Collaborators Iyama Design and Kamoi Kakoshi on how design can expand a product’s potential

It’s rare to encounter a creative partnership that is both long-lasting and continually innovative, but Tokyo studio Iyama Design, founded by Koji Iyama, and Okayama-based adhesive specialist Kamoi Kakoshi, headed up by CEO Takashi Kamoi, have built just that in their ongoing work with MT Masking Tape.

Developed by Kamoi Kakoshi in 2008, MT Tape is an evolution of the super-strong, yet easy-to-unstick masking tape originally used for curing at construction sites. The brand simply applied different colours and patterns to the once-plain adhesive tape, rendering it a beloved decorative medium favoured for wrapping and all kinds of other artistic endeavours thereafter.

Many of the most inventive uses of MT Tape to date have been masterminded by Iyama and Kamoi, who were introduced shortly after the product’s development. Instantly captivated by Iyama’s playful design approach and meticulous working methods, Kamoi enlisted him to develop MT Tape’s logo, and soon after, in 2009, the pair came up with an idea for a promotional exhibition. This comprised an awe-inspiring installation of thousands of rolls of tape hung from the ceiling to showcase its diverse creative potential and broaden its customer base, and a store where visitors could purchase their own rolls.

The show was a huge success, and since then the pair have continued to host promotional exhibitions all around the world, spanning 21 cities thus far. Each one has been entirely unique and equally innovative. Think whole trams, trains, boats and buildings adorned with vibrant strips of tape; intricately hand-crafted decorations made from MT; and thousands of rolls dangling from warehouse ceilings. Here, the well-matched, imaginative pair reveal more about their ever-fruitful relationship and share some key pointers for ensuring collaborative success.

The product’s USP is two-fold, MT Tape being both beautiful to look at and highly functional. “At the core of this project is the desire to convey Kamoi's commitment to adhesive technology and paper-based product manufacturing,” explains Iyama, noting that it’s the fact that the pioneering tape can be “so easily applied to, and removed from, a variety of substrates,” that makes it so special and its possibilities so endless. Kamoi agrees: “Our way of working is centred around design as a means of enhancing an appreciation for the product and its performance.”

For Iyama, collaborations are always most interesting and rewarding when undertaken on an ongoing basis, with the capacity for experimentation. “We believe that product development and promotion is more successful when you take a coordinated approach that employs a variety of methods over time,” he explains. “For this reason, our studio puts forward proposals that are not one-off projects but instead various ideas linked to each other. I believe that our ongoing relationships have been built on the positive results we have achieved through these efforts.” On his part as an inventor, Kamoi has found the longstanding nature of the collaboration integral to MT Tape’s evolution. “We believe that integrating all different kinds of design into the functionality and performance of our products makes room for the continued development of the tape.”

Every MT Expo that Kamoi and Iyama have created has been conceived in dialogue with the exhibition’s location. “I’ve always admired Iyama’s on-the-spot approach,” says Kamoi. “Right from the start, he was always visiting the factory where the tape is made, and the place where it is sold, to see them with his own eyes.” The designer’s attitude towards exhibition venues is no exception: at the start of each new venture, he spends time researching the history of the space and getting a feel for its character, before envisioning how MT Tape can become a part of what he calls the location’s “ongoing story”. When he and Kamoi exhibited in Shimoda, for instance, home to the Festival of Wind Flowers, they centred their installation around pin-wheels (made from the rice paper used for MT Tape) because the decorations are a central element of the festival’s annual display.

When it comes to scale, Iyama Design and Kamoi Kakoshi’s collaboration knows no bounds. The partners have conceived everything from posters and books to tape dispensers, and have reimagined spaces of all different sizes. The project that both parties are most proud of (and the one that saw Iyama Design scoop a D&AD Black Pencil, incidentally) was also their most ambitious: MT Expo 2015, held at KIITO, a former factory turned design centre in Kobe. “We took advantage of the large venue to pull off a large-scale installation, hanging 80,000 tapes from the ceiling of the hall,” says Kamoi. (“We had to explore the load-bearing capacity of the building while constructing it,” adds Iyama.) The exhibition was widely acclaimed, and the realisation that they could use “a small, low-cost product” to create something so vast and impressive — which also perfectly platformed the many different iterations of the tape — has encouraged the collaborators to keep dreaming big.

It may seem obvious but it can’t be overestimated: when it comes to working as a team, constant communication is vital. “From the start of any project, we try to work together as much as possible, discussing what we both feel, and deepening discussions and dialogues as we go. This always motivates us to create more and more,” says Kamoi. This intimate way of working has led to an innate understanding between the collaborators, one that is conducive to getting the job done efficiently, without compromising on quality. “Because we’re able to communicate so closely, we can now implement plans quickly, regardless of the size of the project, and therefore are always able to seize business opportunities without missing them,” says Iyama.

“A great collaborative relationship is one that goes beyond the relationship between the requester and the receiver,” he adds of the importance of an open, back-and-forth dynamic. “At times, I have wondered if we spend more time together than we do with our partners!” Kamoi concludes jokingly of what is undeniably a recipe for synergetic success.