“Tokyo Design” featured in January 2009 “GQ” Magazine
Posted by: bryanandersen
The watches that made up the Seiko Power Design Project 2008, created by Naoto Fukasawa and his design team, were inspired by “Tokyo.” Each of the 12 watches was named after a different area of Japan’s largest city. For example, the watch pictured above was inspired by the Yoyogi district, located in northern Tokyo, a place popular with youth. Turns out “Tokyo Design” was a hot global design trend last year, as evident in an article in the current issue of GQ magazine.
The January 2009 issue of GQ, the USA edition, features a two-page article on “Tokyo Design.”
The article mentions Fukasawa and his Plus Minus Zero design studio. The red doughnut-shaped humidifier featured on the page shown below is one of his designs.
Fukasawa wrote that the Seiko Power Design Project watches are “industrial designs,” and have the Japanese characteristic of “attention to details.” I suppose that gives a hint as to the meaning of “Tokyo Design.”
Maybe the best way to get a feeling for “Tokyo Design” is to look at many examples of interior goods — furniture, clocks, stationary — that are it’s most abundant expression. The Google Maps link below has links to many stores in the heart of Tokyo that sell items in the Tokyo Design category.
Tokyo Design Shop Guide by Johnny (click on links on left side of Google Maps page — popup windows appears and many contain links to store websites)
Below, a map of the Tokyo subway system created in the Tokyo Design style by ZeroPerZero studio in Tokyo.
When a mainstream publication like GQ catches on to a trend, it’s probably at least reached it’s mid-point of popularity. Back to watches, it’ll be interesting to see what theme, and what kind of designs, the Seiko Power Design Team come up with in 2009! Their work has been an inspiration for Seiko so far, incorporated into many models already, with several complete designs put into actual production last year.
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January 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Hi Brian. These new designs are quite an improvement.
I clicked on “12 watches” and the site you connected
us with shows the various watches the The Seiko Power
Design Group has made over approximately 6 years.
I think this last batch for 2009 is really outstanding,
especially compared to the previous years.
Yoyogi, Sendagaya, Shindone,Yanaka I personally find
outstanding.
Some of these remind me of the Alessi watch that
was made by Seiko and I think if Seiko uses these
designs, they may be able to become icons similar
to Swiss watches of the past. Something different,
something quite Japanesy.
Thanks for this very interesting article, and please
let us know more information as you get them, such
as watch size, type of movement, price, and how we
can get one if we want to buy.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Hi blackdial,
Thank you for your feedback, appreciate you comments!
It’ll be interesting to see what the design team comes up with for 2009. They’ve maintained a pretty good balance between being conservative and unorthodox so far, and I hope they don’t go too far in the latter direction in future.
I want to do a post in the near future about some isolated design elements they’ve released that have been incorporated into production models. Stay tuned.
Regards,
Bryan