Study traditional Japanese craft techniques, apply those techniques to contemporary product design and have the opportunity to have your product manufactured and distributed globally by MoMA Wholesale.
SVA Made in Yame (pronounced YAH-may) is an intensive two-week Summer program in June 2025 that gives product designers hands-on exposure to traditional Japanese craft techniques and an opportunity to get their own designs on the market.
Experience an intimate, hands-on way of studying materials, form, color and product design through the lens of traditional Japanese craftwork.
Students will visit the factories and workshops of over a dozen traditional crafts, including woodworking, ceramics, textile weaving, lantern making, etc. and observe the nuances of how craft process and materials are carefully selected and manipulated for production. They will learn how traditional Japanese culture informed the development of these crafts and products and how the crafts and products have in turn informed Japanese culture, past and present. Students will be prompted to explore contemporary products reflecting their observations and will be offered an opportunity to have their designs selected for license and manufacture by the Museum of Modern Art Design Store.
SVA Made in Yame is open to the public. No previous association with SVA is required.
THE PROGRAM CONSISTS OF FOUR STAGES IN JUNE 2025
introduction to japan in fukuoka city (2 days)
Craft research and sketching in yame (6 days)
Inspirational FIELD trip (1 day)
Design refinement in Yame (5 days)
MoMA Wholesale
SVA is proud to continue its partnership with MoMA Wholesale.
Upon completion of the program, participants will have the opportunity to show renderings or physical prototypes of their designs to buyers at the Museum of Modern Art Design Store’s product division, MoMA Wholesale. In its partnership with the SVA MFA Products of Design, MoMA Wholesale has had ten successful years of producing select designs by SVA students. SVA Made in Yame extends that partnership to include contemporary products influenced by traditional Japanese craft. Designs selected by MoMA may be licensed and distributed to retail outlets globally with full design credit, including the designer’s name, labeled on the packaging.
Why Yame?
Yame is home to a remarkable concentration of traditional Japanese crafts.
Yame is a small, rural city on the Western island of Kyushu, located one hour from Fukuoka City, the Brooklyn of Japan. Best known for its green tea, Yame is relatively untouched by tourism or large retail and quietly exemplifies the coexistence of traditional and contemporary Japanese culture.
Yame provides a unique context in which to explore the translation of Japanese crafts and forms into contemporary product designs.
SVA Made in Yame takes designers deep into the workshops and techniques of over a dozen crafts and invites them to create their own designs using the same materials and techniques.
Butsudan Making & Fine Carpentry
Lacquer Work
Fine Woodworking
Ceramic Design
Washi Paper Making
Paper & Silk Lantern Making
Bow & Arrow Making
Indigo Dyeing
Kasuri Textile Weaving
Stone Work
The Team
Our team consists of designers, liaisons and interpreters.
Sinclair Smith
Program Director
Sinclair is an industrial designer, a founding faculty member of SVA's MFA in Products of Design and Director of the SVA Visible Futures Lab. His studio, Sinclair Smith & Co., has provided product and interior design services for clients including Disney, This American Life, DKNY, Staple Design, Amex, BMW and Samsung. He holds a BFA in film production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a masters of industrial design from Pratt Institute.
Mizuho Kato
Program Liaison
Mizuho is a freelance publicist with experience in PR for professional sports associations, including Japan Professional Football League and major Japanese television stations such as TV Asahi. She currently specializes in promoting and reviving local craft traditions and economies and creating local movements that regain civic pride. Mizuho serves as a board member for an intellectual property law firm, allowing her to protect the IP of traditional craftspeople and expand their scope of business.
Natsuki Hayashi
Instructor / interpreter
Natsuki is a multi-disciplinary designer based in New York City. She received a BFA in Integrated Design from Parsons The New School and an MFA in Products of Design from School of Visual Arts. Being born in China and raised in Japan, she is a trilingual and tri-cultural designer interested in art and design history. She is also a crazy dog mom and currently spends a lot of time observing canine behaviors and designing dog products and packaging.