Tokyo DesignArt 2025
I had the opportunity to chat to Haruna Tako from HaKU design studio. About doing CMF studies. Exploring material form, colour and finish. She showed experiments with colour contrast and reflection using shapes and surface angles. Inspiring to see another designer explore material deeply. And something nice I have from the Haku design studio website: In addition to “Design Thinking” for problem solving, we practice “Design Feeling” for how to create something that appeals to the heart and stays in the mind, and how to eliminate things that make you feel uncomfortable and pursue the essence of the product. We place the utmost importance on sensitivity, which cannot be expressed in words.
After reading a more about CMF online. I discovered the term came from a book by Liliana Becerraa, who just published a new book called Soft whcih I put on my to read list.
Other inspirational things : Mitsubishi showcasing a 3D printer that prints metal showed a key and lock in 3D printed design. I liked it that they challenged the traditional key designs that are somewhat flat and adding additional safety. Kaining He, showed incense designs in interesting shapes again challenging traditional standard shapes. I didn’t mind seeing Mathilde Bretillot’s work, although her exhibit was unattended. I enjoy it most when talking to designers at their stalls. And there was a curved kind of curtain/ Japanese room divider (relation wall from lions mansion) that with a single wall also blocks out sound. Super Rat design showed lamps, vases etc and explained how he treats palmtree bark with persimmon tannin to strengthen it and form objects. Momoko Yoshida showed a bunch of maps the most creative one was a kind of heat map of routes frequented around the house in the style of a metro map and using architecture maquette of foamboard.
