Mechanisms that lead to creative output

Shindo himself is also a creator, and our conversation touched on our different ideas for how to put together a creative organization. I heard that Amana has internal communication mechanisms for spreading information about personnel and work being performed in the Group. They share information throughout their company about who handled what kind of project, working in what kind of teams. They also have a database of as many as 17,900 creators outside of their company which they utilize in team building and project matching for their roughly 1,000 internal staff.

At Sony Design, we also invite influential external people in diverse fields for presentations, networking events, and research, with the intention of inspiring and motivating our internal designers. However, the explanations I heard from Shindo in this conversation made me think that designers inside the company can probably learn from each other as well.

Even though we work within the same organization we actually know surprisingly little about each other’s work. If we are putting together new project teams, for example, we would quickly be able to go outside the organization and assemble a diverse range of personnel if we had more knowledge about who has what experience and expertise. I felt that we could achieve greater creative output by sharing info about what kind of work has been done, for what clients, and to solve what problems.

How a company’s design contributes to society

Photo Miyota is an international photo festival organized jointly by Amana, a company of visual communication professionals who aim for “gratification of the senses” through invigorating sensory experiences, together with the town of Miyota. I thought it was fantastic that they are holding an event that leverages the strengths of their company and at the same time contributes to the community by fostering photography culture and bringing more activity to the town of Miyota.

In recent years, we at the Creative Center who work on Sony’s products and services as well as spatial and other designs, have been exhibiting at events in Japan and abroad to have forums for communicating about our design activities. We now live in an age where many companies publicize the background behind their products and services. I think it would also be good for us to share our mindsets and ideas through our exhibits and subsequent experiences at events. Our designs tend to lean too heavily toward particular fields if we only stick to our normal work, so exhibiting is also a means of venturing into new territory while testing our abilities in the outside world.

One aspect of being a designer is that you have no direct point of contact with the customers. Over the past few years we have been working continuously on initiatives focused on promising possibilities that might arise through the forums where we communicate about our designs. Exhibiting in various locations offers the opportunity to get direct feedback and revelations, which can pave the way to subsequent creations.

One of the topics we are working on beyond that is social implementation. Hidden Senses, which we displayed at Milan Design Week, has a very significant meaning in that it goes beyond simple displays and prototypes. Rather, it is something that was installed as part of a hotel. I want to continue working to find ways that a company’s design can contribute to society. This exhibit helped remind me of that.