Opening of FabCafe's Global Creative Awards
"YouFab 2018"

Kei Wakabayashi was born in 1971 and spent his early childhood in London and New York. After graduating from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in French Studies at Waseda University, he joined Heibonsha, and became part of the editorial department for “Gekkan Taiyo.” In 2000, became an independent editor. Afterward, he edited a wide range of publications, including magazines, books, and exhibition records, and became active as a music journalist. He was assigned as the Chief Editor for the Japanese edition of “WIRED” in 2012, and left the post in 2017. In 2018, he launched blkswn publishers, Inc. and authored the book, “Sayonara Mirai” (Goodbye, Future), published by Iwanami Shoten (April​ 2018).

Since 1995 he has been a managing and an artistic director of Ars Electronica. 1995/1996 he developed the groundbreaking exhibition strategies of Ars Electronica Center with a small team of artists and technicians and was responsible for the set-up and establishment of Ars Electronica’s own R&D facility, Ars Electronica Futurelab. Since 2004 he has been in charge of developing Ars Electronica’s program of international exhibition tours. From 2005 on he planned the expansion of Ars Electronica Center and implemented the total substantive makeover of its exhibits. Stocker is a guest speaker at many international conferences and a Visiting Professor at Osaka University of Arts as well as guest lecturer at Deusto University Bilbao. He is also a consultant for many international companies on creativity and innovation management.

Julia Cassim’s career spans the worlds of art, design, museum studies and social activism. She studied fine art at Manchester College of Art and Design and Tokyo University of the Arts on a Japanese Government scholarship. She has an MPhil from the International Centre for Heritage Studies at the University of Newcastle and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Art (RCA) and of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and is an international authority on inclusive design. The 24 and 48 Hour Inclusive Design Challenges she organised at the RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design have been held in 21 cities worldwide, involved over 800 designers and were the subject of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2010.

In May 2014, she was appointed Professor at the KYOTO Design Lab, a centre for interdisciplinary design innovation at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. A recent project bringing together science and design won a Dutch Design Award in 2016. She was included in Design Week’s ‘Hot 50’ list of people who most influenced the design world in 2010.

Mr. Yoshiizumi has undertaken various projects seeking to “create other possibilities” through design. He has conducted experimental independent research projects and presented the results at the Milan Design Week, DesignMiami, Maison & Objet Paris, Hong Kong M+, and other domestic and international art museums and design events. Yoshiizumi collaborates with various clients, taking a unique approach which maximizes the role of design in projects based on research findings.

His work has been collected at the Hong Kong M+ museum. He has also received many domestic and international awards, including the DesignMiami/ Swarovski Designers of the Future Award. In 2018, he was a GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2018 Jury Member.

Co-founded Loftwork Inc. in 2000, which rolls out the diversely projects including web, community, and spatial design initiatives. The agency operates multiple services: “FabCafe”, a digital manufacturing cafe, “MTRL”, a creative space for creators, and “AWRD”, a platform to promote co-creation with creators. She also serves as the Japan Liaison to the Director of MIT Media Lab, and CEO of Hidakuma. Hidakuma is a new form of public-private joint enterprise, which aims to create regional industries through traditional techniques and forest regeneration.

Toshiya Fukuda
Hakuhodo Fellow / Chief Creative x Technology Officer, Osaka University of the Arts Professor of Design, Triple Seven Creative Strategies Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Co-Founder of FabCafe

Tokyo, Kyoto, Hida, Taipei, Bangkok, Barcelona, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Singapore, Monterrey. FabCafe is a creator’s cafe network, extending 10 locations around the world. At the FabCafes, unique creators gather, meet, pit their talents against each other, and give presentations on their ideas and creations every day. Since the beginning, the FabCafe Global Network has supported the birth of over 15,000 ideas by holding a various kind of creative workshops and events, all while also offering delicious coffee and comfortable spaces to relax.

The YouFab Global Creative Awards is a compilation of the year’s activities. Curators at each location call out to creators they have met and networked within that year to compile a number of impressive submissions from around the world. At the same time, we are discovering and supporting creators who are likely to change the next generation by recognizing and celebrating their unique works. The large number of YouFab winners so far are connected globally through winning the YouFab Award and their field of activities have expanded.

From Local to Global, Global to Local.

We believe that the next generation of talent is not only born from advanced research facilities or university labs, but also from small towns and communities around the world. The transmission from local to global returns results back to the local. Through this cycle, YouFab is ever becoming more supportive of the world’s creatives, as well as international creative businesses.