CENTRAL_

“Placerworkshop” is a plant store carrying native orchids. The owner, Yoichiro Uchida, is also a typography artist. He has collaborated with some famous apparel shops for their products, and designed the titles of magazines and town magazines for their articles and covers.

We the staff of CENTRAL, Fujito, the photographer, Mizusaki, and Tada decided to visit his store in Tamagawamachi for the interview for this FEATURE. He told us the story about how he started doing his typographical art, which he describes as ‘My Scribbles’.

Fujito: I think the first time I met you was in Tokyo, right? At the time, I was going to meet Kobayashi, the owner of “Roundabout” at the restaurant and he asked me, “My friend from Fukuoka wants to join us, is it fine?” and it was you who showed up.

Uchida: Yeah, you’re right. Soon after our first meeting, I went to your shop and bought these jeans. (Uchida showed his nice well worn jeans that he was wearing.)

F: Wow, those look cool. Oh, are you left handed? Your back pocket on the left is worn out so much.

U: No, but I seem to use it more often, putting in things like scissors or other items.

F: I see. You know, I think I can profile anyone if they left his/her jeans with me. If the person is right or left handed, or if he/she smokes tobacco or maybe owns an iPhone…

U: Haha, you would say, from the shape of how the color faded… It must be iPhone3!

Their conversation moved on to the story of why he started his artistic activity:
When he was in his 20’s, he was studying as a university student in Boston and he used to go to New York on the weekends. He bumped into something that inspired him there. What really caught his eye was English graffitti on the walls in town.

“The shapes of the letters in their rough handwriting were so cool as an art form.” says Uchida.

After he graduated from university, he took over this shop from his parents, which were selling mainly European orchids, but, he wasn’t so happy doing his job for quite some time. One day, he needed to go to the local farmer to purchase some orchids and he by chance saw some native orchids there. That was the changing point for him, where he fell in love with native orchids. Soon afterwards, he stopped carrying gorgeous-blooming orchids and started putting various kinds of native orchids, and removed the floor tiles and painted all of the walls in white in the store.

Uchida said, “I knew our regular customers at the time wouldn’t like the new style of the store. I started selling less. However, I had a lot of time. This is the first message that I left at the time.”, and pointed at his graffitti on the wall and the floor, it said “KEEP COOL”.

“This is the very first one, so, how I wrote is a bit different. Can you see “DO NOT THINK TOO MUCH” underneath it? You can probably tell how stressed out I was.”

Now, we can see his typographical art everywhere in the store- all over the floor, the work table and walls, and even on the ceiling.


C: What kind of pen do you usually use for your art?

U: Would you like to have a look? Just a regular marker. However, it is pigmented ink, it’s very thick.

He brought a white panel board from the back and started writing something on it. There were the letters of “CENTRAL”. We also asked him about what he usually thinks while he is working on his art. He answered, “Nothing in particular, I just get into it. Sometimes I forget to breathe until it’s finished.”

He writes messages on shoes and skate boards as well.

F: I like how you choose items to put down your scribbled art.

U: Sometimes I just like to pick up something around me and write on it. Something with bad texture, that doesn’t look important to anyone. I wouldn’t do it on a vehicle, or anything that looks to be of value, or I might feel guilty thinking about its history or importance. Writing on a tiny part of it would probably be fun, though. My recent plan is using my old vinyl records, writing on the jacket sleeves.

We were also curious about what messages he wrote.

U: This glass bottle has an explanation of what glass is, and on this bucket, it says what water is. Some of my work has to do with YouTube, or how to get to New York from Boston and I’ve printed it on a poster.


F: Do you dream in English still?

U: No. When I used to dream in English, a lot of good words would come to mind easily, but now, it takes some time to come up with ideas. So now I read books and take notes for fresh ideas.

He had been getting ready for his exhibition in Tokyo for the first time in the last two years, by the time we visited him. We asked him how it was going and he told me he could feel a lot of people were longing for his exhibition for both his native orchids and typographical art. He was especially impressed by some people who were taking in the sights of his artwork of typography exhibited all over the wall.

Mizusaki: Of course I really enjoy looking at your artwork on items or some spaces you have designed, but not only that, I would love to have a chance at possessing a book with your artwork. Have you published anything like that?

U: Thank you. Actually, I have been thinking about that. After I finish my work here, I usually work on my scribblings in hopes of having them published. Sometimes I lose track of time and work on these pieces until the sun comes up because I’m so into what I’m doing.

M: I think I have that kind of feeling when I work on my photos. Speaking of my work, I meant to ask you to choose an orchid for my photo studio.

U: OK. How about this, it’s in a biscuit firing pot, which is about 37 years old.

This is the way he works as an orchidist and a typography artist. His sense of art and love towards plants created this heavenly place, “Placerworkshop”―a place filled with the joys of growing plants in life, which enrich our minds.


Yoichiro Uchida
Orchidist, Typography artist
He was born in Fukuoka in 1978 and is the proud owner of PLACERWORKSHOP, which sells mainly native orchids. He is also a typography artist. The original store PLACERWORKSHOP No.1 is located in Tamagawamachi, Minamiku, No.2 is run at maru coffee in Daimyo, and No.D is in the store of D&DEPARTMENT FUKUOKA.
http://www.placer-workshop.com