Lost in Tokyo with an Italian!

I find Japanese design wonderfully whimsical yet a bit confusing. The jamming together of old world ethstetic and the hyper-new design of the 21st century makes for some strange creations. Does the normal Japanese person feel the same? I wonder if they have the same visual sense of history about their cultural past as us westerners (probably somewhat distorted) perception of Asian culture? Or are they, for the most part, caught up in the modern visual vernacular, unaware of any blending of styles? Having never been to Japan I can only surmise from photos and movies the design truth of the Japanese environment. I usually find beautiful and unique images better than real life. That said, I think that well designed environments can trigger the same feeling that beautiful film, photos, paintings and style can evoke. Have you ever thought, "wow, I feel like I'm in a film". Possibly this is because you're responding to a visceral response to your current environment and a longing to be somewhere else beautiful and interesting. When I watch a modern Japanese film I notice that I'm as drawn to watching the cities in the background as I am in the story. It's facinating to see all the crazy buildings and signs. In the film, "Lost in Translation", I enjoyed the two nightclub scenes. Indeed the two scenes made the film for me. One was very organic, in a modern sense, with lots of blue crazy light flashing from wonderful globes of light. The other club was a stark fetish club, very stylish and clean. In both cases the club goer, because of the environment, knows exactly what kind of experience they are in for. The design was of the highest focus and clairity. In our world we suffer greatly from lack of design focus in our everyday life. How are we suppose to feel good about the environment we are in if the design is unfocused. It makes us uncomfortable and breeds a subtle discontent in our daily life.

Enter Claudio Colucci. A Italian designer working in Japan merging Italian style with Japanese culture resulting in interesting work. I put a couple of photos of his work above.

His site: www.colucci-design.com