#spectrumfest27
Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2027 is a two-day design festival with all the energy of a rock fest. Wander between stages, dive into whatever talk catches your ear, make some noise at the booths, and swap stories with practitioners you've never met — food and drink in hand. It's not exactly a well-behaved conference.
Just as rock has always been a rebellion against sounding like everyone else, this year we push back against the flattening of design. Our concept is "Having an Edge." In an age where AI generates the average endlessly, what we play on stage is the worldview we refuse to surrender, the impulses that defy words, and hard questions for a wavering moral compass.
Every talk, workshop, and piece of content at the festival ties into at least one of these themes
Ironically, the rise of AI has made worldview and taste matter more than ever — and how to blend humanity into its sterile output is the talk of the town. But where do sensibility and humanity actually come from, and how are they cultivated? What experience, what practice, leads to rich and resonant design?
The hands move before the head thinks. Form-follows-function isn't all there is to design. Impulse — and that's fine. Things that are simply cool, beautiful, or cute really do exist, and more often than not they defy explanation. Or do they? And if we can put them into words after all, can we feed that to an LLM too?
Breathtaking technological progress is blurring the line between right and wrong. Behind every brilliant technology, something is being lost. Who takes responsibility for the health of society? Amid these great currents, how should morality itself be designed?
Our call for speakers and workshop facilitators closed on September 30, 2026. Thank you to everyone who applied. Results will be announced on Tuesday, October 13, and the lineup will be revealed in stages from November.
We are also looking for sponsors. If your company would like to support the festival and help make it something special, we would love to hear from you. Packages include reserved speaking slots separate from the open call, booths to liven up the venue, workshops for close contact with attendees, and more.
Request the sponsor deck
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