The winners of the 2009 Toyama Product Design Competition were recently announced. I wasn’t crazy about the first place so instead I’m going to direct your attention to the runner up…but of course feel free to check out all 3 winners on the website. This year’s theme was color. Not exactly a unique theme but inspiring none the less. Especially when you have Jin Kuramato applying the theme to traditional wooden bowls and tea cups. And I love how they stack!

Related:

• Toyama Design Competition | Drop by Tetsuo Shibuya
• Jin Kuramoto

I came across this ad the other day while flipping through one of my wife’s magazines. The colors and the sleek design caught my eye. Was it a new fragrance? Cosmetics? Actually it turns out to be condoms. Okamoto Condoms to be exact. The new 0.02 EX brand just launched several weeks ago and their claim to fame is that their latex rubber, no matter what part of the condom you measure, has a width of just 0.02 millimeters. Leave it to the Japanese to apply precision and smart branding to just about anything. Take that Trojan!