This year, Design Tide, the Tokyo based product design show, went into its fifth year. It's been interesting following this event the past 4 years and seeing it grow from a small insider event into a very mature exhibition. This year it somehow felt like already surpassing its bigger brother, the Design Week – a similar event held at the same time.

For those who never had the chance to be in Tokyo around autumn and see the event, the show focuses on Japanese and  international interior and product design, but also brings together selected designs from other areas. The exhibition is split into two sections. A showcase section, which shows mainly prototypes of mostly young international designers. In the second hall, visitors cannot just look at commercial products but also shop them.

This year I was very impressed about the event architecture with its cute soft clouds. It broke nicely with the more typical cubical layouts of other exhibitions and made the event feel as a walkable installation. The super friendly design was a great backdrop for the products, allowing the visitor to look through from one island to the others.The softness of the material absorbed all noise and created a perfect relaxing atmosphere.

Here are some of this years personal favorites. I was very much in a Japanese design mood, so forgive that I miss out on most of the international designers.

Stationary boxes from Sosuke Nakabo, currently working for Jasper Morrison.

Gumtape by Japanese artist 3-1 design

Key Holder by Hachisan design (83 design)

Nike photo gallery showing "Football Baby" by Masashi Asada

Carpet corner light

Designtide Website