having never visited in my life. It helped that my parents had strongly encouraged me and my brother to learn English and I was therefore always interested in practising my English in real life.
I studied Graphic and Media Design at London College of Communication, where I specialised in branding and visual identity. I went on to work in the branding industry, where I have been for the past 10 years.
I guess I had always had a fascination with design from a young age. One of my uncles was a screen print artist and each year, he would send our family a New Year card with his work on. I was really inspired by his ability to create something beautiful and original each year. My other uncle was an interior designer too, and I would say if times were different then my mum would have ended up in a creative job too. But there was no space for women in the creative occupations at the time.
Tell me more about MAMIMU?
It all started from my fascination with the seemingly mundane. For example, traditional Japanese kimono patterns are often inspired by things in nature like fish scales, waves and cherry blossom. Artisans found beauty in these already existing objects and made them into iconic, beautiful geometric patterns. I thought, maybe I can do this in my modern life in London?
Once you have this mindset you start to see inspiration everywhere. Although it is seemingly mundane, it’s like these things are just waiting to be discovered. I went out searching for my inspiration and found it in manhole covers. I have created patterns from manhole covers across the world, including London, Tokyo and New York. It’s fascinating because each city has its own unique manhole pattern.
I used the patterns that I designed to create stylish but functional tote bags. These bags have a special pocket just for your laptop!
Where else have you found inspiration for other projects that you’re working on, or have worked on?
Image: @100fires
My latest project was supposed to be inspired by the Tokyo Olympics, in collaboration with CULT VISION in Barbican. But due to the coronavirus pandemic the Olympics were obviously cancelled and so I changed the focus to be on finding optimism in Barbican’s brutalist architecture. The buildings in this area of London are often seen as quite cold and sterile but I found a sense of progress and optimism through the regularity of windows and tiles. I translated the patterns into new colours and shapes in an illustrative, abstract fashion. The display is up right now at CULT VISION.
My other current project is called Lockdown Mindscape, looking at how we have experienced COVID globally. I asked a number of people from across the world – London, Shanghai, New York – to send me their physical and introspective view of lockdown. Si Liu in Shanghai noted that although the country was already recovering, she was still able to reflect back at how the winter and spring that had just passed were the longest and shortest seasons at the same time. I was interested in how Joe Stitzlein in California experienced it very differently, in such a sunny and liberal location. Regardless of where people were living it was an emotional rollercoaster every day. I documented all of these visually and then collaborated with a motion designer, Chris Sellars-Meadmore, to create posters for each city.
I did actually feel really creatively stuck because of the lockdown and the pandemic. Then I realised, without great input you can’t really output anything great. I reflected on this Japanese gardening technique – called “borrowed scenery”, or shakkei - where you incorporate bigger landscapes like mountains or rivers into your garden design. It’s about looking at the bigger picture, and so I decided to do this with my own work and make use of all the contacts that I’ve made on a global level.
Image: June Mineyama-Smithson
What do you love the most about art and graphic design?
Every time I do a project I think “oh no, I can’t do it”, but I always come out the other side more confident in my abilities.
Branding taught me to always rationalise my design choices, but I enjoy the liberality of not having to justify anything in art. I enjoy colours and shapes just as they are without digging into deeper meanings. I am a great fan of Bridget Riley for exactly this, when you look at her paintings, they are all about shapes and rhythms and I love taking these in as they are and not interpreting them.
I don’t believe that art never serves anyone. I don’t believe in artists creating art for their own satisfaction. I believe that you always need to serve the purpose or needs, or even social commentary of what you are feeling.
Do you find your art and graphics quite different in terms of the skillsets that you need?
There is a lot of crossover. For my art, my mission is injecting optimism into the world and that is always my theme. Whereas when doing a branding job, the job itself has different criteria. I have to be on brief rather than try to push my own concept and that’s the biggest difference, I guess.
But I always offer bright colours and shapes and communicate whatever the brand needs, whether that is a sense of progress or happiness. This shines through in all of my work.
What are the biggest misconceptions of art and graphic design?
That making money is a bad thing. Is Banksy’s collaboration with the NHS a sell-out? I don’t think so.
Making money is your scorecard and it doesn’t make you a sell-out as an artist. My graphic design tutor in Tokyo told me this and I think it’s extremely true. Making money is the reward for you, it confirms that you have used your brain and produced an output.
What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a career in graphic design?
It’s not a date, there’s no point playing hard to get.
I actually go back to my old college as a guest lecturer and tell young people what it’s like to be a freelancer. I think my biggest piece of advice is to be polite, say hello, ask what people might need, you need to get to know people and network. But networking isn’t always about selling yourself, the aim is to let people know what you’re up to and to stay in their mind for future projects etc. Again, I compare it to dating – you wouldn’t ask “will you marry me?” on the first date…
Also, as I’m part of the BAME community, I think people don’t always necessarily think that I can even speak English. So, it’s really important for me to show how well I can communicate.
Image: June Mineyama-Smithson
I like getting to know people and it’s the small communications that I found so important when I was starting out in this industry. On one project I was freelancing on a few years ago, I didn’t have a fixed desk and I was just hot-desking. Because of that I got to know many people in a short time, I always said hi and asked for people’s name – sneakily writing their names in Japanese in my notebook so I wouldn’t forget. I’m still in touch with some of those people and they’re in my network.
Where can people find out more about your current projects?
My two current projects (previously mentioned) are the Barbican Geometrics and Lockdown Mindscape.
You can get my manhole laptop tote bags and prints here.
Interview by Mollie Kate Cohen
