Inside Story
Camera and photo thoughts embodied in the RING CUBE name
"According to an old anecdote, in the
post-war camera boom, there were
actually lines of people in Ginza
waiting to buy Ricohflex cameras."
(Takako Hashima)
There is a story of an episode that occurred at the time that Ricoh leased this land. The elderly woman who owned it traveled through the snow to Ricoh to refuse the lease request. When a female office worker at Ricoh saw the old woman's wet feet, she took off her own slippers and put them on the woman, and then carefully guided her to the third floor. The elderly woman was so impressed that the leasing negotiations ended in success.
"Many employees have said that there is special significance to interacting with customers in this building, which is itself symbolic of the Ricoh spirit of 'standing in the other person's shoes.' So, first of all, three years ago the Ricoh logo was put on the advertising tower. Next the opportunity arose to establish a place for contact with customers of our camera business, which has been a part of Ricoh since the beginning. Another major reason for this choice of location is the fact that Ginza has long been one of the main centers of Japan's photo culture," said Takako Hashima, a senior specialist working on brand strategy development in the Strategic Integration Office of the Corporate Planning Division. "Concerning the issue of what kind of gallery we should create in this place, many opinions from both inside and outside the company were considered, many discussions were held, and a concept was gradually hammered out."
The end result of that effort was the concept of "A place to realize mutual growth and nurture Candid Photo Culture by building connections between customers and Ricoh and between customers themselves."
"I didn't want to create the kind of gallery that relies only on the name value of famous photographers," said Hashima. Beginning with the GR1 of the film camera era and continuing with the GR DIGITAL III, the GX200, and the CX2, Ricoh has supported the development of Candid Photo Culture with high-end compact cameras.
Noguchi explained it like this, "A Candid Photo is an image quickly captured in that instant when the heart stirs. I wanted to create a space where people could enjoy shooting photos as well as viewing them." That aspiration is embodied in the name RING CUBE.
Ricoh ad tower on the roof of San-ai Dream Center(Japanese)GR DIGITAL III
GX200
CX2
"RING" is the combination "R+ing." Since R = Ricoh, "R+ing" = the progressive verb form = Ricoh as a company that is always changing and always a stimulating presence. "The idea of RING to the third power was expressed as 'RING CUBE'," explained Noguchi.
"The building itself has a 'RING' shape, and the concept is 'RING CUBE.' I would like this to be a place where people can lightheartedly enjoy photographs and a place that greatly expands the 'ring' of people who are involved with cameras and photographs. When we considered the interior design and layout, our goal was to create a space where this would be possible," said Hashimoto.
