Japan Trends
Muji Manufactured By Thonet
Thonet, the oldest furniture brand in the world and the German manufacturer of high-quality furnishings, is producing a simplified form of bentwood and tubular steel furniture for the Japanese retail chain Muji. The products are manufactured entirely at Thonet’s headquarters in Frankenberg, Germany to the company’s customary high quality standards.
The first models are reminiscent of those bentwood chairs that were the cornerstone on which the Thonet success story was established. The most famous bentwood chair, No. 14 is celebrating its 150th birthday and is probably the oldest industrial product still in production today. The chair is sold with range of tables that has a convincingly understated elegance, and it marries perfectly with the expressively styled chair. The English designer James Irvine, who is now working and living in Milan as creative director at Thonet, is responsible for the reinterpretation of the bentwood furniture.
In addition to the bentwood tradition, the “Muji manufactured by Thonet” collection also features the second revolutionary trend of the Thonet brand, the company’s tubular steel furniture tradition dating back to the 1920s. An iconographic tubular steel cantilever chair is sold alongside a desk and a range of side tables that have a convincingly effortless style and cool beauty like the original models. This collection was created by the German designer Konstantin Grcic.
The “Muji manufactured by Thonet” collection is in stores in Japan. The collection is to be enhanced with further models in the near future.
Nintendo DS Lite Offered in Classrooms
The sight of teachers confiscating electronic games from their charges is about to become old school. Nintendo has announced a classroom version of the popular Nintendo DS Lite handheld machine.
Starting February 2010, the company plans to supply schools with an assortment of Nintendo DS Lites, PC with Wi-Fi connectivity, and special educational software developed with Sharp. The idea behind this is to have the entire class work on assignments wirelessly and beamed to the handhelds from the teacher’s terminal. When ready, the completed work can be sent back the same way, neatly reducing paperwork.
Considering the DS touchscreen and stylus is ideal for writing Japanese, gaming-extensions in the classroom would work well in the future.
This is an indicative sign that Nintendo is moving beyond gaming as sales sag in Japan.