An umbrella, a vacuum cleaner, a bath plug. These are the everyday products that make up the motifs on the popular t-shirt brand Shikisai, designed by Notofusai. Loopto went to meet the Notos (the name “Notofusai” means “Noto Husband and Wife”) to learn more about Shikisai t-shirts, and their other fun-packed products.

First off, when did Notofusai get started?

Mr. Noto: We started working together in 2005 – the name Notofusai came afterwards. Before that I studied ancient Rome and Greece at university, and worked as a history teacher.

Really? What made you change from teaching to become a designer?

Mr. Noto: I was a researcher at the university, and was offered a teaching position, but I had been in a band since I started university and would make the posters and CD jackets and stuff for the band, and really enjoyed it. Then I realized there was this thing called design where you could do that for a living (laughs), so I quit teaching after 2 years, and enrolled in college in Kanazawa. Then I studied abroad for a while, and started out as a designer.

Mrs. Noto: I was at the same college in Kanazawa, but I came back to Tokyo instead of going abroad and studied pattern cutting and sewing, then started out as a designer with my husband.

T-shirts from Notofusai’s t-shirt brand “Shikisai”

When you graduated, did you start out on your own right from the beginning?

Mr. N: When I got back from abroad we both knew we wanted to make something and experimented with all sorts of things, but we couldn’t find the thing that got us excited. Then one day I was net-surfing and came across a site selling t-shirts, and thought we could do something fun with that, so we just sat down that day and decided to have a go.

Apart from the Shikisai t-shirts, you also make accessories and other things. Is there a key concept to your work?

Mr. N: For Shikisai, we are conscious of choosing things that are very everyday. I think we prefer to play with ordinary things, rather than something obviously amazing.

Mrs. N: We both knew that we would avoid things like cameras, or things that are already considered “cool”, as motifs for the t-shirts.

Mr. N: That’s just our contrary nature, I guess. (laughs) But we don’t put restrictions on ourselves about the kinds of things we make.

Mrs. N: I guess we just get bored easily.

Mr. N: Yeah (laughs)

Besides t-shirts, Notofusai also produce original hand towels, and other products

I think there’s a lot of humor in your work. Is that something you are conscious of?

Mr. N: Hmm. I don’t know. Are we?

Mrs. N: I guess we just like that kind of thing – not just pretty or cool, but something that makes you giggle a bit, maybe? I’m not sure we’re actually conscious of it, but I guess it just comes out in the work.

You do all your own design work and production, and you also handle sales yourselves as well. What made you decide to do everything yourselves?

Mr. N: We didn’t even think about it. We knew nothing about the design world when we started, so I wanted to be a product designer, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, or not do. I guess the usual route is to spend some time working in a design office, but maybe because I’m lazy, I just wanted to get out there and start. So we just started making things, and selling things, simple as that.

Simple as that. You just did what came naturally, and here you are.

Mrs. N: But we did have a tough time at first. You have this image of a designer spending all their time designing, but when you produce yourselves like we do, you have to do this and that, manage sales, building a website, dealing with the books etc, and every other thing in between, and so the design work is only one part of what you do. To begin with we had a really difficult time with all that.

Mr. N: We knew that we wanted to do things our own way, so I think this style suits us.

Designing and farming – Notofusai grow their own organic rice

And talking of what you want to do, you have recently moved, and started farming? Why farming?

Mr. N: Well, we started on a macrobiotic diet several years ago. No fish or meat. It just felt more natural that way, and seemed the right way to go. But I didn’t want to simply not eat meat, but also eat as many things as possible that were natural, and the more we looked into it, it seemed the only way was to actually grow stuff ourselves. It just seemed so obvious that we ought to have the necessary skills to make our own food.

Are there parallels between your farming work, and your design work?

Mr. N: No, not really. (laughs) I guess the act of ‘making something’ is similar.

Mrs. N: I think the feeling of importance, or affection even, towards the things we make is similar in both, though. But the speed is totally different. Growing vegetables is a long, slow process, on a totally different timescale to our design work. There’s a big difference between desk work and working in the fields, too.They are the complete opposite. But compared to the time when we only did design work, now there are days when we work the vegetables, and then come back and do design work, and so we should be exhausted, but actually the design work is much more energetic and efficient than it used to be. We get tired naturally, so we end up in an early-to-bed/early-to-rise rhythm, and I think that actually reduces the stress a lot, helps us keep stable and energetic, so I’m really happy we made the change.

Notofusai, thank you very much!

Notofusai’s products are available on loopto – visit their shop to see more.