Nanci Takeyama

Dr. Nanci Takeyama has received her Bachelor degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Sao Paulo University, Master of Design from Kyushu University and Ph.D. in Design Research from the Kobe Design University.

In her commercial career she has worked at very prestigious design offices such as: DPZ-Sao Paulo (supervised by Alexandre Wollner, former student of Max Bill and Otl Aicher), Nippon Design CenterTokyo (with Uehara Masashi, designer of the Toyota corporate identity), and Swiss typographer Helmut Schmid ( former student of Emil Ruder). She also owned her own design office in Sao Paulo, with major corporate clients such as Sadia Foods, Votorantin, Camil fodds among others. Nanci's design works have been featured in several international design magazines and book such as, Design Discovery, Kyoto journal, Japan Typography Association Magazine, Graphics Saijiki and Japan Typography Association Annual.

Dr. Takeyama's research field link design and anthropology, philosophy, mythology, psychology, cosmology, to mention a few. Her first book, "Mountain floats to connect this world and the other", co-authored with Professor Sugiura Kohei and other acclaimed researchers on Asian design, was published in December 2012.

Nanci is the founding director of 'design for', a group engaged in utilising scholarly research, to advocate cultural understanding and preservation by using design as a dialogue. Through this dialogue, 'design for' aims to translate, reinterpret, adapt, and try out new ideas and forms in traditional crafts for contemporary living. By sharing cultural information 'design for' aims to promote ethical consumerism and sustainable living with the communities it partners in Asia. In 2013 this project won an Hounorable Commendation for Wenhui Award for Educational Innovation 2013 - Educational Innovation for Cultural Expression, by Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID), UNESCO

Research Interests

Three main research interests:

• Symbolic meaning of traditional forms in Asia
• Preservation of Asian traditional arts and crafts, heritage management
• Design for social innovation, design thinking, participatory design

Areas of professional expertise:

• Corporate Identity
• Package Design
• Typography, applied typography
• Editorial Design
• Information architecture
• Environmental Design

Keywords

• Meaning of symbols in Asian traditions (crafts, rituals, myths), Mandala, Cosmology,

Education

• PhD Kobe Design University 2005
• MDes Kyushu University 2003
• BA (Architecture & Urbanism) Sao Paulo University 1989