Word: sharp
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...spokesmen spouting slogans has displayed a remarkable finesse in forging new relationships and revivifying old ones. In the last five years, for example, President Hu Jintao has led a concerted effort to spread China's so-called "soft power" in Asia, Africa and South America. There have also been sharp reversals of what previously seemed intractable positions on key regional issues such as reining in North Korea's nuclear program, where many observers credit pressure from China on their North Korean allies as being critical to the effort's progress. Long-strained relations with Japan have also improved markedly; over...
...Sharp decided to reinvest in design, creating a special team just to develop a new display for the U.S. and Europe, where demand is strongest. In April a few dozen designers quietly cleaned out their desks in Sharp's main design office in rural Tochigi prefecture and set up shop in a central-Tokyo building that used to house a high-security government agency...
...Sharp opted not to use American or European designers for those markets. "We wanted to deliver a made-in-Japan value that could come only from Japanese designers," says Taisuke Saeki, who heads Sharp's audiovisual-design department. Still, the company wanted to adapt to a local aesthetic. Research showed that Westerners prefer vivid, crisp, dynamic design, while Japanese look for seamless precision and an organic feel. Think of it as the difference between a Cadillac and a Prius...
...industrial designers to explore their new urban environment, but they were all required to attend a daily morning assembly. There are no in-house design competitions; team members build on their individual expertise in fields such as architecture, color coordination and interior design. They might sport faux-hawks, but Sharp's designers are decisively Japanese in their collaborative creativity...
...first U.S.-Europe Aquos line was revealed this summer: a bold, shiny piano-black finish with sharp corners and the slight allure of a curve at the bottom, partially exposing the speakers. The Japanese model is matte silver with softer edges. The team's job doesn't end there. Sharp's designers are forecasting not just design trends for the next line but also LCD-production capacity, panel size and availability. "All this fuss over just a TV? For now, perhaps just a TV. But not for long," says Saeki. For the team that made television beautiful, the picture...