Mia, Jesper
Denmark
Jul.2008

Mia and Jesper arrived in Japan 24hrs ago and they found Design Festa on 'wall paper guid'. They are studying fashion in Denmark and Jesper always wanted to come to japan. Mia and Jesper said good to see arts from differnt culture. Jesper also said this place reminds him Berlin and west coast in USA!!He also liked Japanses Beer!!:)

Beck
Melbourne, Australia
Jul.17.2008

Beck is on her first visit to Japan. Going to New York first luckily took off a bit of the shock factor of being in a big city, and says Tokyo blows New York out of the water! She's enjoying being in a place so visually different to home, and being immersed in a different culture. This was also her first visit to Design Festa, and she said she especially liked the exhibit with the large toy-like object hanging from the ceiling. Beck is also an illustrator, doing a lot of cross-media work collaborating with poets, musicians and visual artists. She also does installation work, and makes lots of crazy toys! You can see her work on her website: www.beckwheeler.net.

Andrea
Melbourne, Australia
Jul.17.2008

Andrea and her friend Beck dropped by the gallery today for an iced coffee and to check the place out. They're on their way back from an illustraion conference in New York that sounds like it was totally amazing! Andrea lived in Japan for three years, and says that as a result her art is influenced by Japanese style and culture. She has exhibited at Design Festa twice, and said that getting feedback from people and being able to connect with other artists has changed the direction of her career. Thanks for dropping by, nice to see you! Check out her work at www.otoshimono.org.

Denise, Ignacio, Ami
Spain, Brazil, iapan
Jul 12.2008

I interviewed Denise, Ignacio and Ami this afternoon. Denise and ignacio are just visiting Tokyo for 15 days from Brazil and Spain. The story of how they met Ami again was amazing!!Ami was in Brazil for a year to study music and they met each other at a party once. Ami didn't contact them at all but today, they met by chance on the train!! Denise and Ignacio found Design Festa Gallery on the web site "quirkey japan" and Ami has been to Design Festa event once. Ignacio thinks this place feels like an oasis. Denise and Ami also said lot of different arts in here and like the atomasher of being free to see arts and can relax.

Gary, Melissa, Liz
Malaysia, Singapore, USA
Jul 10.2008

Hello Everyone!! My name is Hiromi. I'm a new staff in Design Festa. This afternoon, I interviewed three nice people from Malaysia, Singapore and USA.They are visiting Tokyo for reserch trip for NIKE(social reserch trip), and found Design Festa from a company related to NIKE. They like how just anybody can exhibit here at any level. Liz added this place reminded her of Portland Oregon where she was due to it's "Punky" aspect.

Anna
Poland
Jul 4. 2008

Anna is only two days into a one and a half month long home-stay in Tokyo, and says she is loving it so far! She has been studying Japanese for nine months in Poland, where she said that the language is gaining popularity due to the increasing number of manga and anime fans. She was walking around some shops today when she was magnetised towards the bright colours the DF Gallery! She loves modern art and so was very excited when she discovered it was an art gallery. Enjoy your home-stay, and hope to see you again!

Greg and Gill
Sydney, Australia
Jun 23.2008

Greg and Gill are in Japan visiting for a couple of weeks, and are ending their trip in Tokyo after staying at the Inland Sea art island of Naoshima and recommending to us an enticing art and architectural enclave called Benesse House. As it happens, Greg is a director at high end 3D animation company Animal Logic and has an inspiring staff pool of 20 somethings from the world over - Argentina, Japan, the UK and so on and so on! Working with young people in his daily life he saw the merits of our funky little design festa and its commitment to help emerging artists in an expensive city. Perhaps we'll see him again at DF vol. 28 but in the meantime I'm packing for naoshima...

Alexander (24)
Swiss/Zurich
June 19.2008

Alex came to Japan with a swiss fellowship for one year for his study in "international affairs". Now he visits the galleries quite often, because he loves just to sit in the garden cafe and use the free internet (W-Lan). "It is much more fun to study here, meet people and have a look what`s going on in the galleries. He says: "I like Design Festas very fresh and interesting concept. As an exhibitor you just do what you want. It is nice opportunity for artists!"

Jenna
American/Portland, Oregon
Jun. 18 2008

Jenna is lives near Design Festa while teaching English at Tokyo Metropolitan University. She is also a fashion and graphic designer says, "Design Festa is a great place for artists to express themselves without needing to have a lot of connections. It is a great place to promote unknowns and established artists as well. I particularly enjoy the mixed media exhibits." It was really fun talking to her and hopefully she'll come back to visit Japan when her stay at the Unversity is through!

Giacomo Cavalleri & Mircea Masserini
Brooklyn NYC
June 14 2008

Giacomo and his lovely companion Mircea came by the gallery today after reading about us in the "Rough Guide to Tokyo" & Metropolis and had this to say......"Feels like home! the atmosphere reminds me of St.Martins College in London back when i was a student" says Giacomo, "I believe Asia is where it's happening right now especially in the minimalist art scene" adds Micea herself no stranger to the art & fashion world through having been associated with Elle. Design Diffusion & Fashion FM. Having arrived in Japan together for the first time just 5 days ago these two native Italians have been based in Brooklyn New York for the last 2 years where Giacomo is the Creative Director of "micro-studio" a web design company (www.micro-studio.net) .The last time he saw Japan was in 2001 when he teamed up with popular ambient duo System 7 to film their Japan tour, System 7 are well known to Japanese fans having performed at several high profile events here previously.

Joey, Brad, Danny and Corey
American/California/Newport Beach
June 4. 2008

Joey, Danny and Corey are visiting their good friend Brad who currently attends Waseda University. They are all from the Newport Beach area. Brad lives in the area and found Design Festa, well because it's pretty hard to miss when walking in the Harajuku/Omotesando area. They said, "[Desin Festa] is pretty cool and we cant believe it's free!!."

Laur, Ali, Leo
Finland / UK / Switzerland
May 23.2008

I met these chaps in the garden today whilst hanging out and doing my work on our awesome wireless network. The sun is beaming and Laur, Ali and Leo are settling in for the evening's first beer. They told me about their travels in Japan and else where and their coincidental meeting here in Tokyo. Leo is finishing up a year of traveling and Ali has spent 4 months or so touring America, New Zealand, and Australia while Laur has already toured Japan for over a month. Ali found out about the gallery through Design Festa 27 which he went to last weekend. He's into graphic design and is studying at Ravensbourne back in the UK. In any case we're grateful that he came to see us with friends in tow! And, hopefully his enthusiasm for our outdoor mural spaces will materialise into an awesome proposal before he heads back to blighty :)

Andy Sheldon
U.K
May 10 2008

The return of Jimi Hen's besmeared underwear! and what do's the Sheldon have to say about DF East? "Bloody good job on the new Gallery pip pip!"

Da Young & So Young !
South Korea
May 8 2008

A walk through Harajuku brought these young ladies for a chance visit to the gallery today! Da and So are both students at Tokyo Galaxy Japanese Language School and are on a 2 year course. About the gallery? "Interesting! we have galleries like this back home, but this is better!" Thank you for visiting!

John and Sylvie
New York, US & Cannes, France
May 1.2008

John and Sylvie dropped by the galllery today after stumbling on it by chance during a shopping trip to Omote Sando. Sylie, who is an artist, said she was pretty reluctant at first to make their way down the street towards the DF Gallery. She seems to be glad they came though, saying, 'it's a great idea, it's accessible and you can feel the creativity. You can feel free.' The couple have been living in Tokyo since 2005 after John was transferred here for his work. John said he liked the layout, with the restaurant being alongside the gallery. I hope very much we can see an exhibition of Sylvie's paintings here in the near future! Thanks for coming along today!

Frederick
Quebec, Canada
April 19th 2008

Browsing through his Rough Guide to Japan brought diplomat Frederic to the gallery after attending the recent G8 summit here in Tokyo,Frederic found the gallery to be "really original with a worthy concept" Thank you for visiting!, hope to see you in November!

Brian
San Diego, US
Apr.19.2008

Brian is in Japan for only 6 days, and he came across the Design Festa Gallery today by chance - as he says, it's pretty hard to miss! He said the gallery reminds him of a place he went to in Berlin, an abandoned building that had been bombed during the war, but recently taken over by artists. He said the place is unique and not uptight like other art galleries. Thanks Brian!

Lisa and Gabriel
Melbourne, Australia and Vancouver, Canada
Apr. 16.2008

They found Design Festa on the internet and think that it is 'fantastic and different.' Gabriel said, 'Design Festa is not as sterile as other art galleries.' Lisa and Gabriel are now on their way to find puppets they saw in a video about Design Festa last November. Good Luck!

David, Tony and Viv
Nottingham UK
Apr 14.2008

I caught up with these fellow countrymen on a coffee break between East and West galleries, David is teaching in Tokyo and his parents are here visiting for a couple of weeks. David has been to our Festa Art Event and says that while the big event had a kind of art market feeling, the gallery seems to have greater focus on hanging work. Its his first time to visit the gallery but as he noted it changes frequently so hopefully we'll see him again! ~~ lou

Miguel
San Fransisco, US
Apr.12.2008

Miguel the super vagabond visited the gallery this afternoon for the first time in 10 years. He said he's glad to see the place is still here, and that there's a lot more action going on now than there was last time. He described the place as impeccable, and so sincere that he can believe in the story painted on the wall about non-earthlings. He also said it looks like the vision originally held for the gallery is now happening. Miguel does lots of art things, you can check some of it out at yarddogsroadshow.com. Thanks for coming back again!

Tim, Nathan and Nigel
Adelaide, Australia
Apr.12.2008

Nathan (left) is in Japan on holidays for one week visiting his friend Tim (right) who works as an engineer for Toyota in Nagoya. Nathan was sitting in a pub one night last week when he suddenly decided he had to get out of there, so went and got himself a seat on a plane to Japan. Excellent stuff! They found Design Festa randomly, and said it's awesome. Nathan says 'coming here is like stepping into a picture'. He also said his Dad would love it, so we're looking forward to meeting him next time! Also in the photo is DF staff, Nigel, getting some inspiration for his painting work.... !

Noelle and Doreen
Hong Kong
Apr.12.2008

On their first visit to the Design Festa Gallery today I met Noelle (rIght) and Doreen (left) from Hong Kong. Noelle is a fashion designer, but paints in her spare time. Her first impression of the gallery was 'cool!' She's never been to a gallery like this before, and loves the creative and comfortable atmosphere. Doreen, who works in finance, also liked the gallery, saying that there aren't enough places like this in Hong Kong. Lovely to meet you both, and looking forward to seeing Noelle's paintings exhibited in the gallery sometime in the future!!

Phillipe and Franck
Paris, France
Apr.12.2008

Phillipe and Franck, both from Paris, visited the Design Festa Gallery today. Phillipe has a restaurant in Omote Sando called Le Pre Verre (www.lepreverre.com) and has been to the gallery several times. Today he brought along his friend Franck, who's in Tokyo making a documentary about Phillipe's restaurant. They said that the gallery reminded them of Les Squats in Paris, a building right in the centre of the city that was completely taken over by artists, though without permission being obtained from the authorities. They commented that the DF Gallery is very Japanese, especially in its cleanliness! Totally different to France they said, but that's not to say anything bad about France. Just an objective observation. Thanks for visiting, hope to see you guys again!

Catherine Ludwig!
Germany
April 11th

Catherine is on a months visit to Japan to see her brother Christian who is teaching here and had this to say about the gallery " Great!, i wanted to see more and wish i could be here for the Big Sight event in May!" Thank you for visiting Catherine, nice meeting you!

Iris and Vincy Wong
Hong Kong
Apr 7.2008

In the visitor couch today are two sisters visiting Japan and Design Festa for the first time. They were articulate and fascinated by Japan and having taken a quick rest in Karuizawa hit Tokyo discovering a pace of life that was way different from that sleepy onsen town.
The atmosphere in our local Harajuku enclave was a contributory factor in their minds to the creative freedom seen throughout Design Festa Gallery. They reckon DFG is "Helping the youth follow their dreams" and a was a refreshing break from the money-chasing rush normally seen in city life.