Japan showcase for UK at DesignUK event

Britain’s pool of design talent and creativity was brought to this year’s Tokyo Design Week in Japan last week, in the shape of the fourth annual DesignUK 07.

The programme, organised by UK Trade & Investment, the British Embassy and the British Council in Tokyo, is the UK’s annual trade mission and showcase of British design groups in Japan.

This year it involved designers from 11 British consultancies carrying out presentations on the latest in UK design, followed by a seminar featuring Ross Lovegrove and Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa.

Lovegrove’s presentation focused on the ‘philosophy of form’, while Fukasawa spoke on the ‘core of awareness’. Lovegrove also used the occasion to launch his lightweight carbon case, Onehundred&ten, created for Globetrotter.

Participating groups included Joseph Joseph, Andrew Lang Product Design, The Division, TKO Design, Universal Design Studio, Contemporary Art Holdings, DPA Lighting Consultants, Keech Design, Tecatech, Seymour Powell and Sheridan & Co. Pearson Lloyd, which presented collections at 100% Design Tokyo and Design Tide – both part of Tokyo Design Week – also attended the event.

TKO, in collaboration with Olympus Future Creation Laboratory, unveiled an LCD display called EyeTrek, which enables the user to receive all kinds of visual information via mobile networks. Olympus worked closely with Andy Davey at TKO, who created the detailed product design and product positioning for EyeTrek.

According to Iain Willis, commercial officer, British Embassy Tokyo, ‘With DesignUK 07 we set out to put on a more compact event than in some years, but with more profile. We’ve worked hard to raise the profile of UK design in Japan.’