The Ignition Point of Innovation

The Santama Project (tentative) began with a call from the design magazine AXIS. The director of AXIS had many opportunities to ride the Seibu Line for a special issue, and upon looking at the map again, noticed that three companies—Bridgestone (Kodaira), CITIZEN (Tanashi), and Hitachi (Kokubunji)—are located in close proximity within the Tama region. The idea was that by having companies from different industries that are geographically close collaborate, they could generate new ideas and help solve local issues. The first meeting was held at Bridgestone, the second at CITIZEN, and the third at Hitachi. Incidentally, the project name will remain tentative until a concrete goal is decided.

Ideas Born from Imagination

In April 2024, I participated in "Neuron Tokyo vol.2," held at the Asakusa Mokubatei, a traditional vaudeville theater in Taito-ku, Tokyo. "Neuron Tokyo" is a design event organized by AXIS & TD that began in 2023 as a place for networking and co-creation among people involved in design and related fields. At each event, about ten companies' design departments give presentations based on a common theme. Here, I will introduce an overview of the presentation we gave at this event.