Hasta La Gadget!

Nine months on from the East Japan disaster creative efforts continue aimed at providing the help needed in the North of Japan. However as time passes the media’s focus shifts elsewhere and many engaging projects are not getting the attention they deserve. The ongoing “Creation Project 2011” is a good example of such a project that hasn’t garnered much public exposure, but continues to help those affected. In this project local designers used dyed fabric made by craftsmen from four prefectures that were hit by the earthquake and tsunami (Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki), and created personal messages through designed tote bags. The bags are currently exhibited, and will progress until December 22nd, at the Recruit Creation Gallery G8, Ginza.

The whole project saw 180 Japanese and a few International creators collaborate with Zensenken, an organization of young craftsmen in Japan. “Creation Project” refers to the wish for re-creation or revival of the damaged areas in the North of Japan through creative efforts. “Shirushizome” used in the process of creating the bags also draws on traditional practices from the area, a traditional hand dyeing technique that originated in Heian Period (794-1185). Originally, a hand dyed banner indicated family crest and status, and was attached to each of the personal belongings such as tools, sign curtain hung at shop entrance etc.

Each designer expressed his or her personal message through the traditional hand-dyed bags and it is interesting to see the diversity and creativity of each designer, and their personal message and intention, and how they communicate this through design. Shin Matsunaga, for example, who is an established Japanese Graphic Designer created his interpretation of a new symbol for Japan’s revival.

Takayuki Soeda who currently participates in a long term (10 years) disaster relief project “Arts for Hope” that uses arts as a communication tool in disaster areas, created a bag design with the project’s logo and tying in the two efforts nicely.

Another of the designs that caught our eye was from creative team “Semitransparent”, a company that blends the latest media technologies and design. Their creation consisted of a dazzling patterned bag that represented a basic but fashionable concept in typical Japanese style. Product designer Hitomi Sago expressed her worries on the effect of nuclear energy by passing message of “no nukes- yes to green energy” in response to the Fukushima crisis.

“Creation Project” is a nice example of a very personal window into Japanese designer’s hearts, intentions and wishes, and the expression of their tendencies and influences. Needless to say, all profits (6,000Y a bag) are going directly to the affected areas.

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We have previously talked about the number of innovative projects that have sprung up in the wake of the events in North Japan. Another fantastic project that caught our eye at the recent Tokyo Fashion Week, and is already harvesting results, aims at turning damaged lands in the Sendai area into fertile grounds for fashion. The big collaboration project that now includes more than 20 apparel manufacturers and retailers, was initiated by people from the textile and fashion industry such as Kondo Kenichi of Taishoboseki Industries,, in order to commence cotton farming in Tohoku area, where hundreds of hectares of land were devastated by the tsunami.

In the tsunami the rice paddies in these areas were not only destroyed, but left with high concentration levels of saline. “When the salt concentration level in the soil exceeds 0.2% it is impossible to grow rice on it, but cotton can grow on soil with 0.5% to 0.6% salt concentration” says Kondo.
The attempt of the Tohoku Cotton Project aims to create long term employment for the rice farmers by planting cotton crops on what used to be rice farms before the disaster. The cotton seeds were provided to affected farms and Taishoboseki buys up the cotton crops to spin them. The spun yarn is used to create commercial products and will eventually reach consumers.

Actual product sales are expected to commence in January 2012 and since the demand is already higher than anticipated, Taishoboseki plans to blend harvested cotton with other organic cotton to create approximately 20 tons of yarn.

The project is generating a lot of attention, especially after the recent Tokyo Fashion Week where top fashion designer Yuma Koshino announced her participation in the project and will be launching her products together with Japan Airline (JAL) for her next collection.

Other apparel brands such as Urban research, Lee and Lowrys Farm to name a few, are also delivering their message “Don’t forget Tohoku! We are still alive!” with the vision of seeing in the near future a sea of white cotton fields that spread far and wide all over the Sendai area and more importantly give residents employment and a new sustainable lifestyle.

Images courtesy of Openers

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You can tell a lot about a lady from the contents of her handbag, or so Japanese mobile provider NTT DoCoMo think. They have teamed up with fashion and lifestyle magazine “Tokyo Graffiti” for a new campaign, “Handbag Interview“, emptying out the private contents of girls handbags for all to see and judge.

Visitors to the campaigns website can view the contents of 57 girls from various backgrounds laid out on the screen before them along with the smartphone they use. Items in the bag also have little speech bubbles describing why this particular item is something they never go without. The campaign lets you glimpse into the personalities of the girls on display and in doing so are introduced to the different smartphones as extensions of their lifestyles and fashion. At the bottom of the screen you can click on each girl and find out more about them. Featuring some pretty interesting information on their use of their smartphone and how their fashion and lifestyle ties into their phone choice.

There is a nice play on the Facebook like button where other girls can award hearts for the “Kawaii” (Cute) level of how they view the bag and it’s contents. The interactive videos are split up with different nuggets of information on smartphone usage amongst females.

It is actually a fairly substantial source of information on this particular demographic and the campaign presents this in a very well thought-out way. If you don’t want to sit through all 51 girls you can also use the search page, filtering your search based on age, occupation or smartphone. The group of girls to choose from is pretty diverse, featuring subjects with professions from a professional cocktail maker to a maid cafe waitress, doctors to lawyers and everything in-between.

We have recently been involved in a in depth international smartphone project of our own at CScout Japan, and it has been particularly interesting exploring how different personalities effect not only the design of what certain users look for but also how they use their smartphones in different international markets. Looking at the difference between Japanese preferences and tendencies to other global markets there is certainly a contrast, particularly amongst the female market. In Japan where accessorizing is popular the smartphone is an extension of the user’s image more so than their international counterparts. Likewise we discovered in the research how the Japanese market is much more open to color than the western markets who showed more preference to texture.

For more information about the smartphone market in Japan check out our ongoing roundup posts here or contact CScout Japan about our research.

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No, the picture above isn’t some modernized Power Ranger’s wrist communicator. This is the Mutewatch, and we’ve been intrigued since we first laid eyes on it over a year ago. At a glance, it looks akin to a rubber fashion bracelet, which could make its $260 price tag a shocker. But with the right touch or flick it reveals itself to be much more. The Stockholm-based start-up behind it, dubbed Mutewatch AB, envisions the device serving as “time management tool” for setting quick wrist-felt vibrating reminders during the course of the day. Think Growl, but on your wrist. The wristwatch lacks a dial and crystal, and instead has an angled, touch-sensitive section for a face with hidden LEDs, an ambient light sensor, a motion sensor and a vibrating motor for alarms. We’ve spent some time using a near-final unit seeing what it would be like silently manage our days, and it’s all laid out just past the break.

Continue reading Mutewatch wrists-on: stay on-task with good vibrations (video)

Mutewatch wrists-on: stay on-task with good vibrations (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The popular Japanese social commerce recycle shop and website Pass The Baton has come up with another great concept of turning the old and used into design desirables. The new idea will see the staff uniforms from Tokyo’s popular cafe Soup Stock, recycled as new t-shirts featuring exclusive designs.

Both Soup Stock and Pass the Baton are the brain child of the Masamichi Toyama, who also runs the neck tie clothes range Giraffe. Pass the Baton works as a kind of vintage flea market, where members can sell there items which they have become attached to but no longer need, putting a note with a story of why they loved the product being sold. Mostly a social web commerce site they also have two stores in the fashionable districts of Omotesando and Marunouchi (both designed by Wonderwall’s Masamichi Katayama).

Toyama is well known for his design and artistic flair having designed all 35 of the Soup Stock cafe interiors himself. The t-shirts, which would normally go to waste as used items, have been redesigned and given a new lease of life by designer Tetsuya Chihara, who has worked on a number of fashion designs in the past. There are 4 different designs to choose form including “Tokyo Borscht”, my personal favourite t-shirt name!

The idea of taking iconic old uniforms and redesigning them into limited edition items is a great idea. This could easily be expanded into other areas such as the delivery companies uniforms or convenience store shirts. Collaborating with famous designers this wouldn’t just be a nice bit of CSR for the companies but actually a decent source of revenue from what would normally just go to waste.

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