福岡で開催されたコンサートFukuoka Flower Partyのポスターデザイン。

3Dソフトとシステムの国内最大手、CAEソリューションズのウェブサイト。

I just finished editing the catalog for the upcoming exhibition Pacific at Scion’s gallery in Culver City in Los Angeles. Curated by PMKFA and Antonin Gaultier, the exhibition is a great overview of emerging Japanese contemporary artists. Read all about it here.

While the art itself is great, I think the catalog is a real slam-dunk. Designed by PMKFA, the book features writing by some of the best emerging critics in Japan, most notably Cameron Allan McKean. His lengthy essay on the work of artist Kyohei Sakaguchi, “Down By The River, I Built My Shelter”, is an exceptional piece of prose.

Beyond berating the writers involved and nagging art director Micke about widows and hyphenation, I contributed a lengthy essay on the work of Sweden-based artist Yuri Suzuki.

The artists involved in the exhibition are:
Atsuhiro Ito, Kyohei Sakaguchi, Megumi Matsubara, Motoyuki Daifu, PMKFA, Takashi Suzuki, Teppei Kaneuji, Ujino, Yotaro Niwa and Yuri Suzuki.

The official blurb about the exhibition:
“Cutting through the layers of reality and challenging the notion of what most of us consider as “everyday”, Pacific brings together ten artists that give their interpretation on what many ignore in the rush from point A to B or simply don’t see. In Pacific, the audience is invited to witness how; the mundane transforms the poetic; the unwanted morphs into the amusing and the practical ends up as the beautiful.”

If you’re in LA, I definitely recommend checking out the show. It’ll be an eye-opener.

Somehow, I didn’t catch this when it came out in 2009: the boombox I designed for Rap-Up made a cameo in the Chris Robinson-directed, guinea pig-infested music video for rapper Flo Rida’s “Jump.” The song can be found on Flo’s second album R.O.O.T.S. as well as in the Disney movie G-Force, in which a specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world… nothing like having your hard work surrounded by CGI guinea pigs. Video also features a really awkward 3D model of Nelly Furtado. Bizarre, but Will Arnett is in it, which is usually a good sign…

Teyana Taylor and Akon model the boombox’s two colorways. The red was a special markup unit that only made it into limited release.

Due to tremendous support from the CalArts and Temple University communities, as well as numerous concerned individuals worldwide, my type foundry and select shoppe Wordshape generated $5000 for Japan’s Red Cross, which was just sent. A giant round of thanks to all who purchased magazines, books and licensed fonts – you all pitched in to help in a very meaningful way.

Also, a giant thank you to the participants worldwide in Inspire Japan events – together, you have raised over $40,000 (!) to benefit rebuilding projects in the north of Japan.

Loads of new work:

I finished this book design recently for Portland, Oregon’s Dill Pickle Club. It is called Walls of Pride and is a full-color guide and overview of African American public art in Portland. You can pick up a copy from the Dill Pickle Club here.

“If you know where to look, Portland is an art gallery. And somewhere amid this miles-wide showroom is a collection of African American mural art. But there’s no glass or alarms to protect what artists have made here; no guards to tell people not to touch. So, while bits have survived, some have been defaced and others have been torn down in the name of development…The booklet, “Walls of Pride,” offer[s] short histories on the pieces throughout the city, a map for self-guided tours and interviews with two local muralists, Shamsud-Din and Adriene Cruz, ‘to tell the story from the artists’ perspective rather than this outsider’s perspective.’”
– Ryan Kost, The Oregonian

The official blurb about the book:
Walls of Pride: A Tour of African American Public Art in Portland provides a self-guided tour to twenty of the city’s African American public artworks through color photos, a detailed map, mural descriptions and artist bios. The book gives context to these vital works through interviews with artists Adriene Cruz, Henry Frison and Isaka Shamsud-Din, and and a transcribed conversation between history professor Reiko Hillyer and curator Robin Dunitz. Walls of Pride at once celebrates Portland’s African American art, while underscoring the need to preserve these oft-overlooked cultural contributions.

I was included in the new book Designers’ Identities by Liz Farrelly, published by Laurence King Publishing.

Again, the official blurb:
For graphic designers no project is more personal or more crucial, both in terms of commercial success and peer-group positioning, than their own corporate identity. From the first hello, to delivering the invoice, designers are judged, again and again, on the quality of their printed and virtual presentation, including their company name, logo, business card, letterhead, website, blog, newsletter, delivery packaging, brochures, promos, even the typeface they choose.

This book examines the corporate identities of 76 designers, at various stages in their careers and from around the world, providing blueprints for best practice and inspiration. Along with detailed information about formats, materials and methods, the book includes a number of interviews with designers, who talk through their own corporate identity programme and the reactions they have had to this, their most personal design project.

I just put together a fun inspirational safari for Unilever with the kind folks at Five By Fifty. It consists of a 2-day walking tour of the coolest new spots in Tokyo rendered in a wall-size map, tour booklet, and a Google Map that Unilever employees can utilize to find inspiration over the upcoming vacation.

The booklet exterior.

Booklet interior.

And finally, I am transformed into Kevin Costner in hand model Patrick Tsai‘s latest post about the secret origin of our cat Willy.

I contributed a page to the latest issue of RRR – #003. It’s available now as a downloadable e-zine here.

Big thanks to Scott!

It is late. I have been up writing against a deadline that has long passed for a German design magazine (and is unpaid, and thus, ok) and listening to an album I have been really anticipating with a grimace on my face… that being said, this album was nowhere near as awful as the last fiasco Daniel Higgs was involved in…

My first official writing gig was for Buzz, a free local weekly in Albany, New York at age 16. I did album reviews. I stopped doing album reviews at age 18 when I went off to college. Honestly, I had little-to-no musical experience aside from knowing that Barbra Streisand was weirdly arousing and that I somehow liked Chuck Mangione’s soundtrack work. I was a rank amateur and my lack of depth in understanding music was palpable. Since that time, it has been 20 years. I have listened to a lot of frigging music in that time. I hope that I have learned something.

Here, I pick up the gauntlet. Assume the mantle. Take up the task. Talk about something other than fucking graphic fucking design at 4AM on a Sunday with my trusty cat at my side (and above, rendered in film by Patrick Tsai).

Unrequited Atmosphere “The Family Sign” LP review:

Surprise, it’s a new Atmosphere album.

Frankly, I found the instrumental production of the latest Atmosphere offering “mature” in that it is sparse, but beyond that, ill-considered. Some songs are just utterly phoned-in: ‘epic’ Satriani-esque guitar run through some hybrid Rat/phaser digital plugin accompanied by the oompa-oompa of a mid-century Casio keyboard drum pad arrangement (pre-pressure sensitivity) and an unfiltered Juno strain over the top. Just pain, pure and simple…

There’s no doubt that the band mulled over the arrangements, perhaps to the detriment of the music itself. Couple that with the mopey nature of the album – not a single upbeat song here… that’s good and fine, but we find Señor Daley rapping about werewolves (complementing the fucking horrid video for the album whose star is a Golden Retriever: the world’s most boring pet) and… camping!

World record: Atmosphere has crafted the first rap song about camping. And they’ve somehow simultaneously jumped on the Twilight bandwagon, as well. Good job, dudes…

Daley’s usually-entertaining diatribes about daily life fall a bit flat this time. Apparently mundanity has truly become boring this time around, and instead they have to dish out diss tracks at folks whom have left their hometowns and overtly bad parents, the latter being accompanied by the absolute w-o-r-s-t refrain of Atmosphere’s career so far, delivered in a nasal refrain that is physically cringe-inducing. Curious at best… Sluggo citing WKRP’s Les Nessman in one song did some fair collateral damage, as well – I was familiar with the name, but bewildered. Who? Ah… apparently, mediocre network TV made a deeper impression in the Twin Cities than it did in upstate New York.

We tend to have Atmosphere on smash at our house (or at least Patrick and I do), and this album feels like a lackluster addition to their oeuvre. The preceding EP far outshines it, feeling more like an album than this assemblage of mediocre, uninspired half-songs.

Next time around, bangers please, gentlemen. Please accept this invitation to make an album for your twenty-year-younger-than-me target audience next time. I will most likely enjoy it infinitely more than this.

Also: half of the lead-in samples sound like the beginning of an 80s soap opera. And that’s no theremin. You are not fooling anyone. And what exactly is a “rap hug”?

That’s my word. And my word is bond. And my bond is righteous.

I will now return to writing about graphic design.

Jean Snow and I will be presenting at INSPIRE JAPAN in Tokyo tonight. If you are in town, come on by! If not, tune in!

私の『Bangback』への初寄稿は、トビアス・フレール＝ジョーンズの2009年のモノグラフを分析した書評だ。