Tokyo Design Week with Hello Sandwich!

Jenny Butler

Monday 8th November 2010

This week we are so lucky to have the incredibly talented Ebony Bizys [aka Hello Sandwich] giving us a tour of the Tokyo Design Week. I have seen what this week holds and folks, you don't want to miss any of it! Thanks so much Ebony! - Jenny x

The wonderful thing about Tokyo is that there is always something happening. And most recently the city has been abuzz with designers from all over the world taking part in Tokyo’s annual event - Tokyo Design Week. And what a fantastic week it was. Made up of Tokyo Designers Week, Design Tide Tokyo, and numerous off-site exhibits scattered through the city, not even the typhoon could hold down Tokyo’s creative scene!

Tokyo Designers Week, held at Meiji Jingu Gaien, celebrated it’s 25th anniversary this year and consisted of a tent exhibition, packing container display, student exhibition, and a number of participating shop and gallery exhibitions. This year’s Tokyo Design Week theme was ‘Environment’ and participating exhibitors introduced new environmental approaches and solutions.

Design Tide Tokyo at Roppongi’s Tokyo Midtown Hall was a highlight. The exhibit hall, was beautifully designed by Ryuji Nakamura but the exhibition didn’t stop there, Design Tide Tokyo extended throughout the city with numerous galleries and shops taking part in ‘Tide Extension’.

Keeping in with the ‘green’ theme, exploring Tokyo Design Week by bicycle was encouraged with bike stations dotted throughout the city, and discounted entry when travelling by bike. Useful too, were the free bike parking stations throughout the city – anyone who has ridden a bike in Tokyo will know how tricky it can be to find a (legal) bike park! The clever bunnies over at Naviko developed a special ‘Tokyo Design Week’ component to their recently launched iPhone application. This application uses social networking to allow members to pin point ‘landmarks’ to share with other riders via GPS tracking and sound alerts. Fascinating Stuff!