The food and drinks served at a party are as important as the party itself. For opening parties, say to launch an exhibition, even more so. It’s integral. But few event producers think in this integrated way. The food and drinks on offer should be a reflection of the essence of the exhibition. What guests put in their mouth is an equally valid creative expression of art – only temporary!

So to celebrate the recent lighting of the Parco Christmas tree and corresponding Motion + Design + Magic exhibition by renowned visual artist Masaru Ozaki, everything was themed to a T (well, a cube actually!).

To celebrate its 40th anniversary Parco, a Japanese department store, commissioned Ozaki to create a magical graphic wonderland. The high-tech display uses advanced technology to project 3D images onto 3 metre tall tree installations in the entrance court of Shibuya Parco Part 1. These giant cubes stacked into a Christmas tree shape with projections beamed on every surface create a wonderful visual feast.

For Food Creation, the company who created the food art for the event, not only is the appearance and taste of food crucial, so is the situation in which it’s eaten. What’s important is making the food come alive – delivering the concept to the stomach.

To express the conceptual catering, the Bread, Espresso & bakery invented three new cubed food products for the launch: chocolate bread with black pepper, tomato bread with squid ink and pink bread with curry. These creations were about ‘expecting the unexpected’ and for guests to be surprised and astounded by bread, a much maligned, taken for granted, daily staple of life.

The shoeless waiters dressed head to toe in black leotards with bow ties – their faces covered in masks – moved around the floor in slow, highly choreographed steps. As the lid was pulled off the serving tray, vapours evaporated around the cubed bread, which was delicately placed around lighted cubes. The waiters were as much motion, design and magic as Oazki’s visual creations.

Oazki’s most famous works involve projecting real-time visuals onto buildings, furniture and objects using the original quarter Cube visioning system. The technology involves the precise scanning of 3D objects and projecting these visuals onto 3D surfaces using optical illusions to give various effects. The artist has projected his work onto the Olympic stadium in Harajuku, temples in Kyoto and opening launches of international retail brand flagships. His use of projection technology truly amazes and stimulates.

To experience the Motion + Design + Magic exhibition yourself, visit Parco Factory, Shibuya Parco Part 1, 6F before 23 November 2009.

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Exclusive online shop 20ltd has recently released a new book called Einstein’s watch.

Newspapers and magazines are never short of glossy images urging us what to aspire to. But what things really do represent the world’s most desirable possessions? Are they necessarily expensive or can they cost nothing at all? Are they always the subject of global fame or are they frequently obscured from the public’s gaze and imagination? In this charming departure from the usual yawnful, consumerist commentary, Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby conduct a judicious review of the year’s available treasures. Their (almost) serious-minded selection takes the reader on a sublimely itinerant journey: from icons of high and popular culture to turning-points in history; from the apex of Hollywood glamour to the most closely-guarded of government secrets; from 104km above the earth to 100ft below the London streets; from the loftiest prices of the world’s great salerooms to the gloriously free-of-charge.

Items featured include: King Kong’s Head, a collection of the Braille edition of Playboy, secret MI6 tunnels, Gandhi’s glasses, Steve McQueen’s motorbike licence, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Michaelangelo’s first ever painting and the last picture of Marilyn Monroe.

It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s höst, it snows. Shorter, dark days that magically turn out to be eternal within the office walls. Awake, you dream. And dreaming, you wonder when did you start yawning, when did you stop fighting, when did you wake up from your illusions, when responsibility did kill the game. Some might argue that designer toys are demodé, while they are hotter than ever for others. My personal view is simple: playing never hurts. Imagination and hope are still alive in that kid, hidden deep beneath our skin. Isn’t a little figurine a tiny fee to pay, as long as it brings back what we lost, somewhere in the past?

Hidden under a black hat is a believer who never stopped playing, who toured around the world, who fought to make his dream real. A dream that started, 5 years ago, as “the somewhat strange idea of merging keys with robots“. A dream,  to launch very soon as Keybotz™, where art melts with a dash of industrial design to crystallize into a Keybot™.

A Keybot™ is a 2.5-inch small figurine that, besides looking splendid in your book shelf can be used as a container for your keys and can be carried around in your bag, your pocket, around your neck, etc. – Just place one key in each of its arms and it will be your faithful key servant forever!

Their diary tells the whole story about the attempt to put Sweden into the designer toy universe, unknown artists into the public domain and your imagination to work - by letting you create your own designs in the DIY version.

Destroy monotony, turn consumption into proactive creation. Sounds good, huh? Cheers for them and, best of luck for this tiny Scandinavian venture. Starting small is a giant first step to spread the spirit.

This is a post by the David Report contributor Claudia Muñiz García.

Artist Jen Stark has recently updated her website. New drawings and some new t-shirt prints as well. Take a look.

You will reach all the 800 past posts through different links in the left hand column. You can make a search for a word, go for a tag, click one of the contributors or dive deep into the archives. I’m quite sure you will find some interesting reading.

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

Textile Ceylon by Josef Frank from Svenskt Tenn.

Textile Aramal by Josef Frank from Svenskt Tenn.

For an hour last week, just as dusk crept over the streets of Daikanyama, the Royal Danish Embassy hosted a small launch reception for its new building façade.

Curated and art directed by Per-Ole Lind the facade features Danish furniture designers of both the classic and new generation. Wanting to create a direct link between the customer and the producer, QR codes were integrated into the façade so people passing the busy thoroughfare can explore the featured designers further with their mobile phones.

For the reception, music came from a laptop placed in the Embassy’s front garden that was also showing loops of Lind creating the façade’s images. Admiring the scene from the footpath, guests drank champagne, ate wasabi peas, downloaded the QR codes to their phones and enjoyed the balmy autumnal weather. There was also a Louise Campbell lamp and Arne Jacobsen chair in the garden that made an appearance courtesy of the Ambassador Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin’s private home and office.

Denmark is well known for its furniture design of the 50s and 60s and typecast by designers such as Arne Jacobsen and Hans J. Wegner; but this showcase attempts to introduce the Japanese to a fresh set of designers. A few ‘oldies but goodies’ are included, but the focus is on emerging Danish design talent. As the Ambassador said at the launch, “I’d like the Japanese to see the new generation of young Danish designers – not just the big giants – and how they’re holding onto tradition, but designing in a modern way.”

The eight designers featured are Thomas Petersen, Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner, Louise Campbell, Ole Jensen, Komplot, Gamfratesi and Cecilie Manz.

The Embassy plans to change its façade every three months to a topic of interest to the Japanese people. To see this Design Week influenced façade, visit the Embassy at 29-6 Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0033 Japan.

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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