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If you’re following me on Facebook or Twitter then you already learnt about this earlier today:

This morning we went to Ginza for some important shopping, and afterwards we headed for the Sony Building. The reason: an exhibition opened there last week about the design of Sony products, and they have on display one of the coolest-looking MSX computers ever produced: a red HIT-BIT HB-101.

Sony Design: MAKING MODERN
Place: Sony Building (8th floor), Ginza
Admission fee: Free
Companion book: Sony Design: Making Modern
Held from April 29th to June 14th, 2015

Near the entrance to the exhibition there’s a photo gallery from the early days of Sony Design with explanations in both Japanese and English. All the exhibits have descriptions in both languages as well. They explain how they came up with the HIT-BIT catchphrase: it’s word play on the Japanese word hitobito (人々), which can be translated as people.

Other iconic items displayed are the Sony Walkman, Aibo, and the PlayStation 4.

Exactly one month before the opening of this event, Rizzoli published a book of the same name, with photos of these and many more Sony products. The book available at the Sony Building, bookstores and online retailers like Amazon. This book is currently the top seller in the Industrial & Product Design category in Amazon Japan:

You can’t miss it if you’re into industrial design (or MSX computers), and happen to be in Tokyo during these dates.

Talking about the computer, I personally prefer the design of the Sony HB-F1XD. Apparently other people agree, because Sony reused this design again and again with the HB-F1XDmk2, the HB-F1XDJ and the HB-F1XV, with the only external change between these being the color of the disk drive area:

Photo gallery

Click on the photos to enlarge.