Categories
Magazines

NJP

This past week I was incredibly happy and excited to receive the first issue of NJP, a new magazine by the creators of the Neojaponisme website. Full disclosure, the two masterminds behind the site (W. David Marx and Ian Lynam) are great friends of mine, and I was — if ever so slightly — involved with the launch of the original Neojaponisme website, but this is truly a thing of beauty, and I can’t recommend enough that you pick up a copy for yourself.

Cover of the first issue of NJP.

As I started reading the issue, as much as I was enjoying what I was taking in, I will admit that I did feel a tinge of sadness — bordering on jealousy — that I never managed to get a magazine project like this up and running. It’s no secret that I have a great love — bordering on obsession — for the medium of magazines, and it even resulted in an old website I used to run called The Magaziner. I always dreamed of producing some sort of indie magazine project, and what they’ve done with NJP is exactly the type of thing I had in mind — a beautifully designed “meaty” object with a strong theme.

But hey, at least someone is doing it, and I get to enjoy the results.

Categories
Books Design Magazines

Cannibals

My buddy Ian has just produced a new lovely little handbook called Cannibals, which he describes as “a handbook of dubious exercises, tips, and rants about becoming a designer how teaches.” I loved his Start Somewhere handbook, and am very much looking forward to reading this one.

Categories
Design Food

Kurokura

A beautiful branding/packaging project by my buddy Ian Lynam for the Kurokura sake brand.

Categories
Books Design Magazines

Coloring Inside the Lines/Coloring Outside the Lines

My buddy Ian Lynam is simply one of the smartest people I know on this planet, and when he writes something, you should pay attention. His latest zine — which you can order online from his Wordshape webstore — acts as a guide to new graphic design graduates. I also highly recommend his Start Somewhere zine, which sorta inspired me to get writing again (which led to the rebirth of this here blog).

Categories
Art Design

Corinthians

Very happy to see my buddy Ian Lynam, along with Renna Okubo, launch Corinthians, “a Tokyo art & design curatorial practice.” I expect great things from these two.

Categories
Design Magazines Typography

Idea 375

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Idea is a fantastic magazine about typography and graphic design, and it’s one of the rare Japanese publications that is entirely bilingual (English/Japanese). The latest issue covers the work of graphic designer Koichi Sato. Lucky for you, my buddy Ian‘s Wordshape webstore sells copies. It may sound pricey ($50, including shipping), but each issue of Idea is massive, and features beautiful paper stock. Think of it like getting a beautiful new book.

Categories
Art Design Events Fashion

Supplement: Tokyo

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Oh how I’d love to attend the first edition of the new talk/lecture series called Supplement: Tokyo. The first edition (on October 4) will have a list of speakers that includes two friends I think are smart as fuck (W. David Marx and Chris Palmieri), and will be moderated by one of the best dudes, period (Ian Lynam). Produced by Temple University Japan (where Ian also teaches design classes), each edition will be made up of “four short talks about the relationship of design, art, fashion, visual culture and writing followed by a Q&A panel session.” Love seeing something like this happen, and even the tagline: Supp: Tokyo.

Categories
Design Events Typography

That’s Entertainment!

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Ian Lynam is a Tokyo-based dude I love so much, and embarrassingly it’s just now that I’m catching up on the fantastic essay/exhibition he produced earlier this year called “That’s Entertainment!” Get some background through this TypeThursday interview, and then get online and read through the project’s main essay — and that’s also where you can download plenty of digital material to take in the rest of the project, like all of the posters that were part of the exhibition.

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Categories
Uncategorized

Ametora

W. David Marx’s upcoming book on the popularity of the American Ivy League fashion style in Japan in the 60s, Ametora (short for “American Traditional”), comes out on December 1, and you can pre-order it from Amazon.

This is a project that David has been slowly cooking – let’s call it a crock-pot of a project – for quite a while, and seeing it finally get to a point where it’s almost out and already getting some great coverage – like a recommendation in the latest issue of Monocle, pictured in this post, and an excerpt in Lapham’s Quarterly – is really fantastic. There’s no one I know who is more knowledgeable about this topic – and to be honest, the history of modern fashion in Japan – than him (he even wrote a thesis on A Bathing Ape).

This all gets me feeling quite nostalgic. David is one of the very first friends I made when I first moved to Tokyo over 15 years ago. We became acquainted slightly before my arrival, through a Pizzicato Five mailing list, which is how I made all of my first friends in Japan.

Yes, even back then, electronic communications were a thing, imagine that.

Over the years we’ve each had our own entertaining journeys, and his involved producing some excellent music (under the Marxy monicker), and before launching the Néojaponisme website with Ian Lynam, he was quite well known for some epic online essays about Japanese culture that evolved into some of the most pointed and heated discussions, usually with Momus playing the role of foil.

So yeah, Ametora, can’t wait to read it.

Categories
Design Meta

Kirimomi

My good friend Ian Lynam recently created a typeface family called Kirimomi for Onitsuka Tiger, based on the company’s history, and available as free downloads. It appears that there have already been over 10,000 downloads of the fonts, and in celebration I’ve decided to change the logo on this site to what you see now, which uses Kirimomi Swash.

Go and do something with them too — “just do it” (oops, that’s another company I think).