Chanoyu Culture:
Invitation to Tea

PROJECT INFO: JICC Exhibition | Chanoyu Culture: Invitation to Tea
PROJECT SCOPE: Solo designer, print & digital design, art direction, photography
PROJECT DURATION: February to August 2023 (approx. 7 months)
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DESCRIPTION:
The Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan presented a summer exhibition titled "Chanoyu Culture: Invitation to Tea" in collaboration with Omotesenke Domonkai Eastern Region, USA. Although the direct translation of "chanoyu" (茶の湯) is actually “hot water for tea,” Omotesenke refers to chanoyu as Japanese tea ceremony. Tea ceremonies are centered around the communication between hosts and their guests through tea, decor, and deliberate movements and manners in a harmonious setting. These gatherings provide a space for reflection and respite from the demands of everyday life. In this exhibition, we invited guests to embark on an imaginary journey to a small tea gathering held in a traditional tearoom for a much-needed escape from the distractions of daily life. The opening of this exhibition was celebrated with a live chanoyu demonstration led by Kanako Yamashita of Omotesenke Domonkai Eastern Region, U.S.A. on July 27th, 2023.

In preparation for this exhibition, the Exhibition Coordinator, Publicity Coordinator, and I cleaned and set up the Embassy of Japan's historical Ippakutei teahouse. With support from Omotesenke Domonkai's planning group, I co-led art direction for a 5+ hour photography session at Ippakutei. Our team photographed the entire procession of an Omotesenke-style tea ceremony in order to acquire custom photographs for this exhibition. I processed 600+ photographs and custom color graded them to use in the exhibition panels. Due to budget and spacing limitations, the selected photos you see above are only glimpses of the total photo collection. In addition to this, I mocked up an Exhibition Style guide (featured below) with several early iterations of exhibition logotypes and panel samples. Colors were eventually adjusted to align more closely to Omotesenke's in-house palette and branding.
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ASSETS MADE & TASKS:  1/8" thick PVC panels for exhibition (40x40", 36x40", 24x18, 18x24", 18x12", & 12x18"), opaque adhesive-backed vinyl decal cut backwards for window display (40x17"), flyers, Instagram posts and stories, press kit, 200+ photographs
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TOOLKIT: Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign