As a stationery brand, we are always curious how and what people use our stationery goods for. With this blog series, focusing on the hands at "work" and beyond, we ask five questions about the usage and meaning of the stationery tools to our friends in Los Angeles.
For the thirty-second post, we had a delightful visit with Shin OKuda of WAKA WAKA at his studio in Atwater Village neighborhood.
WAKA WAKA is a Los Angeles based studio focusing on wood furniture & functional objects designed and hand crafted by Shin Okuda. Shin showed us his colorful desktop accessories he uses in the office.
Q1. What do you do with the Penco Memo Block on pallet, Steel Desk Organizer and the Cargo Bags by Hightide?
I have my team member Niko use the Penco Memo Block to remind me of job deadlines and meetings. It is super helpful.
I use the Steel Desk Organizer to keep my pens – Penco Passer's Mate, Penco Brush Writer Pens, erasers, a chapstick, USB sticks. It’s a simple organizer so it doesn’t allow you to pile up extra, useless stuff. It forces you to only use the necessary things. I love that.
You have two cargo bags! Do you have a specific purpose with each one?
I do have two Cargo Bags. When we go to install our pieces, we pack tools in the large yellow one. When I play soccer every week I pack the black one with my gear.
Q2. In our technology driven world, what does it mean to make things by your hand to you?
It’s a really satisfying practice. Making furniture is very physical. The materials are very specific and the making process requires extreme focus. The smell of wood, the noises of the production process, feeling the condition of the finish, moving the furniture, it’s all part of each piece’s story and part of myself. I appreciate being able to do this work and make my ideas inhabit a person’s space.
Q3. Pencils or Mechanical Pencils?
I like pencils here in the US and prefer mechanical pencils in Japan.
Shin's picks – the cobalt blue Passers Mate pencil and the ivory Minute Manager planner for 2026.
Q4. What’s in your pen stand?
I use the Steel Desk Organizer in yellow to keep my pens (Passers Mate pencil, Brush Writers from Penco etc), an eraser, a chapstick, USB sticks. I also like highlighters.
Q5. What is your most favorite stationery?
I have many notebooks for different purposes. One I use for ideas and drawings, another is for schedules, one for invoices and one for passwords.
WAKA WAKA
Shin Okuda's work ranges from seating concepts, utilitarian objects and space design, all of which demonstrate a simplicity in form, subtle detailing and a unique interpretation of proportion.
One of many & the latest project is wagetsu わ月, a collaboration with a Japanese furniture maker, Karimoku – it is a "newly interpreted everyday furniture" born from the cross-cultural experience from Shin's own along with WAKA WAKA's unique design language, and Karimoku Furniture's craftsmanship.
WAKA WAKA
wagetsu
