Post titleKamijiya Paper Display Table by Hiromitsu Konishi

photos by Yuna Yanagi | click to enlarge
Kyoto-based interior designer Hiromitsu Konishi created this magnificent display system for Suzuki Shofudo, a 140-year old retailer of paper goods. With the help of the client, who was understandably versed in the medium, the designer spent months studying the strengths, weakness, and flexibility of paper.
Eventually finding inspiration in the way Japanese fans open and collapse, Konishi created an entirely collapsible paper display system.

Hand in Hand by Terada Mokei

photos by Kenji Masunaga | click to enlarge
As the 1-year anniversary of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami approaches, we’ll be doing several posts related to the topic, including ways you can help out. Remember: all of the posts can be found in 1 convenient place.
First up is Terada Mokei’s Hand in Hand – an uplifting version of their popular architectural paper model series. The people, both large and small, are all created at a scale of 1/100 and are depicted holding hands in a circle, symbolizing the outpour of support for Japan after the disaster. It comes in multiple colors and retails for 1000 yen with 100% of proceeds going to charity (via Japan Red Cross).

architectural paper model set of New York

I love this paper model set of New York! It comes with some of your standard NYC iconography like pretzel vendors, subway stops, police on horseback and a lot of people walking around – all at a scale of 1/100. For fans of the big apple I suppose the only thing missing is Jeremy Lin.
It was designed by Naoki Terada who runs his own architecture studio but also makes these great paper models. Get them at upon a fold.

D-Torso

I thought that the D-Torso booth was pretty fun. It featured life size animals, and a moving robot. A version of the giraffe is currently on display in a zoo in Japan. Other life size animals include an elephant, cow, horse, dolphin and a tortoise.

Pattern Matters

Amazing papercraft/pieces by Pattern Matters.

Tool Notebooks With Holes-

On things that look like one thing but are really other things, these notebooks i found at Merci while in Paris are just that. From Japanese stationery line, D-Bros ~ these notebooks have images of tools on them… particularly tools that can hang! And then there is a hole so you can hang the notebooks as if hanging the tool… with hammers, scissors, paint brushes, shovels, and even ladles… they look great hanging in your office! While black and white on the covers, they are colorful within, with dotted pages in blue, yellow, pink. Check out the details of the hammer and scissor ones on the next page!

A cell phone pic of the display in Merci…

Leaf Letter by Eding:Post

Graphic design studio Eding:Post has announced that Leaf Letter, a joint-project between themselves and Neo Green, a retailer of planters, books and other green paraphernalia, has gone on sale as of March 1, 2011.

Noriko Ambe at Scai The Bathhouse

If there’s only one art show you see this month, make sure it’s Noriko Ambe’s “Time Lag,” opening at Scai The Bathouse this Friday, March 25th. Her topographic sculptures are created by making precise cut-outs in books, magazines and other forms of paper. In these selected works she uses a synthetic paper called YUPO.

Sara Burgess

Sara Burgess is an artist who creates amazing, paper cut art. From her website:

About fifteen years ago, Sara put an x-acto blade to an unfinished sketchbook. She liked the silhouettes, the relationship between positive and negative space – still does.

Form Us With Love - Polar Bear Rug

This one-off, handmade Polar Bear Rug by Form Us With Love and Bolon is super cool!

For its most ambitious issue to date, Wallpaper* magazine has brought together and briefed some of the world’s leading designers, craftsmen and manufacturers to produce unique furniture, fittings, foodstuffs, fashion and more. The 2010 August Handmade issue is dedicated to this astonishing collection of one-off designs and delicacies, chronicling their production and presentation at this year’s Salone del Mobile. Form Us With Love collaborated with woven vinyl flooring company Bolon to design and produce this polar bear rug.

Loyal Luxe

Loyal Luxe makes these great cat cabins and teepees. Made out of cardboard, The Cabin is available with 4 interchangeable ornaments (so awesome!): a moose head, a fish, a bird and a banner on which the name of your cat can be written. The Teepee is available with 6 interchangeable ornaments: the dream catcher, the feather, the tomahawk, the eagle and the bull's head. Fun!

Poteki by Kazuhito Ishida

Another great find from the Oyatsu Dougu exhibition is Poteki, a play on the Japanese word for potato chips (abbreviated as potechi) and the word for tree (ki). I love everything about this potato chip tree from the packaging design to the execution of the product. In fact, assumingly due to popular demand, the designer, Kazuhito Ishida, recently began offering them for sale (840 yen) on his website.

2010 Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Award | Takayuki Hori

Here is a look at some of the winners of the 2010 Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Award, which were unveiled late in 2010. Beginning in 2006 – and sponsored by Mitsubishi Chemical – the award show invites student designers to submit their senior thesis works to be judged by a group of industry professionals including artists, designers, professors and critics.

First up is Takayuki Hori, whose work Oritsunagumono (things folded and connected) was awarded 1st prize. Hori embeds the ancient craft of origami with an environmental theme by using the skeleton of a sea turtle, waterfowl and 6 other endangered animals printed on a translucent material.

The material is then folded into the shape of the animal. The stark and eerily poignant origami prints reminds us that, much like the way the craft has been passed down from generation to generation, these animals that have accompanied us for thousands of years now face extinction.

Takayuki Hori is a graduate student of the Kanazawa College of Art, completing his MFA studies in visual communication design.

Book Of Art

By Isaac Salazar, Cool!

Via TAT

How cool is this 1/100 Architectural Pap...

How cool is this 1/100 Architectural Paper Model Set No.1 by Terada Design? The set is made out of paper, and comes with an assortment of people, dogs, cats, birds, flowers, chairs, sofas, tables, lamps, bikes, grass and more! I wish I'd had this in college...The set is on sale here.

ie-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

A fascinating exercise in the visualization of memory and time in product design.

Ie-Tag (House-Tag) was part of the exhibition, “Earth: materials for design,” which took place at the Miraikan in Tokyo over the summer. The post-its, created by Naruse Inokuma Architects, are made from the recycled wood of homes and buildings that were torn down. Once used as the material of a home, the wood was recycled into stationary, maintaining it’s original shape but in completely different form.



click images to enlarge




They are apparently in negotiations now to commercialize the product and are shooting to get it on shelves by sometime next year.

Katsumi Hayakawa

I don’t even know how to describe these 3D paper artworks made by Katsumi Hayakawa.

found at triangulation blog

makoto orisaki: 'or-ita' rotary cardboard cutter blade - part 1

origami magic ball by makoto orisaki

makoto orisaki has developed 'or-ita', a special shaped blade which fits inside any rotary cutter. with this tool one can perforate cardboard or any other dull material, and then fold it just like paper, sculpting the chosen medium in their own way. the young japanese designer has created a limited edition of these self-made cutter blades, which he is selling in order to earn enough money to start mass producing them. using this new tool, six designers have created three-dimensional works made of cardboard, demonstrating the blade's capabilities. the have been presented in an exhibition entitled 'cardboard high', curated by designboom friend eizo okada (publisher of http://www.dezain.net), and was on show at claska gallery&shop in tokyo,
during tokyo designtide 2010.



eizo okada (left) and makoto orisaki (right)
image © designboom


makoto orisaki at the claska gallery & shop
image © designboom



olfa rotary cutter with a blade created by makoto orisaki
image © designboom



close-up
image © designboom




packaging for the cutter blade
images © designboom



video


'cardboard high' exhibition
image © designboom



origami magic ball by makoto orisaki
image © designboom

for his piece, makoto orisaki repeatedly folded a large sheet of cardboard, working the material for 15 hours
to create an origami magic ball. the object explores the functionality of origami through the medium of cardboard.


makoto orisaki demonstrates the different uses
image © designboom



image © designboom



image © designboom



detail showing the cardboard folds
image © designboom



origami magic ball by makoto orisaki



origami magic ball by makoto orisaki



cardboard houses by makoto orisaki



cardboard houses by makoto orisaki at th claska gallery&shop
image © designboom


cardboard letter box
image © designboom



details of the cardboard houses
images © designboom