Koji Nomura of design unit Kenma created this colorful floral sheep
Happy New Year to all our readers around the world! As we do each year, we’ve selected some of our favorite Japanese designer New Year’s cards (nengajo).
According to Japan’s zodiac calendar, 2015 is the year of the sheep so, naturally, there are plenty of designs that incorporate hitsuji, the cute fluffy animal.
Kenjiro Sano’s sheep-inspired croissant New Year’s card
From the creators of Super Mario
A molecular structure New Year’s card by Japanese physicist Yuzuru
Designer Akihiro Kumagaya used language and typography to create a digital greeting card.
our friend and illustrator Naho Ogawa’s card hides her pet dog perm amongst a flock of sheep
Eiko Tamura designed a flock of sheep lining up at a temple to pray, a tradition known as hatsumode (初詣)
the illustrator Hama House designed this card in hopes of hitting a home run this year.
a simple, cute drawing from Takahashi Nobumasa of NN
An light painting by NYC-based artist Shinji Murakami. We sell his central park print in our shop.
Graphic designer Shun Sasaki‘s card reads 賀正, or Happy New Year
Hine Mizushima’s holiday card is also available in her shop as a print.
As usual, Tatsuo Horiuchi created his card entirely in Microsoft Excel. We sell one of his prints in our shop.
Graphic designer Ken Miki‘s paper card folds out to reveal 2015
Product designer Masahiro Minami created a balloon sheep.
BONUS: tired of coming up with a new zodiac card each year? Over 100 years ago Shigemitsu Enroh-sai created the perfect solution: an imaginary beast that combines all 12 zodiac animals
