Little Tokyo Design Week: Future City (LTDW) celebrates the power and energy of cutting edge design and technology now emerging from Japan and its intersection with current trends materializing in Los Angeles. Design’s ability to move us towards a more sustainable and creative urban lifestyle is at the heart of this five-day festival, which will be open to the public from July 13 – July 17, 2011.
Organized thematically and geographically around four Design Zones, Little Tokyo Design Week will engage local and international designers, artists, architects, filmmakers, corporations, and students from the Southern California region to explore possible scenarios for a “New Urban Lifestyle.” Southern California has long been a leader in innovation, high tech industry, and experimental thinking and Little Tokyo, one of downtown LA’s most sought-after districts, is ripe to serve as a testing ground to re-evaluate our existing lifestyles and re-think the future of urbanism in Los Angeles and beyond. Spanning the geographic breadth of Little Tokyo, LTDW will present a series of programs that integrate Little Tokyo’s Big Three cultural institutions (the Japanese American National Museum, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, and the MOCA Geffen), community partners, retailers, and restaurants. Throughout the festival, symposia featuring progressive talent in the fields of design, technology, and the environment will be sited throughout the plethora of interesting meeting and plaza spaces Little Tokyo offers. Pecha Kucha nights (a series of presentations of 20 slides, each shown in 20 seconds), outdoor film screenings, fashion shows, product demonstrations, performances, music, and awards ceremonies will round out LTDW’s exciting schedule. With an anticipated audience of 75,000 over the five-day festival, the target audience of Little Tokyo Design Week includes design professionals; the Los Angeles business, nonprofi t community, and film and television communities; entrepreneurs; students; the design savvy public; tourists; and more. Little Tokyo Design Week is a collaboration between Hitoshi Abe, Chair, UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design & Principal, Atelier Hitoshi Abe; Jon Kaji, President, Kaji & Associates / Nikkei Center; and the LTDW Steering Committee. Little Tokyo Design Week is currently seeking sponsorship for the July 2011 festival. This five-day event offers sponsors and individuals a unique opportunity for brand exposure and positioning, including, but not limited to, PR, logo placement in online and print materials, and live event integration. For in-kind, media, and general sponsorship inquiries, please contact [email protected]
