TEAMLAB - A COLLABORATION

BY MATT ILAG, MIKA LLAVE, JOSE BUENAVENTURA, BEA JAVATE, DAENA BIGCAS

With a purpose driven by passion, establishment, customer base, projects, teamLaAB believed that there was more
Toshiyuki Inoko founded and robust of teamLAB. freedom with regard to space where their
teamLAB. work is installed and that the experience
During the internet boom in the mid- they bring to the masses is immersive in
teamLAB was created for people to 1990s, Inoko took advantage of the the sense that they are able to achieve
share their creativity with the world opportunity and officially established multiple-sensory interaction.
and offer new experiences. teamLAB
The business flourished over the past
At the same time, it enabled various One day, Inoko and his four-man team decade and continues to grow, however,
people to learn and create new things worked with Shiseido in Ginza, Tokyo and there are a few obstacles they may
through experimentation. this project helped flourish their business. encounter.

The idea of art in digital form was not Later on, they were recognized for their
easily accepted and understood by art installations by international
most and this greatly affected the businesses.

Another challenge is the need for

THE JOURNEY organization. Collaboration is becoming a
bigger need in the process of ideation for
TOWARDS CREATIVITY: teamLab due to its big size. And according
to Toshiyuki Inoko, founder of teamLab, it
HOW TEAMLAB would be possible to reorganize the
company’s structure to provide a proper
NAVIGATES THROUGH collaborative flow of ideas, but at the risk of
ruining the creative processes of employees
CHALLENGES AND and causing a creative paradox; a desire to
create new ideas but at the same time, have
ADVERSITIES a rejection of it. For instance, they may end
up attempting to create innovative ideas
without thinking of its feasibility, while
Despite the increase of employees in teamLab due to others may keep limiting their imagination
their international recognition, they would be into creating their project by focusing too
approaching a new set of challenges as well. One of much on the technicality behind it.
these challenges is maintaining their passion for the
digital arts. Because of the increase in employees to
four hundred, a fear originated amongst the founders
of teamLab that they might eventually lose their
passion for creating digital art because of the effort
needed to manage the company. HOW CAN I PLAN THIS PROJECT TO MAKE
THIS EXPERIENCE HAPPEN?” THAT’S THE
WAY WE CREATE THINGS BY EVOLVING
AND ADAPTING OUR PAST IDEAS TO
MAKE IT BETTER.

DAISUKE SAKAI
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 WE WANTED TO CREATE DIGITAL
ARTWORKS THAT WERE INNOVATIVE,
AND CHANGED PEOPLE’S MINDS AND
VALUES.

TOSHIYUKI INOKO

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STRATEGY WITHIN CREATIVITY:
WELCOME TO TEAMLAB'S VALUE PROPOSITION
TeamLab’s value proposition consists of values integrating technology that serves the arts. Their
outlook of developing products that “look like art” for the business to succeed really drove them to
success. Within this success also are key strategic elements that make use of technology to create an
altogether new experience. Other key elements are as follows:

CREATIVE PROCESS AS BEING AN UNDEFINED CATALYSTS

THE COMPETITIVE MIX OF EXHIBITOR,
ADVANTAGE DESIGNER, ENGINEER, Another element of TeamLab’s
ARTIST success is that employees are
TeamLab made sure that it will be
Part of TeamLab’s success is making designated for all activities other
difficult for their competitors to
sure all employees are encouraged than designing or programming.
imitate and “experience” their art
to be creative and innovative. Project managers are also in charge
than a new technology. This element
of gathering all information for the
is driven by the question: “How can I FLAT ORGANIZATIONAL projects, disseminating to team
plan this project to make this STRUCTURE members, managing costing and
experience happen?” TeamLab made
pricing, and etc. These are all key
this happen by (1) discussing with all TeamLab made a diverse team
players to contributing success at
the people such as engineers, composed of young talents with an
delivering a certain project.
designers, and project managers in average age of around 30 years old.
generating ideas about the project, The team is also composed of CO-CREATION
(2) using a lot of senses in terms of different nationalities and among
these are from China, Korea, France TeamLab made a highly
thinking about what feels good and
and Brazil. This system created collaborative creative process that
experiencing of target audience
minimal hierarchy that made it allowed new ideas to arise from the
which is the main goal in this
easier for the people to collaborate cross-pollination of technical
matter, and (3) use new technology
and interact. This structure also insights from all kinds of different
to make their goal happen.
implemented no partitions so people areas. All projects are also made
have to talk and interact with each available to every employee through
other. the chat system technology. This
system enabled training of new
recruits possible by giving them a
INTERNET AS A TOOL TO BROADEN ITS REACH
mentor to guide them throughout.
Teamlab did not believe in having a marketing team, instead, they believed that a strong
presence on the Internet advantageous. All their projects featured on social media and
YouTube is their branding strategy reinforced. This is how they made use of the
Internet to broaden their audience.

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 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
FUTURE PLANS AND CHALLENGES THAT TEAMLAB MAY FACE

The company of teamLAB grew from a matter of five members to approximately four
hundred collaborators within a decade. Since the company practices a flat
organizational structure, everyone’s opinion is heard and members are free to work on
any project they pleased. However, this structure may affect the collaboration among
the growing members in the long run. The team would need to put more effort and
efficiency to work on a project altogether, or even create a new organizational
structure to implement to have more diverse personalities in the company. Also, they
may experience increased digital or technical difficulties given that they are foregoing
the traditional art methods for a modern, 21st century approach.

In order to better manage the growing number of collaborators, systems and processes
must be effectively implemented. This may create a creative disorder within the team
because of the new procedure they need to follow. This may be avoided by hiring
catalysts to efficiently bridge the organizational management and the creative spark.
Possible technical difficulties might be avoided by having multiple test-runs and not
fully relying on technology. Traditional methods would still be one of the most reliable
methods so, they should not completely let go of it.

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 EDITOR'S NOTE
This issue would not be possible without the hard work of the following
people behind it:
Daena Mikaela Bigcas, Jose Angelo Buenaventura, David Matthew Ilag, Ma. Cielito Bianca Javate, Mika Llave
Group: Seventeen - DECSC Section E

And of course, to the following sources whom without which this issue might
not have been conceived:
Farhoomand, A. Creativity in design: experimenting and innovating at TeamLab Japan.
(2015). The Asia Case Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

teamLab Borderless museum [image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.designgallerist.com/blog/exploring-teamlab-borderless-a-digital-art-
museum-in-tokyo-japan/ .

Saito, Seiichi. Toshiyuki Inoko [image]. (2018, August 29). Retrieved from https://pen-
online.com/arts/the-vision-of-toshiyuki-inoko-a-founder-of-teamlab/.

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