Naoki Ito joins AdFest as Outdoor Jury President
Naoki Ito, Chief Creative Officer and Founder of PARTY in Tokyo joins the AdFest 2013 Lotus Awards as Jury President of Outdoor.
Ito (left) is famous for creating campaigns that are distinctly physical and experiential, which have received countless accolades at global award shows. He joined Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo in 2009 as Executive Creative Director before founding the creative lab PARTY in 2011.
“I believe that Outdoor is a place to set up an experience. Even a single billboard creates an experience of how people stop and take a look in front of it,” says Ito, explaining his passion for the Outdoor medium.
“When you live in a metropolis like Tokyo, cities like Shibuya make you feel like you are in an amusement park. Shibuya is a collection of amusement and entertainment, and the energy of the youth who gather in it. I regard creating an Outdoor campaign as adding a new attraction to the town.”
Ito has created groundbreaking works for clients such as Nike, Google, Sony, Sagami Original and Microsoft Xbox, which were highly awarded at AdFest before going on to attract international acclaim.
“Many of Naoki’s ideas become part of popular culture. He uses technology to facilitate human experience, and in this way he is one of the most influential, visionary creative leaders in Asia today,” says Jimmy Lam, President of AdFest.
In 2012, PARTY launched an exhibition called “OMOTE 3D SHASHIN KAN”, which attracted a great deal of international attention for its use of 3D printers, which were used to create tiny figurines of people attending the gallery.
Ito is a professor at the Department of Information Design, Kyoto University of Art and Design. In 2011 he was appointed by The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as Creative Director of the Cool Japan Strategy Promotion Program.
Ito believes AdFest plays an important role in showcasing Asian creativity to the world: “Customs, history, climate, language, food, race, religion – everything in Asia is unique indeed. Advertising in Asia is a reflection of the unique culture in Asia, thus informing the whole world about the brilliant advertisements in Asia has significant value,” he says.
AdFest takes place on 17th – 19th March at the Pattaya Exhibition & Conference Hall (PEACH) in Thailand.