Junichi Tsuneoka was born and raised in Japan and upon graduating Waseda University in Tokyo, he has arrived in US at the end of 20th century. Then He studied graphic design at Cornish College of the Arts where he is now teaching illustration class.

Junichi has established a style often recognized as “California Roll Stylie”. He founded STUDIO STUBBORN SIDEBURN to broaden his visual communication and the rest is history.

FMCS: hey Junichi sup man?

Junichi: “sup man?” I couldn’t find this word in my dictionary.

FMCS: How’s things with you right now?

Junichi: It is great! Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I still think I am happy that I can do what I love to do.

FMCS: you been living in the states now for near over 6 years, how’s life treating you there?

Junichi: I like it here a lot. I got married a couple years ago and we have a small dog. Everybody here is friendly. Most likely I will spend rest of my life here.

FMCS: Do you get back to Tokyo much? I bet you miss the place…so much good things going on there!

Junichi: I would like to go back at least once a year but I end up going back every other year. All of my family and a lot of my friends are there. So I do miss the place. I do miss food there too. Tokyo is very interesting place but since I am from there, I see so much more interesting stuff in here.

I think being in different culture stimulates creativity by itself. I can probably see stuff that you guys don’t. At the same time, every time I go back, I discover something new. I find something that I never thought it’s interesting before. For example, last time I went back, I was fascinated by all kinds of pop vending machine and I took a lot of picture of those. In Japan, you see the vending machines on every corner of streets. When I used to live there, I didn’t even pay attention to.

FMCS: Moving on…lets talk a little about Studio Stubborn Sideburn… The name, where did it come from? Why did you decide to start this studio up, and was it hard at first…did you get the support you needed from your peers and most importantly clients?

Junichi: Designers or illustrators usually use their name for their business. My name, especially my last name is really hard for English speaking people to pronounce so I wanted to come up with some memorable name that is also sort of funny. I was watching Saturday Night Fever one day and I was looking at Travolta’s sideburn and I thought, “Sideburn rhyme with stubborn.” I couldn’t think of anything else other than Stubborn Sideburn.

It was my dream to have my own design/illustration business from the beginning. So working at Modern Dog was great. I could learn everything about how they do business too by just sitting there since they were small size firm and we just sat literally side by side without any lame cubicles. It was hard at first as far as getting a job. But everybody I talked to for advice was very nice and especially people at Modern Dog are really supportive.

I still get work from them from time to time. Actually, I didn’t feel it was hard so much because of all the support and it has been fun.

FMCS: How’s the Studio now? We imagine it’s very healthy…And as ever your hard at work, do you have big plans for 2007?

Junichi: It’s going pretty good right now. Towards the end of last year, I was really busy. For this year, I just want to keep doing more work for variety of clients. I also want to do more personal work other than commissioned work such as producing zines etc.

FMCS: What’s the California Roll Stylie? We wanna know! As your work reminds us of old Cali surf and skate designs!

Junichi: California roll was invented based on Japanese sushi roll. It was from Japan and customized in US and the result is great. Earlier in my carrier, I did one poster with my illustration (it was a lot different from what I do now) and I showed it to my friends in Japan. They liked it because it looked “American”. When I showed it to people here, they thought it looked “Japanese”. I didn’t really mean to make it either American or Japanese looking. So I thought it’s interesting how I just naturally take those 2 influences together without knowing it. I guess it just built up by living in 2 different cultures.

From then on, I have researched what makes it Japanese or US look and try to learn from it. Over the years, I realized I respond more to Japanese pop art and US urban art than anything else. So my illustration has become more and more a fusion of Japanese pop culture and U.S. Urban culture. So I named my drawing style, “California roll stylie” not only because I love to eat California roll but I overlap the food and myself as an artist (I am from Japan and “customized” in US.).

FMCS: Influences! Strange things those…And they come in many forms and varieties! Where you digging yours from right now?

Junichi: I try to look at variety of stuff. For example, when I go to bookstore to look at magazines, I force myself to look at magazines like “Vogue,” stuff that I don’t usually look at. Same as music, I like to listen to Hip Hop, R&B type of sound but sometimes I force myself to listen to Classics. I am also word oriented person. I like to write down funny phrases (at least for me) like, “monkey business” or “when shit hits the fan” etc. This kind of phrases gives me inspirations sometimes.

FMCS: Any exhibitions due soon Junichi? We wanna get a chance to check out the work in the flesh!

Junichi: A group show called Wurstminster was just happened in Portland, Oregon. Nothing is coming up soon. I have done many shows in Seattle, so I am hoping to do more outside of states soon.

FMCS: Thanks for the chat man! We must jet now…do you have any shout outs before we go?

Junichi: Thank you very much for having me here. It’s an honor. I would like to say thank you for everybody who has supported me. Especially Robynne Raye, Michael Strassburger, Vittorio Costarella at Modern Dog, Nate Williams who is not only a great artist but also gave me great advice on starting illustration business.

FMCS: Best of luck for everything in the future and thanks for dropping by FMCS!

Junichi: Word.

Best Regards,
Junichi Tsuneoka

STUDIO STUBBORN SIDEBURN

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