TAB Talks #3 “French à Tokyo” – Report | TABlog | Tokyo Art Beat

Paul Baron, one of the founders of Tokyo Art Beat, invited three French creators living and working in Tokyo to speak at the third edition of TAB Talks “French à Tokyo”. Paul himself is French, was inspired to move to Tokyo 5 years ago by a fascination for Japanese visual culture. Yet Paul still feels like an outsider sometimes, and curiosity towards other foreign creators working in Tokyo motivated him to have this talk.

After a brief introduction of the guests and their work, Paul welcomed the three guests on stage to discuss “working in Tokyo as a French person”. Audrey Fondecave, an editor and art director from pop culture magazine OK Fred; Gwenaël Nicolas, a product and space designer; and Jérôme Senaillat, an illustrator and web designer.

When asked what brought them to Tokyo, Audrey said she simply picked the place which was “the furthest away from France”. Jérôme said he was always interested in Japan hearing stories from his grandfather who was in Japan before and after WWII. Gwenaël, who has been living in Japan for more than 16 years, said “the reason why you come here is not important. It is the reason why you stay that matters”.

“It’s not the city that makes people. It’s the people that make the city”, said Gwenaël. A Japanese member of the audience said that the guests all had perspectives on Japan that differ from Japanese people and sometimes it helps him to see his own culture in an objective way. He said “We all hope to see more cross-cultural creativity generated by people from different backgrounds and opinions mingle in Tokyo.”

The next TAB Talks will take place on April 8. Chris Palmieri, one of the founders of AQ, a Tokyo-based design company, will invite New York-based type designer Christian Schwartz to discuss some of the work he has done for print media in the USA and abroad. You can read the interview on TABlog. Asahi and Yomiuri, two of the largest newspapers in Japan, will debut their new fonts and layout this spring. Please take this opportunity to come and discover the world of typography and how it affects our everyday lives.