Design News | Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

Throughout 1999 Glasgow is presenting events and exhibitions of design and architecture. Glasgow's year of architecture and design has as its purpose an attempt to change the way the world sees design, but also to change the way the world sees Glasgow. The "Glasgow 1999" project involves more than 200 architectural and design events and exhibitions. These range from fireworks displays and lighting schemes that aim to highlight the city's greatest architecture to a series of exhibitions which explore ways in which design and architecture can engage with everyday life, including sport and food. These events are being realized with the involvement of a range of leading designers such as Ron Arad and Meta Design.
In this article Deyan Sudjic, project director and formerly editor in chief of the magazine "Blueprint", discusses the "Glasgow 1999" project of redesigning a city from the economic and cultural issues of design.

Deyan Sudjic, Director, Glasgow UK City of Architecture and Design

Elements of Information Design-4
Information Design and Future

In this series we have been pinpointing the design problems which form the backdrop to the interest currently being shown in information design problems, which are growing ever more complex owing to the ongoing development of new media, technologies and materials. We have also shown how there has been an expansion in previously unheard-of possibilities for design expression using these new media, technologies and materials.
We have tried also to show how important it is for information design not to be thought of any more as a single category centering on products such as graphic design and industrial design, but to be treated as a single viewpoint effective for design as a whole. Information design might be thought of as the posture assumed by designers.
This is the forth and final article in a series in which we are examining "education," "practice" and "research" from this perspective, and in it we consider the future of information design. We look at information design not from the narrow perspective of professional designers but from the standpoint of how this field interacts with ordinary people.

Suguru Ishizaki and Kerry Ishizaki
Assistant Professors, School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University

"Unheimlich" and Design

A book by Hiroki Azuma about the contemporary French philosopher Jacques Derrida published by Shinchosha is being looked on with much interest for its suggestions of how contemporary thought might develop in the future. We planed the interview with the author for "Design News."
Azuma discovers different possibilities in Derrida's concept of deconstruction and refers to Japanese subcultures from the standpoint of Derrida's thought.
The interview will be spread over two issues of the magazine and will attempt to explore future possibilities for design.

Hiroki Azuma, Interviewed by Eizo Okada, Interior Designer

The Instant Camera: Let's "Cheki!"

"instax mini" is an instant camera made by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., which was released last November and makes use of card-size film. It is proving enormously successful because it solves some of the basic problems associated with instant cameras in the past, namely the large size of the camera and the expense of the film.
In the field of design development, the emphasis was placed not on memo and recording functions so much as on establishing communication with teenage girls of senior high school age, who are called "Purikura-sedai". The camera was designed in the manner of a piece of stationery equipment that can be carried around like a toy pet.
In this article, Masayuki Murai of Design News discusses the industrial design aspects of the "instax mini", which has acquired the nickname "Cheki!".

Masayuki Murai, editor, Design News

Museums of Design Without Walls: The V&A Spiral

The design of new museum buildings for the next millennium has provoked vigorous debate about the cultural function of museums and collections. The new Guggenheim in Bilbao, for example, has shown how a new museum can generate global interest and re-generate its locality. In years to come, it is likely that museum buildings will be seen as defining, in architectural terms, the character of the late 20th century.
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, founded in the mid-19th century, was the first "design" museum of its kind in the world. Its mission has always been to inspire designers and to inform the public by showing historical works of art alongside prime examples of contemporary manufacture.
In order to take the V&A into the 21st century, an architectural competition to design a distinctive modern extension was held in 1996. The Spiral Building, designed by Polish-born, Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind, will be completed in 2004 and will be devoted in contemporary culture in all its aspects: art, design, fashion, the crafts, new media and technology.
In this article, Jane Pavitt, University of Brighton / V&A Senior Research Fellow in Product Design and Museology, introduces the "Spiral" project and discusses the concepts which underlie contemporary design museums.

Jane Pavitt, University of Brighton
V&A Senior Research Fellow in Product Design and Museology

Feature (2): 30 Topics of G-Mark '98-'99

Good Design (G-Mark) Award '98-'99 have been undergoing important changes. Of the 2,024 items submitted by 775 companies, 717 submitted by 373 were granted Good Design Award.
This feature follows on from stop-press report presented in the previous issue. Centering on this year's prize-winning products, we take a look at the trends and features of these submissions in the form of thirty topics.
The article also includes a summary of the attitudes to design shown by the managers of 36 small and medium scale enterprises.

Edited by Design News

Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

Contens menu

About JIDPO

Activity

Communication / Press

Resources

Activity

Design News Back Number

DESIGN NEWS 245

Top Menu