Karimoku Furniture Co., Ltd. launched the new project KARIMOKU RESEARCH in October 2024. Each installment of the “Survey” at the core of this project is conducted on a specific theme in coordination with creators, designers, artists, companies, and other parties inside and outside Japan. Based on the insights gained from these surveys, we display and develop new solutions that go beyond furniture.
The theme of this “Survey,” the fourth, is FORM FOLLOWS FEELINGS. It posed the questions “what is function and how does it make us feel?,” and gained the participation of Devon Turnbull, an audio designer whose activities are based in New York, as a researcher. Through his own brand OJAS, Turnbull builds high-fidelity speaker systems and listening rooms. In various parts of the world, he has created immersive experiences by crossing sound, space, and presence.
In design, “function” has long been defined by utility. What Turnbull is pursuing, in contrast, is a type of form that expresses the natural, emotional essence of music and deeply moves the user. From February 21 to June 5, 2026, an exhibition titled Between Space & Sound is going to be held by OJAS Tokyo and Karimoku Furniture at the KARIMOKU RESEARCH CENTER. In what sort of repeated dialogue did the two engage in the lead-up to this exhibition? To find out, Brad Holdgrafer, Creative Director of KARIMOKU RESEARCH, interviewed Turnbull.
Part 1 of this article describes the passion felt by Turnbull for audio engineering, which was the starting point of his career, and his strong ties with lovers of Japanese culture, and especially Japanese audio, over the last 25 years. It also traces the seemingly fated path that led to his acquaintance with Karimoku Furniture, his “ideal partner,” and the beginnings of the resonation between their visions.
When speaking of Turnbull’s reversion to music and his long digression at the place called “design,” many people probably think of his brilliant achievements in the world of street culture and fashion in New York. In response to a question from Holdgrafer, however, he said that, as far as his self-awareness was concerned, his roots in fact always lay in sound. He was keen on setting up sound systems right from his high school days, and majored in audio engineering in college. He remarked that his subsequent activities in the world of design were a succession of chances that visited him in ways separate from his intentions.
“Well, actually my education was in sound. I have a degree in audio engineering. So I like in high school was very drawn to sound and music. I was always the guy like setting up the sound system. (…) I would just sit in my room and listen to music. And of course DJ culture; I was a DJ. For me, sound was aways at the center.” (Devon)
Turnbull studied audio out of a wholehearted desire to do work related to music. What led him in an unexpected direction were the T-shirts born of OJAS, a creative platform he launched in New York in the early 2000s. Initially, this brand bearing the name OJAS, which was also his graffiti tag, was the only medium of self-expression not requiring approval for Turnbull, who had not received a formal education in design. The T-shirts attracted an unexpected amount of attention, and the chances that he thought would come through his quest in the world of sound began to pour in through the circuit of design. Turnbull looked back on his past period of immersion in visual design in the following way.
“Graffiti was attractive to me because it was something that anyone (could do). You don't need permission to participate in it. (It was a channel open to me.) I started making myself T-shirts with OJAS, my graffiti tag, on them. And I was really surprised how that started garnering a lot of attention and a lot of the sort of opportunities that I was looking for with sound started to present themselves through design instead. So in fact, design, the period of my career that was strictly visual design, was sort of a detour in the story of my life working with sound.” (Devon)
The OJAS of the past became known as an iconic supplier of street fashion, but has since evolved into a brand dedicated to handmade high-end audio, Turnbull’s life work. To him, OJAS is a platform for practice aimed at consolidating audio engineering, his roots, and the esthetics of design he acquired on his detour. After an interval of decades, the path to sound, which once appeared to be closed, has reopened as a new lane accompanied by fuller expression.
“All of these interests that I have which are all really kind of rooted in my youth have all sort of become part of my practice (and OJAS) — visual design, industrial design, graphic design, and of course all-around acoustic design.” (Devon)
His relationship with the country goes back to 1998, when he first came to Japan. He was jolted by the striking culture radiating from Tokyo in the 1990s, and frequently made visits thereafter through the operation of his brand. These visits went beyond the mere opening of production sites and determination of trends; what most fascinated him was the world of Japanese audiophiles. To him, they seemed like devoted artisans of a type unequalled even worldwide.
“That is the most important influence in my work today. I would go to Akihabara electric festivals and spend a few days in Fukushima with a Japanese audiophile in his 70s. These older audiophiles were purely exploring sound without a single thought about Western perspectives. It took a long time—about 25 years—until I felt that I could truly participate in this culture.” (Devon)
Turnbull said he was bowled over by the maniacal spirit of inquiry and distinctive esthetics of Japanese audiophiles. Instead of simply consuming ready-made products, they dig up vintage parts and assemble systems with an original theory. In them, Turnball found the ideal image of the kind of artist he aspired to be.
The very accumulation of results from surveys conducted in Japan over the past quarter of a century forms the somehow sentimental yet extremely refined and unique appearance of OJAS sound systems. The torch passed to OJAS from Japanese predecessors is headed for sublimation to further heights, with the new partnership with and know-how of Karimoku Furniture.
“I participate in both the audio scene and the Japanese design scene. It is the process of sometimes using my status as an outsider who doesn’t know the rules or asking for someone’s permission in order to find my way to a new space no one has ever before seen.” (Devon)
The way Turnbull became acquainted with Karimoku Furniture truly deserves to be called fated. About a year before, he had bought an abode in Tokyo and was in the middle of renovating it. At this time, he began a serious search for furniture to color his living space. He intuitively felt the importance of a sophisticated, distinctively Japanese life environment and products to go with it.
“Japanese design has an overwhelmingly beauty but is also delicate. Things like shoji screens, tatami mats, and ceramics really only work in the controlled Japanese environment. So I started, of course, researching Japanese furniture makers (…) to decorate the home and it just immediately felt like, oh, this (Karimoku) is the aspirational partner.” (Devon)
Seeing the wonderful work being done with Karimoku by his fellow designers Lichen and WAKA WAKA, Turnbull conceived the desire to participate in their refined space. He therefore visited the showroom in Tokyo’s Nishi-Azabu district, and this desire only deepened. Just a week later, he was contacted by Holdgrafer through a mutual friend. Holdgrafer had been aware of Turnbull’s existence right from the launch of the latter’s 2021 project, and their shared vision inevitably brought them together.
“For me, music is a special thing that can soothe your soul and lift your spirits. I have always wanted to obtain the most intense experience of it. This is precisely the point of the listening experiences I produce. Filling a space with music adds so much to the emotional experience of those in it.” (Devon)
As the dialogue between the two deepened, it came to focus on the sentimental function of design, centering around the theme FORM FOLLOWS FEELINGS. Turnbull defined himself as a conductor linking the sentimental power of music and the listener. He said that, right from the stage of preparations for shows, he has often seen people who happened to be on the scene moved to tears by the sheer power of the music.
“I often say that I’m cheating, because it is the combination of music with an environment with the right sound, light, and materials that touches people’s hearts. Music is an extremely subjective and powerful tool. Filling the venue with powerful music completes the experience itself, like the soundtrack of a movie.” (Devon)
Part 2 of this article takes a behind-the-scenes look at the technical challenges that occurred at the Aichi factory, where Karimoku Furniture does its manufacturing. It tells the stories of the creation of a wood horn with three-dimensional processing, the secrets behind the development of the three types of speakers (Sanjo, Rokujo, and Nurikabe), and the furniture collection acoustically reinterpreting Japanese aesthetics.
