While our athletes aim high on the Olympics, we do our best to make our marks on the Japanese market.

Overseas cooperation’s on innovation are very inspirational for everyone involved.
It feeds us with cultural insights, it triggers a global mindset on markets, evolution, design and sustainability. It brings experience and differentiation to our local projects, Eric says.

It broadens and inspires. And at the same time makes us realize that, when designing, we often have to take local wishes and customs into account.

Why working for Japanese companies?

Eric: We believe that it is our job to inspire our clients with new visions, with creative ideas, with knowledge, and to push boundaries in our work. Therefor we have decided to invest into international relationships with global markets, in order to better understand cultural differences, and to feed our  own creativity.

Since 2015 we are exploring the Chinese and Japanese markets in Asia, and started to explore the US market. Not easy as a small business, but hugely exiting!
Since then we have been fortunate to build strong alliances with and work for clients such as Roland, Amano, Shimadzu, Haier, Precision Harvest, John Deere, …

What about the local market?
Eric: As our overseas export represents 35% of our turnover, our focus remains on Europe and the Beneleux. Helping SME companies and leading brands to challenge and improve their future products and packaging’s.

Can you name 1 influence into the Blackbirds work?
Eric: If I can focus on only 1 influence, that would be ‘connecting global consumer insights’.
Did you know for example that Chinese have their fridge into their living room, and that is why their fridge opens in a total different way than ours? That Japanese drink packaging’s are to be fully recyclable to virgin material again by law and that is why only uncoloured packaging’s are to be designed with fully demountable label sleeves for waste separation purposes.

Bringing these insights into our local projects here in Europe, is opening new approaches, solutions and creativity.

It is very exciting to share our international enthusiasm with our clients and to see our designers challenging their own thinking in projects…

We are looking forward more than ever before to re-discover and explore the world of design outside Europe… To inspire and to be inspired.

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