Sho Ota

Eyes on Talents member, designer Sho Ota, spoke with FRAME Magazine about his journey, which took him from Japan to the Netherlands in search of a personal approach deeply rooted in respect for the materiality of wood. Working in high-volume manufacturing in Japan, Sho Ota decided to move to the Netherlands to re-study design, in search of something he felt was missing. In 2018, he graduated from the Contextual Design department at the Design Academy Eindhoven. For his graduation project, Ota carved the knots out of solid wood and returned them to their original form as branches. Entitled ‘According to the Grain,’ the project aimed to represent wood more honestly as a material, in order to bring the user closer to its true materiality. Establishing his own studio in Eindhoven eight years ago, Sho Ota continues to develop this original project, slowly crafting objects that are the antithesis of mass production and seeking to inspire new relationships between people and wood.
"Making 400 chairs a day is efficient, but I wanted to do something different; something that could never be made in a factory. After I graduated, I began making objects with lots of little parts. A small tray for instance has 30 to 50 parts. With each design, I try to make it a little different every time, so the final object is dependent on the expression of the wood." – Sho Ota