Tokyo Designers Week 2010 Midweek Roundup

Friday October 29th saw the launch of the Tokyo Designers Week. Its 25th anniversary kicked off to a slow start due to typhoon weather, yet design hungry bellies were well satisfied with the copious events on offer. A few people braved the rain on Friday and due to the storm on Saturday the main exhibition was cancelled. Sunday however saw crowds flock to the impressive ‘Love Blue’ themed 2010 TDW in Jinu Gaien. The exhibition is open until Wednesday 3rd and allows opportunities for the general public and industry alike. Entry is ¥2000.

On the opening day, the centre of attention was the announcement of the Fujitsu Design Award, taking place in conjunction with Designboom. With a total prize pool of around €60,000 euro, it was the talk amongst designers.

On Saturday, due to the typhoon and cancelation of the main event, design enthusiasts attended the Design Tide Tokyo and Tokyo-Midtown Design Touch events situated in Roppongi.

Umbrella's were the order of the day at the opening of TDW 2010

Here several stores, galleries and exhibits are on display throughout the week in partnership with TDW. On Saturday, this allowed visitors a chance to escape the storm and to checkout some amazing product design. ‘au by KDDI’, a Japanese mobile phone design, manufacture and service provider previously featured on Design Droplets was amongst the action. Vibrantly displaying their latest ‘iida’ product range and feature phone ‘X-Ray’ along side their latest concept phones developed in collaboration with Alessi. These new concepts are yet to appear on the net, but the designs look hot.

iida x-ray by Tokujin Yoshioka

iide-Allesi collaboration by Stefano Giovannoni - A Design Droplets Exclusive

Similar to the ‘iida’ product and concept range, boutique product design was abundant. Tech gadgets designed for functionality along side a playful aesthetics seemed to be a re-accruing theme.

Tokyo-Midtown Design Touch was an unexpected surprise and a highlight of the weekend. Viewers can visit an interactive exhibition on the first floor, the Good Design Awards industrial design museum on the fifth floor and abundant design shops and displays on the floors in-between.

Sunday saw better weather and provided the opportunity to properly explore the main exhibition grounds. As you enter the grounds and walk down the ‘Love Blue’ themed carpet, the shipping container displays provide a great and diverse introduction to TDW. Favourite containers include the intriguing Fujitsu Design Limited and Smile Park & Sunnyside Garage containers.

The student exhibition was varied in quality but provided some great furniture with top craftsman ship. Musashino University have produced a stand out performance with its furniture display.

In the centre of the grounds is a golf ball like tent in which the ‘Cool Japan Tokyo Conference’ is taking place. Various presentations and films are on display here throughout the week (mostly in Japanese with drinks and nibbles provided).

This is all just a precursor however to the main designer exhibits, which I will write about in the next article (coming soon).