Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

"Sports Utility Vehicles" (SUV), "off-road 4WD" [four-wheel drive] and "RV4WD" vehicles are currently enjoying enormous popularity both in Japan and other countries. The 3-door "RAV4" released by TOYOTA in May 1994 has become a great hit with monthly sales on the Japanese market considerably exceeding those originally forecast. The 5-doorr "RAV4' released this year is also selling very well.
In comparison with "Land Cruiser 80" and similar models of relatively large size such as "Land Cruiser Prado" and "Hi-Luxe Surf", "RAV4" represents TOYOTA's first challenge to the small SUV market.
This report explains the exterior and interior design processes relating to the development of the "RAV-4", a vehicle which has presented a new challenge to designers. An introduction is also provided to the system of design development adopted at TOYOTA following the changes in the organizational structure of the company's design sector.

Hideo Kondo, General Manager, Design Department, Planning Division Ill, Development Center III, Toyota Motor Corporation.

"It is time to put corporate. identity, along with the relativistic perspective of "anything goes', behind us in graphic design. Graphic designers alongside those concerned with products and buildings, must start asking some serious questions. If all the hype about Internet continues but interfaces and graphics still look terrible, we must ask why. if information design for harassed service staff still works terribly, we must wonder whether the issue goes further than incompetence or negligence.
The topic tackled by James Woudhuysen in the third article in his series "Enlightenment in Design" is information design. In this article Woudhuysen describes information design such as the package of everyday utilitarian goods, credit contracts, guidance systems employed at airports, and interface and graphics on Internet screen display as a Cinderella at the Ball. He stresses the need for enlightened information design for real customer service rather than obscurantist corporate identity aimed at credulous employees or consumers.

James Woudhuysen, Associate Director, The Henley Centre for Forecasting, Professor of Design Management at De Monfort University(UK).

In this feature we examine contemporary trends in interior design and the topics which designers of the future will have to face. The feature takes the form of answers to three questions submitted to thirty experts from both Japan and overseas. We hope thereby to present proposals related to the new role of interior design, clarifying the part that interior design has to play in the context of everyday life, the environment and society as a whole.
This feature was also planned as a preview of the IFI Congress '95 NAGOYA to be held for the first time in Asia this coming October.