The dream trip of a lifetime is now a reality for a former Bosnian war refugee and current Arizona sign shop owner Mladen Mirkovic. Mirkovic was the winner of the Grand Prize in Roland DG’s Discover Roland/Explore Africa Contest – an all-expenses paid, luxury African sightseeing safari for two.

The Honda Welcome Plaza AOYAMA located on the first floor of the Honda AOYAMA Building in Aoyama, Tokyo, recently displayed a customized Honda N-VAN minivan which gave visitors an opportunity to express their own sense of style using Roland DG’s digital tools including a UV printer.

Miyuki Inc., better known as Miyuki Acryl, is a well-established local fabricator with a studio-gallery in Kita-Ayase in Adachi, Tokyo that machines and fabricates various items such as accessories from acrylic. Passionate about expressing the beauty of acrylic, Miyuki Acryl sells its own brand of acrylic materials and uses Roland DG’s LEF series UV printers to decorate them.

FabCafe Tokyo in Shibuya, which was previously featured in this blog, has kicked off a new project aimed at supporting young designers.

andMade.kitasando, a makerspace for handmade, fashion-oriented goods located in Sendagaya, Tokyo that was previously featured in this blog, reopened this fall with a fresh new look combining an event and exhibition space with a fabrication studio. We spoke with store manager Naoto Suzuki (pictured above) to provide details about previous activities and future objectives.

Lion Corporation, a leading Japanese manufacturer of household supplies, recently held a promotional event, giving visitors a personalized fragrance experience from the SOFLAN Aroma Rich range of aromatic fabric softeners. The popup gallery, “Sense Your Aroma Gallery Produced by Aroma Rich,” was open to the public in Omotesando, Tokyo between August 4th and 7th allowing visitors to discover their very own fragrance.