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Masamichi Katayama's Wonder Wall and its Design Spirit
Through his shop designs such as “Mark Jacobs”, “A Bathing Ape”, “Osaka Sony” and “Tower Show Room”, Masamichi Katayama has become one of the most successful designers in the field of shop design, his name having become virtually synonymous with this area of design.
He is engaged on more than fifty shop design projects every year and is also taking on the challenge of product development in fields such as furniture and lighting.
In this article, the graphic designer Masayoshi Kodaira interviews Mr. Katayama about the goals of his two design companies, Wonder Wall and Another Wall.
Interviewed by Masayoshi Kodaira, graphic designer
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Photo: Kozo Takayama |
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| Effective Collaboration between Loewe and Phoenix Product Design
Loewe currently has a 14% share of the German TV market and the company has been growing considerably over the past few years.
Loewe's design is often thought of as a manifestation of “European elegance” and it has exerted a considerable influence on the design of image devices and equipment in Japan.
What began with a design competition and a single product developed into a remarkably trusting relationship over the past 15 years.
Today, Loewe defines itself through its products and design in keeping with the belief that “the product is the hero.” In this report,
Tom Schönherr of Phoenix Product Design discusses the history of his company's design work with Loewe and the valuable collaboration between companies and designers that has brought about this design success.
Tom Schönherr, Founder, Phoenix Product Design
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| Feature: Viva! L'autoproduzione! Production? Do it yourself
It was around ten years ago that the idea of “autoproduzione” (self-production) began to gain ground in Italy.
In Issue No. 241 (1998) we carried a feature on designer-makers such as Ingo Maurer, Sawaya & Moroni, and MHWay, several of whom have developed significantly since then. On the other hand, some have been taken over or have disappeared like a bubble. Various designer-makers emerged on the scene during the 1990s. But was this a mere secondary boom or was it the start of a phenomenon likely to continue into the future?
In this article, Ms. Sato, a product designer herself active as a designer-maker in Milan, takes a look at the “autoproduzione” activities of designers with a plentiful entrepreneurial spirit who are attempting to explore new ideas relating to design and self-production.
Madoka Sato, product designer
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| Process is more Important than Ideas
This year Yokohama is in the focus of the world twice. First as the host of the FIFA World Cup final game. Second, the architecture world curiously awaited the opening of the new Osanbashi International Passenger Terminal of Yokohama in June.
The project was in the limelight from the beginning in 1994, when the city of Yokohama held the international design competition. The competition, in which 660 international high-ranking competitors handed in their proposals was finally decided for a design by London-based Foreign Office Architects.
While the terminal is taking the role of an interface between the open sea and the density of the Tokyo-Yokohama-agglomeration, it is also an interface between the local people and the arriving strangers. For locals, its main function is a park, for the arrivals it is the first connection to the mainland.
In this article, Mahoko Hoffmann interviews FOA's Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo about the design features of this terminal, which took three years from start to completion, and about the design process itself.
Mahoko Hoffmann, architectural journalist
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Photo: Masaya Yoshimura (Nacása & Partners) |
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Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization
