The Japan Meteorological Agency announced the end of the rainy season in Tokyo area today.
It is very hot today and we can feel that the summer has really started.

Today's special at Trinity's lunch time:

・Pork cutlet
・Tofu
・Green salad
・Rice & Miso soup

This is our energy source to survive the hot and humid summer in Japan!

In this May, we moved from our tiny little office to the larger office.
Here we now have more space and fun.

One of the biggest difference is that we now have the lovely kitchen in our office!

Ms. A cooks yummy meals for us and we have lunch together in this kitchen hall. This is a good way to communicate each other in a relaxed atmosphere.

I will be sharing our lunch menu with you.....

Fu

Simplism has released new items for iPod/iPhone in the end of May.
It's called "Simplism Leather Collection"

It took us about 7 months to design and to send them out to the market.
The project required so much time to be completed because we really wanted to make good ones, and great attention was paid to all the details.
There were a number of challenges, but eventually, we got through all that.
And we love it.

So this time, I would like to explain the process.

Deciding Main Ideas

First, our team members discussed what we want for leather case and what steps we should take in the production.

We decided on keeping the following things in mind.

（1）To have unified design accents in every case.

（2）To use genuine leather.

（3）To keep lower the prices.

（4）Not to use Velcro.

（5）To create a series as a Simplism brand, not one time product.

（6）To exhibit samples at MacWorld 2009

（1）To have unified design accents in every case.

Our first concern was how to create unified style in a series of case.

According to our market research, existing leather cases have no consistent design concepts which resulted in creating unorganized impression.
So we decided to add unified design accents that embody Simplism brand policy, simplicity to all leather cases.
Then, we requested to our designer "K-taro" and he figured to appeal brand image by using metal parts in the case design.

In this way, outline of case design was set.

（2）To use genuine leather.

It was so hard to find a kind of leather that matches Simplism design among countless kinds of them.
We needed to have actual samples in order to find perfect one.
We gathered a lot of small leather pieces and leather products to sort out one that fulfill thickness, firmness and texture we want.

Among tons of samples, we selected the one has smooth, soft and even-toned surface with modest shine.
Although the one we picked was exceeding our budget and it could raise the unit price, we did not want to compromise the texture in which we considered the most important element of the product.

At the beginning, we were going to use genuine leather inside and out, but we switched the material for lining to PU leather as real one can easily gets dirty.

（3）To keep lower the prices.

Our policy is to supply high-quality products at affordable prices.

(2）and（3）contradicts each other, but making pricy goods does not match Simplism brand policy even if the quality is great.
Our solution for cutting the cost was to find a sewing plant in China that is capable of satisfying our needs for quality.
As a result, the leather case came out well-balanced in quality, design, and its cost.

To be continued...

AY