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Marrying humanities/science/art with industry/government/academia to invent new futures

Tokyo—June 11, 2015—Hakuhodo Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Hirokazu Toda, President & CEO), Japan’s second largest advertising company, has established WHERE ART and SCIENCE FALL IN LOVE Laboratory, a next-generation creative project that meshes humanities/science/art and industry/government/academia to invent new futures. The new Lab started full operations in June.

WHERE ART and SCIENCE FALL IN LOVE Laboratory is led by Kentaro Ichiki, a Hakuhodo Creative Director who has been involved in the turnaround of numerous corporate and government projects. Ichiki became Editor in Chief of Kohkoku, a journal he reoriented to cover the topic “where art and science fall in love” in 2012, and was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2014.

The Laboratory’s members are leaders in the fields of creative direction, design, programming, data science, architecture, engineering, biology and music. They take perspectives that are often viewed as being in opposition to one another, such as emotion and logic, tradition and future, Japanesque and globalization, design and technology, corporate profit and sustainability, and combine them on a higher dimension to solve social and corporate issues using a much broader frame of reference than ever before.

The Laboratory provides companies with growth scenario support and creative consulting that take into consideration long-term social trends. It also promotes integration of industry, government and academia through creative joint research with tertiary education facilities, development of growth strategies for governmental organizations and local authorities, and commercialization of projects in collaborations with industry. Furthermore, through its affiliations with investment institutions, the Laboratory sets up unprecedented business schemes that combine investment, business management and creative toward inventing new futures.

About WHERE ART and SCIENCE FALL IN LOVE Laboratory

Representative: Kentaro Ichiki
Established: April 1, 2015
Members: 6 (at establishment)
URL: http://whereartandsciencefallinlove.org

Contact:
contact@whereartandsciencefallinlove.org

Media contacts:
Corporate Public Relations Division
Chie Nishio: chie.nishio@hakuhodo.co.jp
Kunio Eto: kunio.eto@hakuhodo.co.jp
Tel: +81 3 6441 6161 Fax: +81 3 6441 6166

Kentaro Ichiki

Creative Director

Kentaro Ichiki was born in 1974 and graduated from Hitotsubashi University. He completed a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He served as a jury member at ADFEST and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (2012), and was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2014).
He takes an integrated approach to client challenges, from designing strategies and developing TV commercials and other creative and media, to product development. Has handled branding for numerous clients, both Japanese and international, in the auto, communications, home appliances, games, cosmetics, hospitality and education industries, and governmental sector.
He concurrently held the post of Editor in Chief of Kohkoku (Advertising) magazine from 2012 to 2014. He revamped the journal as “Kohkoku: WHERE ART and SCIENCE FALL IN LOVE” around the theme “the clash of reason and emotion.” During his tenure, he ran features in every edition on creativity for a new age, going beyond the advertising industry to incorporate the fields of art, cinema, architecture, education and science.

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