SWEDISH DESIGN AGENCY OCEAN OBSERVATIONS TAKES A RARE LEAP INTO THE CITY OF WONDERS WHEN OPENING A NEW OFFICE IN TOKYO.

STOCKHOLM/TOKYO 27TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2010

Few international companies with a focus on user-centered design have set up their offices in Japan, but Ocean does not fear the cumbersome work that paves the way for an establishment in Japan. Last week a joyful team of Ocean designers and business developers spirited 8000 kilometers away with their storyboards, schematics and graphics in order to work closely with their client Japanese operator KDDI. This is only the start of a long, thrilling journey encouraging people and companies with different backgrounds to come along.

— It has been a dream of ours to have some kind of presence in Tokyo since we first founded Ocean in 2001. I remember coming here for my master thesis in 1999, and it was love at first sight. I just knew that I had to work in this challenging and exciting environment one day, says Sofia Svanteson, Founder and CEO of Ocean.

A curiosity of the Japanese, an admiration of their mobile phone design and a determined work force spawned a successful relationship between Ocean and KDDI in 2008. It all started with a mobile music player concept and Ocean's user-friendly, playful approach and their commitment to deliver new design that works ticked something within KDDI. After the initial concept, Ocean was trusted with the redesign of the Android user interface for IS01, a smartbook designed by cherished industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa.

One finds plenty of design inspiration in the Japanese society, distinguished by an extraordinary combination of ancient traditions and advanced high-tech systems. But there is also a lot to give; Ocean will keep exploring Japanese users of complex services and interfaces and aims to be able to help out with lovable designs.

— Interfaces of many types of appliances are becoming more and more feature rich and difficult to use. Based on our experience from designing services and products with the users’ needs and behaviours in mind we see plenty of opportunities along the horizon, says Mayako Fagerfjäll, Managing Director Tokyo who also looks forward to serve markets like Taiwan, Korea and China from a closer distance than before.

For anyone who wants to follow the aspirations of the Swedes living and designing in Tokyo there is a blog to be found right here: http://oceantokyo.tumblr.com/ Enjoy!

For more information, please contact:
Sofia Svanteson, Founder and CEO

+46.733.113.240

sofia (a) oceanobservations (dot) com

ABOUT OCEAN OBSERVATIONS

Ocean Observations is an award winning design agency focused on connected consumer products. We are located in Stockholm, Sweden and Tokyo, Japan and work with clients all over the world. Some of them are among the most influential companies in the industry, such as Nokia, Vodafone, KDDI, Skype, Ericsson, ABB, Hutchison 3, O2 and Huawei. Our team is a sweet blend of interaction designers, graphic designers, industrial designers, strategists and developers.

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