Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

Qualitative improvements in the Japanese living environment, especially in the Tokyo area, have been on the agenda for many years. But we have to recognize that very little progress has been made in improving the nature of the space in which we live. However, recently there has been much discussion on television and in magazines and the other media about living styles and home furnishings. Shops selling household furnishings are changing in character: instead of merely selling furniture and household goods, they are now assuming a more comprehensive identity, handling gardening products and fashion goods, running their own cafes, and installing exhibition space.
The younger generation in particular is showing more and more interest in interiors decorated according to their own personal style, very much in the manner of clothing. IDEE is company playing a central role in this connection. Focusing on such Japanese and overseas designers as Philippe Starck and Mark Newson, IDEE is developing and producing new and original ranges of furniture. As a result, the company is in the process of creating a new trend which is now creating such an impact that we can talk justifiably about the "IDEE style."
IDEE opened a new shop in. November last year. Following on from this, in July this year the company opened a new design studio known by the name "Work Station" which combines design planning and pilot shop functions.
Design News has been taking a look at the IDEE shop and the Work Station. Teruo Kurosaki, IDEE'S president, discusses his company's aims as they relate to three specific topics: exploration of everyday life, pursuit of truthfulness in visual form, and adventures of taste. He also considers the topics which will need to be faced by interior designers in the future.

The NES Family Computer TV game released by Nintendo in 1983 proved to be an enormous hit along with the Super Mario software series. It resulted in a completely new form of entertainment, the family computer, becoming an integral part of many homes. With the release in 1990 of a wide variety of game equipment such as SUPER NES (Super Famicon), Game Boy and Virtual Boy. Nintendo opened up a new world of pleasure and entertainment. This June, some thirteen years after the first appearance of the family computer, Nintendo released NINTENDO 64, a product incorporating a 64-bit ultra-high speed central processing unit and a controller with a 3D stick. NINTENDO 64 is intended to bring about a qualitative transformation of home video game systems and is the product on which Nintendo is staking its future.
In this report, Masayuki Murai, an editor of Design News, interviews Mr. Takeda, general manager of Research & Development 3, the Nintendo department which undertook development of NINTENDO 64, and Mr. Ashida, who designed every aspect of the model from the body to the controller and the packaging. The development process and the main points underlying the design are brought to light in the interview.

Today, when computer technology is used extensively in many products, the work of designers is undergoing a major transformation. Whereas designers used to be concerned primarily with form-making, coloring and other aspects of external appearance, the focus of their activities is now on interface and interaction design intended to make easy-to-operate systems available to users. GUI (Graphical User Interface) in particular is the field which offers the most absorbing challenges to designers. Design News has compiled a feature on GUI design activities, since this is the field of product design which is currently stimulating the greatest degree of interest and expectation.
In this first feature on the subject, we take a look at GUI in connection not only with data screen display for operating computers but also with the exchange of information between products and users and forms of representation. We go on to examine recent GUI projects being implemented by Design Divisions of 31 Japanese companies and listen to the opinions of eleven specialists on the problems which GUI poses for design and the topics which will have to be faced by designers in the future.