Nagi Noda (Japan),Tatsuhiko Akashi (Japan), Gento Matsumoto (Japan)

Cute as a Statement

This lecture was moderated by Gento Matsumoto (Japan) who discusses "Kawaii" or cute, with Tatsuhiko Akashi (Japan) and Nagi Noda (Japan). Gento Matsumoto is a graphic designer who also designs some figures, puppets and even games. This is why he met Tatsuhiko Akashi. Akashi is a toy designer who has started his own company (Medicom Toy Corporation) which now has as many as 30 employees. Nagi Noda is an art director and designer. She directs many television commercials and advertisements, most notably the beautiful and strange television campaign for Laforet.
The three speakers seem to have very different opinions about nearly everything but they do agree on at least one thing: "cute" is very nearly impossible to define and it can vary greatly according to the statement the designer is trying to convey to the public. For example, Akashi designs toys that are small and simply stylized because he wants them to be comforting and portable. He wishes them to be like charms or amulets. Akashi shies away from realistic toys because he feels they make the toy about its technical accomplishments rather than about the toy itself. Nagi Noda says that for her, cute is about how she feels inside when she makes the piece. She did not realize that people considered her work cute, and was surprised that that is how it is often classified. Although they did not explain "Kawaii" they did manage to affirm that "Kawaii" is very much a part of Japanese culture and design. (NR)

Writer:Kosuke Ikehata/Norimitsu Korekata/Junko Sakamoto/Nobuko Shimuta/Naoko Hasegawa/Osamu Hisanaga/Sakurako Muto/Naho Yoshioka/Maggie Hohle/Helmut Langer/Nicole Rechia/Andreas Schneider/Trysh Wahlig/Gitte Waldman/Robert Zolna
Photographer:Yoshimitsu Asai/Yasuhiko Katsuta/Fumihiko Mizutani