Creators shop Loop, a space for encouraging initiation, gives young creators a place to test out their ambitious proposals for creative fields like design, fashion and the industrial arts and supports their activities. Named “Loop” to indicate the circular connection in feedback between creator and user, it was designed as a marketing-based shop that gives creators who plan to establish themselves in the Nagoya area the opportunity to sell their products, find out about users’ needs and plug this response back into product development.
Loop opened in November 2011 as a space to support creators’ businesses in Nagoya. International Design Center NAGOYA handles project management, with the aim of promoting creative industry.
May 12, 2013 was the final day of the 3rd session. Two new creators passed the exam for the fourth session, and three passed the exam for the fifth session. Each session lasts six months, a period during which the creators, through setting up periodic booth displays and handling client relations, gain both experience and customers. The public workshops and other PR events planned and held by the creator/tenants, publicized and managed by International Design Center and the City of Nagoya are so popular with generations of fans that they are filled by lottery. In a new experiment, beginning in October of 2013, Loop set up a corner shop in a free space in Fushimi Million-za theater where movie fans congregate and started consigning creators’ products. This effort is designed to both strengthen publicity aimed at this art- and design-oriented group and gain new customers.

Tenants

IKEYAN★
IKEYAN is a group of young artists centered around the budding ceramicist Ryota Aoki from Mino in Gifu Prefecture that aims to improve and develop the ceramic art world. By introducing in exhibition format the work of selected young and individualistic creators and selling the work of cutting-edge artists that has few outlets for presentation, IKEYAN shows us the “now” of ceramic art.
(Ryota Aoki / sessions 2, 3 and 4)
IKEYAN★

Inaguma Furniture & Cabinetry
Dedicated to furniture that can fit in with our daily lives and to making things using natural wood, this tenant strives to combine pure form and human imagination. With cooperatively produced pieces that include original furniture and combine the work of a ceramicist and an illustrator, Inaguma presents innovative lifestyle ideas from multiple perspectives.
(Yusuke Inaguma / session 5)
Inaguma Furniture & Cabinetry

daladala
Using the traditional materials and methods of Mongolia and Kenya, this tenant adds spice to subtle ideas to create its products, which work well with the Japanese seasons. While reflecting regional climates and cultures, daladala nonetheless projects new and distinct charms of each country.
(Hitomi Saya, Tatsunori Saya / sessions 3, 4 and 5)
daladala

NUAnce
NUAnce is a brand of handmade products by creators with ties to Nagoya University of Arts (NUA). This tenant treats subtle differences, tints and shading, i.e. nuances, as individual traits of handmade objects, and develops jewelry and textile pieces by talented NUA artists.
(Shinsuke Ito / session 5)
NUAnce

BASEY & African Hands
This tenant is a collaborative shop between BASEY, which makes and sells ethical accessories and household goods, and African Hands, which sells various African goods and Tinga Tinga art. With the concept of live together, mature together, this tenant offers original items created with partners in the developing world.
(Yumiko Yoshii, Yachiyo Lehner / session 5)
BASEY
African Hands

bonanza made in Nagoya
This is a group of young craftspeople who have succeeded their elders in leather work in Nagoya’s Nishi-ku. In session 4, this unit of new craftspeople offers high quality handmade bags, accessories, and other leather small goods for women. As a way of highlighting the benefits of handwork, it is developing partial special orders, allowing customization of design and coloring.
(Nami Hirao / sessions 1, 2 and 4)
bonanza made in Nagoya

Mei-butsu
These are Nagoya souvenirs conceived by designers. These items, whose planning concept was “souvenir objects accompanied by souvenir stories”, combine episodes conveying the charm of Nagoya, resulting in a collection of items with an unexpected hint of humor.
(Takashi Honda / sessions 1, 2, 3 and 4)
*Because this tenant has been here for four sessions, this store is closed.
Mei-butsu

WAKITAO
This is illustrator Yoshiko Wakita’s brand. With her stencil-dyed illustrations, she has worked on stationery and sundries and developed original products. Dyeing her original worldview on washi Japanese paper, presenting the coexistence of simple lively people, animals and plants, she communicates the warmth of handwork and artistry.
(Yoshiko Wakita / sessions 4 and 5)
WAKITAO

wacstyle
This tenant is a woodworking studio producing and selling custom-order furniture and accessories developed with the concept, connecting wood and comfort. Through high quality products made with care, objects that you see, touch, and use comfortably, wacstyle suggests an essential lifestyle and the highest level of comfort.
(Wataru Nishio / sessions 3 and 4)
wacstyle

*Tenants are chosen by public offering every six months and have between six months and two years to work on display from the ground up, sell their products, hold events and publicize their activities.

Shop information
Name: creators shop Loop
Address: 4th Floor, Design Center Building, NADYA Park
18-1, Sakae 3-chome, Naka-ku, Nagoya, 460-0008 Japan
Hours: 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
Closed: Tuesdays & year-end and New Year holidays (It may also be temporarily closed before & after each tenancy period.)
Primary Project Constituent: City of Nagoya
Planning and management: International Design Center NAGOYA, Inc.
Special cooperation: Creative Design City Nagoya Organizing Committee
Cooperation: Gain / LACHIC / Council of Chubu Design Organizations / NPO Made in Japan Project

Tenancy period (Fourth and Fifth Session)
One session: 6 months (Renewal possible), About six applicants chosen by public offering every six months.
The 4th session: May 17-November 17, 2013
The 5th session: November 22, 2013-May 18, 2014
Showcasing period at Fushimi MIllion-za movie theater: October 1, 2013-April 30, 2014 (Ongoing)