KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2018

It stimulates our imagination and makes us imagine what kind of sound the product is going to create even before use. The proposal inspires us to dream about a new style of stationery for the future.

A pencil is originally a tool for expressing visual information. However, the device he invented based on a pencil stimulates our five senses other than vision and entertains people. His idea completely beat our predictions. He gave a concrete shape to his idea and made the product beautiful and simple. He also proposed a group of products, including a ruler and pencil sharpener, without changing the core of his concept. I have high expectations that his proposal will develop into something even greater.

The sharp point of view in setting the theme, the process of holding a workshop, how well-designed and well-finished the prototypes were, the experience created through his design— everything was high in quality. He didn’t let his idea remain a random thought, and gave a concrete shape to it. It was exactly what the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD asked for and he proposed the design in an ideal form. For instance, a group of his products was colored uniformly matte black, and I sensed his strong will that his products would stay true to his original concept of ‘being independent on visual information’.

The designer created a new way for us to use our senses, and he did it in an analog way, without any modern electronic technology. He created a simple tool that attaches to a pencil—an object that we’ve all been familiar with since our childhoods. I was shocked by the way the design fulfilled a subconscious desire. While I was writing with this pencil, I started to wonder if I was listening to the sounds with my ears, or if my entire body was listening to the sounds through the pencil. I’d never experienced anything like that. It was as though my senses were expanding.

The sound of pencil was utterly delightful. I kept writing and drawing during the designer’s entire presentation, just wanting to listen to the sound. His idea of perceiving writing with the sound of friction was so innovative—I bet no one has ever thought about that. I look forward to see how this idea is going to develop in the future.

The build of the work is skillful and, at the same time, the product itself is absolutely charming. It is interesting that the design stimulates both the right and left sides of the brain.

In an era where new technologies get the most attention, this design has the excellent quality of being created in an old-fashioned way. This sort of approach that brings traditions and old things back to life may be something that attracts universal sympathy—just look at how the judges were fascinated. I love the fact that a design with a traditional, hand-crafted feeling like this one was so highly evaluated in a competition for new designs.

This could be a design that changes the future of the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD the way that Commodore Perry's black ships changed the history of Japan. I have the impression that many of the ideas we received from overseas in the past were more difficult to develop into a refined final design. However, although it still has some rough patches, the team created the design with such a high level of quality. This design also responds well to the theme of the award. Many people tend to give up on drawing and painting after early childhood, but the experience offered by this design gives the impression that the boundaries that form as we grow up can be easily overcome, and that is amazing.

Users create and color pictures with a pottery wheel. The design is the result of prioritizing craftsmanship and pursuing minimalism while maintaining usability. It is not a design that has been polished to perfection to meet the designers' intentions, but it has the elegance of a straightforward design that doesn't try harder than it needs to, which moved me. The palettes and tubes of paint that already exist on the market have a certain coldness. This work, however, offers a new experience—paints burst from this curious object, and you paint a picture by letting things flow naturally, rather than trying to control them. The design holds countless possibilities within it for someone trying their hand at painting for the first time.

When I first saw the picture of the design, I just thought, "Wow, that's nice." How it might be used was an afterthought. The process of how the work was made in India and the images of children playing with their new toy were included in the presentation, and that left an impression. On top of that, the quality of the actual work was extremely high. Everything about the design, including the color and shape, was beautiful, and I just want to buy it as it is. I think it has great appeal to both adults and children.

The design offers a new way for users to interact with documents. One can see how it could be used in everyday life and the potential it has as a commercial product. If this product were sold in stores, I would buy it without hesitation. However, its triangular shape sets a new condition the traditional clip never had: users have to put the clip “in the right direction.” I’m a little concerned that the users will have to stop to think for a moment to make sure that it’s facing the right way before using the clip. Also, the work does not tie in to the theme of the awards very well. However, the design has the power to overcome those weaknesses.

I think this design might be as big a hit as the "Kadokeshi Plastic Eraser” if it were commercialized. The designer’s presentation skills were also amazing. This design could easily be commercialized, and he could have expanded his scope and proposed a marketing strategy, for example, but he didn’t bite off more than he could chew. He simply refined the strong points of the design, and presented it perfectly.

This design redesigned the double clip—a great invention that has endured a century. It excited me more than I expected, because I’ve also felt that the existing clips make documents harder to read when you turn the page. At the Initial Judging, I was worried that the clip may become imbalanced when it is opened. However, the prototype exerts force in the right direction and is very well-made.

He took the design of the double clip, which hasn’t changed for 100 years, and he turned that timeless design into something beautiful and easy to use. Although we’re so familiar with the existing design, he questioned whether it is actually easy to use, and that standpoint was fascinating. I have a feeling that this design is going to be a hit once it is a commercial product.

Although it may be slightly different from the creator’s intention, his design could easily be developed in that direction. I was concerned about one thing: its front cover. It could have been improved if the designer hadn’t overthought it and simply adopted the same front cover as KOKUYO’s Campus Notebook. Then, we would have been able to focus on the ways to use the notebook, which is what he originally wanted to present.

I also created a black-colored notebook myself, because I wanted to write with a white pen. So, I really understood how great the creator’s idea was. I understood the logic behind the idea that this notebook increases readability by utilizing different brightnesses. However, anyone would wonder why white paper and colored pens aren't good enough, and he should have given a more persuasive answer to that question, and included examples of situations in which the notebook would be used.

Although the idea was great, he should have come up with a better structure for his presentation. He prepared some intriguing stories—he included data that showed that the brightness of color is more easily recognized than the hue, and he designed accessories, such as a ruler and protractor. However, the order in which the material was presented was not effective, and he didn’t fully explain his design. I think there was some room for improvement in that respect.

To tell the truth, I made a pencil based on the theme of the limits of sight more than 15 years ago. But I never thought to change the color of the pages in a notebook. This design was a revelation. We live in the age of digitalization and the Internet, we often see white letters displayed on a black background. This design took that color scheme and turned it into an analog notebook. It was an excellent idea. This notebook offers an exciting experience, both for people who love writing by hand and people who don’t.

I kept writing and doodling on this notebook throughout the presentation. I feel like new discoveries can be made when drawing with black and white pens on gray paper, even more so than when drawing with colored pens on white paper. It is really fun. I want everyone to use this product once it is commercialized.