Originality and the Power of Display

Noriyuki Tanaka, new media artist and art director, began the standing-room-only session with a short statement on the state of graphic design in the world today. As a prolific creator working in a variety of media and disciplines -film, music, art, science, literature- Hasegawa was able to offer insight on originality in design to the mostly student audience. He expressed his ideas through a short showcase of his work: collaborations with DJ Ken Ishii and artist Tachibana and commercial films for UNIQLO. Yuko Hasegawa, with her background as a curator in contemporary art, joined him in the stage. An interesting angle on originality emerged from her presentation. Hasegawa talked of a Japanese 'localization' or 'Japanization' of foreign concepts and presented work from the Venice Biennial to support this. Seeing Japanese artists (Motohiko, Kotani) and western artists (Mathew Barney, Cunningham), a clear line between western originality and Japanese 'localization' emerged. Another interesting facet to the discussion was that of the "Power of Display", calling for an individual development of a viewpoint, a consideration of one's own identity and the visual way in which that manifests itself. The aim of both presenters was similar: not to give answers but to reveal stimulating an alternative views of the creative process and creative output in order to push the concept of designing and creating outside the realm of what most graphic designers think. By introducing this wider view, new possibilities to re-invent graphic design emerge, and the gaps between traditionally separated disciplines become smaller or blurred. New definitions emerge. (RZ)

Creativity for exceptional presentations

First Massimo Pitis introduced himself. He is working in Milan/Italy and living in the countryside of Parma. He was working freelance and also had joined Landor for some time. Now he has his own studio and is working in various fields of design, and doing freelance work for Landor as well. In his presentation of his design for Mirko Zardini's exhibition 'Asphalt', he started from designing the logo and the signage. During the creation process he studied and learned a lot of the aspect of asphalt. He explained that 'asphalt' it self is rather banal �| one does not see it or even think about it. This was the challenge for his creations. In his concept for the exhibition space he included to attract interest by any person of any possible age. He included also humor and surprise in his total conception. Therefore a special smell of asphalt was created in Paris - a very new experience for the visitors. It was his intention to make people thinking about the city, about civilization, about cars, or about the environment, etc. His exciting visual creations gave a glance of the exhibition and the auditorium could imagine the journey of the visitors from the entrance to the exit. (HL)

Protecting your design

After a considerable battle with technical problems the lecture on Creative Activity and Intellectual Property began. The lecture included presentations by Cecile Barrio, Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Okutomi. Cecile Barrio works with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), in the European Union. Hiroyuki Ito is from the Patent Office of Japan (JPO), and Hiroshi Okutomi is with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The very intimate audience followed as these three experts led us through the complicated and technical world of rights protection. To further assist in understanding all these intricate interworkings of legal jargon, they supplied all members of the audience with a pamphlet from the Design Registration System of Japan. This brochure contains clear graphics to explain what is or is not able to be registered, and what expirations are attached to various permutations of intellectual property.
It was a real pleasure to see the very serious topic of Creative Activity and Intellectual Property discussed with such clarity and focus. It is very important for young designers to learn about protecting their work, both in their home country and in the growing international design market. (NR)

Writer:Kosuke Ikehata/Norimitsu Korekata/Junko Sakamoto/Nobuko Shimuta/Naoko Hasegawa/Osamu Hisanaga/Sakurako Muto/Naho Yoshioka/Maggie Hohle/Helmut Langer/Nicole Rechia/Andreas Schneider/Trysh Wahlig/Gitte Waldman/Robert Zolna
Photographer:Yoshimitsu Asai/Yasuhiko Katsuta/Fumihiko Mizutani