T-1 WORLD CUP/English

Which one is going to win?_Part3

The final volume of the special discussion for T-1 from
Zenta Nishida, an assistant editor of “Casa BRUTUS”.
Risa Tanaka, an editor of “Senden Kaigi”.
And Ureshka, chief editor of onlile design magazine “Pingmag“.

Which T-shirt is going to be a winner?
How are those three specialists foreseeing ?

──	Finally, I would like to ask you this question.Which T-shirts do you think to win?
Uleshka	Whoa! (laugh)Well, even though this is a design competition, still they have their own concepts.For example, if I get to know about the meaning of Taku Sato’s “104.5°”, I might be interested in it and buy it and……
Nishida	In fact, there is no project talked so much about T-shirts!
一同	Hahahahahaha.
Nishida	That’s is true, it’s even too much. (laugh) There are resumes, interviews and profiles… I would read it if everything is taken care of like this well. You can follow so far the meaning of graphics or an individual designer to buy T-shirts. Also there might be people who buy their favorite designs at their first sight. I thought why Tom has won last year was because of the color of hemline. But he didn’t do it for this time.
Uleshka	Oh, I see.
Nishida	From watching Tom’s T-shirt and Kashiwa’s (who won the second prize last year) “Peace” T-shirts, I can kind of see the tendency.
Uleshka	Yes.
Nishida	Everybody buy simple stuff.
Tanaka	Every single of them is nice but if I think of wearing it.
Nishida	There are some levels.
Tanaka	For this tournament, you should go through the levels of the design, the concept, the designer and the fact if it really looks good on you or not and think of it. I really can’t guess.But from the cuteness, it might be Kam Tang’s.
──	Does it mean you would like to wear?
Tanaka	I think so.I feel like both of men and women would think it is cute.And Taku’s T-shirt is there might be people who would like to be asked, “What is the number?” and those people will buy it. (laugh)
──	Talking about cuteness, we have received pretty a lot of e-mails from readers, and they like Tsuguya Inoue’s T-shirt.
Uleshka	Uh… This is difficult….
Nishida	How about choosing 4 of these T-shirts that seems going to the final match.
Uleshka	If Japan were the host of this world cup, I guess Gugi’s T-shirt would win but…
Nishida	This T-shirt is such a tricky play. (laugh)
Tanaka	Yes. (laugh)
Nishida	Fukasawa, Tom, Mimi, Yanai and Nando. These are my guess. What about you, Uleshka?
Uleshka	Well, I’m thinking…. (laugh)
Nishida	What does the back of Katsunori Aoki’s T-shirt say?
──	“Japan”.
Nishida	Okay, and there is a rising carp… How about you, Tanaka?
Tanaka	I would say Fukasawa, Kam Tang and Taku…
Nishida	ほう。
Tanaka	And I’ve seen a T-shirt like Nando’s that people from Japanese soccer team was making it and wearing it. I wonder whether the design affects soccer funs or not. The message of Yanai’s T-shirt “OREKOKO (I’m here)” can be effective, too.
──	Did you decide it, Uleshka?
Uleshka	I’ve chosen Fukasawa, Katsunori Aoki, Phunk studio, Hamansutra and Nando. Personally, I love the Kinga’s Chopin, too, but it’s not much about soccer.
──	Everyone has voted to Fukasawa. Two of three you guys have voted to Nando and Mimi.
Nishida	Nando’s and Mimi’s T-shirts have a sensitive atmosphere, so women can wear it, too.
Tanaka	Yeah, you are right! Actually, thinking of buying it. (laugh)
Uleshka	On the other hand, I couldn’t decide about Fukasawa’s T-shirt, because the impression is womanly.
──	So, you thought about “How is this for men?”. For your information, the print of backside of the Phunk studio’s T-shirt is reverse of black and white.
Uleshka	Oh! That’s cool! Really?
──	And the tag of the Stefan’s “NEW YORK CITY” T-shirt got a picture of John Lennon.
Nishida	That’s intense, too!
──	What do you think of Jun Aoki’s T-shirt?
Nishida	Fukasawa’s T-shirt could be taken too womanly and vice versa, Mimi Son’s T-shirt is really cute but it can be only for women. Talking like this, Jun Aoki’s T-shirt can be barely worn by men. But if the audience rate of the world cup soccer were high, it would be the Kam Tang T-shirt! (laugh)
Uleshka	If you are a soccer fun, you can’t ignore the Phunk studio and the Nando. If you are not a soccer fun much and like cool T-shirts, it’s going to be Katsunori Aoki, Kinga or Hamansutra. Jun Aoki’s design is really beautiful and nice but if you were not Japanese, the sensitivity would be hard to understand…
──	Well, it’s difficult to choose only one of them for a champion…
Nishida	It can’t be chosen for just the design of T-shirts straightforward. Besides that, you have to think of “Hobonichi” readers and a viewpoint from abroad, it’s a hard work. (laugh)
──	Sorry. (laugh)
Nishida	But there are winning or losing for T-1, so the result is coming out anyway a month later.
──	That’s why we are so excited.
Uleshka	That’s true. I’m getting excited, too. After thinking all of this. (laugh)
Nishida	It was difficult as was expected. Making a wrong guess is kind of ashamed so everybody was scared. (laugh)
Tanaka	It can be the T-shirt we didn’t even mention about would win. (laugh)

2006/6/20

Which one is going to win?_Part2

We present a second volume of the special discussion for T-1 from
Zenta Nishida, an assistant editor of “Casa BRUTUS”.
Risa Tanaka, an editor of “Senden Kaigi”.
And Ureshka, chief editor of onlile design magazine “Pingmag“.

How those three specialists see the “Tokyo design” ?

──	For this year’s T-1, designers are participated from worldwide-13 countries. How do you guys feel about “Tokyo design”?
Tanaka	Talking about Japanese advertisement, the movement like getting a Clio Award this year is becoming visible little by little. Speaking with tendency, advertisements with smaller tricks are getting more attention than fancy advertisements from abroad. Even our editorial office gets the request from Netherlands and Sweden for having a chance to see Japanese creators. I’m realizing Japan is being watched and getting attention.
Nishida	ago, so it’s not like Japan is getting attention now particularly. But following them, people like Tadao Ando who trained and had a carrier in commercial architecture came up… And now, 30-60years old architects are blended together and fight and help each other. That is the situation. So, I thought it was an interesting approach choosing architects for participants.
──	We also were excited about the way architects who usually make 3D objects draw their design on T-shirts that is 2D campus.
Nishida	Besides that, for example now, people like Kashiwa Sato who is mainly successful in 2D field try to expand their places to a direction of architect. The border between fields of design may be getting unclear.
Tanaka	That’s true.
Nishida	For design people, drawing a line for their stage is getting more harder. Especially after the 90s, non-professional people started to do graphic and make books…that kind of thing became easier and also is an interesting point of Tokyo, I think.
──	I see.
Nishida	On the other hand, it is severe for graphic designers because graphic is not only for them anymore. For example, we couldn’t think of product designers design T-shirts 10 years ago and even if they did it, I guess that nobody cared. Also there was no media for pulling it together.
──	Sure. You might be right.
Nishida	Different backgrounds people fight against each other just for under the rule of “T-shirts”… We can say that is why it has got to be “T-shirts”. No one can take advantage of it.
Tanaka	Right.
Nishida	And it doesn’t translate to everyone even if you say you made an advertisement for SMAP, because occupations, ages and even nationalities of the audience are different. It’s amazing that even a name like Kashiwa Sato doesn’t mean anything.
Tanaka	Last year’s theme was “T-shirts that everyone wants to wear”, so creators thought about “What do they want to wear?” for the first place. But this time, I feel more of “spirits of designers”, and there might be conflict between “This kind of T-shirt is cool.” “I want them to wear a T-shirt like this.” feelings and “ Be honest, I want to be chosen.” like-feeling.
──	Yes.
Tanaka	So, I have a comment that everybody have determined about that part of things and made designs for this T-1. Because of that, it seems more difficult but more than that, it’s really fun to look at. There were some T-shirts that impression was unexpected. “Kashiwa did it like this for this time.” or “Yanai, I couldn’t imagine this”.
──	Was Yanai’s T-shirt unexpected?
Tanaka	Yes, pretty much it was.
Nishida	What does it mean?
──	The name is “OREKOKO T (I’m here T)”…
Nishida	Oh, There is Japanese map on the part of a heart.
──	Adding for it, if you go abroad, you can ask, “Where is your country?” and are pointed.
Nishida	I see. For that reason, I’d like him to remake it when borders changes every single time.
Tanaka	Yeah. (laugh)
Nishida	You can recognize that T-shirt is from 3 years ago. “This country is already gone now.” Like this. (laugh)
Tanaka	Both of Gugi Akiyama and Katsunori Aoki love soccer, so they made images like this with hearts a full of cheering.
──	Only Ayumi Ohashi used “Japan Blue”.
Tanaka	Thinking about that, it feels weird other Japanese designers didn’t use it.
──	Is there any reason for many of T-shirts on white?
Nishida	Well, I guess it is going to be white if you want to win. Jun Aoki might have thought about it. Various kinds of T-shirts would appear; so white might be turn to be stuck out.
──	Silas’s design, it’s on the satellite… What is the meaning of “Happy Ending” which was attached to the T-shirt’s design?
Uleshka	This is NASA’s design. There is a soccer field and inside of it, there are Adam, Eve and some balls, “Happy Ending”. Does it mean happy ending when the game ends?
──	Oh, I see! If I hear that, I can see like that!
Nishida	If it’s so, I wanted them to have soccer balls, and then I could understand.
一同	Hahaha.
──	Who is the person you’ve known through an interview, Uleshka?
Uleshka	Stefan Sagmeister, Naoto Fukasawa, Kam Tang, Oded Ezer, Erik Spiekermann…Tom Vincent, of course. (laugh)
──	How is Nando Costa?
Uleshka	I know him pretty much.
──	What do you think the Nando Costa’s motif expresses?
Uleshka	Green color is maybe a soccer field and as well as a color of Brazil. Nando uses this “hand” motif a lot in these days. It’s like a puppet. And the meaning can be that “who has a right to control?”
Tanaka	Oh, I see.
Uleshka	We have an image for Brazil as “a country of soccer power”. Using that Brazil color but at the same time, maybe he wanted to put many meanings like “Who is the strongest for real?” or “Who controls Brazilian soccer?” “Does soccer control Brazil?” and made this design.
Nishida	Anyway, we usually don’t have an opportunity to discuss about T-shirts like this. (laugh)
Tanaka	It seems like we can talk about it forever. (laugh)
──	Mimi Son from Korea drew “ heart” in Korean.
Uleshka	In this case, does the “heart” have a nuance like “my country”? Mimi is very powerful and energetic woman. She gave a birth in recent, and maybe that’s why the heart is drawn. I can’t understand well the Ayumi Ohashi’s T-shirt…
──	These are Japanese “wave” and “sun”. In the back, there is “Mt. Fuji”.
Tanaka	Those Japanese symbols are used as a motif, so it’s really easy to understand for Japanese people. (laugh)
Uleshka	Oh! I got it.
──	Maybe it’s easier to understand a T-shirt from your own country. The Hamansutra’s T-shirt seems wanting a description.
Uleshka	He is a fashion designer who was making clothes for German military forces. He actually had a background of studying making military clothes and makes really crazy clothes.
Nishida	Is this a baby?
Uleshka	Yes. This baby is a dummy for crash experiments.
Nishida	Ah-huh, the crash experiments for cars. That is little bit grotesque… If I look at it carefully, it seems like the baby wears a seatbelt.
Uleshka	He was born in Germany and studied in London… He is a designer being famous in many countries and has a complicated nationality. His design is freely and aggressive, though.
──	Is that from his experiences living in many countries?
Uleshka	I don’t know about that. Klein Dytham architecture’s T-shirt says “Let’s foreign”, They make a joke about their selves being in Japan.
Nishida	How should I get this meaning? Does it mean, “Let’s being a foreigner.” or “Let’s go abroad.”?
Uleshka	I can’t say. “Let’s” is not used in correct grammar.
──	The back print of the T-shirt has a hint. In Katakana, “Foreigners are great (I’m not scared of foreigners.)!”.
Nishida	Ah-huh! I understand that kind of nuance from it.
──	And the motifs are a thing for Matcha and an English teacup. That makes a “Tea” shirt. (laugh)
Tanaka	Tea shirts, okay.(laugh)
Uleshka	He’s playing with words. However, I think the Usman’s T-shirt is hard to tell his nationality.
──	Kam Tang, too.
Tanaka	This one is cute.
Uleshka	Yes, it is cute. Oded’s design is very interesting, too. We rarely see Hebrew words and the character by itself is really experimental, so actually I think we can’t read it.
──	Oded also works on 3D objects.
Uleshka	Yes. He makes typography in 3D and creates an object looked like an insect. He is so famous in his country, Israel.
Nishida	I was looking at these T-shirts one by one, but these designs are really sharp for the project of “Hobonichi”. Is this really for “Hobonichi”? That’s why it is so interesting. It is like “They come to a field like this.”
──	Those designers are from various fields, so there is not much of T-shirt-ish T-shirts.
Nishida	From that aspect, the biggest thing is like I said that borderlines are getting unclear. If the design by itself is strong enough, even when it’s categorized “T-shirts” for example, all sorts of people who have titles can get together at one point.
Tanaka	And you can pick anything if you simply like it without knowing about the designer. That is T-1.
Nishida	T-1’s system makes it work. They keep going in a right way. It’s weird way of saying but I think you shouldn’t do something that can’t be a business. It’s not good if you do just singing and having fun. You should pay an incentive fee for makers and give buyers satisfaction…
Uleshka	Especially, people who bought the champion T-shirt can have pleasure of being in first place. It’s got some essence of gambling.
Nishida	So, my conclusion is “the important thing is a system. That’s it.” And you get all these people who can do “sharp ” things for their designs together.I’m impressed for that point.

[To be continued]

2006/6/19

48 T-1 Museums will be Opening!

First of all, we’d like to thank you for the offers for sharing your place as a “museum” to exhibit the T-1 WORLD CUP t-shirts!

48 “T-1 Museums” will be opening throughout the world!

From stylish interior shops to record stores and book stores in Tokyo; cafes, schools, windows of a corporate building, pub in north Kanto, and even a temple in the Shikoku region will become a “museum” to exhibit one out of the 24 t-shirts!

Plus, this “museum” is going international!!
4 t-shirts will be displayed in 4 cities around the world; New York, London, Edinburgh, and Shanghai!

Here are a few of the “museums” that will open!

hhstyle.com Harajuku Shop (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)

Barikiya (Kamo-gun, Shizuoka)

Mainichi Okinawa Maioki Cafe (Okinawa City, Okinawa)

The “museums” are there for you to enjoy the atmosphere with the t-shirt displayed, or for you to check the design in detail, like the colors of the print, or the way the ink is used.

The opening hours and other details of each “museum” will be announced in the near future. Meanwhile, this page is for you to check the “museum” opening nearby.

Don’t miss the reports from the museums we’ll be updating soon!

2006/6/19

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