WSCA JURY PRESIDENT:
NAOTO FUKASAWA (PRODUCT DESIGNER)

COMMENT

Profile

He has continued to hold workshops based upon his own thoughts regarding the transposition of human unconsciousness into design – a philosophy that could be best expressed using the terms “Without Thought”. He has worked with major companies both domestically and from overseas including in Italy, France, Germany and Northern Europe. His wall-mounted CD player for MUJI, humidifier for ±0 (PLUS MINUS ZERO), and INFOBAR and Neon for au/KDDI are part of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) design collection and he has won over sixty awards. In 2007, he was accorded the title of Honorable Royal Designer for Industry (Royal Society of Arts). He is a professor at Musashino Art University and a visiting professor at Tama Art University. He has authored “An Outline of Design” (Toto Shuppan), “Naoto Fukasawa” (Phaidon Press), and co-authored “Dezain no Seitaigaku” (Tokyo Shoseki).
"THE OUTLINE The unseen outline of Things" is going to be held in 21_21 Design Sight (Tokyo Midtown Garden) 2009.10.16-2010.1.31 and a publication “The outline” with a photographer Mr. Tamotsu Fujii were published (Hachette Fujingaho Co., Ltd).

Nacása & Partners
TAKESHI NAKASA (PHOTOGRAPHER)
ATSUSHI NAKAMICHI (PHOTOGRAPHER)

http://www.nacasa.co.jp/

COMMENT

YASUO KONDO (INTERIOR DESIGNER, PROFESSOR, Kyushu University Graduate School)

http://www.kon-do.co.jp/

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Jamo associates
NORITO TAKAHASHI (DESIGNER)
CHINATSU KAMBAYASHI (STYLIST)

http://www.jamo.jp/

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graf
SHIGEKI HATTORI (DESIGNER)

http://www.graf-d3.com/

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Special Juror:
TAKEO KIKUCHI (CREATIVE DIRECTOR)
http://40ct525.com/

COMMENT

HIROSHI MATSUMIYA (WSCA PRODUCER, AUTHOR)

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General Comments from Jury President NAOTO FUKASAWA

The trend grows stronger every year for ideas that are just superficially attractive or simply “cool” to ultimately fail to be selected. This year the jury was drawn to works that they could resonate with and where they could sense the appeal of the methodology itself at a more fundamental level. From this perspective, I believe that the Grand Prize winning works selected this year can be said to have been chosen out of a sense of respect on the part of the jury members. As they seek to select works giving them a sense of “wouldn’t be nice if there were something like this,” the jury members are in actual fact often looking at submissions in a far more flat condition than most people would imagine, and at the same time they seek to take the recipient’s (customer’s) perspective, ultimately judging the works quite objectively. Of course, another important pre-condition is that they not simply come in at the “just an idea stage,” but that the submissions be well fleshed-out in detail and also carefully put together as proposals.

It is also a fact that the way of thinking about and approaching the question of “what would we like to see” or “what sort of space would be pleasant as a shop?” has been changing in the minds of the competition participants with every passing year. The trend this year was for a large number of submissions that not only considered the things that can are actually visible as parts of a space, but also tried to express a “value” being felt on another dimension. As a result, I felt that there were quite a lot of creators (participants) who were working to create proposals that included elements that “are difficult to fully express with visuals,” or weren’t just beautiful, but also sought to include “other, separate elements that you feel in that actual ‘place’ or ‘space.’” The large number of submissions of this type was very enjoyable from the perspective of those doing the selecting as well.

Comments on the Newly-Added T-Shirt Competition:

As everyone knows, T-shirts themselves are nothing especially new, existing as a sort of symbol of the brand. In other words, because they are in some ways seen in the same way a Japanese person might see “white rice,” if this form is chosen as the basis for a design, the brand needs to have a certain amount of power and decisiveness. In a way, it is precisely because T-shirts themselves are such an extremely basic item about which everyone has a different opinion that they are seen to offer value. From this perspective, it was true that it was hard for the jury members to align their selection vectors. Looking forward to next time as well, it will remain important for submissions to not just present flat designs or ordinary-seeming ideas. I think we will continue to seek proposals that offer something fresh and different from everything else.

Q: “In the T-shirt Mobile Shop Design Category, you reacted particularly strongly to the work entitled “OKAMOCHI: Ready-Made Reprogramming” featuring an okamachi carrying-pail.”

It was extremely fresh and intriguing as a truly unexpected way to interpret the “mobile” theme. Over the past few years, the frameworks and boundaries that used to define the store business format itself are disappearing. For example, an increasing number of people lately are doing away with the framework of “build a box to set up a store in” entirely and simply spreading out a blanket wherever they like and going into business. As a harbinger of this trend, “OKAMOCHI: Ready-Made Reprogramming”was a very fresh-feeling submission. Although the present environment has come to have too many rules and regulations, if you peel back the layers to look at the history of how business itself first started from trading and bartering, then the idea of opening up a shop anywhere you like on a public street can be seen as an extremely basic way of selling. Although the world of the Internet (OS) at first might seem to be the complete opposite of the above, you can actually see that it is in fact creating ever-growing markets based on the same concept as the “spread out a blanket and go into business” approach of the “Pail” shop. I get the sense that in the world of real bricks-and-mortar shops as well, this kind of style is going to spread further in the time to come.

It can be said that for all categories, it was consistently important for the participants’ works to be catching hold of “signs of things to come.” Particularly in the case of a design competition hosted by a massive apparel manufacturer, works that are the first to catch the latest trends in society and harbingers of things ahead are the ones that catch people’s hearts and minds. I am very encouraged by the gradual increase in the number of proposals of this sort. Through the course of this competition I was again strongly reminded that　designers themselves are now in the position to open up new platforms and bring change to the world from a variety of perspectives.

NAOTO FUKASAWA (PRODUCT DESIGNER)

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Nacása & Partners (TAKESHI NAKASA / ATSUSHI NAKAMICHI)

During times of economic downturn, much of society at large gets into the mindset that “things have to be cheap or they won’t sell.” In actual fact, however, in the times we face now, simply being “cheap” is not enough to make things sell. The customer is loathe to open up his purse-strings for anything less than something that is both inexpensive and offers some sort of superior functionality or is clearly different and more appealing than other things. For us cameramen as well, even though one might use the same digital cameras as someone else, if you can’t take pictures that are different from those of others, at some point work will stop coming your way. Even when shooting the same subject, we must always work to bring out what makes our work different from that of others, whether it be through differences in after-processing or our skill and sense for how to frame the picture, deciding what to leave in and what to cut out.

What I really want to stress is that I think the question of “what makes this different from others” has become very important in every field in this day and age.

Whether looking at today or 20 years ago when the bubble had first collapsed, the requirement for “making a shop with a shoestring budget” has stayed the same. 20 years ago, the so called “back to basics” approach ruled the day as designers leveraged their skills, making good use of indirect lighting, for example, to make the most of designs based on very simple original plans. Of course, this era is different. All sorts of things are changing and diversifying at an incredible speed, and multiplicity and variety are being sought from both spaces and services. In other words, just being simple is not enough.

During the judging of the submissions, Chinatsu Kambayashi commented that, “The penetration of the Internet has brought us into an age when you can buy anything you want from a PC. But, because of this it is actually even more important to promote the experience of ‘actually taking something into your hands’ and ‘touching it.” Precisely because of the age we are in, we need to place greater value on being conscious of the human sense of touch.” I feel the same way.

Interpreted in this light, these values of “human warmth” and being “different from everyone else” were clearly expressed in the grand prize-winning work selected this year.

Q) What will we see next year?

I personally feel that the more off-the-wall a shop idea is, the more interesting it becomes, and that this approach is far more likely to make an impact on people’s hearts and minds. Also, I have to say that I would like to see a few more spaces with a feeling of sensuousness. I look forward to seeing what next year brings.

ATSUSHI NAKAMICHI (PHOTOGRAPHER)

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YASUO KONDO

Speaking overall, I came away with the impression that the professional competition showed greater, more interesting variety than last year. The fact that submissions from overseas are increasing is also a fascinating trend. As regards the student competition submissions, what stood out were proposals that seemed to reflect efforts to study past trends and continue them. In my opinion, it would have been better to have more truly daring ideas. I think that the works ultimately selected for the grand prizes were ideas that showed the appeal of new “spaces” never experienced until now.

This year, these kinds of ideas breathed refreshing air into the competition as a whole. Perhaps there has been an increase in the number of people who can think of business needs positively and skillfully transform them in forward-looking directions.

When judging, rather than choosing innocuous works that might be easily selected by just about anyone, I personally gave my votes to designs that drew people in through the power and originality of the idea behind them.

The level of the organization and presentation of the submissions has become quite high, so what I hope to see next is submissions that go even further, presenting ideas that radiate with a feeling of honesty and fun.

Comments on the T-shirt Category:

Precisely because the theme was limited to T-shirts, truly innovative new ideas were required. One work that made a particularly strong impression on me was the “OKAMOCHI: Ready-Made Reprogramming” or “Freddy World Pop Up Shop” idea. An increase in the number of truly dynamic works is good stimulus for the jury side as well, raising the heat of the competition as a whole. I hope to see even more of this sort of work helping to fire up the mood of the competition in next year’s T-shirt category as well.

YASUO KONDO (INTERIOR DESIGNER, PROFESSOR, Kyushu University Graduate School)

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Jamo associates (NORITO TAKAHASHI / CHINATSU KAMBAYASHI)

What left a particularly deep impression on us was the T-shirt category (JOY-T Competition) newly added this year. The direction of the theme itself was clear from the outset, and the judging criteria were also easy to understand. Although the main WSCA is also a competition for designs that will actually be implemented, the nature of T-shirts gives more sense of reality to their potential to be developed into products, such that from our perspective as judges as well, we enjoyed being able to choose winning works from a more realistic perspective. In addition, hidden among the mobile shop proposals we sometimes found ideas that excelled even the works submitted to the main competition. Among these, the bucket proposal was particularly intriguing. Even the plan document itself looked good and was well put-together and easy to understand. We were again reminded of the importance of the entrants’ ability to express themselves through their visual sheets. This point is further illustrated by the fact that if one hypothetically were to put the judges into the client’s shoes, these sheets become an important yardstick for judging whether or not they can feel sufficiently reassured to leave this project up to the person proposing it. In reality, however, we think that surprisingly many people haven’t realized this yet. From this perspective, the entry entitled “OKAMOCHI: Ready-Made Reprogramming” featuring a mobile store in the form of a type of bucket was truly excellent. It even worked to convey the creator’s feeling of attachment to the types of wares (T-shirts) being handled.
It is fair to say that out of the large number of submissions received, the ones that most catch the eyes of the jury as intriguing are generally those where the visual sheet itself is put together in an appealing way and makes it easy to understand what the entrant is trying to convey. The perspective of the judges in a competition is similar to that of a patron requesting a property, and these sheets work simultaneously to convey to us information about the strength of the designer’s visual sensibilities and content programming and editing abilities.

Another point we noted about this category was that the student submissions were at a higher level than last year. It may be true that students have more time than professionals, but even so the entries tended be well-crafted, making it challenging to come to a final decision. We would go so far as to say that it was almost difficult to see the boundary between student and professional work. Speaking in broad terms, in this day and age the demand is much more for the creator’s content programming and editing abilities and capacity to direct, rather than just their technical skills. In this sense, therefore, we think that there is a great demand for presenting more realistic scenes and designs that take into consideration the feelings and sensations of the people on the receiving end. For example, if one takes a dining table as an example, there would probably be a huge difference in the table design proposed by someone who loves food and cooking and the design presented by someone who has absolutely no interest in this area. But, in our eyes, the table by the former is naturally the one most likely to seem more appealing when placed in a space. Although the scale is completely different, we think that the same thing can be said of T-shirts. The difference is immediately obvious between the ideas proposed by people who truly love T-shirts, and those proposed by people who see them as just another “product.” Whether talking about space design or T-shirt design, we feel that through the process of serving on the jury of this competition, we too re-learned just how important it is for the creator to focus more closely on what they want those on the receiving end (the consumers) to sense and feel from their design, and then work to give this vision actual form.

NORITO TAKAHASHI (DESIGNER) / CHINATSU KAMBAYASHI (STYLIST)

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graf (SHIGEKI HATTORI)

One of the things that struck me personally as I looked over the competition as a whole was the homogeneity of the themes and ways in which concepts were being presented. Continuing on a similar trend seen last year, for example, there were fully 6 or 7 works based on key words like “Alice in Wonderland” or “labyrinth” alone. I found myself wondering how it could be that people raised in completely different environments would all bring out such overlapping themes? Part of this is just my own simple curiosity about why this is happening, but it could also easily wind up being interpreted as a more extreme position if expressed simply as “there just isn’t enough distinctiveness and vision!” However, jury president Naoto Fukasawa commented that “the fact that there are so many of these (i.e. so many fantasy-based approaches within the submissions we received) may reflect something happening in the world that can’t be ignored.” I think he does have a point…

It may sound like a bit of an exaggeration when expressed this way, but in my designs, my honest desire is to feel a sense of power so strong as to say “I’m going to change the world around me!” Street corners, facilities, cities, and shop design can all provide new stimulus to everyday life, and can definitely exert an influence powerful enough to change society. Walk around more, pick up and examine different possibilities, search things out… Even something that seems at first trifling may hold asleep within it an unexpected hint… I hope that you will keep these ideas in a corner of your minds, and come back again next year with the force of will that “I’m going to change the world!”

SHIGEKI HATTORI (DESIGNER)

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Special Juror TAKEO KIKUCHI

Fashion is always reacting to the needs of society at the time and continuingly working to deliver answers that precisely fit the need. I myself, however, don’t take much interest in these things (trends, or the structures trends create).

I think the following can be said about design as a whole, but particularly in the case of a store space, the fact is that it is a precious site that may be used for 5 years, 10 years, or even a lifetime. As such, rather than focusing only on the short term, in thinking about fundamental questions such as “how would we like to proceed in future” or “how do we want this store to be,” rather than just the design, I want the idea itself to be more grounded in a better vision of the future.

For example, the idea of “making a store mobile by using small okamochi carrying-pails” is something that could be realistically realized both now and in future, and it has the kernel of a new proposition. I also like the idea of going beyond the scope of T-shirts focused on in this competition, creating mobile shops item-by-item for things such as home accessories, shoes, etc., refining the image according to a certain general direction, then re-constructing them all within a single store. In other words, this approach would bring together various ideas and ultimately wrap them into a single space, and I think that this is also very realistic proposal for the future.

In the T-Shirt category, while I saw many ideas that showed a good sense of style and presentation, looking overall there were many submissions proposing the same general direction. So, if asked what I would like, I would say that my first impression is that I would have liked to see submissions containing even bolder, even more innovative ideas. That said, as most of the submissions were for prints, the work cutting the T-shirt’s hem like a morning-coat was quite fresh. It takes a 70’s-style idea into a design that could immediately be put into production, and I think it also holds the potential for extension into different materials, prints, etc.

As we are in an era where clothing takes an enormous range of forms, the idea of setting T-shirts in particular as the subject theme is at once very interesting and quite challenging. For this reason, I think that as the creators work on their designs, they need to narrow themselves down to themes that make sense to them them, for example by category, type, or gender.

Whether in space or in fashion, I would like creators to come up with new ideas that don’t stop at the 2-dimensional world but develop further into the world of 3 dimensions. In order to realize this, creators can’t simply narrow their focus, but must open their eyes to broader vistas and keep their minds as open as possible, thereby enabling them to present a great variety of new approaches and ideas. I think this is an important challenge for the future of design.

TAKEO KIKUCHI (CREATIVE DIRECTOR)

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HIROSHI MATSUMIYA

If designers stopped their creative work, who would build the next generation? This is the thinking behind holding this competition. A designer is a type of human that has the desire to make new things embedded within their psyche. Even as people clamor about the economic crisis, we are all still breathing. This year’s competition as well saw many submissions of ideas expressing new perspectives. There were even some that went so far as to convey a premonition of changing the very platform of the fashion business itself. Our next step is to meet with the award recipients and begin discussing how together we can realize their ideas into shop expressions that will feel comfortable to the consumer. As jury president Naoto Fukasawa said, the role of the designer is changing. Design is no longer an orders-based industry. We must reform our outlook to see chances not as something to be grabbed as they come along, but instead as something to be actively created. I encourage all creators to keep on working to build your creative powers. I continue to look forward to meeting new partners with whom we can together develop new business frontiers.

HIROSHI MATSUMIYA (WSCA PRODUCER, AUTHOR)

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