The development of the graphic design industry is a short cut to sapporo ideas city!
The Sapporo Economic Affairs Bureau has selected the “graphic design industry” as the first project to vitalize the idea of “sapporo ideas city”, which is to create industries that are able to compete internationally.
In October of 2008, members involved in the graphic design industry created the “sapporo ideas city Industry Rejuvenation Group”. Headed by Chairman Mamoru Kobayakawa, past Hokkaido University professor in the Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies, they discussed the future development of the graphic design industry in Sapporo and presented their results to the Sapporo Economic Affairs Bureau.
The group’s discussion
Recently, Sapporo designers have received awards for graphic design at an international level, making Sapporo one of the top ten graphic design cities in the world. Still, most IT corporations don’t even know that these talented designers exist in Sapporo.
The sapporo ideas city Industry Rejuvenation Group has broken down their purpose into these three parts:
“Graphic design that creates a ‘bountiful lifestyle’ for Sapporo”
“Nurture the internationally recognized graphic design of Sapporo”
“Graphic designers create the City’s branding”
Nine ways to bring these ideas to fruition, including “Creating a study session for designers and users to collaborate and create valuable designs” were also discussed.
Chairman Kobayakawa handing the results from the debate to Tadafumi Inoue, Director of Sapporo Economic Affairs Bureau.
From left: Group member Hiroshi Maeda, Director Inoue, Chairman Kobayakawa, and group member Toshitake Hongou.
Receiving international recognition, the graphic design industry in Sapporo is a short cut to “sapporo ideas city”. The future looks very promising.
Written by Eiichi Sato
Translation by David Neptune
