Based within the diverse and creatively vibrant environment of Tokyo, so+ba are Swiss exponents of thorough conceptual process and refined production techniques. Alex Sonderegger and Susanna Baer launched their studio in 2001 with the slogan ‘Swiss made in Japan’. After struggling to find satisfaction in their respective places of employment, they had come together to improve their working environment and their final output. As well as being an abbreviation of their surnames, soba is a traditional Japanese noodle and also translates as ‘beside/next to’, which was appropriate for the partnership they were starting. When they were looking for an office space they discovered a former soba restaurant and could not ignore the serendipity.
Initially drawn to Tokyo through a love of Japanese design, Sondregger and Baer balance this passion with the lasting influence of their Swiss background and education. While they avoid any obvious house style, a strong conceptual and typographic foundation is tempered by their regular use of illustration. “We examine the product and the company, then collect, hunt, gather visuals and develop various strategies. This information is compiled and distilled into one visual language.” While the creative process of so+ba does not exclude moments of intuition, they are predominantly guided by the principle that form follows function.
There is a confident enthusiasm about so+ba that is a result of the intimacy of the founders’ partnership. “Our work is like a ping-pong match, or two cooks who try to make one delicious, visual dish! We exchange files regularly at different stages of our work.” The seamless quality of this collaboration is extended to client relationships, particularly in the fashion industry. While working with creative clients can be an advantage, so+ba insist that mutual respect is more important to the success of a project.
The fashion designer Edwina Hörl first commissioned so+ba in 2004. Originally from Austria, the label was permanently relocated to Tokyo in 2000. Hörl focuses on the spatial relationships between the body, garments and surrounding environment. Her collections are social indicators of the moment rather than predictions of future trends. Each one is a unique thematic experience that blends contrasting influences with an eclectic range of techniques and materials. With clear creative parallels between Hörl and so+ba, a close collaboration has developed.
The success of the relationship lies in so+ba’s ability to extend the central concept of a collection. The lookbooks represent a heightened consideration of this that goes beyond the conventional remit of graphic design. Their first collaboration, for Spring/Summer 2005, was inspired by the children’s fable ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, which they translated into a poster that showed the garments on one side and the model’s body parts on the reverse (see opposite). Their innovative choice of lightweight paper reinforced the theme of the emperor’s lack of clothes, pointed out by a small boy in the story: garments and model melded into a single image only when the paper was held to the light. The studio appreciate the creative potential fashion provides for graphic designers, from photography to the catwalk and retail experience, in addition to traditional print requirements. “Working for fashion could be compared to gesamtkunstwerk or rather gesamtdesignwerk.” They believe that participation from the beginning of a collection, while not possible every season, helps to create the perfect working relationship and undoubtedly benefits the results.
The progressive determination of so+ba is illustrated by the words of the Japanese poet Basho: “I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old. I seek the things they sought.” This philosophy helps them to embrace every project as a new challenge. There is an efficiency throughout their process that generates new directions and solutions while maintaining the emphasis on the final result. Their consistent logic and clarity produce the perfect balance between the rational purity of Swiss design and more traditional Japanese aesthetic sensibilities.
“The Spring/Summer 2005 collection and graphic concept is based on ‘Hadaka No Osama’ Japanese for the Hans Christian Andersen fable ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. The poster works with the fact that the emperor didn’t wear any clothes. On the back only clothes are printed; on the front only the models’ body parts. By looking at the poster against the light, the model is visible with the clothes. This was one of our first collaborations with Edwina Hörl so there was some convincing and discussions necessary.” Photography by Seiji Shibuya.
“The Spring/Summer 2010 ‘Untitled’ lookbook is a multi-cultural reflection on the themes of what makes fashion and clothes. A flea market is a library of worn-already, loved-already clothes. It questions the speed of the neverstopping mainstream fashion market in which nothing is ever new enough. Whether cheap or high-end commodities, all usually reach the flea market sooner or later, enabling this parallel market to survive. We created a booklet with postcard-inlays. The new collection photos in the booklet and the parallel real world flea market photos and inspiration material on the postcards. The cards can fall out when the booklet is opened, creating a chaos similar to the flea market.” Photography from the Naschmarkt in Vienna by Jens Preusse, studio photography in Tokyo by Seiji Shibuya.
The Spring/Summer 2008 ‘Piratery – Garderobbery’ lookbook was photographed by Leo Pellegatta. “Piracy: which is an original, which is a copy? Is everything a copy of a copy of a copy? Is culture a big endless copy-machine in which people just re-create? We created a long narrow leporello [a thin, folded sheet of paper] ‘harisen’ is Japanese for ‘slapping fan’, when folded it can be use to hit people. On one side all the models and clothes are in a big drunken collage, melting into each other and it is difficult to see the single dresses.”