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aestheticterrorists 
Walter Van Beirendonck is the founder of W.&L.T., a fashion brand that excited the whole world. He has now left this brand to launch a new brand under the name of aestheticterrorists. He visited Japan in November last year to offer a presentation of his new brand.
The fashion business today works on the principle of conducting exhaustive research on merchandise considered likely to prove commercially successful and then coming up with products in line with this research. But Walter Van Beirendonck believes that the most important thing is to create clothes with interesting designs, even if this means working on a small scale. The idea of the new brand is to launch a "terrorist" attack on the big corporations' stranglehold on the fashion industry.
The graphic designer Masayoshi Kodaira interviewed Walter Van Beirendonck about his idea of fashion entertainment.
Interviewed by Masayoshi Kodaira |
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| The Possibilities of "tagtype"
"tagtype" is a Japanese-language input system intended to assist the physically handicapped to use computers. It was developed by Kinya Tagawa while he was a student of the University of Tokyo, School of Engineering and was proposed by him in his graduation thesis of 1999.
Shunji Yamanaka, the industrial designer who guided Kinya Tagawa through his research, became interested in the developmental possibilities of this idea in terms of its usefulness as a barrier-free tool. After working on design to enable the most effective display of potential functions, he and Kinya Tagawa created a working prototype in November 2000. This new Japanese-language input system is being looked on as a viable alternative to keyboard input with possibilities for application extending to devices employed by televisions to connect up to the Internet, household electronic appliances, game machine devices, and mobile tools.
In this report, we interview Shunji Yamanaka and Kinya Tagawa, the joint developers of "tagtype," about how this system was developed and the various design activities now required so that the system can be produced commercially.
Shunji Yamanaka + Kinya Tagawa
Interviewed by Yuichi Yamada, Design News |
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Design that has Transformed Manufacturer-2:
Mercedes-Benz and the A-class
In the early 1990s, Mercedes designers and brand managers began to feel the necessity to enlarge the paths of heritage and tradition in order to achieve two goals: more visibility for the link between product innovation and product appearance, and a successful approach to new market segments, especially the lower ones, by means of new product typologies.
Launched in 1997, the A-class was Mercedes's first model aimed at exploring new markets not hemmed in by tradition and status. It was also the company's first attempt to challenge product innovation. In this, the second feature in our "Design that has transformed manufacturers" series, Hans Hoeger, a journalist working in Italy, reports on Mercedes's strategy and the design of the A-class range.
Hans Hoeger, Journalist and Business Consultant, Italy |
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| Neo Manufacturing Revolution Sketch
When we recollect these fifty years of Italian and German design, expressing nowadays, Italian as artist designer's, and German as social designing based on ecology, we come to prospect ethnologically the contemporary age when they have pursued the quality of life. We come to view on the one hand the talkative claim (Renaissance) in place of modern view of value unifying life brought by mass production, and on the other what's characterized by Anti-Humanism. But for me I cannot help recollecting these two qualities with nostalgia and indignation that have grown amalgam into my soma (thinking) and body since I have lived this age.
Two thought-provoking exhibitions, "4:3, Fifty Years of Italian and German Design," and "Today is Tomorrow: On the Future of Experience and Construction," have been held in Bonn since last June. Kunihiko Nakagawa, who exhibited at the "Today is Tomorrow" exhibition, discusses the content of these two exhibitions and the design questions they raise.
Kunihiko Nakagawa, Professor of Communication Design, Tokyo Zokei University |
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| Feature: World Design Awards 2000-2001
The World Design Awards are planned every year on the basis of worldwide surveys conducted independently by Design News. This is the tenth occasion on which this event has been held. Thirteen Good Design Awards were presented to submissions from nine countries.
In this special feature we take a look at the main prize-winning works that won the 13 design prizes and introduce some of this year's topics.
Edited by Design News |
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| Principal Design to the Sydney Olympic
The Olympic Games held in Sydney last year had the effect of significantly changing the city's image. On the gilded stage presented by the Olympics, Australia succeeded in presenting its design abilities to the world.
Michael Bryce, principal design advisor to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and Mark Armstrong, designer of the Olympic torch, visited Japan in January this year for an Australian design exhibition organized by JIDPO under the title of "Australia-Competing by Design-Beyond the 2000 Olympic Games."
Design News interviewed these two designers in connection with the design program for the Sydney Olympics, which was implemented under the slogan "Share the Spirit!"
Michael Bryce + Mark Armstrong
Interviewed by Yuichi Yamada, Design News |
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Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization