Face to Face with... PARTY

If anyone has taken advantage of the ever-changing advertising environment and rapid move towards digital and interactive, the group behind campaigns including Nike Music Shoe, Sour Mirrors, Uniqlo Lucky Switch/Lucky Machine and many more impressive campaigns has.

The young creatives, including Masashi Kawamura, Morihiro Harano, Naoki Ito, Qanta Shimizu, and Hiroki Nakamura recently joined forces to form New York and Tokyo-based agency, PARTY, so we have a feeling there are plenty more innovative irons in the fire. Here, former creative at Wieden + Kennedy, Kawamura, tells us about the thinking behind throwing a PARTY.

So why was now the right time to launch PARTY?

The emergence of various interactive technologies and social networking platforms diversified the method of communication, and is starting to blur the boundaries between advertising, design and art.

In the 20th century, design changed people’s lives, and the industry changed with it. In the 21st century, we believe that interactivity will change everything once again and we are at that turning point. We thought this is the perfect timing to use our expertise in this field to create content that can lead to a bigger change.

How would you describe the ethos behind the company?

PARTY is a purely creatively driven company. The unique mix of creative directors and technical directors means it’s a company of both thinkers and makers. In order to create a deeper, more engaging interaction, you need skilled insight and creativity in both technology and storytelling. We feel that our past achievements prove that we are professionals in this field.

And what type of work are you hoping to do; what style of projects appeal to you as a team?

We will be partially working on advertising, but PARTY’s core philosophy is to bring technology, storytelling and creativity to a wider range of areas, including products, services, social platforms, architecture and branded entertainment content. This wide remit positions PARTY as a new kind of ideas company and one built for a changing industry.

The company’s creative leadership features some of Japan’s top talent, how did you all come together?

The five of us have always known each other through our works. But we’ve never had much of a chance to work together, since we all worked in different highly established boutiques. But there was a moment when all of us thought we can perhaps become one team, and we felt that spark was an opportunity we shouldn't overlook.

To us, the word ‘party’ means a place where different people gather for the same purpose. These five talents gathered together miraculously to start off with. We’d like to spread this circle to the world.

PARTY is based in Tokyo and NYC; will the two offices be working on different projects or trying to unite the two markets?

The two offices will have different projects, but we will be working together in terms of creative staff. We would love to assign the best team for a project whether they are in Tokyo or in NYC. In some cases we may suggest to do a big project that can potentially span across both the Tokyo and New York spaces.

We’re also aiming to exchange staff between the offices to have a healthy mix of culture and to bring in different perspectives. Although the five partners will take turns running the NYC office, they will constantly be communicating and overseeing all the work from both offices.

Can you tell us about anything you are working on at the moment?

We can’t mention specific client names, but we are making an iPhone game/service platform, several interactive music videos, a mobile social network platform, and a digital art installation. The first thing we made together was our business card. No project too small!

What advertising projects have stood out for you recently, or made you wish that you’d done them?

Projects such as Museum of Me, Diesel Island, Be Your Own Souvenir were nicely done. A little bit old, but things like the Toyota IQ Font is something we would love to come up with ourselves.

How do you hope PARTY will look in five years time?

Innovation through added interactivity is starting to occur all around the world. We’d love to be at the forefront of that change. Also we would love to be able to export our Japanese skills and ideas to the world, and hopefully becoming a hub of Eastern and Western creative talents. We aim to open a London office in the near future.