Camera freak and fellow PauseTalker Tim Rudder has made available a t-shirt he designed featuring a rather detailed illustration of the classic Rolleiflex 3.5 Tessar camera — you can order one online here. Next up is the Canon A-1.
Month: October 2009
Nosigner at DesignTide
While checking out DesignTide yesterday, I quite enjoyed the booth for the AWA brand — that’s the collaboration between Nosigner and the Tokushima Wood & Bamboo Industrial Cooperative Society Confederation — with some new pieces on show, including the Cartesia drawers (above) and the Unit set (below).
Hoto Fudo
Hoto Fudo is the bulbous building pictured above, currently in construction in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, and set to house a restaurant. It was designed by Takeshi Hosaka Architects — see this Designboom post for more images of the project.
Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks
Anyone who has tried to find some free wi-fi spots in Tokyo will know just how big a deal this is: Starbucks is set to offer free wi-fi in 94 of its stores in Japan starting November 1, with plans to expand after that. Tokyo web workers rejoice. Via Jason Jenkins.
Update: The service may not be as free as I had hoped, and may be limited to customers of NTT’s Flet’s.
Update 2: Some good news — it’s been confirmed that the service is indeed free.
Update 3: Well, looks like we were wrong. The service is indeed only for customers of Flet’s and Mzone — here’s the press release from Starbucks.
Inglourious Refund
How’s this for a promotion: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds opens in Japan on November 20, and the distributor is offering a money-back guarantee during the first four days of release. This means if you leave the film within the first hour of the film, you get your ticket refunded. Not a bad way to promote the film. Via Japan Probe.
Joji Shimamoto
Photographer Joji Shimamoto is showing works at Fireking Cafe in Yoyogi Uehara until the end of the month.
Score Studios
It’s been a good month for fellow PauseTalker James Kay, with his Tokyo-based game studio, Score Studios, finally launching its official website, as well as their first few iPhone apps, which includes the sheep herding game Flock It (above).
Soco Coco
Nosigner has produced the art direction and naming of Soco Coco, an interesting project from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the purpose of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
They utilize the SME with a shop space to distribute their goods in an environment with well established commercial facilities. The purpose of the project is to introduce the products to a wider range of customers and therefore to extend the distribution. For the SME it is an opportunity to get supported and to connect with commercial facilities.
Nosigner Wins Packaging Award
Nosigner‘s beautiful packaging for Kanpyo Udon has won the Platinum Award in the food category of the prestigious Pentawards package design competition.
Not only that, but his TRUSS bookshelf (below) — part of AWA, a new brand produced in cooperation with the Tokushima Wood & Bamboo Industrial Cooperative Society Confederation — is the recipient of a Good Design Award.
The Outline
The current show at the 21_21 Design Sight is “The Outline: The Unseen Outline of Things,” an exhibition of works by Naoto Fukasawa and photography by Tamotsu Fujii. It runs until January 31.