client: ARAOKA GANKYO
manufacturer: Taniguchi Optical
product design: Koichi Futatsumata (KOICHI FUTATSUMATA STUDIO)
logo design: Rikako Nagashima (village®)
material: acetate
colour: piano black, brown sasa, khaki brown, havana brown
This was a re-design of a classical frame called the “brow line” for the 77th anniversary of ARAOKA GANKYO the company which operates both eyewear stores in Tokyo, “blinc” and “blinc vase”. Brow line glasses were popular in the United States during the 50s and 60s, and it is said that this form was named since the top of frame outlined the lens like the eye brow outlines the eye. The most typical combination for this frame is to use a material called acetate (a type of resin) for the upper half, often combined with a metal frame for the bottom. For this project we decided to use acetate for top/bottom and by creating a seamless form with a square cross section upper half, and the bottom round. Here we aimed to re-construct the impression of the brow line frame with a single material but with differences in the details. We aimed to create a new form for the brow line frame also by designing the temple (the part which hooks onto the ear) so the configuration coming from the top of the frame is maintained as one sequence.