Item Designer’s Day
※This article is machine translated.
Cocone illustrators will teach aspiring Cocone illustrators about Cocone.
Freedom of production
– Mr. K is new to Cocone as an illustrator, but the other members are mid-career hires. What are the advantages of Cocone compared to other companies?
D.E：First of all, the fact that I can draw what I like is by far my greatest strength. With other companies, of course, you have to finish what the client tells you to do.
Cocone’s Pokecolo has a high degree of freedom, although it is of course exploratory, keeping in mind the customer’s taste, seasonality, and trends. Other companies can do as much as making a proposal, but we can make a proposal, have a high probability that it will be accepted, and even after making a proposal, we can continue to improve it and basically master what we have proposed.
At other companies, even if a project passes the presentation, it is often reshaped as the project progresses, but at Cocone, the work is basically delivered to the client as is, without any changes to the form.
S.A： Of course, the customer is the key to our service, but we are also encouraged to challenge ourselves by asking our customers, “What about this? I am able to challenge myself by asking the customer, “What about this?
K.N： Heh, I see! I don’t know about other companies, but I feel that the environment is very well equipped. Dual monitors, tablets, and Adobe Creative Cloud software are provided to each individual and can be used freely.
S.A： That’s right!
Also, I don’t have any chores. In other companies, of course, you have to answer the phone when a call comes in, and you are usually in charge of proofreading texts, etc., while the work of drawing pictures itself is finally started at night.
D.E: Oh yeah. There is no phone on the desk! I was so surprised when I came to Cocone. I think it is a heavenly environment where I can concentrate without being distracted by phones or visitors.
Participation in Services
― Even though I can concentrate, I am also responsible for many other things besides drawing pictures, such as generating ideas, art direction, and pursuing customer appeal.
S.A： Yes, I can do that! I can be in charge of all the work that brings an item to life.
As a rule, our team is entrusted with ideas for themes and sales methods, so we do everything from theme development meetings, to strategic sales meetings, to how to promote the work in notices, to animating the work after it has been created.
I am not just a subcontractor working on one part of the project, but I am in charge of the project from planning to the end, so I feel very strongly about the project. I feel like I have nurtured the work. When I animate an animal character, I even imagine its personality.
After releasing the product, we received feedback on the customer’s response in figures, and we also had opportunities to invite customers to the company to hear their impressions directly.
H.S： That is certainly our strength. We even set our own initial target KPIs for this theme, what we want customers of any age to say about it, and how much we want to sell compared to previous themes.
― In other companies, the designers may only draw pictures, and I think most of them are more likely to finish the work according to the theme that the planner has come up with.
Cocone has a very large number of designers because we truly believe that design is the life of a service, and that only when the developers do the programming and put beautiful pictures on top of it, can something impressive be created.
More than half of Cocone’s employees are designers, and I think Cocone is the only IT company in Japan where more than half of the employees are designers.
Professional Growth
– There are many designers in Cocone, and they compete with each other every day to create the best work. So, I think there are great opportunities for growth.
K.N： Even before I became a full-time employee and started working as an art director or something, everyone’s work was uploaded weekly to an in-house shared website called the “Creative Gallery,” so I kept looking at it and studying it.
It is very stimulating for me to think, “Oh, I didn’t know there was such a way to express myself. Every day I want to make something good and surprise everyone.
D.E： Also, the clients instantly react to the work that we put out. It is very encouraging to know their immediate reactions to the results. I absorb both good and harsh feedback.
S.A： We have a lot of “cute” words lying around in our company. Both male employees and developers value “cute”. Even the Business Intelligence team (a team that mainly analyzes numerical values) tells me, “That’s so cute! I can tell them that.
The entire company is filled with an atmosphere of wanting to create good products, and I feel that everyone grows by being exposed to this atmosphere.
H.S： And once you join the company, you can put your skills into practice right away. I get to take charge of what we put in front of our customers and make it, and I get to properly fight on the front lines of service. It’s like being thrown into the mix, but I think it definitely leads to fast growth. Soon, everyone is coming up with things that exceed expectations.
K.N： After all, many people bite back. There is an atmosphere of, “That expression is not fair! I want to do it too.” I think it is an environment of mutual respect and mutual improvement.
― That’s right. Even those who started as part-timers and didn’t do well at first can grow quickly by responding to the pointers given to them by everyone.
Forty percent of Cocone’s full-time illustrators were promoted from part-time positions. This figure seems to confirm that the environment for illustrators is very conducive to growth.
agony of birth
― However, it is not all fun and games.
H.S： If you are coming from a different industry, I think you will be surprised at how fast we progress as an IT company. From decision making to execution is very fast. I am always aware that I have to keep up with them, understand why they are doing what they are doing, and move in a coordinated manner.
D.E： That’s right. In addition to rapid development, everyone is ambitious, so I think we have twice as much “birth pains” as other companies in terms of “creating more and more products” and “proposing new themes. It is not a good idea to offer the same thing as before because a customer has instructed you to do so before, or because you are stuck in a mold.
There is always a need for something better or something that has changed from before.
S.A： Even though it’s the same Christmas, this year’s Christmas is definitely different from last year’s Christmas. We can’t repeat the same seasonal thing, and we always want to somehow find a way to stay one step ahead of the season and the season.
D.E： Many people give me pointers while I am working on a project. It is frustrating to the point of tears when I don’t fully understand what is being pointed out and can’t properly reflect it in the production. There are many moments when I realize how narrow-minded I have become.
I get nervous and very flustered when I get feedback a few days before delivery. I think we have fewer last-minute turnarounds than other companies, but it still happens to some extent, so I feel tense on a daily basis.
K.N： We have a firm deadline, and there is no such thing as “make it tomorrow,” but everyone does their best within that time frame. We need time not only to draw, but also to think deeply about the theme and what we want to deliver to our clients. Time management is always a challenge. After we have created a certain amount of work, we have to take into account the time needed to exchange opinions and brush up on our work.
H.S： Customers are becoming more and more demanding. We don’t want to produce the same quality as we did a year ago, and we are pursuing higher and higher quality with the same delivery date, so there is a lot of work to be done.
To all applicants
– What kind of person would be a good fit for Cocone?
H.S： Someone who is not passive. People who can take the bait grow fast, so even if they are a little rough around the edges, they should be motivated and willing to absorb the information.
Even if you can’t draw at first, or can’t use flash, you can certainly do it quickly if you listen and absorb it… like K!
K.N： Certainly, even if you learn from scratch, depending on your ability, you can be put in charge of the biggest series and so on!
H.S.: Cocone has a calling to “give form to our sensibilities. What cannot be put into words, we would like to share with our customers by drawing, moving, and expressing. We believe that sensibility cannot be copied, but we can have fun together. That is why we order your style to be properly expressed in your work. Please come to us thinking that this is a job to give form to your sensibility, not industrial illustration or design.
H.S
Product Planning and Design Team, Team Leader. Formerly an interior design ace. He is now the team leader of a multi-person team. He is an all-rounder who excels in all things cute, beautiful, and interesting. He was selected as the team leader whose main task is to manage the team, but he is organizing the team with great success. He is well-liked and relies on his team members, and is demonstrating his ability to organize the team by involving them.
S.A
In charge of Pokecolo Colony. Animation is his forte. She is known for her bold compositions. She is one of the few mom designers among illustrators. She is active at the forefront of the field while adjusting her work schedule and raising her children. She has been employed for many theme projects, and approaches them from a different angle from young designers with cute and mature proposals that can only be made from a mother’s point of view.
D.E
In charge of colonies. Master of transparency. He specializes in decorative and delicate works. As an art director, he has a sense of stability, and has created numerous hits with his direction that does not impose his own answers, but rather tries to bring out the charm of the members as much as possible.
K.N
He is a specialist in interior design, having worked his way up from a part-time to a full-time employee. His specialty is fantasy. He is known for his overwhelming drawing ability. She is a specialist in flash functions, and whenever there is a question about functions, she is the one to ask. She is also a specialist in flash functions, and whenever there is a question about a function, she is the one to ask. With a strong thirst for knowledge, she is the leader of a team that continues to grow and evolve every day.
