JAPAN TRENDS


 

Next month, phone company KDDI will hold the “The morphology of mobile phones” exhibition to celebrate the art, design and innovation of their in-house design team: the au Design project.

Running for 10 days, the event marks the project’s 15th anniversary. The au Design project began with the goal of drawing attention to the then-struggling company through collaborations with famous designers such as Naoto Fukusawa.

 

Since its inception, the project has been successful in this effort, not only in terms of building a loyal customer base but also by garnering attention from the likes of art museums and the design world in general. The au Design project has now become so successful, they’ve inspired their own genre of “design mobile” phones.

 

Spanning the project’s early days and those to come, the exhibit will feature over 70 product designs, including both mass production models and contemporary concepts designs never before shown to the public.

 

Models on display include those that are now part of MoMA New York’s permanent collection, such as the Infobar, Talby, Neon, and Media Skin, as well as examples from this year’s au Transformers Infobar collaboration. In addition to product design, visitors can enjoy displays of other award-winning visual design from catalogs, posters, and other advertisements.

 

On July 27th, a special talk will be held featuring the Infobar product designer himself, Naoto Fukasawa. A scant 30 seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure to arrive early. For everyone else, there will be an exclusive concept film showing throughout the duration of the exhibition.

 

Place: Good Design Marunouchi
Date: July 21st to July 31st
Time: 11:00-20:00 (11:00-17:00 on last day)
Admission: free