Category — Graphic Design

I’m loving this simple TypoDesignClock ($0.99 at the iTunes app store) app for the iPhone by Katsushi Nakano.

It’s also available on the iPad  (iTunes link) for $0.99.

This fun Dropi iPhone app (iTunes link) and more applications by Katsushi Nakano can be found on his website at katsushinakano.com.

Katsushi Nakano is a applications, graphic, and industrial designer currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Katsushi Nakano on Twitter: @katsushinakano.

A stunningly minimal and breathtaking poster made from a single drop of red ink. It was designed by Lucas Krull, who is donating all proceeds to the Japan relief effort.

Source: twitter

First came shock,  then came loss and finally, a question: “I wonder what I could do.” Simply put, that was the process that moved an advertising professional from Morioka and a photographer from Tokyo to create A Beacon of Rebirth Poster Project.

The posters are comprised of a simple layout: a photograph of local residents, accompanied by short text. The posters a grouped by the location the photos were shot: Otsuchi, Kamaishi and Oofunato. What’s interesting – and what I particularly like about the series – is that they don’t solicit pity. Instead, the locals are portrayed as resilient and tenacious.

The posters have been on display at various sites in Morioka, Fukushima, Tokyo, as well as evacuation centers. You can purchase the posters (3,675 yen – 3,990 yen) via an order form in the Japanese version of the website. The English version doesn’t yet appear to have that functionality.

Source: twitter | fukkou-noroshi

click images to enlarge

Designer Taku Satoh recreated a 3-dimensional version of the Japanese alphabet by stacking numerous layers of paper. Apparently it was in response to an overall shift in emphasis towards contour, rather than essence – an unfortunate consequence of the pervasiveness of digital media.

I love how each hiragana is enclosed in their own individual wooden box, elevating them to a higher status. The execution of the exhibition is also breathtaking. I wish I could have seen it in person.

Taku Satoh | Two Experiments Exhibition
Gallery Kobo
2009.02.02  – 02.14

(I know it’s old work, but the designer just recently updated his website with a treasure trove of new work. I’ve been slowly going through it all. So much cool stuff!)

For other experimental hiragana, check out Hideo Kanbara’s 3D hiragana!

source: Taku Satoh’s website

images courtesy MUTE | click to enlarge

Japanese graphic design duo MUTE created this lovely project for VOGUE Nippon’s July 2011 issue. In an attempt to reformat a traditionally one-way, 2-dimensional media, the designers created origami rings out of the beautiful pages of VOGUE. Even after you’re done reading the magazine you can double-dip on some of your favorite images.

client : Only Free Paper
material : paper, rubber, VOGUE
size : w22 × d19 × h6

Found while snooping around their website.
Other stories on MUTE.

With the goal of promoting peace at home and abroad, JAGDA has been producing “Hiroshima Appeals,” an annual poster to commemorate the end of WWII. This year’s poster was designed by Susumu Endo. When compared to previous designs, this year’s poster is filled with intensity and is considerably darker than its predecessors. And understandably so. It was just days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster when Endo was approached to design this year’s poster.

And Endo had his work cut out for him. In the light of a real-life nuclear disaster that uprooted age-old assumptions about atomic energy and served as a grim reminder of nuclear fission’s deadly potential, never since the initiation of this  series has a designer faced such a complex task. Which is perhaps what led to his choice to use the symbolic Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) as fodder for his design. It’s a haunting image that is as timely as it is urgent.

source: JAGDA

An oldie but a goodie. Japanese graphic designer Taku Satoh has been in charge of the bulk of Issey Miyake’s visual identity. But one of my favorite designs he’s done is this very simple, lovely and elegant shopping bag for Issey Miyake’s more innovative retail project ELTTOB TEP, when it launched back in ’07.

PET bottle spelled backwards – the designer is fond of using the plastic to create new textiles – the line includes selections from all the other product lines as well as a very special  line of odor-free nail polish made with Japanese scallop shell powder and produced by Ueba Co., an artisanal brand in Kyoto with a 250-year history.

click to enlarge

Leave it to Japanese graphic design studio D-Bros to make opening an envelope even more fun than reading what’s inside. “Booooon!” (an onomatopoeia often used by children to imitate the sound of vehicles) comes with an illustration of an automobile, locomotive and airplane. When torn open they create trails of exhaust plumes!

For 945 yen you can purchase the set of three. If you’re not in Japan, you can use an export service like white rabbit express.

source: colossal | matomeno

Related:

• 2009 calenders! oh no!
• 2010 calendars! oh my!
• 2011 Calendars! Oh crap!

radiation levels surrounding the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

The Nippon Design Center, headed up by design guru Kenya Hara, has created 311 SCALE, an integrated visual language to communicate the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11th. Visual information at its finest, 311 SCALE attempts to create a neutral representation of what happened on 3.11 by avoiding dramatization and opinions and simply focusing on communication.

Hypocenters and intensity levels of main earthquake tremors

Heights of tsunamis caused by the main earthquake

source: twitter

In the early 80s the Japanese government payed for a series of PSAs to run in Japanese newspapers and magazines. The objective: to drum up support for nuclear power in the wake of the Three Mile Island incident and during a time construction of new plants continued to be strong.

In a modern-day context the ads appear more as propaganda than anything else.

October 1982 | “the world’s most advanced technology is being used to support Japanese nuclear power”

March 1982 | “Above all else we are prioritizing safety in generating nuclear power”

October 1983 | “autumn evening – reading a book by the light of nuclear power” (top) ”welcome to Japan. This winter your home will be warmed by nuclear-generated electricity” (bottom)

October 1986 | “Walking towards a brighter future, by nuclear energy”

June 1981 | We are learning from our mistakes from the Tsuraga Power Station incident and renewing our commitment to safety.

(In March 1981, drainage from unit 1 caused a release of radioactivity. The forty-day cover-up of a spill of 16 tons of radioactive primary cooling water was revealed only in April)

I wonder if soon we will see similar ads running again, except “Tsuruga” will be replaced by “Fukushima?”

source: Yukichi Amano’s blog