As a starter, PingMag already served you some mouth-watering design bits from last month’s Tokyo Design Premio in Milan. But, of course, we won’t spare you the delicious main dish: A colourful Sashimi platter of the Premio as part of the largest international design event, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, with its four hundred showrooms. Get ready for a bit of visual stimulation from some savvy Japanese design pieces.

Written by Jacqueline Felber and Verena

Tokyo Design Premio’s entrance…

In the city’s Southern district of Zona Tortona, formerly an industrial and residential area turned into a design hotspot thanks to gentrification, the Tokyo Design Premio pavilion celebrated Japanese lifestyles with 17 indigenous brands, 48 designers and graphic artists, and a superb display of high-end interiors. Luckily, this celebration graciously extended to a lively Sake bar alongside a 1:100 state-of-the-art landscape model of Tokyo, courtesy of the Mori Building.

Tokyo Love

“Tokyo Love” was the overall concept’s title, channelling various creative fields into seven sections of which we will try to introduce at least a couple:

1. Preview! Preview! The Company Exhibition

Fujitsu’s brand new “Fab PC”…

… is a foldable E-Paper with a textile surface. Credits: Fujitsu.

The “Media Dealer” by Fujitsu with several displays – is a mobile after all. Credit: Fujitsu.

Soon to get thrown onto European shop shelves, Fujitsu came up with its latest consumer product – amongst it an intriguing looking new E-Paper technology. Fujitsu’s flexible “Fab PC” might resemble a stylish notebook with its soft textile screen, but aside from its apparently creative uses, it literally bends to wishes…
Another new gadget from this tech forge is called the “Media Dealer,” a mobile device with exchangeable displays. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a closer look at the specifics, but the device can show separate images and video content.

Back to space design!

Design Fresco’s Ufo and Table by Kazuo Adachi, a multi-functional seating landscape. Credit: Design Fresco.

Former winner of the Japanese Good Design Award, Osaka-based Ideaco exhibited a collection of nicely shaped accessories with a “no waste” philosophy: Simple minimalistic, Ideaco communicate their design “to be as close as possible to Nature because that’s where no waste exists, and all constituents need each other to live in harmony.” Must be real Japanese Hippies…

Hippie designs! From the Ideaco collection…

…flowery “Animal Bank” moneyboxes. Credits: Ideaco.

2. Breeding grounds: The Designer’s Zone

This area seemed by far the most diverse and individual part of the Tokyo Design Premio. For example, Monacca’s accessories invite you to a world fully equipped with those cozy wooden surfaces. That makes such a warm atmo!

The wooden purse! Monacca’s collection by Takumi Shimamura.

And Monacca’s wooden chair collection from above. Credits: Monacca.

Monacca’s wooden laptop case. Stylish!

Close-up of Monacca’s floor chair. Credits: Monacca.

3. The Tokyo Creative Products: More to stuff your living-room

This section was full of sneak previews of what’s next to emerge on the markets. Whether it was In Design’s “Hoop lights” ‘illuminating the beauty of colour white’ or Toshihito Okura’s “Naomi” chairs and “Tokyo Girls” drawer, a lot of furniture displayed looked promisingly enough to be the next hot thing in town – or not.

Designer Sunnin makes playful and witty space savers: “Tokyo Dresser” closed…

… and opened! Sunnin’s PC table/desk/chest of drawers “Tokyo Dresser.” Credits: Sunnin.

“Tube” door stoppers from Shibuya Design Studio…

… in action. Credit: Shibuya Design Studio.

Oh la la, those legs! The “Gemini” stool. Credit: Plustic Minustic.

Plustic Minustic’s “Gemini” stool by Koji Takenaka and Takahide Ishii: Just longish… I guess, without the model in the photomontage it wouldn’t look that exciting…

4. Tokyo Rooms: Small fantastic worlds

We hope you enjoyed our little field trip to Milan’s Tokyo Design Premio! And, yes, there is some more to come…