Outline

Supporting the Change from "Manufactured Goods" to "Designed Goods" with Design

[Service Introduction]
For the future of industry, design holds a vital key to the ability to compete internationally in an age where we are rushing toward becoming a global "information society".

This past September, in the Takaoka Office Park, three institutes, the Toyama Industrial Advancement Center, The Design Center of Toyama, and the Takaoka Design and Craft Center, have opened, conglomerated as the "Sun Center". With the goal of improving the existing abilities of designers, as well as training the design development industry, the Center totally supports the process of creation, from product planning, to design development, right through to sales distribution.

The level of technical skill within Toyama Prefecture is considered to be high level even on a national scale, and counts an impressive number of achievements on the ladder of technical development.

However, it is unfortunate that there has been somewhat a lack of power in developing those achievements effectively into vital, independent products. Regardless of whether within Toyama prefecture, or across the country, this problem is beginning to be considered as one of the main factors in the current sluggishness of the business situation.

Creating attractive goods within one's company by means of incorporating the planning and development strength of design in to high-level technical expertise, and furthermore cultivating markets for the goods is becoming a problem that demands urgent attention of industry in Toyama Prefecture. The Center can support the industry which is struggling with this problem, taking existing "manufactured goods", and by means of industrial design, take on the role of turning them into higher quality, more refined and more polished "designed goods".

The Center is maintained as an institution totally supporting the design process, from initial planning, to design development, to sales and distribution, with the goal of improving the existing skills of designers as well as training the industry.