KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2017

What was good was the leap forward achieved by the idea of creating a new product in the area of stationery and the office that came from the perspective of food. It also suits the trend of the times of ambiguity in terms of categories, as it cannot be defined as either stationery or food. Based on the fact that there are many functional foods, we can strengthen the efficacy and packaging etc. with the power of the design.

Actually, my impression of this work greatly changed from the Initial Judging to the Final Judging. By listening to the story directly from the designers, the thought process and possibilities for the future became clear to me. If you consider it from the point of view of making work feel comfortable, you could say that food makes for fine stationery. It seems like a taboo, but it may in fact have picked up on a fundamental truth.

When eating it at the time of the presentation it tasted better than I had imagined, and I felt that the actual act of putting it in my mouth had the power of magic. In the context of tools to move people, it had a sense of presence as a snack that could be regarded as being in the category of stationery. Personally, I would be happy if there were a calcium "Eatool".

The judging this year was more difficult than other years. I selected this one by thinking about whether I myself would need it and also because it was good that it embodies a genre that I had never thought about before. I would personally like to use these “Eatools” if they are commercialized into something really good for the health by using select ingredients and organic materials.

I thought it was an interesting proposal since the Initial Judging. Creating a movement among working people is something that KOKUYO has long worked to achieve. Although the medium is food, this proposal sits right in the mainstream of what we are trying to do.

Since "NEW STORY" is a theme that can be tackled from various perspectives, there were several examples of works that were eliminated in the judging at first but were revived once they were reevaluated and reinterpreted from a different viewpoint. This work is also one of them, and although it appeals to my personal feelings as "being somehow nice", the point that it has some elements that people can share and connect with is also excellent.

The way it is used depends on the person and as we don’t know what time of day it is in the first place either, this work could not have won any previous KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD. I feel that the way the function is interpreted goes beyond the practical scope of the product and gives us a sensitive response. In that sense, this Award has come a long way and I feel that the real thing has arrived.

It is appealing as a way of marking the passage of time, and it made me happy imagining the scene of it slowly going around on the desk. In recent years, themes have become conceptual and simple designs with clearly presented concepts have often won awards, but it is something new for a work like this that is both concrete and expresses emotion to win an award. I am hoping to see more designs like this in the future as well.

From the shape to the intrinsic design, I really felt that the designers had been imagining the people using this item when deciding various points. In the past few years the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD has intentionally been heading in the direction of sensitivity and stories, so I think that the creation of such a design was an inevitable result of this flow.

Although the proposal was for a scene with both parents and children using it, by having both "writing" and "erasing" compatible with each other in the design, I felt that there is a possibility of it becoming a tool that encourages children to develop free expression along with the educational aspect that teaches children to clean up afterwards.

Both the concept and the prototype were wonderful, but there was a kind of play on words calling it an “Eraser Writer” rather than an eraser and I did wonder whether it really needed to be made from rubber. There may be other materials, shapes and solutions, as well. I think that the number of votes would have increased if it the proposal had been a little more understandable to the judges.

I felt the possibility of creating a comfortable new kind of writing material that enables you to draw on walls. The point that was evaluated was the fact that they experimented independently by hand until they came up with the right formulation for the rubber as the core. Although there are variations in its performance at the moment, there may be a breakthrough and something completely different from the present object may be created. This could happen by starting with the exploration of possibilities for the development of materials that may produce a sensation for drawing that has never been known before.

Even if there were variations in the quality of the prototype, I was moved by the enthusiasm and efforts of the designers who studied the components of rubber themselves and made handmade designs on their veranda. We are also trying to commercialize this winning work. I think that such a strong feeling is very important to create a product from this design.

In addition to the appeal of the design and story, I was also inspired by the sense of whether I would want it myself or not. Something that is not conveyed in photographs or presentation sheets is the pleasant feeling created by the clinking sound of the magnets as they are drawn to each other, but in fact this is an important element. Because everything virtual is now popular in these times, I hope that further expressions focusing on five senses and haptics can be developed.

Within the idea of putting items of stationery together, it feels good to gather them up together roughly in the middle. The sound and sensation when they stick to each other is also interesting. The creator was also good at explaining the process, and he had the ability to suggest the future of the product, "there is such a possibility in the future." It had such an impact in the Initial Judging and would have been perfect if he had dug just a little bit deeper for the Final Judging.

I always put a lot of stationery in my bag, and then I notice that there are several erasers in it and I am always searching for something in my bag. So I was surprised at the idea that I could carry my stationery around like this all together. Actually I would like to use the mechanical pencil, ruler and eraser fixed together like this.

As well as being able to gather stationery together and carry it around, it was also good that actual scenarios for usage were specifically suggested, such as the unexpected need for a compass that could be assembled by combining various stationery items.