Tokyo Design Week 2008 report

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 7, 2008 at 8:45 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

Design Week is Tokyo’s most prominent “week,” which makes sense given the globally recognized prowess of Japanese industrial design. The five-day event, which took place Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 at several main venues and a plethora of satellite sites around the city, was set up toshowcase the most innovative works from creators both domestic and international. Last year’s event drew as many as 85,298 visitors and 100,000 were anticipated for the current edition.

While it would be impossible to take in everything, a look at a few of the main sites offered a fairly comprehensive vision as to what direction product designers are planning to take our homes and lifestyles in the near future, and more generally what interests the current generation of creators.

Design Tide, a public exhibition held at Tokyo Midtown, featured 30+ prototype displays meant to engage visitors in contemplation of form, space, the reuse of materials, and especially time—for some reason (modern hurried city life, one can suppose) there were a disproportionate number of clocks.

Tomatsu Koshima’s delicate rocking horse “Klák” evoked distant days when hand-crafted was the only possible aesthetic, while Hironao Tsuboi from design firm 100% neatly assimilated LED technology into the “Faceless Watch.” Retz Yoshimoto mapped the linear quality of time in a clock that traveled along a horizontal plane in accordance with the passing of the hours, while Teruhiro Yanagihara annihilated collectively established time altogether with the “Put It,” a clock that allows it’s users to set the time with post-it notes.

Meanwhile 100% Design, a huge tent show mainly for industry professionals, featured hundreds of displays that could be categorized generally as using un-muddled colors, transparent and home-spun materials, airy skeletal structures, smooth light wood, and recycled elements.

We naturally headed straight for the smattering bright lights, checking in with lighting manufacturers Lecip who are on a mission to prove that neon can be just as future forward (and need not remind one exclusively of Shinjuku or Vegas) as LED. Lecip produces cold cathode lights that have been used, in collaboration with Light Design Inc., in iconic structures as diverse as the Mikimoto building in Ginza to the Forest of Meditation in Gifu Prefecture.

Outside the main tent in the “Container Ground,” the student group ep3 from the Musashino University architecture program was elected by the organizers to create their “Photon Garden” in one of 15 freight containers set aside for special exhibits. The 3D display of 1600 LEDs uses an animated light display to evoke a living forest.

For a more detailed look at the events and the current debate of “where is design heading?” check out the coverage on PingMag and Tokyo Art Beat.

Tags: design, LED, Roppongi
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

LEDUBE LED Lego-like building blocks

Written by: Michael Keferl on April 7, 2008 at 1:31 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 5 Comments

If you had as many Legos as I did when you were a kid, and you love LED lighting as much as I do, the LEDUBE from Sankoflex should satisfy you to no end. We came across these at the Japan Shop Expo last month and got a peek at how they work as well.

LEDUBEs are LED cubes that can be stacked on each other to create any shape that you desire, including massive structures such as the display booth Sankoflex was using at the expo. Each cube can create 2.1 million colors and, while working together, display amazing moving graphics and video.

All of the content is created on a PC with software, and then loaded into the system with an SD card. Quite simple for the effect produced, but the LEDUBE don’t come cheap either. While they aren’t available for sale yet, the entire display system shown here costs about $4,800 per day, plus $2,400 in programming costs.

Be sure to check out the LEDUBE homepage to get more info. In general we came across a great deal of very innovative LED lighting solutions for both home and retail, from floor displays that play video to incredibly thin tiles that can be used in walls. Japan has always been ahead in LEDs, but there’s a lot going on right now that will change the way we light all of our spaces.

UPDATE 5/14/2008 Here’s a new video of them being constructed. Prettty amazing stuff.

Tags: Displays, LED, LEDUBE, lighting, Retail
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Exideal LED Esthe bathes you in LED light, looks cool

Written by: Michael Keferl on October 3, 2007 at 7:09 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 3 Comments

Japan loves its LED lights, and companies here are certainly good at creating amazing home lighting products with them. Who knew that they had health qualities beyond low power consumption?

Exideal contains 280 LED lights that light up in ten modes of patterns and intensities to bathe your face in the glorious healing power of light and “permeate the vitamins and collagen in your skin and make you beautiful from the inside”.

Users are supposed to sit in front of Exideal and, as shown in the surreal video, stare at the flickering LED patterns as they work their magic. There is, of course, no evidence that colorful flashing lights do anything besides look really cool, or Las Vegas waitresses would be the most beautiful women in the world.

You can begin your own journey to beauty through epileptic seizures for a mere ¥100,000, or about $900.

Exideal homepage

Tags: health, LED, Skincare, Wellness
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS