| |
| The YKK Sample Book |
| March 04, 2008 |
 |
This one's primarily for all of the accessories designers out there who are enrolling in the ITS#ACCESSORIES competition and want to know more about the fastenings they can use for the YKK project. You have a whole sample book of fastenings to inspire your designs! But where is it? Let's start from the beginning...
All accessories designers enrolling will also have to include at least 3 designs focused on a creative use of YKK fastenings. To inspire the designers and give them an overview of the fastenings they can use, YKK has prepared a free online sample book. In past editions of ITS#ACCESSORIES, the sample book was a proper book sent to the schools involved in the project. This year it has turned into an online version that everyone can consult.
We thought that a nice article could be helpful to explain a few things so that all of you out there can use it to its full potentials!
YKK does not only love creativity, it is very creative itself and likes to involve creative people in its projects. That's why in July '07, YKK immediately knew, when Anna Sheldon (ITS#SIX Accessories finalist and winner of the YKK Special Prize) presented herself to the jury with a short stop-motion video that left everyone speechless, that they wanted to collaborate with her. |
YKK assigned a special prize to Anna's video and "enlisted" her to inject her creativity into the realisation of an attractive sample book that (through very short and very amusing stop-motion videos) would explain how to use the several fastenings from the YKK catalogue.
To find the YKK sample book, you can go two different ways: via our website or YKK Europe's website. If you start from itsweb.org, click on the "Accessories" section (top-right hand corner on the home page), then click on "how to enter" and you will find the link that will take you directly to the sample book.
If instead you are starting from ykkeurope.com, click on the "Attached to Creativity" section on the home page. You will open a new section where a big hand will stick an ITS#SEVEN post-it on the screen. Click on the post-it and you will find yourself in the YKK Media Center, wholly occupied by the YKK sample book. We are sure that your next question is "Ok, now that I'm here, how does it work?"
|
What you will have in front of you is a browseable menu with lots of videos described by short phrases. At this point it is all quite intuitive as you can see: YKK has been really good at making it as simple as possible, as clear as possible and also very fun to look at.
The first video (ITS#SEVEN YKK Award - Introduction) introduces you to the competition. There is also a short text that briefly talks about the project, with a link at the bottom that redirects you to our website's accessories "how to enter" section. The second video on the list (ITS#SEVEN YKK Award - Who is YKK) goes on giving you an outline of the Accessories competition and introduces you to what YKK people do.
With the third and fourth video on the list get ready to relax and sit on the couch with a nice glass of coke and a pop-corn bowl, because the fun begins! A crazy Einstein-like scientist and his weird helper will guide you through a funny introduction of several kinds of zippers and non-zipper fastenings you can use from the YKK catalogue. Anna Sheldon's passion for designing characters and creating short stories is expressed well here. Instead of a boring list with images and descriptions of the fastenings you can use, this makes everything a lot more amusing and interesting, don't you think?
|
|
With the following two videos you have a more traditional-style catalogue where several kinds of zippers, snaps & buttons are displayed. YKK rightly reminds you all the time to contact them if you're looking for something else because their catalogue is so vast that they really could not include everything...truth is, they can provide you with literally any kind of fastening you can imagine, apart from impossible requests like wooden zippers or glass snaps!
The next video on the list gives you a few guidelines on how to prepare your YKK project. For complete and detailed information we advise you go to the "how to enter" section of the accessories page on our website. There you will find really everything you need to know on how to enrol and submit your project.
After that, you have a couple of very interesting interviews. There's Kei Kagami, fashion designer and member of the ITS Accessories Jury who is responsible for the assignment of the YKK Award, and then there's a few finalists from past editions who talk about their use of the YKK fastenings: Anna Sheldon herself, Maria Hjelm, Liron Braker and Aitor Throup. There's also an interview of fashion designer Marios Schwab who also gives a few tips on how to establish in the fashion business.
|
|
Finally, for your own pleasure and if you are curious (yes you are!) you can have a look at the stop-motion video by Anna we were referring to at the beginning that granted her a special prize expressly created and a work opportunity at YKK.
Well, we believe we've told you everything there is to know about the online YKK sample book! The iInformation does not end here though: if you have any other questions on the YKK products for ITS#SEVEN (delivery times for example, or you may want to arrange an appointment with someone from the YKK team to have a chat face to face in order to really go deep into all fastenings' possibilities) you can use the following contacts. Don't worry, they cover the whole world, no matter where you are!
ITALY (Milan): veronica_trezzi@ykk.it
FRANCE (Paris): contact@ykk.fr
UK (London): youko_ishido@ykk.co.uk
TURKEY (Istanbul): trykk@ykk.com.tr
SPAIN (Barcelona): mmolina@ykk.es, mmarcos@ykk.es, fvilarru@ykk.es
GERMANY (Frankfurt): n_kotani@ykk.de
JAPAN (Tokyo): award@ykkfps.com
BRAZIL: ziper@ykk.com.br
REST OF THE WORLD: enquiries@ykkeurope.com
SNAPS & BUTTONS ENQUIRIES: ina_kloke@stocko-ykk.de
|
|
|
|
|
