Paul visits Tokyo and Osaka…

Paul flew to Japan recently to push the good name of D4 even further afield. Paul travelled as part of a creative industries trade mission to Tokyo and Osaka over one week at the end of October. The mission was promoted heavily by the British Embassy in Tokyo and was part of the ‘UK in Japan’ trade mission, it also formed part of the ‘100% Design’ event in Tokyo.

We’ve recently been working for a varied mix of clients overseas, including Germany, UAE and even Barbados. So after continuing to increase our services outside of the UK we thought we’d take a look at the Japanese market.

It was a grueling schedule with many meetings with Japanese companies in both cities for all concerned. After the Tokyo meetings were done, Paul and the other representatives of UK design companies hopped on the bullet train down to Osaka. The bullet train is worth a mention in it’s own right - very impressive. The following day was very eventful, with over 80 Japanese companies attending the DesignUK seminar in Osaka. Paul was on the seminar’s panel, along with other designers from the UK, also on the panel were the former design director of Yamaha and the current head of design at Panasonic - we were in good company. The discussion was about the strength and creativity of the UK design industry and how Japanese companies could, and should benefit from the UK’s expertise in branding, graphics, product design, arts & crafts, marketing and interior design. It was a great seminar and hundreds, if not thousands of business cards (and the customary bows) were exchanged after the seminar.

Then, it was back to Tokyo on the bullet train for more sushi, beer, sake and more beer, followed by sushi, sake… and beer. The last 2 days in Tokyo were spent visiting the 100% Design show in Tokyo, the fish market (at 5 in the morning), as well as meeting two local firms in the local design scene - ACO and Tokyo Pistol - so watch this space for collaboration in the near future.

On the final night it was eating and drinking to excess in downtown Tokyo, after 2 hours sleep it was an emergency cab to the airport to (just) catch the 12 hour flight home to Heathrow!

A great week of ‘work hard / play hard’ was had by all, and we hope to be working with Japanese companies any time soon.

Below is a selection of images from the trip - hopefully the images of the (big) fish eyes for sale won’t put you off your lunch.

Tags: Posted by Paul

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