MATERIALITY 2

Community collaboration and co-creation

WACOM COMMUNITY
Collaborating with various
community partners toward the future
Some say that a person is defined by the friends they mingle with.
For a company, a partner is like a friend to share dreams with.
Drawing parallel between the friends and partners,
communities Wacom belongs to may tell the story about who we are.

TechnologyPartners
Seeking technologicaleminence together

CultureCo-Creation
Partners
Exploring together toco-create new cultures

BusinessPartners
Developing
new businesses together

We believe that establishing strong relationships with outside partners while pursuing advances in digital
pen and ink technologies is important. As we live in an increasingly complex world where specializationand segmentation of expertise accelerate, it is unrealistic for a company to try to handle everything on its
own. Forming partnerships with leading companies, organizations, and academic players in every fieldbrings new perspectives into the company along with all the latest knowledge and technologies. This also
gives the company nimbleness and flexibility to quickly adapt to unexpected turns of events. In this way,
partnerships can help ensure the mid- to long-term success of a business. At Wacom, we group partners
into three categories: technology partners, business partners, and culture co-creation partners. Together,
we work to deliver new values and experiences. Let’s look into how each category plays along.

TechnologyPartners

BusinessPartners

Culture Co-Creation
Partners

Seeking technologicaleminence together

Developing
new businesses together

Exploring together to co-create new cultures

Rather than doing everything by ourselves, we workwith partners who have their own strengths, toleverage Wacom’s technology in the most effective
way. Digital technologies can be combined with somany things, offering infinite possibilities.

Innovations often times happen when two seemingly
distant factors (talents, skills, assets etc.) are fused
together. While sharpening its strengths restlessly,
Wacom is always keen to work with partners who
have been seeking added dimensions in theirbusinesses, when opportunity knocks.

One interpretation of culture may be a set ofvalues that guide human thought and behavior.
Wacom works with partners to bring about newsets of values that may impact the way we livein this world. Through various initiatives withpartners, Wacom strives to keep supporting
creative human expression and education.

Composed by diversified partners, the communities Wacom belongs to have lots of potential. Every
activity Wacom is involved in here is a seed for a future opportunity. Some of the seeds may have alreadysprouted, and bearing fruits. Some are still in the ground waiting for the right time to flourish. Every seed
has its own future.

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TECHNOLOGYPARTNERS

Developing cutting-edge technology
with our technology partners

from AUSTRIA

Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an international creative institute basedin Linz, Austria. The institute endeavors to envision thefuture of humankind and human society through four mainundertakings: the Ars Electronica Festival, held every
September to explore the themes of art, technology, andsociety; the Ars Electronica Center, a museum of art andscience; the Prix Ars Electronica, an awards ceremonyhonoring innovation in digital art; and the Futurelab R&D
facility. Ars Electronica has also been collaborating withWacom on the Future Ink research project for the past threeyears.
from JAPANfrom US

Preferred Networks, Inc.

Digital Stationery Consortium

Preferred Networks (PFN) develops practical applications ofdeep learning, robotics, and other advanced technologies
under its mission to “make the real world computable.” PFN
has joined forces with Wacom and Celsys for the KISEKI ARTproject, an attempt to develop a groundbreaking service inwhich PFN’s AI technology is used to visualize the work’s“creative trail.” This involves documenting every stroke of theartist’s pen—every moment of hesitation, revision, buildupof experience, or happy accident—throughout the creativeprocess.

The Digital Stationery Consortium (DSC) is an organization of partners
working to establish a market for the new category of products known asdigital stationery. Among the members are Wacom, Samsung, and MontBlanc. DSC aims to not only promote digital ink technologies based on theWacom Ink Layer Language (WILL™) but also to establish smart and open
standards in support of the digital stationery experience.

www.preferred.jp/ja

digitalstationeryconsortium.org

ars.electronica.artfrom JAPANNational Institute ofInformation andCommunications Technology(NICT)
Wacom has partnered with National Institute of Informationand Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan to conduct
research on brain activity as a measure of the effectiveness ofdifferent learning styles. Researchers recorded participants’electroencephalogram and used the data to evaluate theeffectiveness of various writing tools (conventional ink pen,digital pen, and keyboard) in aiding memorization. The
results suggested that writing with an ink or digital pen aided
memory retention more than typing on a computer keyboard.
Ihara, A.S., Nakajima, K., Kake, A., Ishimaru, K., Osugi, K. and Naruse Y.
Advantage of handwriting over typing on learning words: Evidence froman N400 event-related potential index. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
15:6791919 (2021)

www.nict.go.jp/brain

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BUSINESSfrom JAPANPARTNERSCELSYS, Inc.

Creating new businesses
with our business partners

As the company behind Clip Studio Paint—
a software application popular among
both professional and amateur artists whocreate illustrations, comics, webtoons, andanimations—Celsys is known for providing
services that support artists’ creative
endeavors. Celsys entered into a capital andbusiness alliance with Wacom in April 2022
out of a shared desire to see the creativecommunity grow. The two companies havesince collaborated on a number of projects,
from KISEKI ART to the New Normal Digital
Creative Education initiative in Oiso Town,
Japan.

from JAPANsdtech Inc.
Through a user-centered approach to manufacturing,sdtech applies design engineering—a field integrating thestrengths of design, technology, and data science—towards
developing advanced human-machine interfaces (HMIs) for
the automotive industry and user interfaces (UIs) for remotecontrolled karaoke systems. Wacom and sdtech are jointly
developing an innovative new service based on artificial
intelligence (AI) and digital handwriting, with applications infields such as education.

www.celsys.com

from BULGARIA

Adcom
Adcom has been a long-time sales partnerwith Wacom in Bulgaria, where bothcompanies have collaborated in market
development for more than 10 years. To raise

has been playing a key role in introducing
Wacom solutions in the education market,
actively supporting teachers and students togrow with the education community.
www.adcom.bg

Association of Innovative Education(Organizer of the Edvation initiative)
Efforts to study and modernize learning by proactively introducing the latest
technologies into the field of education are exemplified by the GIGA School
program under the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology. With the Edvation initiative—its name a portmanteau of“education” and “innovation”—the Association of Innovative Education
aims to go a step further by pioneering innovations that are even moregroundbreaking. New efforts by the private sector, rather than top-downgovernment programs, could provide significant insights and contributeto bringing education into the future through technology. As partners whobelieve in the importance of supporting science, technology, engineering, art,and mathematics (STEAM) education, Wacom and the Association provide
collaborative support at each other’s events.

www.sdtech.co.jp

Wacom products’ awareness, Adcom started
to organize Wacom Day events in early 2010sfor the local creative community.   Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, people started to realize
the true value of online classes, and Adcom

from JAPANwww.edvationxsummit.jp

from CHINA

Universal Scientific Industrial（USI）
USI provides design, material sourcing, manufacturing,logistics, and other services of electronic devices for brandowners. USI has been working with Wacom to develop
LTS (Low Temperature Soldering) which saves electricity
consumption in soldering process for digital pens. Whilenormal soldering requires the temperature of 220c degrees
in an electric furnace (and cooling down needs more energy),
LTS needs just 140c degrees, substantially reducing CO2
emission for greener manufacturing process.
www.usiglobal.com

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CULTURE
CO-CREATIONPARTNERS

Promoting new cultural values
with our cultural partners

from JAPANP.A.I.N.T. Inc.
from JAPANLIMITS is a freestyle battle of the creative world, born out ofHeralbony Co.
Heralbony is an experimental group whose work has a strong social-welfare
element. The company—whose motto is “Be Different”—aims to expand
the scope of social welfare by signing art licensing agreements with artists
with disabilities from across the world. Using the over 2,000 works licensed
from these artists, the group has established initiatives such as Heralbony,an eponymous lifestyle brand, and the Wall Art Museum, which converts
temporary fencing at construction sites into works of art. In collaboration
with Wacom and the Connected Ink Village, Heralbony also organizes Call &Response, an ambitious project in which creators respond in various ways
to the call (i.e., works) of exceptional artists. These responses transcendboundaries and channel the power of human expression in novel ways,
bringing the act of creation into new realms.
www.heralbony.jp

the desire to make art and creativity more easily accessible
and enjoyable. The competition—which has gradually
expanded since its beginnings in Japan in 2016 to now
include an Asian Championship and Global Championship—brings together creators from various genres to participate indigital drawing battles. In anticipation of the inaugural LIMITSHigh School Championship, to be held later in 2023, teamsof three artists competed against each other in an exhibition
match in November 2022.​
limits.jp
High School Championshiplimits.jp/lp/highschool-tournament-2023/

from JAPAN

Oiso Town

from PORTUGAL

Trojan Horse was a Unicorn
Trojan Horse was a Unicorn (THU) is a community
organization for digital creators, founded by Andre Luis in
2013, who used to run a school for computer graphics inPortugal. THU acts as an ecosystem for creators around theworld to widen their connection beyond industry categories
such as 3D, VFX, game and conceptual arts. Wacom has
been a long-standing sponsor for THU’s annual festival where
Wacom products can be seen everywhere in special activities
and workshops such as Infinity Canvas, Co-Labs and theWacom Art Battles. THU and Wacom believe in continuing
to stand together for the creative community. It’s all about
empowering the dreams of creators, giving them the righttools.

Out of a desire to promote the acts of drawing and writing , Wacom and thetown of Oiso in Kanagawa, Japan, are promoting the New Normal Digital
Creative Education initiative to further improve the quality of education. By
providing a digital environment for traditionally low-tech creative activities
that would normally be done on paper with a pen or brush, the project helps
teachers introduce the advantages of digital creation in their classrooms.
The aims of the program are twofold. One is to instill in students a moral
framework for working in virtual environments through everyday exposure
to digital technology. The second goal is to give students a foundation fordeveloping a life-long appreciation for art by stimulating their imaginations
and allowing their creativity to flourish from the earliest stages of primary andsecondary education.
www.town.oiso.kanagawa.jp

www.trojan-unicorn.com

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MATERIALITY 2Community collaboration and co-creation

CONNECTED INK
A toy box of creativity and a venue for continuously
supporting art, education, and technology
The Connected Ink event is one initiative that symbolizes Wacom’s current direction: refining its
technologies to develop unique solutions that will allow it to collaborate on projects with pioneers
in a wide variety of fields. In this experimental space, Wacom is both leader and collaborator—
sometimes at the same time—as it explores new ideas to experiment with.

Supporting the passion
for creative expression
Akiko OKUYAMA
Director
Connected Ink Village

I think of Connected Ink Village as a mirror ball that reflects themany different aspects of Wacom in a colorful light. Whether
you are famous or not, if you are passionate about exploring
the depth of creative expression as embodied by Connected
Ink, we are here to support you in every aspect. Whether
we meet you at the event as a partner of Wacom or as
ourselves—a collective of singular creative professionals—wewant to nurture our relationship so we can pursue meaningfulprojects with you.

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support these explorations. They are currently supporting
numerous projects that align with these interests.
Wacom assists humanity and its creative endeavors in
the realms of drawing/writing , but its larger goal is to serve

When knowledge of immensely creative professionals
at the forefronts of their fields collide with each other,
they create what could be described as “creative chaos.”Connected Ink is an event for exploring the surprises,insights, and seeds of future cultures that can come out of

all humankind. Providing a life-long journey via digital tools

such chaos. Discussions at this event—now in its seventh
year—often revolve around pointed questions brought upby the attendees; in 2022, they included “Have Humans
really evolved since their origins?” and “Do Wacom’s
technology and tools really contribute to human creativity?”
The creative fields represented at Connected Ink
are given robust support by Connected Ink Village, afoundation started in February 2021. It is an independentorganization that focuses on individual creators,
providing them with continuous artistic, educational, andtechnological support. The foundation’s interests include
exploring human depth as expressed in works of art,
exploring and promoting new educational values, and using
technology and collaborations with various communities to

may not be enough to fulfill such an ambitious mission.
Wacom may need to support creative professionals evenmore comprehensively and push them towards heights
they could not have otherwise reached. This is the conceptbehind Connected Ink. It is an experimental space thatis like a toy box of creativity brimming with cuttingedge forms of creativity that hint at the future to come.
Attendants explore how to support creative expression andeducation with digital technology to enhance the culture ofproducing, loving, and enjoying art. They also explore how
to enrich STEAM and other progressive forms of education
by incorporating diversity and flexibility. Connected Ink is aforum for posing questions and debating to bring up evenfurther questions to explore.

For more information on Connected
Ink, scan the QR code on the left.

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