Moon × Canvas Tokyo × Figma Open Creative Night

Mateus Rezende, Senior Design Lead at Moon Creative Lab, reports on a recent meetup event held in February 2023 in collaboration with Canvas Tokyo and Figma.

What can someone do in three minutes? What about in three hours? In early February this year, Moon was happy to host our first public event directed at the creative and entrepreneurial communities in Tokyo. The formula was simple. We had a three-hour gathering, where the entire Moon team and Entrepreneurs-in-Residence could commingle with other designers, artists, developers, and entrepreneurs who live and work around Tokyo. The core of the event was an open mic session where anyone could present their portfolio, their personal projects, or pitch their startup in three minutes on stage. This gave presenters the opportunity to quickly share their passion to the entire audience for further collaboration and gather potential feedback. 
 

This event was organized in partnership with Canvas Tokyo, an online platform where creatives can share their work, create discussions on an online forum, and find work on their recently launched Jobs page. We also had support from Figma Japan, a widely known tool for UX and UI design. While Canvas Tokyo invited their community of creatives to bring physical works to be displayed on a gallery wall during the event, Figma gifted swag to those who were brave enough to take the mic for three minutes on stage. On the opposite wall from the gallery with displayed artwork there was a six-meter wide projection screen with an online white-board powered by FigJam where creators could place the digital version of their artwork. This wall contained lots of different real-time interaction which created an even greater engagement and unforgettable experience for attendees!
 

Overall, it was an evening full of great conversation, endless laughter, and networking opportunities. Everyone had an opportunity to talk and meet with someone new. The only moment there was silence was when the open mic session had started. We heard from one of our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, Satoshi Yoshida, presenting his venture GORIL, and even  professionals in the business world who are also artists. Using only one illustrated image and a microphone in hand, those who did choose to present inspired the crowd at the event.
 

This Open Creative Night was the first public event that Moon hosted, in partnership with Canvas Tokyo and Figma, hosted. The intention is to make this event into an ongoing series of gatherings. Our goal is to create a space in the heart of Omotesando where creatives, entrepreneurs and all ofMoon can commingle, learn, become inspired, and connect with people old and new. 

Be sure to check out our Moon Stories for upcoming events! 

Matheus Rezende
Senior Design Lead 
mateus@mooncreativelab.com