There is something seriously satisfying about watching someone with steady hands drag a paint-laden brush along a smooth surface to make a picture-perfect letter. Sign Painters is a new documentary that offers that—so much of that—and profiles people in the in-flux industry who continue to make the way-finders and place-markers in our cities truly beautiful.
This image shows Apple lawyers’ wet dream for a Samsung tablet. It demonstrates one thing: the Apple lawyers who described it are imbeciles and/or clueless mischievous snakes. Just as much as Samsung’s product designers are unimaginative shameless cloning bastards. More »
Nine months on from the East Japan disaster creative efforts continue aimed at providing the help needed in the North of Japan. However as time passes the media’s focus shifts elsewhere and many engaging projects are not getting the attention they deserve. The ongoing “Creation Project 2011” is a good example of such a project that hasn’t garnered much public exposure, but continues to help those affected. In this project local designers used dyed fabric made by craftsmen from four prefectures that were hit by the earthquake and tsunami (Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki), and created personal messages through designed tote bags. The bags are currently exhibited, and will progress until December 22nd, at the Recruit Creation Gallery G8, Ginza.
The whole project saw 180 Japanese and a few International creators collaborate with Zensenken, an organization of young craftsmen in Japan. “Creation Project” refers to the wish for re-creation or revival of the damaged areas in the North of Japan through creative efforts. “Shirushizome” used in the process of creating the bags also draws on traditional practices from the area, a traditional hand dyeing technique that originated in Heian Period (794-1185). Originally, a hand dyed banner indicated family crest and status, and was attached to each of the personal belongings such as tools, sign curtain hung at shop entrance etc.
Each designer expressed his or her personal message through the traditional hand-dyed bags and it is interesting to see the diversity and creativity of each designer, and their personal message and intention, and how they communicate this through design. Shin Matsunaga, for example, who is an established Japanese Graphic Designer created his interpretation of a new symbol for Japan’s revival.
Takayuki Soeda who currently participates in a long term (10 years) disaster relief project “Arts for Hope” that uses arts as a communication tool in disaster areas, created a bag design with the project’s logo and tying in the two efforts nicely.
Another of the designs that caught our eye was from creative team “Semitransparent”, a company that blends the latest media technologies and design. Their creation consisted of a dazzling patterned bag that represented a basic but fashionable concept in typical Japanese style. Product designer Hitomi Sago expressed her worries on the effect of nuclear energy by passing message of “no nukes- yes to green energy” in response to the Fukushima crisis.
“Creation Project” is a nice example of a very personal window into Japanese designer’s hearts, intentions and wishes, and the expression of their tendencies and influences. Needless to say, all profits (6,000Y a bag) are going directly to the affected areas.
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Peter Skillman knows a thing or two about making beautiful devices. He’s Palm’s former VP of design, and he’s the man behind Nokia’s glorious N9 — its look, feel and user experience. We bumped into him at Nokia World here today and asked him what went into the N9’s — and by association the Lumia 800’s — design. He shared quite a few interesting details with us, including tidbits about the “curvature continuous form” of MeeGo’s icons, Nokia’s Pure font and the nuances of the N9’s sinuous taper. We even discussed the Play 360 Bluetooth / NFC speaker, which follows the same aesthetic principles. Take a look at our exclusive video interview after the break.
Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Nokia’s Peter Skillman talks design (video)
The Engadget Interview: Nokia’s Peter Skillman talks design (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The following is an exerpt from CScout’s global blog the Trendpool.
Between the economic troubles, company scandals and natural disasters “Brand Japan” has taken a pretty serious hit. Unfortunately however the response has been less than impressive, the newest logo and slogan “Japan Next” about as inspiring as watching paint dry. It may work for brands such as Uniqlo, with Kashiwa Sato behind both images, where it represents their stripped back value, but for a country with such a rich and unique culture it is somewhat lacking.
When crusty bureaucrats intervene with campaigns that are aimed at highlighting the cool side of a country to encourage tourism, it’s rarely a pretty ending. Particularly not in Japan, where politics is famed for being populated by octogenarians who are about as up to date with the times as your grandparents’ old broken antique clock. Their idea of “Cool Japan”—androgynous boy bands or barely legal schoolgirl idols—promotes an image of Japan that is outdated and laughable more than it is appealing. So what should Japan be promoting to ignite interest in Brand Japan?
Continue reading the full story “Uncovering The Real Cool Japan- Part One” in full on the global blog…
We have previously talked about the number of innovative projects that have sprung up in the wake of the events in North Japan. Another fantastic project that caught our eye at the recent Tokyo Fashion Week, and is already harvesting results, aims at turning damaged lands in the Sendai area into fertile grounds for fashion. The big collaboration project that now includes more than 20 apparel manufacturers and retailers, was initiated by people from the textile and fashion industry such as Kondo Kenichi of Taishoboseki Industries,, in order to commence cotton farming in Tohoku area, where hundreds of hectares of land were devastated by the tsunami.
In the tsunami the rice paddies in these areas were not only destroyed, but left with high concentration levels of saline. “When the salt concentration level in the soil exceeds 0.2% it is impossible to grow rice on it, but cotton can grow on soil with 0.5% to 0.6% salt concentration” says Kondo.
The attempt of the Tohoku Cotton Project aims to create long term employment for the rice farmers by planting cotton crops on what used to be rice farms before the disaster. The cotton seeds were provided to affected farms and Taishoboseki buys up the cotton crops to spin them. The spun yarn is used to create commercial products and will eventually reach consumers.
Actual product sales are expected to commence in January 2012 and since the demand is already higher than anticipated, Taishoboseki plans to blend harvested cotton with other organic cotton to create approximately 20 tons of yarn.
The project is generating a lot of attention, especially after the recent Tokyo Fashion Week where top fashion designer Yuma Koshino announced her participation in the project and will be launching her products together with Japan Airline (JAL) for her next collection.
Other apparel brands such as Urban research, Lee and Lowrys Farm to name a few, are also delivering their message “Don’t forget Tohoku! We are still alive!” with the vision of seeing in the near future a sea of white cotton fields that spread far and wide all over the Sendai area and more importantly give residents employment and a new sustainable lifestyle.
Images courtesy of Openers
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Renowned for bringing together not only the best in design but also those that are functionally outstanding, the 2011 Good Design Awards Exhibition is currently displaying the finalists for this years coveted prize. From children’s play things to industrial tools, vending machines to fireworks the exhibition represents the best of what the Good Design Awards have come to stand for in its 30 year history.
This year judges have been given the (rather ambiguous) phrase “To be reasonable” to help them in deciding the winning products that are striking in design but enhance peoples lifestyles at the same time.
Amongst the designs on display that the public can vote for are the playful “15.0% Ice Cream Spoons” from Lemnos and Terada Design Architects. The simple and clean design is made from aluminum which has a “high thermal conductivity” meaning the body temperature of the users hand, “slowly melts the ice cream making it easier to scoop”.
Also on display was STAMP iT from D-Bros. whose shop in Tokyo is set up around a large central table where customers can create personalized stationary, cards, bags, iphone covers and a whole range of other things. Almost antique in their look it is a nice twist on the modern day mass produced market that we are used to.
Another playful item that is nominated comes from Jakuetsu and is titled “Omochi”, meaning a Japanese rice cake. The children’s play thing is shaped according to its namesake and is designed for young toddlers to clamber all over it from all angles.
Regular visitors to Japan Trends will also remember the “Designer Fireworks” we uncovered some time ago. Part of the designs that were selected from “Kyushu-Chikugo genki-project” included very similar amazingly intricate fireworks, that are almost too good to set on fire.
The “Kyushu-Chikugo genki-project” aims at using design to revitalize regions through creating jobs around different products, where the whole process from design to production is taken into consideration.
Showing that striking design can be applied to even the most mundane items, the whole set of tools product from Nishimura is a beautiful example of Japanese design strength in the product and the packaging vessel it is contained in. Paying as much attention to detail and craftsmanship in the boxing as well as the product, the whole thing would look as at home in a display case as it would in a tool shed.
The awards even encompass architectural design including the above construct of outdoor brand Snowpeak’s headquarters by Taisei that blends the shape of the land into the building itself, keeping in with the brands environmental image. Along similar environmental theme also was the slope stability tool, basically a huge screw into the earth, that anchors the earth alongside trees. The cedar wood dining table and chairs drew on the natural theme, creating a beautiful smooth finish and elaborate patterning on the surface.
The exhibition is on display at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub until 13th November.
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We got it straight from the horse’s mouth here at Samsung and Google’s Galaxy Nexus launch event that the future LTE edition of the Galaxy Nexus will indeed be thicker than the HSPA+ model showcased today (and above). How much thicker? “A little,” according to a company representative, but he wouldn’t go so far as to talk millimeters. When asked if the additional size was there to hold the LTE package or just a larger battery, he also failed to elaborate. We’d be shocked if the LTE variant doesn’t pack at least a bit more juice — we’ve covered the damage that LTE does to a battery in great detail here — but frankly, we’d rather have something a wee bit thicker than a phone that dies after four hours of use.
Samsung: the LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus will be ‘a little’ thicker originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When it came time to talk Ice Cream Sandwich, Matias Duarte started the conversation (or is it lecture?) with a bit about Roboto. At its most basic, Roboto is a font — the new face of Android in a post Honeycomb world where tablets and phones share the same software space. Sure, it may seem like just another rounded, clean sans serif typeface, but it’s really an entire aesthetic that Duarte says has guided the design philosophy of Android 4.0. It’s “modern, yet approachable” and “emotional,” in PR speak at least. But the clean, geometric design extends to the rest of the OS, which now sports more clean lines, subtle animations and ditches UI elements that have been deemed “unnecessary.” Sure, Roboto may seem like “just a font” to you, but for the folks behind ICS, it’s a mindset.
Roboto font and the new design philosophy of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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