However, her real breakthrough came a few years later when she started her cooperation with ASKUL, Jobs says that “Ewa Kumlin introduced us in 2005 and they liked what I was doing”

At this weekends design exhibition at Tokyo Midtown a number of Swedish inspired items from the ASKUL catalogue were presented. This is the first time that the post order company for office materials sells their goods over the counter. Amongst their products there are wool slippers, also known as moon slippers, padded envelopes with jungle patterns, 48-packs of umbrellas and the hit seller “Jobs-mouse pad”. Then there are the tissue dispensers, an item that every Japanese need and Ms. Jobs is an expert at designing them.

The friends and “design colleagues” of ms. Jobs, Mr. Björn Kusoffsky and Mr. Thomas Eriksson from Stockholm Design Lab are also represented in ASKUL’s collection and have their names on a range of items such and batteries, USB-memory sticks and toilet air fresheners.

Both Thomas Eriksson and Nina Jobs thinks that working with a Japanese company has worked out wonderfully well. “If you include interpretation, a regular 30minute meeting can take about 4 hours here in Japan, but after that meeting you usually agree on what to do, at least to a certain extent” they say.
Of course some of the details and nuances gets lost in translation but if you don’t understand each other and deliver on time this kind of collaboration wouldn’t have lasted long.
“You can start a collaboration but if it doesn’t sell they are sure to cancel it”

According to Ms. Jobs the Japanese have a different kind of design language, however the simplistic Scandinavian design still strikes a chord with the Japanese, even if the tastes are a bit different here in Japan Ms. Jobs usually can tell when she gets it right, after a while you just do she says.

-It feels Scandinavian but with some adjustments to suit the Japanese

When: From the 30th of October until the 3rd of November

Place: Tokyo Midtown Hall (B1)

Opening Hours: Oct 30th 15.00 - 21.00, Oct 31st – Nov 2nd 11.00 - 21.00, Nov 3rd 11.00-17.00