Rokuro Taniuchi (1921–1981)
I'm excited to discover the wonderfully imaginative
illustration work of Rokuro Taniuchi. On first glance the work
of Dalí and Mary Blair come to mind.
I came across the work of the Japanese illustrator
Rokuro Taniuchi via A Journey Round My Skull's newly
added flickr images. Unfortunately, there is little information
on the artist online (atleast in english), but maybe
that makes the find even more special.
Last month the in-store promotions at Bloomingdale's for the Harajuku Lovers perfume line completely won me over. The bottle design of the fragrance scents were similar enough to the character toys I'm often urged to cough up money for. It wasn't until after I bought two little Harajuku scents that I found out this was part of a new product line launched in Gwen Stefani's already successful Harajuku Lovers brand. It's a rarity for me to pay much attention to celebrity brands in the mall—but this fact was so obscured in the branding of the product.
Harajuku Lovers is named after the Harajuku region near Shibuya, Japan and draws influence from the kawaii style. The initial line launched back in 2005, included stationary products, clothing, watches, and handbags. As of September 2008, five fragrance scents have been released to the market: Love, Lil’ Angel, Music, Baby, and G (the blonde one).
A sixth grader from Castro Valley, California won this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. Grace Moon’s logo was visible on Google’s homepage today. There were 16,000 submissions all in response to the 2008 theme, “What If...?”
I found the winner’s artist statement to be very cute:
“My doodle, “Up in the Clouds,” expresses a world in the sky. This new
world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every
person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun
heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.“ —Grace Moon
Google has set up a map of the USA to see the rest of the Doodle 4 Google finalists.
Link: Doodle for Google
I was really surprised this morning to read an article about the Thai police force making use of the iconic Hello Kitty in a new way.
“the arm band of shame”
The cute symbol will now have a new meaning. I wonder if Sanrio is behind any of this.
(I had the chance to see the original creator of Hello Kitty, Ikuko Shimuzu, speak a few years back. Because she designed the character while employed by Sanrio, she never received any royalties from the multi million dollar industry)
I recently discovered an adorable, ethical (and vegan) store and publisher. Little Otsu produces a wide array of original paper products, tshirts with designs from local and international artists. All of their products use alternative materials such as vegetable-based inks and tree-free or recycled paper.
Their website doesn't do the store/publisher justice. The products are much better in person ( San Francisco). But this site sells some of the products and has clearer images.
Little Otsu sampling of products
Link: Little Otsu
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About Me:
- Working on:
everything but what I should be doing. - Listening to:
pandora - Reading:
"Perfection" by Julie Metz - Watching:
old episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
