“JAPAN DESU”, the avant-garde of Japanese design in Madrid
Between October 4th and December 4th, 2022, “JAPAN DESU” took place in Madrid, a DIMAD project that, with the main collaboration of Nissan and the institutional collaboration of the Culture and Tourism Area of the Madrid City Council, has included exhibitions, conferences, professional meetings and workshops with the aim of bringing the best of Japanese culture to the capital through design.
During these two months the Design Center has hosted a series of activities on the latest trends in Japanese culture. “JAPAN DESU”, which simply means ‘Japan is’, has brought together designers and brands from the country’s avant-garde who showed the public their projects in Spain around the challenges of mobility, sustainability and innovation.
The main nucleus of the project has been the exhibition “JAPAN DESU”, located in the Design Center. Within it, visitors were able to unravel the limits of this fascinating culture from three main aspects: automotive, fashion and architecture.
The Japan-Spain Business Circle (CEJE) has collaborated directly with DIMAD in the organization of the professional meetings of JAPAN DESU, connecting the foundation directly with Japanese companies, most of them members of CEJE, who participated in these meetings. The participants were NTT DATA, RICOH, NIPPON EXPRESS, YAMAHA MOTOR EUROPE, DYNABOOK, ROLAND and FUJIFILM. In addition, MUJI participated in the design and architecture conference.
The professional meetings of JAPAN DESU were organized with the aim of learning about how design crosses large Japanese firms and what role it plays in their consolidation and expansion. With the idea of strengthening and facilitating professional connections between designers and related companies, design studios and Spanish brands were also summoned to tell their experiences.
To this end, different experts discussed cross-cutting issues such as sustainability, artificial intelligence, intelligent mobility, new possibilities for graphic design thanks to digital tools, innovation and branding. Each intervention hada networking dynamic at the end, offering an opportunity to share impressions and create synergies by valuing knowledge and motivation for change.
THE PARTICIPATION OF CEJE COMPANIES
Within the professional meetings, which were divided into a sectorial program and presented from October 27th to November 27th, the development of opportunities between Japanese companies and Spanish designers from different disciplines was encouraged, as well as the exchange of knowledge and business experiences through networking appointments.
The first presentations by CEJE partners were by Ines Campanella Casas, Design and Experience Leader at NTT DATA, and Alejandro González, Director of Digital Transformation at Ricoh. Both participated in the meetings on innovation in design. Ines Campanella gave a lecture on the current and future challenges of artificial intelligence and Alejandro González gave his lecture on the theme of innovation and sustainability processes in the digital transformation of companies.
The next intervention was by Fumiko Kaku, Director of NIPPON EXPRESS de España SA, within the meetings on design and mobility, who gave a conference on technology, sustainability and innovation in transport. This section of meetings was also attended by Victor González, General Director of YAMAHA MOTOR, who participated in a dialogue on challenges and opportunities of urban mobility and its projections for the future together with Stephanie Priou, urban planner and director of Ubiquity.
The next topic addressed by the meetings was innovation and new applications, in which the first participants were Ángel Medina, Senior Sales Account Manager for Public Management of DYNABOOK Europe, and Xavier Armengou, General Manager of ROLAND DG Iberia. Both participated in the conference on allies for the creative challenges of graphic design, focusing on sustainable signage, signage and printing. They also addressed the advantages of digital technology. Eduardo López, Imaging Iberia Director of FUJIFILM, also participated in this last cycle of professional meetings, who gave an individual lecture on design, innovation and technology in photography.
Apart from the participation in the professional meetings, Joaquim de Toca Andreu, President and CEO of MUJI, was part of the JAPAN DESU Cycle: Design and Architecture on October 8 at the Design Center at the Matadero in Madrid. In an appointment, Toca Andreu spoke with Marcelo Ghio, director of the magazine Experimenta, about the Japanese firm, a Japanese emblem, bringing to the public its criteria of innovation and sustainability in the textile market and interior design.
From the Japan-Spain Business Circle we want to thank the great work of DIMAD in the organization and execution of so many events within the framework of this project. It has been a pleasure for us to be able to collaborate in an initiative so close to our mission as an organization, always seeking to promote business synergies between Japan and Spain, and giving a platform to our partners in which they can expose the advances of their respective sectors. We also greatly appreciate the effort and dedication to all the companies that participated in JAPAN DESU, since their collaboration is part of the success of the project.