"Sapporo Flower Carpet 2024" NOMURA IVD Art Director Fujie Suzuki is in charge of the 10th anniversary carpet

Sapporo Flower Carpet 2024 is a citizen-participation event aimed at revitalizing the floriculture industry in Hokkaido.
Special cooperation from NOMURA / June 28th (Fri) to June 30th (Sun), 2024 in Sapporo, Hokkaido

Fujie Suzuki, art director at NOMURA IVD, has been invited to be the designer for Sapporo Flower Carpet 2024, which will be held in Sapporo, Hokkaido from June 28th (Fri) to 30th (Sun), 2024. Suzuki will be in charge of concept design the anniversary carpet (main carpet) commemorating the 10th anniversary of the event. NOMURA IVD will also be in charge of the key visuals for this event, which will brighten up the city of Sapporo with a flower carpet.

"Sapporo Flower Carpet 2024" is a citizen-participation art event in which large flower paintings are created using Hokkaido petals and natural materials, with the main venue being the Sapporo Kita 3-jo Square in front of the Hokkaido Prefectural Government Red Brick Building. The aim is to promote the beautiful "flower scenery" of Hokkaido and Sapporo, and to promote the floriculture industry. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the event, which began in 2014, and a total of approximately 3,800 volunteers have been involved in the production, with a total of approximately 640,000 visitors.

The anniversary carpet will once again focus on Belgium, which has a long history as a flower carpet and was the theme of the first edition. This year is also the year of the Brussels Flower Carpet (Belgium), so Suzuki, a Sapporo native, was invited to design a special concept design. Suzuki is in charge of visual concept design for projects both in Japan and overseas, and is the first Japanese person to concept design the Brussels Flower Carpet 2016, which has earned him high praise both at home and abroad. This time, Suzuki will concept design the carpet that beautifully decorated the World Heritage Square in Brussels and deeply moved people, concept design a new flower painting.

The theme is "Weaving towards the future". This is a hope that the flower carpet will connect the people involved, Hokkaido and Belgium's culture, and become a new bond that will be woven into the future. In addition, Ainu patterns are incorporated around the symbol used in the "Brussels Flower Carpet 2016", expressing feelings of thinking about the future of Ainu culture. This year's carpet will be the largest ever at 225m2, and 500 volunteers will be involved in its production and displays, painting beautiful flower pictures by hand in the square.

About Flower Carpet

What is Sapporo Flower Carpet?
The Flower Carpet originated from the festival of Corpus Domini (the Feast of the Corpus Christi). It is not created by professional artists, but by ordinary citizens, and is a citizen-participation flower festival. It is held in more than 50 regions around the world, mainly in Europe, including Italy and Spain, and there is active mutual exchange.

The event has been held in Sapporo since 2014. It is run by a public-private partnership between the government (Hokkaido and Sapporo City) and private companies. It is working to develop human resources who will increase the value of the region, run by a diverse group of citizen volunteers, from young children to people working in the neighborhood and foreign residents, and promote understanding of Hokkaido's floriculture industry for the next generation through collaboration with elementary and high schools.

What is the Brussels Flower Carpet?
The event is held every two years at the Grand Place in Brussels, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 20th event in 2016 was held with a Japanese theme as part of the 150th anniversary of friendship between Japan and Belgium. Suzuki designed the carpet based on the concept of "flowers, birds, wind and moon," using the "beautiful nature" and "beautiful scenery" that are common to Japan and Belgium, in hopes of realizing the deep friendly bond between the two countries over the past 150 years and a bright future. The 1,800m2 carpet was concept design using 600,000 fresh begonias. It was completed by hand over a period of eight hours by about 100 volunteers, including Belgian citizens, Japanese residents, and begonia farmers. Approximately 100,000 people visited the event over the four days, and it was highly praised as "a wonderful concept design connected the history and feelings of the two countries and moved people. It will remain in the history of flower carpets."

Implementation period: August 12th to August 15th, 2016
Organizer: Brussels Flower Carpet association
concept design: Fujie Suzuki, Art Director, NOMURA Co., Ltd.
working drawings: Marc Schautteet

About the Anniversary Carpet Designer

Designer's comments
The theme of the 2024 Anniversary Carpet is "Weaving towards the Future". Using the symbol of the "Brussels Flower Carpet" that I concept design in 2016 as a motif, I concept design it as a work that weaves from Brussels in 2016 to Sapporo today, breathing new life into it. In addition, with the cooperation of the Sapporo Ainu Association, Ainu patterns are incorporated around the symbol, and it also expresses my thoughts on the future of Ainu culture. This concept design of the 10th anniversary of the Sapporo Flower Carpet, I am honored to have been involved in concept design evokes my hometown of Sapporo, Hokkaido, and Belgium, with which I feel a deep connection. I would like to express my gratitude to the farmers in Hokkaido who grew the flowers for this event, and I will continue to prepare with all the relevant parties until the actual event so that we can bring Delight and Passion to many people.
 

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NOMURA Co., Ltd. IVD Art Director
Fujie Suzuki

Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, graduated from Sapporo City College of Technology (now Sapporo City University).
In 2017, he established the visual and graphic concept design team IVD (Integrated Visual Design) within NOMURA, Ltd. As an art director at IVD, he has been involved in a wide range of concept design, from branding for companies and facilities to building VI including logos, graphics, advertising, and product packaging, and has won concept design awards both in Japan and overseas.
The first Japanese concept design to Brussels Flower Carpet 2016"(Belgium)," Kawasaki City Fujiko F. Fujio Museum”, “X park” (Taiwan), “Shiroi Koibito Park" and in recent years, "khb East Japan Broadcasting He has been involved in branding for hotels such as Hakone Hotel "Hatsuhana" and Hakone Hotel.

IVD (INTEGRATED VISUAL DESIGN)
https://www.instagram.com/ivd_official/
We are a professional visual and graphic concept design team that creates new brand value with a creative style that approaches space from a visual perspective.