Posts from — November 2010

As you probably know, Tokyo Designer’s Week closed on Wednesday, marking the end of another successful showing. Although we were stranded here in NYC and weren’t able to be there physically, we did manage to send a correspondent there to cover the event. Dustin Malstrom, creative Director of ReMade – an architectural and design studio now based in Japan – was kind enough to scoop out the event and send us some pictures.

But before we continue on, I have to point out how much I love their logo. And while I look forward to seeing the new ideas that come out of Sapporo Design Week each year, I’m so happy that they found a nice clean logo, designed by Micha Weidmann, and stuck with it, making simple subtle modifications each year.

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While Tokyo was busy with their festivities, the northern folk have also been partying it up at Sapporo Design Week, which ran parallel to its Honshu counterpart. Although I never cover it in much extent, I do love their logo, which may serve as an impetus to providing more coverage.

click to enlarge

It was designed by Mr. Morikawa of Terashima Design, a graphic design firm headquartered in Sapporo. The theme of this year’s event was “party” and, using only semicircles, the designer has created a quilt-like pattern that spells out the word.

PS Both festivities have now ended. Yesterday was the last day but stay tuned as we have some exclusive coverage from the Tokyo side.

Related:

• Terashima Design Poster Exhibition

Or-Ita is a revolutionary new tool used for sculpting cardboard. It performs an incredibly simple function – perforation – that transforms an incredibly dull material (cardboard) into one that can be freely bent and sculpted as if it were origami. It was invented by self-described “Inter Design Artist” Makoto Orisaki.

To celebrate the invention of this device (it’s not every day that such a simple yet high-demand tool gets newly invented, says the curator Eizo Okada) 6 designers have come on board to create works to experiment with, and demonstrate the capabilities of, this new tool. The show, which just opened over the weekend at CLASKA, is part of Design Tide Tokyo.

work by Ryuji Nakamura | click images to enlarge

work by Hisakazu Shimizu

work by Makoto Orisaki

work by Mitsuru Koga

work by Mike Abelson of POSTALCO

work by Yo Oe

If you aren’t familiar with the name, Makoto Orisaki has worked, domestically, with Kenya Hara, and for Philip Stark, who invited him abroad. He also spent a year with UK retailer Habitat and is a force to be reckoned with in the design scene in Japan. Some of his exemplary works include Line Works, Pallet File, and Inter_Box.

via architecture photo