Schemata Architects released a press release today for an office space they designed, titled MR Design Office. Although there is no mention of him, I am certain that this is the office of THE Mr Design, also known as Kenjiro Sano (see our 2009 post on the man)
The Sapporo-based graphic design squad known as Terashima Design, fronted by art director Masayuki Terashima, is perhaps the most well-known practice in all of Hokkaido. They have given various local mom-and-pops a face-lift with their clean yet visually unpredictable style; and boy do the new faces look good.
New branding campaign for North Farm Stock
New logo design and poster for Farmer’s Herb
The studio, for a brief moment, turned inward to give their website a much-needed renewal. The new site, which looks amazing and is loaded with a slew of new work, went live around the end of 2010.
Related:
New work by Terashima Design
The Sapporo-based graphic design squad known as Terashima Design, fronted by art director Masayuki Terashima, is perhaps the most well-known practice in all of Hokkaido. They have given various local mom-and-pops a face-lift with their clean yet visually unpredictable style; and boy do their new faces look good.
New branding campaign for North Farm Stock http://www.hakua-d.co.jp,
New logo design and poster for Farmer’s Herb http://www.odori-bisse.com/shop/shop_11.html
The studio, for a brief moment, turned inward to give their website a much-needed renewal. The new site, which looks amazing and is loaded with a slew of new work, went live around the end of 2010.
http://www.tera-d.net
This is the finest looking soap bar I’ve seen in a long time. I love the concept too. Designed by Ryohei Yoshiyuki for inframince – a beauty and cosmetics company – the cold processed soap, made from gentle, all-natural ingredients, is hand-cut to create a thin slice intended to be exhausted in a single day.
Pursuant to last year’s collection, here are some Japanese designer New Years cards that were done for 2011.
I love the unconventional sizing that Bob Foundation decided to work with for their card.
There are over 43,000 konbini (or convenience stores) across Japan with over a billion monthly visitors. Daily-packaged lunches and other foods like the ones seen above, make up about 35% of sales (or about 230 billion yen) The average cost of items I purchased were about 400 yen. I can therefore extrapolate that in a single month customers purchased about 570 million items like the ones seen above. I love konbini bento and I wish they had them in the States but, for the sake of the planet, I’m glad they don’t.
*data source (PDF)
photo taken at Inokashira Koen
Happy New Year and thanks for reading! *
The biannual CS Design Awards recognize excellence in graphics and space design like retail and exhibition spaces. The awards have been faithfully hosted for 30 years (amazing!) by Nakagawa Chemical, a pioneer in the cutting sheet and wall decal industry (products that often get used in space design).
And as usual, the awards boast a rock star cast. Above is the poster designed by legendary graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai, who has done almost every single poster design for the awards. The judges: Kazumasa Nagai (graphic designer), Kiyonori Kikutake (architect), Shigeru Uchida (interior designer), Taku Sato (graphic designer) and Kenya Hara (graphic designer).
Here are some highlights from the awards
“The Strokes” from the exhibition, Jim Lambie: Unkown Pleasures
First place when to Toshio Hara, who worked with artist Jim Lambie to produce the exhibition design for Jim Lambie’s show at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art.
Photos by Hirotaka Yonekura | click to enlarge
& Roll
Designer Yoko Akimoto was recognized for her unique usage of a classical motif in a very uncommon fashion, transforming the & Roll beauty salon into a hi-contrast and graphic space.
Photos by Hatsue Kubo | click to enlarge
Color Study
Art Director and educator Kei Matsushita’s use of the Nakagawa Chemical’s latest product – IROMIZU panels that can be overlapped to create multiple hues of blue.
photos by Hidehiko Nagaishi | click to enlarge
Signage for the exhibition “Kenji Yanobe: ULTRA”
Art Director Yuma Harada’s signage campaign for the exhibition “Kenji Yanobe: ULTRA” which took place at the Toyota Museum of Art in April 2009.
Photos by Takumi Ota | click to enlarge
Hiroko Ichihara exhibition “I Want to Spend My Life Playing”
Art director Bunpei Yuge hijacked and transformed a model house into a typographic playground.
Photos by Takuto Fujino
Nosign Exhibition
Nosigner went about designing the space for his own solo exhibition by using hundreds of decal leaves – some translucent and some opaque. The translucent leaves were strategically placed so that when the lights turn on the designer’s name appears, creating order out of chaos.
Photos by Masaharu Hatta | click to enlarge
A fascinating exercise in the visualization of memory and time in product design.
Ie-Tag (House-Tag) was part of the exhibition, “Earth: materials for design,” which took place at the Miraikan in Tokyo over the summer. The post-its, created by Naruse Inokuma Architects, are made from the recycled wood of homes and buildings that were torn down. Once used as the material of a home, the wood was recycled into stationary, maintaining it’s original shape but in completely different form.
click images to enlarge
They are apparently in negotiations now to commercialize the product and are shooting to get it on shelves by sometime next year.
Related:
Japanese designer Yukihiro Kaneuchi’s latest design is a ceramic cup that comes with pre-coffee-stains of graphic quality. It’s actually an interesting meditation on the passage of time as layers of coffee slowly distort the original image.
click images to enlarge
Tiny Landscapes In The Coffee Cup (Juy 2010) can be purchased for 25 EUR.
via Design Milk (thanks Paulene!)
Louie Vuitton has released a 2nd edition of their series of 11 city guides ($34 each) including 2 of my favorite cities, Tokyo and New York. The 2011 version is updated with hotels, bistros, museums, fashion boutiques and other notable locations as seen through the LV lens. It’s an acceptable, yet obviously much inferior, alternative to our Tokyo Design Guide.
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There’s an English Version.
Duct-Tape Typographer Shuetsu Sato Honored With Design Award
Kirie Artist Carves Playful Narratives Into Tree Leaves
Japan’s Jimi “Mundane” Halloween Contest of 2019
RIP Ken-chan: The Cat Whose Epic Battle with Museum Security Guard Captured Hearts Across Japan
