HOTNESS: BUILDING-ON-BUILDING ACTION
2018-06-07
High-rise condo building reflected in windows of a modern glass-and-steel skyscraper in Akasaka, Tokyo.
FROM OUR BOOKSHELF: “RACKGAKI” DOCUMENTS AN ERA OF JAPANESE GRAFFITI ART
2018-05-07
It’s time again to randomly browse our bookshelves at HQ and re-discover a forgotten coffee-table tome. Today we’ve pulled out a book on Japanese graffiti art. Its title is “RackGaki,” a modified phonetic spelling in the Roman alphabet of the Japanese word for graffiti usually written as rakugaki. Indeed this bookContinue Reading
“Here We Are” Street Art at Ships … Harajuku, Tokyo
2016-09-29
Amid the labyrinthine back streets that comprise Ura-Harajuku are many examples of commissioned semi-legal street art in little niches of spaces. This artwork is on a wedge of dividing wall between the Ships clothing store and an adjacent building.
Abstract Street Art on Roller Shutter … Naka-Meguro, Tokyo
2016-08-16
The Naka-Meguro neighborhood of Tokyo has a distinct feel. It occupies one side of a steeply sloped hill and the expanse of flats bisected by a creek between Daikanyama and Meguro. It’s fashionable in a moneyed-but-hip, indie way, a place where successful creative professionals have settled and where street artContinue Reading
Japanese Election Campaign Posters on a Wall … Naka-Meguro, Tokyo
2016-08-04
The optics and media of Japanese political election campaigns are fascinating for their restraint and orderliness. Campaign posters for the various politicians are put up in designated places in local neighborhoods and often in clusters, like the ones pictured above in Tokyo’s fashionable Naka-Meguro area. The politicians each appear in postersContinue Reading
Japanese Summer “Hanabi”-Themed Billboard Ad For Coca-Cola … Tokyo
2015-09-08
Japan has a long-established, globally recognized and highly-developed sense of aesthetics, especially when it come to design and graphic communications like advertising. This large indoor billboard poster for Coca-Cola at Ark Hills Tokyo references the Japanese summer tradition of hanabi (massive fireworks displays) as beautiful flat, abstract graphics.
Hello Kitty Street Art by D-Face … Ura-Harajuku, Tokyo
2015-08-27
American street artist DFace artwork often works with iconic pop-cultural imagery, often American retro-comic book styles and skeletal graphics. Here in Tokyo he’s de-constructed a Japanese icon, “Kitty -chan,” better know around the world as “Hello Kitty,” revealing her skull.
Shiny Cool Super-Minimal Unbranded Bag of Bear Pond Espresso Beans
2014-12-03
On our recent visit back to Tokyo, we picked up a bag of freshly-roasted espresso beans from Bear Pond Espresso at their cafe at On the Corner in Shibuya. We love the totally unbranded, shiny, silvery bag — it’s only markings are the roasting batch and date numbers.
See Ya Later, Tokyo …
2014-12-03
It’s always great fun being back in Tokyo. It’s really a home away from home for us, and we love having the opportunity to re-connect with our Tokyo posse in person and catch up on all the recent art and design developments going on in the Japanese capital. This tripContinue Reading
Street Art in Harajuku, Tokyo
2014-12-02
We found these cute, simple wheat-pasted street art graphics on a utility box near the Watari Museum (Watarium) Ura-Harajuku in Tokyo.