Yes, the Cool Geeks are back after a momentary uber-rich break and Yankodesign’s Takashi Yamada is here with the answers. Due to his busy schedule these days, Takashi was not able to answer all your questions, still he’s tried his best to make it a must read. Here he goes after the jump.

1. Takashi, what creative challenges designers face these days? I’d also like to know about your biggest creative influences?

Takashi: Biggest challenge a designer has today is to be unique. Since the internet has made it easier to see what’s cool, it’s very easy for designers to spend too much time looking at other’s work, admiring it, failing to create their own unique brand.

My biggest influence is myself. I try not to look too much at what other people are doing. I have to listen to myself, little voice inside, even if it’s wrong, I was meant to make that mistake. The only way to be original is to be forced to figure it out yourself. It’s like putting together a table without instructions. Everyone will have their own way of doing it.

2. Yankodesign aims to make designers icon. How far you’ve been successful in achieving it?

Takashi:In terms of making a designer into a classic icon figure, zero success. In terms of getting a concept in production as a result of the publicity we generated on behalf of the designers, very successful. We have counted so concepts that went into production.

3. Where do you see design tools, concepts and its sensitivity going in the next few years? And where do you see yourself in the whole gamut?

Takashi:I see tools going back to the hand. Everything we create is usually created thru our hands. But as our design has become more complicated, so have our tools. I think there’s a movement to simplify those tools, so that what nature evolved for us in the form of prehensile fingers are put back in charge. We already see this movement happening in technology, with more advance touchscreens like in the iPhone or gesture recognition like in the Nintendo Wii. In the future, it would be awesome if I could just hold my hand in virtual space and create. No keyboard, no mouse, pen or paper. My fingers manipulate thin air into my vision.

4. Most of the design concepts showcased on Yanko are futuristic. Keeping in mind the pace of the changing world, don’t you think that when these designs would take real shape, we might not even need them altogether?

Takashi:Oh, people don’t realize what they need until it’s really here. Just like designers can’t see what the future is til’ they’re there. It’s like a dance. Consumers and designers just dance back and forth until occasionally they get the right steps in sync and the right product comes along right when people realize they wanted it. But it’s natural for consumers and designers alike to try and predict what the future is. It gives us hope, even if it turns out to be wrong or outdated when the time comes.98501