tokyo designboom mart 2014

tokyo designboom mart 2014

bring a design souvenir back from tokyo!
once again designboom returns with its international market of fresh talents to participate at tokyo designers week (TDW) 2014. after the success of last year’s biggest designboom mart exhibition to date, we again present 80 design professionals from all over the world that introduce their new products to the marketplace for the first time!

designboom mart in action
images © designboom

the tokyo designboom mart celebrates its 10th edition!
last year designboom reached a milestone, coming full circle to host the 30th edition of our designboom mart at the ICFF – international contemporary furniture fair new york, the same venue where the mart concept debuted in 2005! this year we celebrate the 10th edition of both – the ICFF designboom mart new york and the TDW tokyo designboom mart! in pioneering the marts, we brought new life to pop-up exhibition culture. now a fixture at major design festivals and seen throughout the largest cities in the world, these cultural exhibitions offer young designers a way to jump start their practice into a professional design career. after sydney, seoul, melbourne, stockholm, NYC, saint-etienne, valencia, copenhagen, … this unique formula now sees its 35th edition.

TV media interviewing isadora espinosa and pedro calle of soroche de los andes
image © designboom

this mart is divided into two five-day editions:
mart session 1: october 25 – 29, 2014
mart session 2: october 30 – november 3, 2014

more than 200 designsouvenirs™ on show!
image © designboom

what are designboom marts?

the designboom mart is a unique interactive platform for emerging and established designers to test their new ideas. visitors are not only able to meet the young avant-garde designers and become familiar with their work but also buy self-produced or limited edition pieces directly from the creators themselves. over the intense days of exhibiting and socializing, the designers have the chance to discuss their work with other like-minded professionals, customers, manufacturers, distributors, press and museum curators – verifying their designs and their packaging credentials.

wild life at the mart (left: ‘maska’ by soroche de los andes from ecuador/NL, right: dog key chain by novofolk from china)
images © designboom

sake pot by ryosuke ando from japan
image © designboom

many talents who were discovered in the previous shows have gone on to become some of the biggest names in the industry. one of them is renowned designer oki sato/nendo – who participated in designboom’s inaugural mart at new york’s ICFF in 2005. in the video below, he recounts the moment when philippe starck bought one of his first products–a volcano shaped tissue dispenser–during his involvement in the mart.

oki sato on his participation in designboom mart
video © designboom

we have also had the pleasure of hosting designers such as hulger (winner of the design of the year 2012 award from the design museum london with their plumen light bulb), joe gebbia (founder of airbnb), georg baldele (the inventor of the floating candles in the harry potter movie), sam baron (director of the design department at FABRICA), david trubridge, nervous system, maxim velcovsky…

check out the video from our busy tokyo mart 2012.

video © john briscella and lana briscella of aminimal – the design duo have participated in the tokyo designboom mart 2012, 2013 and this year, session one!

participating designers of session one: october 25 – 29, 2014