News

The Aisin Seiki OEKAKI50 home-use sewing machine won a FY2014 Good Design Award (also known as a "G Mark") from the Japanese Institute of Design Promotion. It was also selected as one of the Good Design "Best 100."

The OEKAKI50 is a home-use sewing machine with a feature enabling freehand embroidery of designs as if painting a picture (hence the product name, which means "painting" or "drawing" in Japanese.)
Today, the culture of hand-crafting at home is gradually fading, and with fewer opportunities to work with a home-use sewing machine, there is a greater need than ever for functions and designs that are highly accessible and user-friendly, and highlight the appeal of making things by hand.
The OEKAKI50 meets just these needs, with freehand "oekaki" mode enabling creative embroidery, and a graceful curving form and detailing that make it blend attractively into a home interior. Aisin Seiki's mission to create a home-use sewing machine that conveys the joy and rich potential of hand-crafting has earned high acclaim with this award

This product is also an example of green technology, with reduced CO2 emissions over its lifecycle through an updated power supply system, and reduced resource consumption throughout the life cycle primarily by shared components that use fewer resources.

This award brings the total number of "G Marks" awarded to Aisin Seiki designs over the years, going back to 1961, to 100.

OEKAKI50 Home-Use Sewing Machine

Product name: OEKAKI50
Dimensions: Width 470 mm x depth 234 mm x height 294 mm
Release dates: Released in Europe in July 2014 (scheduled for release in Japan in June 2015)

Key features of product

・Features "oekaki" mode, in which users can embroider designs freehand as if drawing a picture.
・Visually, features a graceful curving silhouette and three color options, making it an unobtrusive and attractive part of a home interior.
・Ergonomic design, with needle base that is easy to see, optimized table height, and user-friendly structure so users will not tire easily.
・Setting-procedure guidelines printed on the product and in the Quick Guide are text-free, achieving "universal design" by which users can grasp the basics of usage without reading an instruction manual.

Embroidering in "oekaki" mode




Color variations to suit any interior

Designer's Comment
　
　A sewing machine is a time-honored piece of our industrial heritage, with a history stretching back 250 years, and today it remains a marvelous household tool that lets people give shape to their dreams and feelings. I worked on this design with a mission to convey to a wider audience the appeal of the sewing machine and the joy of crafting things by hand, to disseminate a message that "making things by hand, treasuring them, and using them for a long time is a fulfilling and rewarding way to live."