Categories
Magazines

This Week in Magazines

071230-magazines

  • The latest issue of PLANTED (6) focuses on love and romance, with a articles on scents and arrangements. The seed insert is a pansy.
  • DESIGN NOTE (16) covers “Fashion & Graphic Design,” with a look at art directors working with fashion brands, stores, catalogs, and magazines. The issue starts off with a look at Kenya Hara and his “Senseware” exhibition and book, as well as the Taku Satoh-curated “Water” exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight.
  • STUDIO VOICE (385) takes us on a tour of the “Creators of 2008” to watch. It’s quite an eclectic bunch covering a wide range of fields, but be aware that the text-heavy profiles mean that it’s not the best of issues to pick up if you’re only looking for visual inspiration.
  • AXIS (131) features Marti Guixe on its cover, with the issue’s main report covering “Where concepts for the future are born — a look at car designers.”
  • I had a chance to leaf through the latest issue of MAC POWER since the relaunch (as mentioned here), and as I feared, it’s turned into a regular Mac magazine, with the typical tech focus.
  • The latest issue of KATEIGAHO INTERNATIONAL (Vol. 18) has a few interesting pieces, which I cover here.
Categories
Music

Kokiriki Bushi

Teppei Maki’s video for Omodaka’s “Kokiriko Bushi” track. Via Motionographer.

Categories
Design

Kotori

071230-kotori

Kotori,” a motion graphic piece originally intended for Tokyo Mode Gakuen by Yves Geleyen. Via Motionographer.

Categories
Magazines

Kateigaho International Vol. 18

cover18

A few reasons why you might want to pick up the latest issue of KATEIGAHO INTERNATIONAL (Vol. 18): media artist Alexander Gelman talking with a sword maker, a piece on anime that includes profiles of Studio 4C, Satoshi Kon, and Mamoru Hosoda (director of THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME), and a guide to Tokyo’s club scene.

Categories
Anime Manga

Himitsu to TV in 2008

071228-himitsu

I’d never heard of Reiko Shimizu’s philosophical sci-fi manga series HIMITSU – TOP SECRET (or any of her other works, like MOON CHILD and KAGUYA HIME), but the news that it’s being turned into an anime series for the spring 2007 season sounds good to me, especially after having read this description:

The story takes place five decades from now, when brain scanners have been perfected to the point that the government can retrieve up to five years’ worth of memories from people’s minds — even if they are dead. The investigators of the National Research Institute of Police Science’s 9th Forensics Laboratory must weigh the ethical choices in the ultimate invasion of privacy as they delve into people’s minds to solve crimes. (Anime News Network)

Categories
Design Events

A Tale of Two Isamus

f_1333030_1

Core77 writes-up the works of interior designers Isamu Kenmochi and Isamu Noguchi, the fathers of “Japanese Modern,” and point us to the “Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi” show, currently running at the Noguchi Museum in New York.

Categories
Magazines

This Week in Magazines

071227-magazines

  • CASA BRUTUS (94) takes us on a tour of “Hot Places to Visit 07/08,” with destination ideas both in and out of Japan. I always enjoy these, but wish they would put out some guides, like the WALLPAPER ones, that would compile all of these tips, because I’m not about to start taking notes on every city they cover, in case I get to one of them.
  • PEN (213) also has traveling on the agenda, in this case an issue dedicated to “Musées à Paris” (museums in Paris). The previous issue (212) covered “Eco Ideas 30,” with Assistant‘s Timberland Shibuya store renovation coming in at #10.
  • REAL DESIGN (20) has a terrific look at product package design. I also quite liked their “Super Market Goods Design” feature — I love seeing food package design from different countries.
  • BRUTUS (631) offers up another guide to books — how many of these do they publish every year?
  • TRIP (January 2008) is a new travel magazine — or mook — from the Brutus family, and one that seems to hit all the right notes. The oversized format is great, as well as the raw spine (nice aesthetic). It includes an insert with suggestions on 6 possible trips, and has a few summaries in English of some of the articles.
  • The new issue of TOKION JAPAN (66), with a feature on Jun Takahashi and UNDERCOVER, is the magazine’s final one. Seems like the magazines hasn’t been doing so well for a while now, so the end doesn’t come as a big surprise. The final page seems to suggest that they are only going away temporarily, but that could mean that only the possibility of a return is there.
  • You should also really be on the lookout for the latest issue of TITLE (96), which I write about here.
  • I was wondering what happened to MAC POWER, with no new issues for the past few months. I finally got around to checking their website, and it seems like they’re back with a new look and a new frequency (quarterly). I’ll reserve judgement until I leaf through the issue, but from the cover, it’s looking like they’ve unfortunately turned into a regular Mac magazine, instead of the culture magazine of old.
Categories
Society

Neojaponisme: 1974

19745

Do you remember 1974?

Categories
Design MoCo Loco

This Week from MoCo Loco

tokyo_izumiokayasu_kaleidoscope

My weekly Tokyo post is up at MoCo Loco, this time covering new lights from Chihiro Tanaka, Izumi Okayasu‘s “Kaleidoscope” exhibition, and the latest Plusminuszero products to go on sale.

Categories
Web

PingMag MAKE

071226-pingmagmake

What a nice Christmas present: PingMag has just launched a sister site, PingMag MAKE. I’ll let Yes! Communications‘ Tom Vincent give you the lowdown:

PingMag MAKE is the sister site to PingMag. We use an interview format to put the spotlight on a wide range of people active in rural areas. We document the voices of these unknown heroes and broadcast them to the world. It’s the Japan-based magazine about people and making things, coming out once a week. We’re passing on the passion, ideas, skills, and life stories of people who are building today and exploring tomorrow: craftsmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors. Stay tuned!