Yosuke Kurita: shy designers need support

10 Feb 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Graphics, Japan

Yosuke Kurita: shy designers need support

Yosuke Kurita from CBCNET

Yosuke Kurita is the founder of CBCNET (Creativity Between Communication), an ambitous project to connect young designers in Japan. PingMag asked Yosuke how design conferences can strengthen a creator’s motivation and why there is a need for people like him to help others communicate.

written by Uleshka

Yosuke, you used to work for +81 where you started meeting many Japanese and international graphic designers. +81 sent you off to report about the Semipermanent conference in Sydney a few years back (after all, you were the only one who could speak fluent English) and then you continued attending conferences around the world. What have been your findings and how have you tried to bring that back to Japan?

Semipermanent conference in Sydney

When I was a student looking at design magazines or websites, all those big design “stars” seemed totally unreal and distant to me. The more I read, the closer they seemed, and yet I couldn’t believe that they actually existed until I saw them live at these conferences and started talking to them.

That really triggered something! I realized how many people must be out there who have the same problem as me: feeling slightly “off” as if things aren’t actually happening. Especially when it comes to foreign designers living in a different mindset and not necessarily speaking Japanese. (smiles)

I thought that there must be something I could do to make the design community more exciting - something to show people that it’s closer than we think. (Tip: Singapore during the conference season is a great start to meet a lot of international designers and it makes a perfect designer’s holiday!)

Hmm…. does it take up so much courage to go and talk to strangers?

If it was easy for everyone to go out, talk to foreign designers and connect, than I might be doing something else. (grins)

What kind of conferences do you recommend?

First of all, every city has its own vibe.

FITC conference

Big conferences like the IdN where 1000 people look up to one guy speaking make it difficult to get close to the designers and really see things from their viewpoint. I prefer the smaller ones like the FITC in Toronto where it is easier to talk to people. It’s always cool to see hundreds of people getting excited about design and art.

So this is another reason why you started Apartment - conferences for young Japanese designers in Japan - right? What was the feedback from the design conferences you organized over here so far?

Toshio Iwai presenting at the Apartment conference, SDLX, Tokyo. Good mood it seems!

Everybody loved it so much! I was very surprised about all the positive feedback I got! The first one we did had Toshio Iwai presenting along with Semitransparent Design, Takeshi Hamada and the Hatos crew. I always wanted to do something like that: having graphics, media art, web, street… all in one place.

Semitransparent Design presenting at the Apartment conference, SDLX, Tokyo

In Japan, there were lots of talks and discussions about the technical side of design, how to solve certain problems.

I want the designers at Apartment to talk about why they are doing those projects, what inspires them or what other collaborations they are dreaming of. I want people to get really motivated, so that by the end everyone can’t wait to get home and create new stuff!

Hatos crew performing at the Apartment conference, SDLX, Tokyo

I strongly believe that creativity is born when you are meeting new people and talking to them.

Besides the inspiration - what else are you trying to establish with CBCNET and your newly founded company Grandbase Inc.?

Grandbase is just what it sounds like; a base for us and hopefully a lot of other people interested in design projects. We hope to organize more conferences and projects like the recent folding BeBIKE - connecting different industries and designers that might never have met otherwise.

What is this recent BeBIKE project?

BeBIKE is a Japanese bicycle company. The goal of this project is to introduce BeBIKE to the world. They did a mountain bike series where they let US graffiti stars such as Futura, Kaws and Haze style the bikes. Now they want to introduce a folding bike with more of a pop appeal, so they asked us to chose cool graphic designers.

BeBIKE styled by Sunday Vision

Which designers did you chose?

Sunday Vision (JP), Geoff McFetridge (US), Rinzen (AU), Power Graphixx (JP) and PhunkStudio (SG). The details will be updated in CBCNET soon!

I think it is really good for graphic designers to get involved in different fields. I organized a calendar series for Garcia Marquez when I was at +81. I should chose 3 foreign designers to create a textile for a calendar, which would later become a bag for the next season. Chuck Anderson’s bag was actually on the market, a girls’ bag!

Chuck Anderson’s Garcia Marquez bag, detail

Chuck Anderson’s Garcia Marquez bag, detail

I think it is great to see that designers who are very well known in the graphic field, can leap over and do fashion and be introduced to people who otherwise would never have heard about them.

You do all sorts of collaboration with artists (for the EIGHT8 project, you collaborated with 8 different designers to promote FLASH 8) … but there are so many people out there making similar looking stuff, I feel… What makes a cool designer a good designer?

EIGHT8 screenshot

I feel that once at a certain level, there is no good and bad. I choose to collaborate with people because I like their personality. Of course, there is their work, but I really feel that this design and art comes out of that person, so it’s the person I start to get interested in. When they manage to make me get even more excited by talking to them, I get deeper into their work. I trust my instincts as to why I choose to like a certain person.

What about the Japanese design scene? I sometimes have the feeling that it is actually quite difficult for people to communicate and express themselves on the spot, when they can’t take their time and blog thoughts or email…

It is different to the West, for sure.

I remember going to ResFest in Tokyo: there was a crowd of about 400 people all interested in film and motion, but there was no communication happening. People came alone and went back alone, but I believe that people actually do want to get to know more people.

That’s why I try to introduce a lot of people to each other. I think that CBCNET could help them. If they read something about someone, they are much more likely to come up and talk to that person, rather than not knowing anything at all.

CBCNET screenshot

Would you say that it’s more of a societal communication problem? Especially in our age of mailing and blogging, where everyone is used to communicating non-stop, but has actually lost the skill to speak out in real life - or do you think that it’s more to do with that “Japanese thing” about being shy!??

I guess it depends. Most Japanese people naturally stick with the people they already know. That is again where Apartment showed me that this kind of event is very much needed to help people break that habit.

However, being shy and keeping thoughts to ourselves in general might also be what makes us Japanese. Our Japanese communities are very different to the foreign ones and even though things are opening up, there will always be cultural differences. I think that is positive, as long as people take the chance to communicate in their way.

bringing together some street artists on CBCNET’s TANK

Hmmm…. this whole topic is quite difficult to talk about and I would actually like to take some more time to think about it. It’s definitely a really postive topic for me to think about!!

Absolutely. There is one little thing that I keep wondering about, though. Why are there always so few women around at those young design events, or street art exhibitions….? Where are all the Japanese female designers?

There were some women at Apartment, but the speakers turned out to be only boys. (laughs) I hope to have a better gender balance at the next one. (smiles)

second Apartment at SDLX. Packed!

What can we expect from Groundbase Inc. in the future?

We are working on a book right now, which is to be launched before June!

I would like to experiment with silkscreen-prints, different papers, black & white printing… it’s going to be a beautiful book in 3 parts: graphics, interviews and reports. It will be another project combining the internet and the real, physical action and communication.

It will be an independent book limited to about 1000 copies only, hopefully distributed around the world. I feel like those kind of independent books are lacking in Japan.

When will the next Apartment be?

We are hoping to hold it in April, this time also inviting some foreign guest artists.

Groundbase Inc.: Shinpei Yamamori and Yosuke Kurita

The whole thing just started for us. We are just about to move to our new office!! I really want to work hard to find a good balance using virtual media to create real projects with and for the community. Check CBCNET for upcoming info!

Thanks a lot for this insight into the young Japanese design scene.

30 Comments

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  2. You have very cool designs, wish Shanghai desingers woudl learn some.

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  3. This project was a great idea. It’s good to promote these conferences. Sometimes we just want to be motivated and a talk with a person you don’t know or never met helps, exchange techniques, tricks, experiences or just have a friendly talk can make a designer, programmer or a simple person to believe more in herself. This project inspirated me and I am at the other side of world! Now I thought to make something to helps the students of media! Wait!!! Keep the good job PingMag!

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  4. Eriksen: I imagine you are an old veteran in this graphic world :D thinking about your words “I thought to help students”. Then GO! I’m sure you have excellent ideas, because you share your thoughts here, it means it ! :)

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