BRAIN

The Nagai Sakeru Gummy commercial, as an 11-part serial. Version with English Subtitles here.

――Congratulations on winning Silver in the Film Division at the Cannes Lions.

Thank you so much. I’ve been heading this project ever since the Sakeru Gummy when on sale three years ago (the short Sakeru Gummy). As a gummy candy that you rip apart and then eat, the product has a clear feature that makes it easy to make commercials for, but if the ripping itself is the punchline then it becomes a product with a very narrow target demographic, something that only children will buy. That’s why the Sakeru Gummy commercial is set in a workplace and targeted to adults.

After that came the introduction of the 40 centimeter-long Nagai (long) Sakeru Gummy, and when that was confirmed the CEO of UHA Mikakuto said, “I want to show it as something mainstream, not a niche product.” Again, I thought that to have children in it and make the candy’s length itself the punchline of the commercial would not be right for this project.

An ordinary tagline for the commercial would be “Now there’s a new, LONG Sakeru Gummy,” but if we were to do that, it would look like what was already a niche product was going further into niche territory. Instead of that, we thought of a concept like “Sakeru Gummy vs. LONG Sakeru Gummy” that would command a bolder presence without much need for explanation. From there, we moved into the commercial itself.

――The product itself is is quite unusual, but what did you think when you first saw it?

This is how the UHA Sales team prefaced the product: “Sakeru Gummy is going to introduce a new Long Sakeru Gummy. Anyway, it’s really long. I’ll send you some so take a look.” When the producer and I first saw it, without even thinking about it the first thing out of our mouths was, “It really is long, I mean, it’s so long.” At the meeting, for a while all anyone could say was it’s so long, it’s so long, over and over and over, everyone snickering about it. But humans always react instinctively this way without any particular reason, people tend to like when something is so big or so fast -- and of course, when it’s so long. So that went into the project plan.

――What was the process behind deciding on the final idea for the commercial?

There were four of us on the Sakeru Gummy team: sales, producer, production manager, and myself handling creative. I always told them, “Lay into this, do your worst” when I had them look at the content. “Imura, do you seriously think this is good?” they would say, and we’d remake it, and then in turn when I would go to throw something out they would take my content and tell me it was great, so it was back and forth.

We started working this way around 1999 with the Sensei series of commercials for Fanta. Our client Coca Cola Japan really stressed the advance research, and at the time they did focus group interviews with middle and high school students. I also participated in all of these group interviews, explaining the content of the commercial to them, and they would always say such hurtful things! But I fixed what they pointed out, showed them again, and then through repeated trial and error I finally got to a point where I could sense it was connecting with them. The commercial was a hit.

That’s why even now it’s not about making decisions just within the creative team -- people in other positions or departments will give a more frank and honest opinion. Still though, it hurts when they find fault in the work!

――What traits characterize you as a commercial planner (an occupation particular to the Japanese advertising industry)?

I design a lot of content. I’m indecisive and can’t just take such selective choices. For the Sakeru Gummy series I drew almost 400 content ideas, I went through 7 different presentation directions, and then after discussing with the client, again fleshed out the ideas. That process went on for almost half a year, and when the budget and schedule all came together, it turned into an 11-part series.

――The final punch line is a big surprise. I heard that at Cannes, the jury lauded the commercial, saying that it illustrates perfect diversity, but in reality was that the intention of the work?

In the world of commercials, in general the number one concern is drawing to show a product as different as possible from its competitors, showing a new product as being totally unique with nothing else like it -- so I thought I would take a leap with stressing endings that say “Either one is good” or “Both of them are good.” At the end of the day, whether long or short, a gummy candy is a gummy candy. Candidly speaking, it doesn’t matter which, and it would be fine to have other lengths. Looking at the world in this way, the reality is that even though it might be a miniscule variation, I do feel that it’s common to try to deliberately treat these differences very seriously. With that in mind, changing the commonplace “versus” idea of differentiating products into the inclusive “and” that we see in the last scene was a very natural thing to do.

Building a whole revolvable room 

In the game, the player controls the gravity to “fall” into other spaces. One of the creators of the promotion video, Hakuhodo’s commercial planner Yuta Okuyama says, “I was a big fan of the game. When I heard a new version’s coming out, I voluntarily submitted my ideas for the video”. 

Those ideas were developed from two elements of the game, “gravity shift” and “cats” (in the game, the protagonist has a cat partner). First Okuyama did research on why people are so attracted to cat videos and discovered two things.

“Compared to other animals like dogs, cats are more difficult to understand. Their expressions and movements are mysterious and unpredictable. And that unpredictableness is crucial for Internet videos. Second thing is that people actually like being lead on by cats. Owners find pleasure taking care of their mischievous, carefree pet”. From these thoughts, the basic story of the video became “a protagonist being controlled by a cat’s unexpected behavior”.

Director was Show Yanagisawa, who had previously worked with Okuyama in Pokemon GO and other projects. Yanagisawa said, “People standing on walls and ceilings in a moving room isn’t a new idea for videos. Adding an animal would make it more unpredictable and real.” He also suggested shooting with a subjective camera in one take.

For the shooting, a whole revolvable room was built in a big studio. It was tricky because once the room turns around, the interior scattered everywhere making it hard to make mistakes. They used miniature models and computer graphics for preparation, simulating the moves before heading into the actual filming.

The Making of GRAVITY CAT - Behind the Scenes -

STAFF:

Production/ Hakuhodo + Tohokushinsha

CD+Planner+C/ Yuta Okuyama

Planner/ Yusuke Amagai, Keita Togawa, Yuki Yokoi

Director/ Show Yanagisawa

CG/ Omnibus Japan

Sound Designer/ Erito Ayaki

Sound Effect/ Yoshio Nakamura

The interview was conducted at Fast Retailing Global Creative Lab in Portland.

Here is the 5th story of my biweekly column for AdverTimes. Following the interview with Tom Minami, shoe innovation designer in Nike, this time is also an interview article with John C Jay - President of Global Creative at Fast Retailing. Enjoy an off-script talk with the “Godfather”, ex-Wieden+Kennedy Global Executive Creative Director, who unexpectedly gives me emails and randomly likes my Instagram.

Shinya Kamata : I’ve emailed you to catch up for this interview several weeks ago but you seemed busy. Then, last week, you randomly liked my Instagram so I emailed you again, I want your 1 hour more than a rare Instagram like from you! 

John C Jay : Haha.

Shinya : Today, I will ask you a few things about CHANGES around us. Let’s start from something about Portland. I assume this town is also changing with many investments since when you moved to here over 20 years ago. It’s becoming like New York, Brooklyn? Drastically changing by so many investments. What do you feel?

John : Well, you’re an expert on Portland, you’ve written two books about Portland already. I should interview you about Portland.

Shinya : Haha, I know only bars.

John : I think at some point you have to understand that if you do not grow, you die and by the way, everything dies. It’s the wonderful thing that mother nature teaches you, entire forests will die and then over decades, it will come back stronger… that’s the purpose of nature. We like to think that things can stay forever but nothing is forever, so change is good I think. It’s painful right now, it’s very painful because many people are afraid of losing our core values of this place, but what do the core values mean? Does it mean that we must stay small? Does it mean that your hopes must stay small, does it mean that your ambition must stay small?

When you compare our financial ability as a city to support cultural institutions, we just don’t have the money. We only have one, I think, one Fortune 500 company here, but you go to Minneapolis, you go to Seattle, you see all those corporations, that’s why they have the museums and the symphony and all of that. It becomes a balancing act of how ambitious do you want to be? Some people would like just to ‘close the gate behind us’ …meaning you discovered Portland, now you want to shut the door and don’t let anyone else come in. As if you discovered Portland but you didn’t discover Portland, people long before you discovered the city but everyone wants to shut the gate.

I personally think a lot of the new things that are happening, as challenging as it is, is good… challenging the status quo is good, new ideas are coming in. Just in terms of Japanese food, it’s improving, just that tiny little idea in itself. I think the change is good but it’s painful. For example, we’re losing a lot of the old structures.

Shinya : Do you mean architecture?

John : Yes, I’m talking about the old buildings, we’re losing a lot of them and that’s unfortunately more than just money.How much government do you need? Do you want to protect these old buildings and so forth and so on, so this whole issue of gentrification is painful here. The city is going through a growth spurt, now that may stop soon, we don’t know but nothing can stay that high. A lot of people are waiting, is the real estate bubble going to burst here? People can’t afford homes.

Shinya : I believe it’s still way better than San Francisco or New York but it’s becoming difficult for young people live alone around downtown.

John : That’s not the Portland that we knew 20 years ago, it’s not easy…the homeless problem is acute here but it is a problem all over the country. But where do you go? You need that cultural vibrancy. It’s still so interesting to see so many new people come here and discover it, that people think that Portland’s so wonderful. It’s nice to hear that from newcomers, because they help remind you of maybe things that we don’t see.

Shinya : Following the change in Portland, so many changes are happening in front of us. Technology is also asking us and changing the definition of values what people can provide.

John : The change is coming. You cannot prevent it. It’s like right now, we are going through such painful change in the world, because of automation, because of technology. A lot of blue-collar jobs are being lost.

Shinya : AI will also accelerate the changes.

John :  AI totally kicks in. People think AI is the future. AI is tomorrow, it’s here already. You look at all those Amazon products, Google products…

Shinya : Amazon Echo, Google Home…

John : That’s only a tiny beginning.

Shinya : I also think so, just tiny part of the era of AI.

John : Tiny thing and it’s coming, so that throws a lot of fear into people’s minds because someone said to me, “I worry for my kids because I don’t know if the value of physical work is going to always be valuable,” because if technology has put assembly lines in automation factories have put people out of work, AI will put white-collar jobs out of work.

All the services like lawyers and accountants and all these kind of white-collar jobs, will disappear because of AI. What is society going to do? It’s interesting to see at the TED conference, the Pope speaking about the responsibility of technology. To the people in Silicon Valley, you cannot just be so isolated and purist and say technology will be here, just move forward. You have to think of the consequences and no one’s saying stop, you cannot stop the technology, cannot stop progress but you can be more thoughtful and more empathetic in thinking of what to do with the social change that this technology may have.

Shinya :  Even though the global population is expanding…Currently it’s 7.5 billion but it’s going to be 9 billion in 2050. It’s unstoppable.

John : Yeah so the good thing is, for some people, is that the middle class is going to expand tremendously. Tremendously, but probably not in Europe, probably not in North America.

Shinya : Yeah. The growth is unstoppable globally.

John : Tremendously. I think that the lesson here, the tiny lesson I can offer is that change is inevitable, nothing’s forever. These are stupid truths that you can find inside a Chinese fortune cookie, it sounds like that kind of wisdom but it’s true. I think for careers; you need to prepare for the next step. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be loyal to what you’re doing now but you have to know that change is coming.

Don’t close your eyes and think that change is not going to affect you, it will…

Shinya : Immediately affect us.

John : Yes. It will affect you and me, we’re all facing that change, every one of us is having to face that change. Companies need to do that, individuals need to do that, organizations, institutions need to do that and that’s not easy, it’s not easy because not everyone has the answer to what to do. I mean, certainly ad agencies better to be thinking about that, they have been already but change is even going to become even more accelerated.

Shinya : Totally. 

John : Now on the flip side, there’s certain things I have to believe will always be valuable, such as creative thinking, creativity, deeper thinking. Ability to think and be able to create will always be important, always.

Shinya : AI already affects even illustration job. In fact, the latest Google technology called Auto Draw already can provide everyone skills to draw illustrations. So, in terms of the value of human, it’s super important to pursue WHY this work is needed, WHY this design is needed, WHY client said that feedback…regardless of industries.

John : Very important. Huge. This is why I say listen to artists, that is the skill of an artist, a real artist. Artists train to look and see and feel things that other people can’t see. They have a sensitivity towards the light. As to the why, their ability to observe the world, the ability to express what’s happening in the world in their way is different, that’s their gift, that’s their skill and so I have always said art is like a view of the future, it’s very important.

Shinya : That’s interesting.

John : I don’t mean necessarily commercial art. But why, and the why sometimes it is counter intuitive, why that status quo thinker … Maybe Dan Wieden would take opportunity.

Shinya : Dan? What is his method?

John : I just had a wonderful discussion with him about creativity and he’s never going to change, he will always believe in the chaos theory. He will always talk about, not making everything so organized, so neat and rational. Package it, leave room for a lot of mistakes, leave room for error, leave room for emotion.

These are all things that I don’t know if AI will allow you to do . It’s not that AI is the problem, it’s who’s running the AI program? Who’s judging, who’s using it? Dan works in counter-intuitive ways very, very often. I asked him about, I said, “You’re starting an agency, would you have the same hiring principles that you had before?, How did you hire back then?”. He says to me, “Well, present company excluded, we just hired a ship of fools, just a bunch of people that couldn’t work somewhere else perhaps.”

Anyway, yeah you’re right, Thinking power is everything. But in order to have thinking power… I’m not saying that only natural born geniuses will survive or people who went to Harvard or Yale will survive. It’s how you use your life, everything around you. 

Shinya : So the global population is expanding. A constant evolution of technology is unstoppable. More people, more technologies. Technically, everyone can reach out to anyone by Facebook or Twitter whatever. Anyone can send a message to Marc Newson or Kanye West to make a new collaboration. But it doesn’t work well. That means, real relationship is becoming more valuable. People who has real valuable relationships with interesting people are interesting. So the extreme logic is that only interesting people can gain more opportunities.

John : I did a lecture long time ago and I said “If you want a client to pay attention to you, you want people to be interested in you, the only way is that you… just need to be an interesting person.” I just basically said, “Lead an interesting life.”

Sarah Hollowood Senior Designer  Wieden+Kennedy

Q1. What is the idea for this cover and how did you make it？

At no point during the creative process is one ever finished poking, digging, scratching,pulling, sniffing, looking, tasting, and discovering. It is when all of the senses are fully awake and receptive that one is able to find a unique approach to a project at hand.The simple vector forms best communicate and express the idea of creative addiction in the most succinct way, yet they don't take themselves too seriously.

Q2.What made you come up with the idea？

Creative addiction is about staying open and finding the tipping points. I distilled my idea down to the simplest of forms that would still be able to express this idea clearly and also make the viewer feel something.

Q3. What do you think of Japanese advertisement and design？

I traveled to Japan for the first time last year,and it became immediately obvious how the surroundings, the culture, and the traditions strongly inspire and inform the different design styles of the country.

I have a great appreciation for how every element is considered； even the packaging of a single rice cracker is so thoughtful, and the unique characteristics of the yuru-chara seen everywhere make them lovable and memorable.Every piece of design has life.

Another Proposal of cover visual:

Designed by Lea Loo 

Designed  by Miyu Shirotsuka

---In teamLab’s permanent installations like Story of the Forest at the National Museum of Singapore and Future World, the essential element is education.

What we focus on is not the general education taught by schools and everyday society - it’s issues that concern humanity itself. When people experience our work, we can expand their minds and uncover parts of their brains that they never knew they had. As an example, Future World is both creative and collaborative, so the theme of the experience is co-creation.

As children move their bodies in the co-creation experience of Future World, the installation gives them a space to realize their own creativity. At the same time, it is also a space where they work together to build a single shared world with strangers, other people who also move freely and over whom they have no control. This is essential because those who believe there is a boundary between themselves and the outside world will likewise perceive a boundary between themselves and a person right next to them. But by going through a variety of different personal experiences together with other people who are neither enemies nor allies, you learn so much about the world. And beyond that, this kind of collaboration with others is a catalyst for creativity that serves to advance society and ultimately continues to define our world.

I don’t think the experiences that happen here are anything you could learn in school. The world we perceive is in fact something shared with others, so the better we understand how the world depends on our relationship with others, the more we can change the world. I think if people can become aware of that, it’s a truly vital human experience for them.

--- What is it that Inoko is trying to achieve with this combination of art, science, and technology? teamLab is our artist name, and what we’re aiming for is group creation. Within that organized structure, individuals are symbiotically influencing each other and evolving.

At the moment, the exhibition teamLab：Transcending Boundaries is ongoing at a gallery in London, showing projects we have made up to this point. In the largest area of the gallery we put together a single unified space that includes our new work “Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries” and five other pieces with it, taking on the challenge with this space of blurring the boundaries between each of these six pieces.

Generally, art pieces have a boundary. For example, in the case of a painting the boundary is determined by its canvas. The intermediary material defines the expression; naturally, different materials have different physical boundaries. However, the 6 pieces in this particular space have different concepts, and each stands on its own. And yet even though they are independent, their boundaries are in fact ambiguous.

So why did we decide to make it like that? If you think about the human brain, it might be easy to understand. First of all, within the brain, even if you were to have a certain independent thought, the boundary between it and other thoughts is vague, and different ideas interact reciprocally with each other. In your mind, even though you have distinct thoughts, these thoughts are affecting each other in some way. As another example, consider a forest versus a park versus a tree. A forest is an aggregation of trees, where even though individual trees stand independently the boundary between them is unclear as they live in a reciprocal relationship with each other. But in a park, the boundary between trees is clear. Comparing these two arrangements of trees, it feels better and is also more interesting to be in a forest than in a park.

Actually, the High Line park built on a former railway line in New York City does in fact incorporate the charm of the forest. The plants in it are arranged with the concept of wildness in mind, and they make a natural fusion with the artificial structures around it. That’s why I think walking along the High Line feels good, more human than walking through a neat and tidy park. Now more than ever, not only do I think that many of the boundaries we take for granted might be unnecessary, but in fact that the very notion of boundaries is something we should fight against.

This installation Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life is a project that literally comes alive under your footsteps. When you move through the installation space and pass through different pieces, you blur the boundaries between five different pieces. Between the biggest parts of the installation as well, the waterfall and the flowers, the boundary is vague and the waterfall affects the flowers. I consider the experience of viewing the interaction between these pieces to be profoundly inspiring. Through experiential art like this, we cultivate both human values and standards of beauty.

DMM.PLANETS Art by teamLab "Wander through the Crystal Universe"  LINK

teamLab：Dance！Art Exhibition,Learn& Play！ Future Park "Graffiti Nature"  LINK

Toshiyuki Inoko

Born in 1977, Inoko founded teamLab upon graduating from the University of Tokyo Department of Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics. Consisting of specialists from a wide variety of fields, teamLab is an organization of ultra-technologists.  Transcending the boundaries of art, science, technology, and creativity, the group’s activities center around the concept of collective creation.

TOKYO2020/Shugo Takemi

Olympics Flag Handover Ceremony

01 Japanese national anthem arranged by composer Jun Miyake. 20 performers show up on a red field. Red color turns into the Japanese flag.

02 Words of “OBRIGADO” and “ARIGATO”. Foreign words meaning “Thank you” made of children from Tokyo and Tohoku region hit by the Tsunami.

03 Video part. Young athletes behind sightseeing spots in Tokyo, such as Shibuya, Asakusa, Ginza, Tokyo station and Odaiba. Tokyo to Rio ball relay by Olympic athletes and Japanese famous characters, such as Captain Tsubasa, Packman, Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Super Mario. The ball finally lands on Abe Prime Minister.

04 Prime Minister dressed as Mario pops up from a pipe in Rio stadium.

05 Athletes of 33 sports planned to play in 2020 Tokyo Olympics descend from the air. After AR direction, 50 dancers perform. 

06 Time lapse of night view of Tokyo is shown on the field.

07 Three teams called “Omotenashi no mai”, “Oen no mai”, “Arigato no mai” clap and dance. They switch costumes like in a Kabuki performance. Light frames move to center and make the Tokyo Olympics mark.

08 View of Tokyo shows up with Fuji Mountain in background. Dancers line in a row. With Super Mario’s “Stage Clear” SE, fireworks set off.

01-08　 Tokyo 2020/Shugo TAKEMI, Tokyo2020, quoted from "NHK Rio Olympics"

Interview:

Challenge was “How to express Tokyo”

 The core members of the creative team behind the closing ceremony were 4 people. First was creative director Hiroshi Sasaki, who had worked for major Japanese beverage and car companies for over 30 years. Second was musician Ringo Sheena, third was Kaoru Sugano who had also worked for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid presentation, and forth was choreographer MIKIKO who had worked with Japanese pop groups such as Perfume and BABYMETAL. 

Production Team ： From left, Akihiro Hamabe, Megumi Ohta, Yuichi Kodama, Sakiko Yasue, Hiroshi Sasaki, Kaoru Sugano, Mikiko, Kohei Ai, Daito Manabe 

Sasaki recalls when he got commissioned. “I never heard anyone in the advertising industry being asked to do the Olympics ceremony. I was very surprised at first. But the organizing committee said it was a trailer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and then I thought maybe I could do something”.

 The challenge was how to express Tokyo. “I didn’t know if we were supposed to express Tokyo or Japan. And there are so many aspects of Tokyo. Tokyo means differently for someone who was born in Tokyo and someone from outside Tokyo. It changes from generation too, and is quite different for people from abroad. Then I realized the broadness of Tokyo is what Tokyo is, but at the same time struggled to narrow the image,” says MIKIKO.

 Then they got a hint from Edo-Tokyo Museum Honorary Director Makoto Takeuchi. “Nowadays Tokyo has a cutting edge image, but before the high-tech robots there were the Edo period wind-up dolls. Before the Anime and Manga there were the ukiyo-e prints. The history behind makes what Tokyo is now. I realized I should express that,” said Sasaki.

  Japanese Prime Minister showing up as Mario!

 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared as Mario in the ceremony. How did this idea come up? It was Sugano who said at the planning “what if we show Mario as one of the Japanese famous people?” Most of the creative team were in their 30’s, who used to play Mario games when they were children. So everyone loved the idea.

 But the response from the International Olympic Committee was a negative. The reason was because it could be taken as a promotion for a particular character. So they decided to use other characters as well. They chose characters that were famous around the world, and gave a role for each.

 When they pitched the idea to the organizing committee, their response was “why not make the pipe go through Rio?” There were many opinions for whom to do Mario. It was the organizing committee leader Yoshiro Mori who suggested the Prime Minister. When “Abe Mario” appeared in the stadium, he was greeted with a massive applaud.

  They overcame the restrictions with new ideas

 The idea of using light frames came from the restriction of having to fill in the space with only a few people. They were told at first “At least 200 dancers are required based on the size of the stadium.” But then it turned out they could only take 50 dancers because of the budget. So MIKIKO decided to use light frames to synchronize the dancers and light and projection on the floor to show the movements bigger.

 Another restriction was not being able to do rehearsals. Daito Manabe from Rhizomatiks Research developed a special simulation soft to solve this. It was in front of the audience when they could actually perform with all the direction elements. So they used the simulation soft to figure out the camera work and lights.

  Same team worked for the Paralympics closing ceremony

 The same members worked for the Paralympics closing ceremony that was held a month later the Olympics. The concept was more valued than the direction for the Paralympics. “Changing disabilities to a charm”, “Positive switch to achieve a world of helping each other” were the concepts. Prosthetic foot models and dancers, visually disabled people did the performance.

 Paralympics Flag Handover Ceremony

01 Video part. Prosthetic foot model GIMICO walking in Tokyo. The foot shows images of Tokyo. Last it becomes Tokyo Sky Tree. 

02 One of the performers is amputee model called GIMICO. Together with dance unit AyaBambi. 

03 Second is dancer Koichi Omae. His unique dance with prosthetic foot developed by Rhizomatiks.

04 Third is visually disabled Akira Hiyama. He touches special musical device. View of Tokyo shows in background.

05 Wheel chair performer and accompanist dance together. Performance by dancer with down syndrome.

06 Parade by all performers.

LED lights embedded in the prosthetic foot device and the three dimensional Tokyo diorama were created by Manabe from Rhizomatiks Research. “I was always curious about people who can’t hear or see and thought they had special powers. That’s why I would work with them and made things together,” says Manabe.

 A great applaud followed the performance by19 dancers. Sasaki says, “The reaction was very different from the Olympics. I think we achieved our goals trying to express Tokyo in a cooler way.”

 The flag handover ceremony was a commercial of Japan

 Sasaki says, “I always wanted to make a commercial not just for companies but for Japan. The eight minutes was exactly that. It was Japan’s all-out war, just as Sheena said.”

Panasonic’s “Life is electric” project, which is an attempt to visualize and emphasize the importance of electricity, started in 2014. In one of their campaigns, they made 21 types of “eneloop” batteries, which were all charged from unusual daily sources. The package, booklet and movie were released this April, and they recently won the Cannes Lions Design Grand Prix.

The project started with the goal to rebuild Panasonic’s image and to appeal to the international market. They decided to use their battery “eneloop” for branding, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary. “Our main goal was to emphasize the importance of electricity which is usually taken for granted. This turned out as an attempt to explain what Panasonic is. They are people who are thinking about electricity more than anyone else,” says the art director Yoshihiro Yagi.

Although their goal was clear, “Life is electric” took 3 years for preparation. Copywriter Haruko Tsutsui says, “When I was looking for ideas, I realized this could be a new form of advertisement. How do we want users to like or notice Panasonic? How do we want the design to function in the project? We would have multiple meetings with the whole team. We didn’t hesitate to stop and change things, and then start again.”

©2016 One Little Indian Ltd/Wellhart Ltd

©Santiago Felipe

Björk×Dentsu Lab Tokyo "Making of Björk Digital"  –livestreaming-

Comment:

We did live recording of Bjork’s song performance and experimental VR project that shows her unique universe. It took place at The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation aka Miraikan’s spherical screen called Geo Cosmos.

Videos are tools to tell lies. People who are watching know that it’s a lie. We tell the truth in fiction made from lies, and lie in documentaries that are supposed to tell the truth. There are three aspects in this project we did with Bjork. Live performance, live stream video, and archival video with effects. Fact and fiction were mixed in all.

( Kaoru Sugano  Creative Director / Dentsu Lab Tokyo)

Credit:

Björk James Merry ●ProjectPlanning / Produce and Production　 　Dentsu Lab Tokyo　　 　　Creative Director： Kaoru Sugano　 　　Producer：Hikaru Ikeuchi｜Reiko Kunieda｜Kohei Ai｜Nobu Miyazaki｜Akiyo Ogawa｜Jun Kato 　 　Miraikan 　　Producer：Maholo Uchida 　　Technical Director：Makoto Seguchi ●Headpiece Design and Production 　Design：Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group(MIT Media Lab)　 　Production：Stratasys Ltd. ●Live Streaming Production　 　Show Director, AR Visual Director, Technical Director, Lighting Designer：Daito Manabe(Rhizomatiks Research)　 　ARVR Visual System Engineer / AR Visual Designer/Programmer：Yuya Hanai(Rhizomatiks Research)　 　 　AR Visual Designer/Programer： 　　Satoshi Horii(Rhizomatiks Research)　 　　You Tanaka(Rhizomatiks Research) 　　Sadam Fujiokaanno lab）　　 　Camera Tracking Engineer：Motoi Ishibashi(Rhizomatiks Research)　 　 　Live Engineer：Setsuya Kurotaki(Rhizomatiks Research) 　　　　　　　　Shintaro Kamijo(Rhizomatiks Research) 　Lighting Support： COLOR KINETICS JAPAN INC. 　　 　VR &Geo-Cosmos Visual Director：TAKCOM(P.I.C.S. management) 　CG Supervisor：Munechika Inudo(MARK) 　 　Visual Effects Producer：Yoshifumi Sadahara(MARK) 　Visual Effects Coordinator：Tatsuya Furuhata(MARK) 　 　Digital Artist：Hisaki Hanuma(MARK)｜Yukitoshi Nohira(MARK)｜Ryunosuke Sannomiya(MARK)｜Go Takahashi(MARK) | kazumasa Kimura(TAKCOMSTUDIO) 　VR Visual Producer：Takahiko Kajima(P.I.C.S.) 　 　VR Visual Production Manager：Shuhei Harada(P.I.C.S.)　 　Producer ：Hidenori Chiba(Rhizomatiks) ●Live Streaming　 　Live Streaming Producer: Ryo Nagasawa(DENTSU TEC) 　 　Live Streaming Director: Ryo Fukutani(AT Linkage)

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                                                                                                        ©Tokyo 2020

The emblem for 2020 Tokyo Olympics was finally announced. After abandoning the previous design last September for plagiarism accusations, it took seven months to select a new one. The selection process drew national attention. They reviewed 14,599 submissions and received nearly 110,000 comments.

Creator of the new logo called “Harmonized chequered emblem (Kumi Ichi Matsu Mon)” is Asao Tokolo from Tokyo. He is a former architect who started design in Japanese traditional patterns called “Monyo” after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. His designs are based on the theme “tsunageru”, which means connect. One of the distinctive characters of his work is that each individual part can be connected in any way infinitely. His patterns are made from basic shapes and lines, by using rulers and compasses. His prior achievements include applying the phacade design to architecture, and collaboration with Japanese fashion brand Issei Miyake.

The logos are based on a checked pattern called “Ichi Matsu Moyo” which is a familiar design in Japan since the Edo period. The indigo blue is known as Japan’s traditional color.

He used only three shapes, a square and two rectangles, and composed forty-five of them in each logo. The three shapes represent nation, culture and ideology, and the logo itself represents “diversity and harmony”. Both logos look symmetrical but actually not.

As an entertainment, not just technology

Yaskawa Electric is a Business-to-Business company. They usually don’t promote to users and wanted to make a video to motivate the employees. But I thought it would be a great chance to show Yaskawa Electric’s technology to the world,” says Dentsu’s Shunsuke Kaga.

The plan was to make a demonstration video using a robot. Dentsu’s creative director Mitsushi Abe says, “We thought it would be more relatable if we used a tool everyone is familiar with. We had a couple of ideas, like swinging a baseball bat, but went with the samurai because of the potential international views.” They casted Japanese sword master Isao Machii, whose video had over eight million views. With the plot of a robot and sword master staring together, “YASKAWA BUSHIDO PROJECT” kicked off.

 A robot wielding a sword. Given the company’s technology, this was not an impossible task. But the response from the engineers was severe. They required “a detailed data of the speed and angle of the sword”. Without the numbers, they said it would be impossible. Abe started watching videos of sword masters and worked on the data. He also motion captured Machii wielding his sword, and made diagrams for every one-thirtieth second. After sending the statistics to Yaskawa Electronics, they “got a positive response. A robot called Motoman-MH24 was chosen because the moves were suited for the shot,” says Abe.

 There were three requests from Yaskawa Electrics. “To show the robot’s speediness, accuracy and flexibility.” Abe decided to express the speediness with the “diagonal cut”, flexibility with the “rising cut” and accuracy with the “horizontal cut”. “For the items to cut, we chose soft things like flowers and Chinese oranges because they leave a delicate image, not brutal.

 They spent a month of trial and error but still had issues. When the robot wielded the sword strongly, the item slipped away. For slashing a stock of hay, the robot needed to pull back before the action. The robot had 3D data imputed but could not “cut”. After three months of adjusting, it was just before the shooting when the robot was finally ready.

 As for directing, they used strong lights against black background, like in the movie “Iron Man” to show the robot dramatically.

 A huge response from in and outside the country followed the release. The company’s youtube channel views increased two million times more than before. “It turned out as a video only Yaskawa Electric could have made,” says Kaga. You can see not just the technology but also the craftsmanship that lives in the company.

Hair and make up team were members from Shiseido’s Beauty Creation Research Center, and the students were models from a Japanese teen’s magazine “HR”. Shooting took more than 7 hours, making the students shaking while they had their make over because they had to stay in one position all through.

 “This project started from our company’s concern of young people watching less TV and spending more time online. We also had a task of rejuvenating our brand image. Young girls think of Shiseido as a brand for their mothers. For them, Shiseido is safe but expensive and square. We wanted to change that,” says Masato Kosukegawa, creative director at Shiseido’s advertising and design team.

 To solve these issues, and by combining an idea that was presented at an in-house workshop, they came up with the “High school girl’s makeup secret” project. At the workshop that was themed “rebranding of makeup supplies”, an idea of holding a drag queen contest was brought up. It was inspired from a recent trend in Japan of high school boys dressing up as girls at school festivals. With these ideas, they decided to “make a video of boys wearing make up”, with the goal of eventually “changing young people’s image of Shiseido”.

  “After deciding to do the playback, we asked the director Show Yanagisawa to join. Then we decided to ‘show many people’ and ‘highlight the process of the changeover’. We say it’s the world’s first reverse time-lapse video, but the shooting took six to seven hours and we had to do it in one shot.”

  “When I first pitched the project to Shiseido’s Beauty Creation Research team, their initial response was ‘why?’ Our hair and make team are the leading experts in Japan. They must have thought ‘why not do beauty in the usual way?’” laughed Kosukegawa.

 But to makeover a boy into a “natural” looking girl with natural make up, actually requires very high technique. The outcome shows they succeeded in making something only Shiseido could have done.

 The music and props are also note-worthy. When the video starts playing backwards, the female vocal changes to a male. The back track is reversed too, but they made it sound like a song in both ways. When a student is holding a guitar upside down, the lyrics in the song are “Playing the guitar upside down to kill time”. The production process was very precise. The picture in the book, the mark on the headphones… other small details are to be noticed.

 The tagline in the end “Anyone can be cute” is a message to everyone including the transgender community. They have a special website where you can look closely at the “before and after” of the students and teacher, with the makeup tools and tips they used.

 The production team says, through the process they realized the importance of craftsmanship for digital contents, in terms of direction, music and especially hair and makeup.

  STAFF:

Production/ Shiseido + Watts of Tokyo

CD/ Masato Kosukegawa

C/ Akira Shima

Web Director/ Tomoaki Yamura

PR/ Yoshito Imai, Masahiro Kijima

PM/ Hidenori Tsumoto, Kenji Nishina, Koun Noh, Wataru Shimo

DR/ Show Yanagisawa

Camera/ Jin Ohashi

Lighting/ Masami Noguchi

HM/ Shiseido Beauty Creation Research Center

ST/ Tsuyoshi Kawasaki

CRD/ Hiro Kuni

CAS/ HR (students)

Choreographer/ Psyche

Motion Control/ MOKIculemoco

SE/ Yoshio Nakamura

Music/ Kazuyoshi Tonami (GRANDFUNK), SPANOVA feat. Makura Izumi &Itto

Making a diorama with products

Glowing in red and blue lights is a mini sized Tokyo. If you look closely, you can notice the famous tourist spots made from various materials like half transparent boxes. Tokyo tower, Tokyo government office building, Shibuya crossing, Asaskusa, Odaiba… MUJI used 10,000 of their products, from polipropilene cases to make up tools, pens and socks, and assembled them into a diorama.

 This March, retail company Ryohin Keikaku which develops MUJI products, teamed with the city of Tokyo and Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau to kick off “MUJI 10,000 shapes of TOKYO”. This was one of the projects to promote Tokyo called “&TOKYO”. Ryohin Keikaku made an installation of Tokyo in their Taipei and New York flag stores to the shoppers. Previous to the events, they released a video “MUJI 10,000 shapes of TOKYO”. You can check which MUJI item was used in the video at the official website.

  “We knew what to make, like the iconic Tokyo tower, but not sure of which material to use,” says Masa Kimura at TASKO. Their first step was to create a map of the entire diorama. After deciding where to put the iconic buildings and reflecting the actual geographic, they started assembling the pieces.

 “I noticed looking at the details was more interesting than observing from above. You have to look closely because you wonder what it’s made of. So I thought I wouldn’t need to make any special directions. I figured it would be intriguing enough by just showing the details carefully,” says Taniguchi at dot by dot inc.

 They used a digital camera capable of shooting in 6K definitions. The camera runs through the city from a birds-eye view. “I noticed all the iconic spots have their best angle, and that was the sizzle of Tokyo. I tried to use those shots,” said Fujiwara at dot by dot inc.

Previous to their exhibit in Taiwan from March 5th, they published a media release with pictures of the model. Their first response was from the international media. After Taipei, they toured to New York. They are also planning to exhibit back in Tokyo afterwards. 

Installation in March, Taipei “MUJI at Taipei city hall bus station north side”

Installation in New York “MUJI Fifth Avenue”

Experimental Jetset

Q1. What is the idea for this cover?

Thinking about the future, we are often reminded of the words of the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), who once said that he was torn between "a pessimism of the mind, and an optimism of the will". And indeed, when we try to formulate our own thoughts on the future, we feel similarly divided between pessimism and optimism.

On the one hand, we always felt that the future is something that we can shape ourselves. We can make our own future, in the same way that we can shape our own material environment. Nothing is decided yet, and everything is open – there's no such thing as 'destiny', there's only our own labour, and our own actions. So that's our optimistic side.

On the other hand, we sometimes feel that time is just marching on. Time sometimes appears as a merciless entity – a force that takes no prisoners, and sooner or later will eat us alive. The future is scary, chaotic, and cruel. Or at least, that's what we feel in our more pessimistic moods.

For the cover of Brain Magazine, we produced a clock-like object. We often create these clock-like, cardboard objects – we sometimes show them in exhibitions and installations.

To us, these abstract clocks express the notion of a future that is both uncertain and open. One can look at these clocks in a pessimistic way, or in an optimistic way – the choice is with the viewer.

Q2. What do you think of Japanese advertisement and design?

We have always been strongly influenced by Japanese graphic design, and Japanese pop-culture in general. In the mid-'90s, we were very impressed with the record sleeves of bands like Pizzicato Five, Cornelius, The Boredoms, etc.

Around that same period, there were a couple of Japanese books that were quite inpirational to us: 'Nanoo' by Eye Yamataka, 'G-Men: Design or Die' by Tycoon Graphics, 'Girls Blue' by Hiromix, and 'Mr. Freedom: Creeping Freedomism' by Groovisions. (Most of these book were published by Little More, which was a publisher we really followed around that time).

In the mid-'90s, we were also really inspired by magazines such as Barfout, Tokion and Beikoku-Ongaku. 

 Around that same time, we were also big fans of IDEA Magazine – through IDEA, we learned about designers such as Tadanori Yokoo, Keiichi Tanaami, Yusaku Kamekura, etc.

Another thing we should mention is Japanese modernist/structuralist architecture, specifically the Metabolist Group – that is something that really informed our work as well.

A more recent Japanese graphic designer whose work we like is Masayoshi Kodaira – we were really impressed with the work that he did for the Japanese pavilion during the Venice Architecture Biennale of 2014.

But in general, it were Japanese bands (and their record sleeves) that have inspired us. When we browse through our personal record collection, we come across lots of albums by (very diverse) Japanese bands: Yellow Magic Orchestra, The Plastics, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pizzicato Five, Cornelius, The Boredoms, OOIOO, Buffalo Daughter, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Ruins, Melt Banana, Shonen Knife, Boris, SOB (Sabotage Organized Barbarian), Doom, Merzbow, Takako Minekawa ('Fantastic Cat' might be one of our favourite songs of all time!), Guitar Wolf, Mad 3, Acid Mothers Temple – the list goes on and on... (We are also very happy that we saw quite a lof these bands perform live, at one time or another).

And when we look at record sleeves like Cornelius' 'Fantasma', Pizzicato 5's 'Sister Freedom', or Seagull Screaming's 'Seventeen', we still get goose-bumps. These sleeves are so perfect!

We are also very happy that the Japanese have always been very generous towards us.

Around 1996/1997, we ran into Yohitomo Nara, during an opening in an art gallery in Amsterdam. Yoshitomo Nara then introduced us to Yoshi Kawasaki, who asked us to design t-shirts for his label, 2K by Gingham. So we've been designing t-shirts for Yoshi Kawasaki since 1998 – and as it turned out, one particular t-shirt  print we designed for him in 2001 ('John & Paul & Ringo & George') became the design most people know us from. In other words, our most well-known work happens to be a shirt we designed for a Japanese t-shirt label.

And in 2001, a large article about our work was featured in issue 287 of IDEA Magazine, which was quite an honor as well.

So it's only logical that we feel very connected to Japan.

We also have very good contacts with Delaware, the design group headed by Masato Samata.In 2000, when we were guest-editors of issue 57 of Emigre Magazine, we invited Delaware to design a visual essay for us – and they did a really marvelous job.In fact, Delaware's weekly e-mail newsletter is still great – everybody should subscribe to their mailing list!

Throughout the years, we have worked for several Japanese clients (GAS, Uniqlo, etc.), and we have been featured in lots ofJapanese magazines (IDEA, Plus81, Composite, Ryuko-Tsushin, Studio Voice, etc.). So yeah, we certainly feel an affinity with Japan.

We recently worked on the graphic identity for Mash Holdings – and one of the things that excited us most about this project is the fact that there is a direct link between Mash Holdings and Pizzicato Five (through the person of Masa Sugatsuke).

So that's really cool – that somehow, we are are now being able to contribute to the Japanese pop-culture that has inspired us from the very beginning. It really feels like something that has come full circle.

OTHER WORKS

Mash Holdings CI（2015）

Statement and Counter-Statement: Notes on Experimental Jetset (2015)

Game Theory (2014)

Whitney Museum of American Art (2013)

profile:

Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam-based graphic design studio founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a wide variety of institutes, including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Dutch Post Group and Whitney Museum of American Art.

There is a fun stamp rally going on in four locations around the Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka prefecture. In this event called “Izu Hanahenro (Izu Flower Pilgrimage)”, participants go around 25 locations, such as shrines, temples, tourism institutions and famous local stores to press stamps. Not to mention, you can get a special stamp book made from Japanese terry cloth towels to press the stamps onto.

 Izu Peninsula is a resort area known for their hot springs. “Stamp rallies at temples and shrines are popular these days. We started ours so tourists could visit new places by collecting stamps”, says planner and designer, Hidekazu Hirai. Because Izu is a hot spring resort, they decided to make stamp books out of towels instead of usual paper.

 Most of the stamps are located in shrines and temples, so the stamp designs are based on Japanese traditional patterns. The stamp ink is oil-based and waterproof. The event is doing well so far. Towel books ran out soon after the launch in November and were reprinted. “Izu Hanahenro” is until end of March this year.

  CRETDITS 

Planning : JTB Promotion + Peace Graphics + Ohana

CD : Tomoe Kimura

AD + D + English Writing : Hidekazu Hirai

English Writing : Yuko Mouri

PR : Kiyonori Hattori

 The title is “1∞ MINAKAKERU : minä perhonen up to now and from now on”. “MINA” meaning “all” and “KAKERU” meaning “multiply” in Japanese, the title expresses the crossing and combination of creators, products, and events. Paris based architect Tsuyoshi Tane’s team DGT. were in charge of the spatial structure. 

This exhibition is consisted of two areas, “substance” and “environment”. minä perhonen brand clothes, furniture and tableware are displayed in the substance area, with details explaining background concepts and production. In the environment area, visitors can experience “the world of minä”. This area is divided into ten rooms, and visitors are suggested to enter each one in an order. Each room opens up a new mina world, making visitors lose track of time.

 One of the highlights is the eighth room called “Living”. A spacious room with a huge window almost reaching the celling. On the floor, walls and ceiling all covered with minä’s textiles, big and small furniture are placed in an exquisite balance.

Minagawa says he “wanted to suggest as a service, an environment which time and space is combined”. What does he mean by service? “Something that fulfills yourself and others. Your happiness passed on to others,” he says. A product is made from many elements; the intent of making, devotion to the production process, happiness after it’s completion, and hopes it would be used with care. When the creators’ happiness is passed on to people they intend, both creator and user can be fulfilled.

In the last room, a long cloth with multiple patterns catches the eye. The patterns change every 50 centimeters, although it is not patchwork but actually woven differently with the same warp. Minagawa never cut corners, devotes every thought and effort, and submits his work to the world with great passion. His comment, “Service is in the product as an intent” leaves an impression. For 20 years, his attitude towards creating has not changed at all.

Text by Yoko Kawashima

The Film grand prix by Watts of Tokyo for Shiseido proves that anyone can be pretty with the right make-up (watch out – spoilers ahead!). It opens with a classroom full of pretty girls and then spools back in time to reveal that they are actually boys, magically transformed by the power of Shiseido products. The film’s twist delivers a surprise the first time around, and repays repeated viewing with its layers of detail and superb direction.

Masato Kosukegawa, Creative Director, Shiseido said: “It is a great honor for all of our team to have been selected  as the Film Grrand Prix for Epica 2015 and we are sincerely grateful for the recognition from the jury. We especially appreciate the director, Show Yanagisawa and the director of photography, Jin Ohashi and also the school “girls” who showed their great patience to strike a pose and stand-still while we were shooting for 7 hours.  Thanks also to our make-up artists who showed their special abilities, we hope that many who watched will feel the happiness through the basic concept of the film : the power of make-up.” 

Jury president Olivier de Montchenu commented: “This is an incredibly powerful idea, extremely well executed – it’s almost a short feature film. The way it plays with notions of gender is both topical and striking.” 

The UK was top in the country rankings with 51 awards, followed by France, the USA, Turkey, Sweden and then Germany. Other top non-European performers were Canada, Japan and Australia.