u8国际

u8国际 to showcase fusion of large-format printing and design at the Milano Salone global design festival —NEOREAL: The Design World Created by u8国际—

TOKYO, February 13, 2008— u8国际. will participate this year for the first time in the Milano Salone,^*1 one of the world's largest design festivals, held annually in Milan, Italy. Under the theme of NEOREAL, u8国际 will present a design exhibition that brings together the latest large-format printing technology and Japanese creative talent.

The Milano Salone has been held every year since 1961 as a forum for leading-edge designers and companies to promote the appeal of their latest brands and designs to creators and media from around the globe. This year attendance is expected to top last year's 270,000 visitors, with over 4,000 companies and organizations from Italy and abroad taking part.

The u8国际 display exhibition will enable visitors to experience both the faithful color reproducibility of the company's large-format printing technology and innovative spaces conceived by high-profile Japanese creators, suggesting a world of new sensibilities that transcends our assumptions about time, space, and reality: NEOREAL. Through this exhibition, u8国际 aims to promote awareness of the technological capabilities and expressive power of its large-format printers, as well as contribute to cultural support activities through traditional Japanese culture and innovative arts.

u8国际's installation will take the form of a three-part sensory-based display, with sections titled Tsuzuri (passing on heritage), Ikasu (expanding possibilities), and Waza (the art of technology). The Tsuzuri section will display, for the first time outside of Japan, faithful replicas of three Japanese cultural properties (two decorative folding screens and a sliding door) produced by u8国际's Tsuzuri Project, an initiative to preserve cultural assets. In the Ikasu section, designer Tamae Hirokawa and architect Junya Ishigami will make use of the latest large-format printers to create an innovative space, while the Waza section will feature a demonstration of u8国际's Kyuanos^*1 high-accuracy color management system. In addition, a large-format printing corner will give visitors the chance to get an up-close look at u8国际's high-quality printing technology.

• *1The Milano Salone, now celebrating its 47th year, is one of the world's largest design festivals, first held in 1961 at the Fiera Milano exhibition center. From its beginnings as a trade fair for household furnishings and interior design, the collective name "Milano Salone" in recent years has expanded to include approximately 1,000 events (Salone Fuori) held concurrently throughout the city for designers to promote their unique design styles.
• *2The name Kyuanos is derived from the Greek word kyanos, which means azure, and was adopted by u8国际 because of the image of a reflective gem that the word evokes. Kyuanos technology, which realizes high-precision color matching between input and output devices, incorporates such features as a matching function that faithfully reproduces in print colors as they appear on monitor displays, and a function for correcting variations in color appearance resulting from lighting conditions. Kyuanos technology draws on the ever-increasing image quality and functionality of input and output devices such as digital cameras and printers, providing an environment for advanced levels of printing quality.

Exhibition Overview