ORE NO SORA

Artist's Statement

Ore No Sora (俺の空) or "My Sky" was a concept ramen shop idea designed for Nissin Food Groups using traditional Japanese caligraphy (書道) shodō, also called shūji (習字) for both the typography and the logo design itself. Inspirations were taken from a combination of an old world kanji character set that could be used to symbolize the sky, as well as the traditional Japanese dragon spirits.

The idea was to have an upscale flagship ramenya in downtown Tokyo with specialty ramen flavors featuring unique high quality ingredients. Once up and running, the Ore No Sora brand and menu items could be translated to instant ramen products for mass production in stores nationwide.

The choice of a dragon in a circle formation comes from the kanji of circle pronounced maru (まる or 丸). This is a very old character, which predates newer Japanese / Chinese characters. Meaning it's origin is most likely from the old Chinese dynasty. Besides meaning round, it can mean completeness or perfection. It can mean correct or just. It can also be associated with good luck or positive connotations in general. This was our choice to represent the sky.

For "My" we chose the Japanese dragon spirit. Always long and serpent-like, lacking the traditional western dragon features like wings, they are seen as benevolent forces that are all around us but only seen by a few. They are also viewed as protectors. Hence, head to tail, My Sky.