THE BOOK OF HIRO

This project was designed and intended as a parting gift to the head of a Japanese bank in New York SMBC. Upon serving for 4 years the president is reassigned and steps down. Hiro’s tenure coincided with a very tumultuous time in NYC 2020 during the peak of Covid 19. His leadership and his humanity exhibited in his weekly staff emails earned him great deal loyalty and cemented the company culture in it’s care and respect for each other as individuals. This book was a collection of his emails which served the bank as a reminder of it’s humanity.

There is a cultural divide to be considered as I approached the design of the book, but one guiding rule was that HIRO loved NYC. All aspects of the city even though he had not grown up there, he loved it’s culture, it’s arts and it’s music. So in a book where there was to be no embellishment of the emails ( the main content ) we needed to set the stage for his cultural interest with NYC.

Initial designs called for images of Japan to be inside French folded paper with quotes from HIRO embossed on the outside.
This design was abandoned for cost concerns.

SEASONS

Section dividers were created around the idea of Seasons which aligned nicely with the fiscal quarters of the year.
They included a color treated still life of life in NYC as well as a quote from HIRO each made into their own spread.

EXPLORATIONS

Numerous textures and treatments were developed as part of the project development. Here are a few examples of the treatments below.