Waka Waka

Shin Okudu began designing furniture in Los Angeles at a time when ecommerce was in its infancy and we were barely learning how to connect directly through the internet. What auspiciously started as a small project creating unique display pieces made of the incomparably strong Baltic Birch plywood eventually grew into a marriage and Waka Waka, a design furniture studio that creates flexible, purposeful pieces with cool modernity. Blending unfinished plywood with vivid lacquer colors, his designs are both functional and fun, which makes sense for this Japan native who sought out subgenres and sublime beauty early on. Waka Waka is conceptually based on the lesser exalted principles of design: curiosity, new experiences, and a design proposal for straight angles that somehow convey new angles on design and life itself.

Los Angeles is home, but you grew up in Japan with your family. We’d love a picture of what that looked like as a kid.

I grew up in Fukuoka, a port city in southern Japan where my family ran a copper factory and gas stations. We had a lot of family time with cousins, friends and grandparents. My maternal grandmother taught tea ceremony and my paternal grandmother taught ikebana.

‍During your teenage years, where taste begins to embed for most of us, what music, films, fashion, design, and art were you drawn to?

For me, it was all about music– reggae, rare groove, and hip hop. I was also watching a lot of French New Wave films. My fashion inspirations were Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, Steve McQueen in Hunter and Chuck D of Public Enemy.

So early on, your taste was shaped by subcultures that created artforms that remodeled and reshaped sapped mediums by infusing new ideas that rebelled against existing molds. How did this lead you to first discover design and set you on a path for creating desirable objects?

In general, I enjoyed detailed projects like model cars by Tamiya and Gundam figures by Bandai (model kits depicting vehicles and characters that rose to popularity in the 1980s from the fictional Gundam universe). There was also a period when I was obsessively making things from old cardboard boxes that my mom saved for me, and a moment where I covered my wall in aluminum foil, had a white sheepskin rug, and my stereo altar. As I got older and more capable, I became interested in making things that I needed for a living space.

Speaking of living space, you’ve now lived in LA for two decades. What inspired you to move here initially and what are some of the changes you’ve noticed in LA–for better or worse?

I was in Arizona for a job and decided to visit a friend in LA before going back to Japan. I liked Los Angeles and decided to stay for the rest of my Visa, so I enrolled in an English language school and figured out how to make my way. Since 1998, the obvious change in the experience of living and working in LA is the cost. It was easier to float about trying new things. The amount of risk to start something new or to test out a piece or an idea feels more intense now. When we started with the IKO IKO store in 2009 and with creating furniture it was still the blog era and the beginnings of early webshops, so the various platforms you can use now to share your work with a community are more direct.

So how did Waka Waka come about? Can you tell us more about your primary objective at the time?

I was working for a sculptor for a while and later met my wife Kristin when she had a storefront. She asked me to make some display pieces for a vintage book show and I made what I called a “cheese slice” table, plus shelves and the low rider chair–it continued from there. I was interested in exploring plywood, my primary material, and seeing what kinds of functional work I could create.

We know you like functional and utilitarian furniture that uses minimal waste and primarily work with Baltic birch plywood. With process being key to most designers, can you expound on yours?

It’s always different depending on the project or collection piece. It usually starts from drawings and thinking of combinations of core pieces and shapes, or developing a pastiche. I read a lot of Japanese architecture books and design philosophy books that inform my design decisions.

That tracks considering each of your pieces are bespoke and made to order. That said, how much do you welcome client input and collaboration and would you ever consider mass producing anything?

Normally we do a collection of seating and other custom pieces for residential and commercial clients. I enjoy collaboration and like to learn from different client perspectives, for instance how people experience space and how we can enhance a space with the furniture both functionally and visually. I would love to design something for mass production particularly if it involves a technique, process or material out of my studio’s means.

Color is an integral part of your process and current work– which is wonderfully bullish as you’re color-blind, correct? Has your work always included color and how have you navigated color selection?

Not severely, but I am mildly color-blind. I still enjoy the simplicity and furniture history of Baltic birch plywood (on its own and stripped down) as a material and aesthetic. Adding color came a bit later and has added a nice dimension to the work. Growing up in Japan, Japanese lacquerware is part of my visual history. At the studio, I love working with Kristin and Ruthie on the color choices for our pieces.

Collaborating with Kristin, your wife, has been a thread in your design career. She is a fashion designer who runs Iko Iko (meaning, let’s go!), a concept space in LA that showcases some of your work. How did the two of you first meet and how do you decide to collaborate on projects?

I went to her store a few times and then finally brought a book of my favorite painter Soga Shohaku. That night, we went to dinner and have been together since. We have a pretty constant dialogue and understanding of our strengths. There’s a lot of sharing inspiration and suggestions between us on most things: I make the vase and she finds the wildflower for it from a walk.

That’s sweet. Looking to the future, how do you hope to refine your design process and creative output? What objectives does Waka Waka have ahead?

I would love to do an entire space, like a Waka Waka apartment in Japan. A project where all details and textures could be considered within a very specific architecture. In general, working on more projects in Japan is very appealing.

You mentioned you read a lot of Japanese architecture books and design philosophy books. What are your top 3 bookstore recommendations in and around LA?

Alias and Arcana in LA and William Stout in San Francisco.

To wrap, what are your thoughts on the design community in LA? Is the LA design scene today acting as a conduit for connection or are we long overdue?

LA offers a huge space for people to develop and hone their vision. There are so many resources for production as well so it feels very expansive creatively. I stay curious from the imaginative space LA offers, the ample solitary thinking time, and how to reach out from that point of inspiration.