On a semi-annual basis, Japanese paper company Takeo curates solo exhibitions by Japanese graphic designers, inviting them to experiment with the company’s paper and printing technologies. The results are often inspiring in ways that you didn’t think paper could inspire, and their latest exhibition was no exception. Their 15th “Aoyama Creators Stock” feautred graphic designer Masashi Murakami.

Source: Graphic Designer Masashi Murakami Pushes the Possibilities of Paper | Spoon & Tamago

It’s  been about 7 years since I backed this project from pow wow and jasper wong, and it’s finally coming to fruition!

Gonna be so stoked to open this bad boy up when I get it

Here are the specs:POW! WOW! Worldwide! 10 Years of International Street Art9 x 12 / 256 PagesISBN: 978-1-73279-807-6This book features 1 mural from every festival we have done so far.

Turning 20 marks the societal threshold for adulthood in Japan. Every year on the second Monday of January, known as Seijin no Hi (Coming of Age Day), crowds of Japanese youths who turned 20 the previous year or who will turn 20 by the coming April take part in a ceremony known as Seijinshiki, the Coming of Age Ceremony, in their hometowns. These ceremonies are quite formal in nature and participants are supposed to don their most elegant suits and kimono–most of the time, that is.The city of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture has been turning heads for quite some time now thanks to many of their 20-year-olds decking themselves out in the most garish outfits imaginable to mark their entry into adulthood. It’s become something of a tradition for us as well to send one of our reporters to the city to document each year’s most outlandish get-ups. The kinds of outfits that this particular group of young adults tends to wear would likely give their obaachan a heart attack (unless they were part of this idol group from Osaka).

Source: Seijinshiki 2020: Kitakyushu’s Coming of Age Ceremony dazzles in the Year of the Rat【Photos】 | SoraNews24 -Japan News-

Martial arts competitions can be a little confusing to the untrained eye. The scoring systems simply favour landed hits, no matter how slight or imperceptible. During a recent exhibition, the Korea Taekwondo Association demonstrated a brand new piece of technology designed to make the sport more spectator-friendly, essentially turning competition into a real-world fighting game.

The system features brand new wearable sensors that measure the striking power of every attack and deduct from the fighters’ health bars appropriately, very much like a fighting game. Both competitors start out with 100 health points, and the first to drop the opponent to 0 is the winner. Everything is accompanied by sound effects and larger-than-life graphics. The result is something that looks like a combination of Olympic sport and Tekkencompetition—without the bears and Jaguar-masked wrestlers, of course.

 

Source: Tekken-Style Health Bars Make Watching Taekwondo So Much Better | Kotaku Australia

Artist Daniel Arsham, who in 2018 quietly collaborated on one of the sneakers of the year, often makes and sells very expensive, very sought-after stuff on his personal site. Loads of them are from his “future relic” series, where everyday pieces of tech and pop culture are reimagined as archaeological remains, and the next one is the Game Boy.

Many of his previous future relics have sold for $US500 ($724) retail and then thousands at resale, so this is a little more exclusive than your average Nintendo collectable, even if the crystal effect is just for show (it’s actually made of resin). Whether it’s worth that much to you is up to, well, you.

Source: A Very Frosty, Expensive Game Boy | Kotaku Australia

Academy award winning animator and a Ghibli artist who works at Lawson part-time join forces to pay homage to the konbini.Studio Ghibli is one of Japan’s most well-known anime studios, famous around the world for producing beloved feature films with memorable storylines and characters.In Japan, however, the animation studio produces works on a much smaller scale as well, with original shorts shown exclusively at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo’s Mitaka, and commercials for brands aired on national television.Now, Studio Ghibli is kicking off the New Year with a brand new commercial for local audiences, and it’s in honour of an equally well-known and beloved franchise: Japanese convenience store chain Lawson.

Source: Studio Ghibli produces commercial for Japanese convenience store chain Lawson 【Video】 | SoraNews24 -Japan News-

The note that no one asked for.

The ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ idea of not paying a creative for their work and giving them ‘exposure’ in return just isn’t right. A creative loses up to US$6,620 every year through creating actual work for no pay. But what sort and amount of exposure did the Creative earn? The returns are often unclear.

The insight resulted in the Exposure Currency, a series of paper notes that is designed to imitate dollar bills upon the first impression. However, a bright hue of text displaying “The Note No One Asked For”, immediately reveals the idea of its use. At the back of the note lies a declaration that acts as a reminder to properly compensate someone for their time and efforts. May they realise, that the currency of Exposure they promise Creatives with, is as worthless as our Exposure Dollar in their hands.

ART DIRECTION / TYPOGRAPHY / DESIGN / PHOTOGRAPHY — JAY LIU
COPYWRITING — BOSTON HO

Source: Exposure Currency

Source: Seven-Minute Final Fantasy VII Remake Ad Is The Longest Commercial Ever On Japanese TV | Kotaku Australia

It’ll launch in 2020.

Source: Analogue Pocket: a gorgeous handheld for playing your old Game Boy games – The Verge