“It is still considered very alternative to study art at university in Japan,” says Hiroko Shiratori (left), a young designer who was raised in Chiba, one of Tokyo’s many sprawling suburban commuter towns.

Hiroko graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2006 and has embarked on a speculative and unusual career that attempts to fuse design and art. She is strongly influenced by the Japanese culture she absorbed as a child. Her parents, both civil servants, had an unconventional, liberal approach to their daughter’s education and enjoy a wide range of cultural interests. Family outings at weekends included concerts, theatre and exhibitions, with visits to the museum of archaeology a particular favourite. At home, her grandmother taught Hiroko a variety of creative traditional Japanese skills, including origami, which continue to have an unconscious influence in her work.