Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
October 29th, 2008 | FoxesA cute video with sleek design and animation.
Related Posts:If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool
July 30th, 2008 | FoxesAn awesome animated short about owls that a 5th grade teacher made for his students. If teachers did this sort of thing for every subject they were passionate about, the world would be a lot smarter.
Source: Drawn!
Related Posts:Font Conference
July 27th, 2008 | Foxes
A hilarious look at what fonts would be like as people.
A lot of people outside of the design world might not realize how much personality fonts actually have, and by changing a number of variables (spacing, boldness, positioning, color) you can express limitless ideas. I was once asked to change the font of someone’s name on a piece because the ‘g’s in his name were “too squiggly and feminine.” The font was Times New Roman–the same used for newspapers and other serious mediums. So I changed it to the ever-manly Impact, a bold sans serif font that I equivocate to old Superman cartoons where everything is streamlined and it’s all about bounding over trains and Lois Lane.
Design: Chocolate Themed Nintendo DS Cases
April 24th, 2008 | Foxes
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Click the pictures above for their respective product pages and more pictures.
These chocolate-themed Nintendo DS cases came out this week, and it makes me want a Nintendo DS. Like a lot. But I can’t justify spending money on a gaming apparatus and accessories when I have no time to devote to playing said gaming apparatus. But were I to have disposal income and time, I would totes pick up one of these cases.
The cases come in “chocolate flavors”–Raspberry, Milk, and Bitter–and from what I could tell on the site, the material seems to made out of a puffy plastic to help protect your precious games. I think the designs are pretty elegant, maybe even adds some class to the sweaty palms of gamers out there (kidding!) My favorite is Raspberry, because the color just looks appetizing. I would probably get the Raspberry DS case with the Milk card case. Also, Bitter would be an ugly color if I didn’t associate it with chocolate. Is anybody else craving chocolate?
You can buy these delicious cases at Play Asia for about $20 for the DS cases, and $13 for card cases.
Related Posts:Fashion: Manga T-Shirts at Uniqlo for Men
March 20th, 2008 | Foxes
Manga t-shirts seem to be popular among Japanese guys right now, and what better way to show this than the awesome line of old Shonen Sunday manga t-shirts that Uniqlo is currently offering. R bought this shirt of Gegege no Kitarou, an old manga series about ghosts that has been running in various incarnations since TV was still black and white.
You can visit the Uniqlo site for other shirt designs and ordering information. The t-shirts are currently going for 1,500 yen each or 2,800 yen for two.
Related Posts:Disney to Work with Japanese Animation Companies Madhouse, Jinni’s Animation
March 6th, 2008 | Foxes
 |
 |
Stich all dressed up for Halloween–photo taken with my cellphone last October
I am not such a huge fan of Disney as I was when I was kid–for one thing, the movies have progressively gotten worse and the storylines seem very desperate. Japan, however, has continued to fully embrace Disney, possibly even moreso than average Americans. One character that immediately jumps to mind is Stich from Lilo & Stitch, the little destructive blue alien with a love for Elvis.
In Japan, Stitch has taken on many incarnations, even being adopted into the Japanese culture by wearing seasonal Japanese clothing. I am kind of excited to hear Disney teaming up with Madhouse to create a Japanese Stitch TV show (cleverly entitled Stitch!). I’m excited because Madhouse is a famous animation studio that has created many amazing animated works, including numerous CLAMP animated series, and most recently Yazawa Ai’s huge hit Nana and Satoshi Kon’s Paprika. I’ve always admired the work Madhouse puts into their productions, and am even more intrigued that the show will take place in Okinawa.
Disney is also in cahoots with Jinni’s Animation to produce another series called Fireball, which will take advantage of Jinni’s repitoure of extensive 3-D animation works. Jinni’s Animation produces a lot of music videos and commercials, and most recently had a hand in the opening credits for Takeshi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western (which contained a cameo by Quentin Tarantino).
I can’t say for sure whether this move will gain my respect back for Disney–Disney in America is certainly different than Disney in Japan–but it’s nice to see that they are branching out and actually thinking about their international audiences for once.
Source: Disney to work with two local animators - The Japan Times
Related Posts:Fashion: tokidoki for Hello Kitty
March 2nd, 2008 | Foxes
Taken in Harborland, Kobe
When I went shopping in Kobe yesterday, I came across this poster in a Hello Kitty store and had to do a double take. Sanrio just came out with a 13-item series of goods featuring Hello Kitty as designed by tokidoki!!
You might recall a while back that I wrote a post drooling over tokidoki watches. Now I am drooling over these cactus-themed hand bags and dolls. Seeing them in person with only an inch-thick plastic tarp between us was a little cruel though!
Related Posts:Design: Fwis Free Printable Readymechs
February 29th, 2008 | Foxes
What I wouldn’t give for a color printer right now! These are adorably designed critters from Fwis that you can print and fold for free. These would make clever additions to gift wrapping or interesting conversation pieces. Definitely could serve as inspiration for aspiring graphic designers.
I would love to actually use these in addition to teaching kids English, since doing something hands on keeps things interesting. I would recommend using an X-Acto knife if you’re obsessed with precision, and a folding bone or the edge of a ruler to go over the fold lines in order to make sure the paper creases neatly.
Related Posts:Art: Draw What You See and Not What You Know
February 28th, 2008 | Foxes
There is an interesting interview on New York Times with graphics editor Steve Duenes. A lot of people might take advantage of diagrams and images that appear in media, but for artists and designers, those are the things we notice first. And to be able to read some of our questions answered by a graphics editor for a well-established news source is something us art-lovers shouldn’t pass over!
In one of Duenes’s answers, he mentions a basic principle that I was taught in high school drawing class: draw what you see and not what you know. In other words, when drawing from a reference, don’t assume features are there when they’re not. A common mistake in drawing is that people want to draw everything they know is there. A hand has five fingers, a head two ears. But at angle, an ear disappears, or a hand is less three fingers. This is why the best artists constantly look at their reference over and over obsessively in order to prevent any mistakes.
Duenes mentions this principle when referring to diagrams that artists draw for media outlets:
Related Posts:When we create diagrams, we keep a couple of things in mind. We want to be clear, and we don’t want to invent anything. Maybe it’s obvious what I mean when I say we want to be clear, but I’ll elaborate a little. It means we want to eliminate superfluous detail, and we want to establish a clear visual hierarchy. So, if the story is about someone firing a gun in City Hall, we want readers to look at our diagram and quickly understand where the event occurred in the building, and where the important players were when it happened. We have some extraordinary 3-D illustrators on the staff like Mika Gröndahl, Frank O’ Connell and Graham Roberts, and they’re more than capable of rendering every last detail of the ornate balcony in an old building like City Hall, but that’s usually not the point. More often than not, a simple line drawing is the best solution.
Now, when I say that we don’t want to invent anything, I mean we don’t want to guess that a building was five stories tall. We don’t want to assume that the staircase turned left, and we don’t want to speculate about the color of the drapes. We have software that lets us create photo-realistic renderings, but it can be a problem if we don’t know how everything was configured or what it looked like. This may seem like an obvious point, but back in 2003, when Saddam Hussein was captured, just about every news outlet did a diagram of his small hiding place, and not everyone got it right. It happens all the time.
Design: Design and the Elastic Mind
February 28th, 2008 | Foxes
This is an visually stunning site featuring a gallery exhibition at MoMa entitled Design and the Elastic Mind:
Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations. The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history—changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior—and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use.
You can easily spend hours here, as I’m sure you could at the actual Museum of Modern Art in New York. But since I’m oceans away, I have to live vicariously through their website and behold the genuis of these designers in the form of a flash interface. (I recommend watching the mesmerizing Electric Sheep video–I’d like the see Windows come up with a screen saver so moving.)
If you’re lucky enough to be in the area, be sure to check out the exhibition, which runs until May 12, 2008. (And tell me about it!!)
Related Posts: