Very quick walk through Tokyo Designers Week 2009
This is part of the lifestream of Paul Baron, co-founder of Tokyo Art Beat, AQ, Hitotoki.
More on http://aka.me
Japanese spouse make foreign designers better
What a silly title... Almost sounds Engrish. (it's also a silly post! Yes!)
But I am trying to build a list of foreign designers/artists (notable ones...) married to Japanese nationals..
please help me!
Here are the ones I know:
Jonathan Barnbrook (Male - British nationality - living in the UK)
Alexander Gelman (M - US - JP)
Nicolas Gwenaël (M - FR - JP)
Büro Destruct's Lopetz (M - CH - CH)
Any more?
added:
Simon Taylor from Tomato (M - UK - JP/UK)
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"Tokyo without the Ginza"
The New York Times: Streets Are Paved With Neon's Glare, and City Calls a Halt (By Larry Rohter - Published: December 12, 2006)
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the "delete all" button and offer its residents an unimpeded view of their surroundings.
Of course, detractors came up with all the most alarming forecasts they could think of:
- Advertising and business groups, though, regard the legislation as injurious to society and an affront to their professions.
- They say that free expression will be inhibited, jobs lost and consumers less informed in their purchasing decisions, and even that streets will be less safe at night with the loss of illumination from signs.
- This is a radical law that damages the rules of a market economy and respect for the rule of law
- We live in a consumer society, and the essence of capitalism is the availability of information about products.
- the result will inevitably be a diminishing of urban life - "like New York without Times Square or Tokyo without the Ginza"
- "I think this city is going to become a sadder, duller place"
- "Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom."
- "It's easier to attack McDonald's and Coca-Cola and the banks, because that doesn't offend anybody."
hmmm... I am personally incredibly excited at what new forms of expression people will come up with to circumvent this new law.
I am also convinced that all those ads we get bombarded with everywhere we walk or stand are inhibiting our creative sense and happiness, not enhancing it.
Lastly, a Tokyo without the neons in Ginza would not make me flee the country, screaming, on the contrary. I hope 10 times more tourists flock to Sao-Paulo next year.
I dare you Ishihara-san...
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Nendo's new mobile phone design for DoCoMo's N702iS
This mobile phone handset was a collaboration with NTT DoCoMo and NEC. We wanted a product that felt accessible and close to home, so we used the concept of a drinking glass, a form familiar to the hand.
We cast the phone in two layers of transparent and coloured resins to give a sense of transparency and depth. The indicator lights that signal an incoming call or text message move like bubbles, representing both bubbles in a drink and the way that information transmits from inside to outside. The earphone jack lets the user "drink up" music like you would put a straw in your glass. Both the inner and outer casings are interchangeable so that users can match the phone's contents to its form, just like we would choose a coffee mug for coffee, a teacup for tea, and a glass for water, and the options panel gives users a choice of eight different screen colours. The interface uses triple-axel speed sensors to give a "liquid" effect. When you stand up the handset and then turn it over, an hourglass starts automatically. When you shake it, the alarm stops. When you lean it towards another handset, information "pours" from one handset to the other just as we would pour liquid. The screen rocks in response to motion, and the "water level" goes down as the battery runs out. These are some of the features in our experiment to create a consistently sensory design.
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Beautiful Evidence
Edward Tufte new book - Beautiful Evidence, is now at the printer and should be available in May 2006. On his site, you can order only that book, or all 4 of them in one convenient pack...
Guess what I just got meself...
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New Portfolio
To allow me to keep on taking care of TAB and work on my next super secret project, I have decided to go back to freelancing.
I have therefore updated and relaunched the portfolio area of the site (Am I the only one on the planet using Flickr to show my portfolio?)
So if you love me, give me some work... print, web, usability/interface...
Get in contact.
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Evening Standard Headlines
[a photoset on Flickr] An attempt to show how the Evening Standard's Headline writers attempt to stamp out positive thought within the London area...
Definitely one of the reason why I wouldn't have been able to live in London any longer after completing my BA in 2002. That, and the daily "signal failures" on uncountable parts of the train/subway network... guh!!
Enter Tokyo, where I can't read Japanese and trains run on time! B-L-I-S-S !!
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Honda x eBoy icon museum
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Designing Under The Influence
[Design Observer] And as we sit squarely in a culture intoxicated by sampling and appropriation, can we expect no less from graphic design?
Yucks... No wonder I don't like being referred to as a graphic designer... No wonder I didn't go to the RCA. Here's one controversial article and here's one hell of a ride in the comments... Not to be missed!
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A radio without buttons
[Mouseradio] The mouseradio is a fully functioning radio without buttons. The idea was to use the mouse navigation and to implement it in a radio.
Moving the radio vertically changes the volume, moving the radio on the horizontal axis changes the frequency. The radio is on, when the black speaker points up in the air. (1998)
First of all, the concept of the radio seems to be more about not using buttons than using the mouse navigation... Who uses a mouse following only its X or Z axis, or tilts it (not that this isn't interesting in itself...).
Then, what a shame that the design required that ON and OFF be written on the object to hint at its use.
The speaker is also showing at all times, indicating that the radio might work in all positions, and also points sideways which sounds counter productive. Its volume and tuning are mapped to its axis displacements. That feels akward: turn the speaker towards you and the mapping is inversed...
Something more intuitive (but not necessarilly prettier) might have been to place the speaker under the object and turning it upside down would have revealed the speaker and switched the radio on. [One side being a radio and the other being an alarm clock for example. The only way to turn off the alarm clock being to turn the object upside down, switching on the radio and preventing you from falling asleep again?]
For the volume... Imagine having the object as 2 pieces A & B, with B slightly smaller and heavier than A and contained inside A; pulling (sliding) the top part A up would turn the volume up (similar to the concept of a lamp which had two parts sliding with one another, changing the intensity of the light... but can't seem to find details on Google). To switch the radio off, simply turn it upside down or press on A with your hand until it slides back down.
Make the object a cylinder and the object offers itself as a giant tuning dial.
It's interesting to note how we say: "to turn the volume up"... As much as tuning a radio by rotating a wheel or sliding accross the airwave spectrum feel sorta natural to me, turning a dial to change the volume doesn't.
I much prefer the idea of pulling the volume up or down (or sliding it up and down). One step more natural... but far from being perfectly instinctive...
My favourite volume changing widget would be to actually change the shape of the speaker with my hands, from a large disc to a small coin, from a large gap to a small hole, from a wide-open mouth to sealed lips; a very physical and organic experience.
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