Posts from — September 2009

My post last week on Kengo Kuma’s line of jewelry led me to another interesting revelation. Japanese eye wear maker JINS has embarked on an ambitious new project called Collabaganza. Actually, that’s just what I would call in. Truthfully speaking it’s called Architect’s Series and it’s a project in which 12 notable architects were commissioned to design their own interpretation of eyewear. The only thing more impressive than the lineup of architects are the pieces themselves. Although I don’t wear glasses I’m kind of wishing I did!

Top: Freehand Glasses by Ryue Nishizawa
Clockwise starting top left: Sun Grass by Yuko Nagayama
The Unique Anonymous Glasses byKumiko Inui
Black Frame Glasses by Junya Ishigami
Line Dance by Toyo Ito

Participating architects:
Jun Aoki
Junya Ishigami (Remember KAIT Kobo?)
Toyo Ito (Remember Za Koenji?)
Kumiko Inui
Kengo Kuma & Mayumi Ohmura
Kazuyo Sejima (Remember Serpentine Pavillion 2009?)
Hiroshi Nakamura (Remember Garden on a Roof & Dancing Trees, Singing Birds?)
Yuko Nagayama
Ryue Nishizawa
Sou Fujimoto
Fujimori Terunobu (Remember Takasugian Tea House?)

Oooooh..puurty! Renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has teamed up with Mayumi Ohmori of Ma,YU, a product and jewelry design unit, to design a line of jewelry for Vendome Aoyama. Interestingly, the pieces will derive their inspiration from previously completed architecture projects by Kuma himself. I guess it’s sort of like what Tiffany did with Frank Gehry.

I’m dying to see what some of the other pieces look like but the online shop seems to be suffering from technical difficulties.

One part high-brow artist and one part pop-star, the 24-year old Sputniko is hard to pigeon hole. And being being a female traveling between Tokyo and London, actively producing music, films and other mediums of expression that explore themes of technology, gender and pop culture certainly doesn’t help.

But if there’s one thing I can say for certain it’s that she is a huge fan of technology. So much so that she recently produced 2 songs serenading the internet – Skype Song and Google Song. Both tracks were included in her 1st DVD album Parakonpe 3000.

I would love to get my hands on a copy of “Calculation in Motion.” The book itself was designed by Masashi Kawamura (remember rainbow in your hand?) but there is much more to this amazing book. Back in ’99, Masahiko Sato (these two went on to collaborate on a variety of interesting projects), a professor of Keio University, challenged his 16 lab students to create flip books based on the notion of computation as a new media. The primitive form of animation combined with advanced themes of computation revealed some fantastic results. The professor was so blown away by what his students created that he decided to create a book out of the 16 flip books. Only 200 copies were published by Bijutus Shuppan, which all sold out instantly. If anyone has any leads on where I can get a copy please let me know!

I wish I didn’t have to do this but it’s time to start thinking about 2010 calendars. And to kick start the season, graphic design shop D-bros, in their yearly tradition, has designed a stylish few to select from. I have been enjoying their 2009 version of “joy by day by toy.” Hmmm, which to choose from this year?

The dynamic  “Paper Jam White” by Ryosuke Uehara

The dainty “Rose” by Yoshie Watanabe

The uuum earthly “Earth” by Atsushi Hirano

My current selection, “joy by day by toy” by Noboru Naito

Or do I go with the beautifully typesetted “CASLON540″

A select few have received shipments such as Caina and Kaunis.

Related:

• 2009 calenders! oh no!