Nagoya’s appointment as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the design category, IdcN has been proactive in exchanges with other member cities and in promoting Nagoya’s design activities. This article covers highlights of Creative Design City Nagoya’s design promotion projects of 2010-2011.
*For more information, please visit CDCN’s website.

■Creative Design City Nagoya 2010 Major Projects

CODE: Poster Design Competition 2010 [Nagoya]
Theme: Identities of UNESCO Cities of Design
This was a collaborative project of the seven UNESCO Cities of Design as of June 2010: Berlin, Buenos Aires, Kobe, Montreal, Nagoya, Shanghai and Shenzhen. We collected posters that expressed the characteristic visual identities of each city. Seventy posters were selected, 10 for each city, and exhibited in each city and posted on various websites.

Exhibition of Award-Winning Posters [Nagoya]:
Sat., October 9 2010 – Sun., October17 2010 (Design Gallery, International Design Center NAGOYA)

The 7th International Competition “NAGOYA DESIGN DO! 2010”
“Design to Empower Tomorrow”
This is a biannual international competition that aims to discover the hidden talent of young designers and educate them. The theme this year was “Design to Empower Tomorrow”. We were searching every field of design―product, spatial, visual communication, systems―to find out what design can do to protect and save the future: the near future, the distant future, things close to us, and things of the wider world. There was an autumn exhibition of the award-winning works chosen in the two-stage judging process.

Winning Entries Exhibition: Thu., November 25 2010 – Sun., December 5 2010 (Design Gallery, International Design Center NAGOYA)

Exhibits: Grand Prix: 1 award; Division Prizes: 4 awards; Honorable Mentions: 20 pieces

International New Designers Workshop 2010
“The Connected within the Disconnected | Nagoya Discovered through Design”
The International New designers Workshop has been held since 2000 as a project aiming not only to raise the level of design for young creators, but also to create an international network for the future, and expand their international outlook through collaboration bridging different genres and cultures.  The theme this time was “The Connected Within The Disconnected | Nagoya Discovered through Design”. There is actually continuity among the phenomena, history and culture that at first glance seem to be disparate. The question for participants was how to review these and give them both continuity and communicability. In teams, they proposed design solutions based on consideration of their field research.
Workshop: Fri., November 26 2010 – Thu., December 2 2010 (International Design Center NAGOYA, Nagoya Area)

Design Education Program “NAGOYA Kids Design 2011”
We have been holding design seminars and workshops as educational programs with an eye to human resource development through design as well as promoting an understanding of design within the citizenry. Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in design for the protection and nurturing of children as well as design that opens up a bright future. Thus, as the main project of 2010-2011, we held family workshops and exhibitions on the theme of design for kids.
NAGOYA Kids Design Exhibition: Wed., February 23 2011- Mon.,  February28 2011 (Design Gallery, International Design Center NAGOYA)

Family Design Workshop: Sun., February 27 2011 (Design Workshop, International Design Center NAGOYA)

■Creative Cities Network Exchange Programs

Seoul Design Fair 2010: Design for All
Our delegate attended the opening ceremony of Seoul Design Fair 2010, an integrated design event whose primary venue was The Seoul Olympic Stadium. Nagoya and other cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities worked together to have their exhibits shown in the pavilion of the City of Seoul, which is the 2010 World Design Capital*. The exhibit included video presentations of the activities of the Network cities.
Fri., September 17 2010 – Sat., September 18 2010 (Seoul Olympic Stadium, Seoul, Korea)

International Design Forum + UNESCO Design Cities Network Summit 2010
In the International Design Forum held at Buenos Aires Metropolitan Design Center, our representative presented our activities as a UNESCO Design City. The UNESCO Design Cities Network Summit 2010 was held concurrently. This is a sub-network conference of the UCCN, during which “Souvenir” was chosen as the theme of the next collaborative project CODE. Delegates from Network cities also discussed promoting cooperation and realizing exchange projects not only among creators but also with educational organizations such as universities and colleges located in the various Network cities.
Mon., October 25 2010 – Thu., October 28 2010 (Metropolitan Design Center, Buenos Aires, Argentine)

Design and Mobility in Creative Cities
The international conference was held under the theme “mobility”; how can design improve mobility in a so-called creative city? Keisuke Kitagawa, a member of our 2010 Workshop Planning Committee, made a presentation featuring the past and the present of Nagoya from the perspective of design and mobility extending from Nagoya’s own culture and tradition, to its contemporary subculture that includes cosplay and the parasite cinema project.
Sun., November 21 2010 – Tue., November 23 2010 (Saint-Étienne, France)

UNESCO Creative Cities Network General Assembly + Shenzhen International Conference 2010
The Network’s annual meeting was held with the participation of the Secretariat of UNESCO and 21 out of 27 of the appointed UNESCO creative cities. (Data as of December 2010). In the concurrently held Shenzhen International Conference 2010, our delegate participated in a panel discussion whose overall theme was “New technology, new media, and creative city synergy”. In these moderated panel discussions, representatives of Network cities enjoyed a lively exchange of views and opinions on many themes. Workshops based on keywords like “gastronomy” and “new media” also encouraged a variety of cultural exchange among the delegates.
Mon., December 6 2010 – Thu., December 9 2010 (Shenzhen, China)