Next Mammal live show: Pecha Kucha Night Tokyo on December 2nd at Super Deluxe.

My new band Mammal with Mari Kojima will debut next week at Tokyo Art Beat’s 5th Anniversary party at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.

I’ll be debuting and giving away installment #3 of my Poster Initiative offset-printed poster series at Super Deluxe this Wednesday during my Pecha Kucha Night presentation. The posters are produced in editions of 1,000 and distributed around Tokyo. Not advertising- just free design for the people.

I’ll be doing a glib presentation on the “The Year in Review”- a look back over highlight projects for my design studio in 2009.

at SuperDeluxe
1000yen /1 drink
B1F 3-1-25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
+81 (0)3-5412-0515
http://www.super-deluxe.com

I have the dubious honor of being the very first Pecha Kucha Night presenter to have a presentation presented online at PKN’s new Presentations section of their website, designed by UltraSuperNew. You can listen to me sputter, babble, and throw out half-truths here, as recorded 2+ years ago.

I’ll be presenting again this Wednesday, doing my “Year in Review”, updating interested folks (and uninterested folks schmoozing over drinks) about what my design studio has been up to in 2009. Come on down!

at SuperDeluxe
1000yen /1 drink
B1F 3-1-25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
+81 (0)3-5412-0515

http://www.super-deluxe.com

Scion Installation 5: Self Portrait – Final Show & Online Art Auction Trailer from Scion ART on Vimeo.

All of the work in Scion’s latest Installation tour is available for public auction here. All artwork sale proceeds go to funding Creative Capital, a non-profit organization benefitting artists.

It’s that time again: I’ll be teaching Typography 101 at Temple University Japan in the upcoming semester.

About the course:
An in-depth look at typography (designing with fonts) for both beginners and experienced practitioners. This class is a working examination of Western typography including lectures on type history, type classification, and contemporary practice. Practical exercises, as well as in-class critiques will help broaden students’ understanding of typography practically and critically
The class will conduct projects to explore typographic styles, learn correct typesetting practices, and increase design acumen. It will host guest lectures by some of Japan’s top graphic designers.

Artalking #4: ON THE STREET
From Barry McGee in San Francisco to Banksy in London to the street artists of Tokyo, we take a look at street arts’ semiotic and symbolic roles in contemporary culture, both as an aesthetic and as an active lifestyle.

Wednesday, October 8, 7pm – 9pm
at Nobilduca, Roppongi
RSVP Required
Speaker:
Ian Lynam, design educator, writer, practitioner, and critic
*Guest speaker TBA
Artworks: EKYS, TWIST, BNE, QP and more

Cuisine:
Healthy ‘Street food’ from Italy
Organised by:
Julia Barnes & Loredana di Porcia
4,000 yen Advance / 4,500 yen Door sales
Includes buffet-style dinner with MONACA wine, Acqua Panna & S.Pellegrino – Fine Waters & Nespresso Coffee

Supported by:
Acqua Panna & S.Pellegrino – Fine Waters, Nespresso Coffee, Nobilduca – Roppongi and MONACA Wines

Venue:
Nobilduca, Roppongi
Address: Aoba Roppongi Bld B1, 3-16-33 Roppongi, Minato-Ku
Phone: 03-5772-9825
http://www.nobilduca.com/

Facebook link here.

Scion Space Presents:
Installation 5 | Scion Art Tour: Self Portrait

September 12th – September 30th, 2009

Featuring 44 Self-Portraits by:
 AJ Fosik, Alex Hornest, Andrew Schoultz, Angela Boatwright, Asylm,
Blek le Rat, Christina M. Felice, Codak, David Choe, Edwin Ushiro, el
Yem, Eriberto Oriol, Eye One, Francesco LoCastro, French, Ian Lynam,
J. Shea, Jamel Shabazz, Jeff Soto, Kelsey Brookes, Kofie, Lisa Alisa,
Logan Hicks, Mark Mothersbaugh, Nicholas Harper, Patrick Martinez,
Peter Beste, Peter Glover, RETNA, Rick Rodney, Rob Abeyta Jr., Ron
English, Saber, Sage Vaughn, Skypage, Something in the Universe,
Souther Salazar, Stormie Mills, Tessar Lo, Todd Tourso, Too Tall
Jahmal, Usugrow, Will Barras, Yoskay Yamamoto

Opening Event: Saturday, September 12th, 2009 | 7-10pm
Artists in Attendance | Free Valet Parking | Open bar for guests 21+

All art will be sold in an online charity auction at
www.artnet.com/scion.html  Auction runs Sept 12 – Sept 30
Visit site to see artwork and get more details
All sales will go to Creative Capital

@ Scion Installation L.A.
3521 Helms Ave. (at National)
Culver City, CA 90232
Gallery Phone: 310.815.8840

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday | 11am – 6pm and by appointment | Free

VISIT SCION INSTALLATION LA >>
www.scion.com/space/upcoming_events.html

Follow our profiles on these sites:
Facebook – www.facebook.com/scioninstallation
Twitter – www.twitter.com/scionart
Vimeo – www.vimeo.com/scionart

A whole passel of designey news from Neoland.

First:

Ever the modest gentleman, our guy Matt Treyvaud’s awesome wife Chie Yoshimura has opened a lovely new cafe in Yokohama. Go visit. Eat something. Admire the logo.

Second:

Dentsu Canada shot over samples of the Sapporo beer coasters using the Pattern Pattern series of pattern designs from Néojaponisme this week. They look great! Thanks guys!

Third:

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Tokyo debut of Meeting Modernity. As a little fun giveaway, I designed and made a bunch of sets of Néojaponisme buttons for opening attendees. If you are interested in procuring a set, feel free to get in touch.

Unearthed outside of the city of Sano in Tochigi-ken, this portrait photography series documents Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taishō Periods.

This post marks the Tokyo opening of the Meeting Modernity Exhibition.
Details:

MEETING MODERNITY
OPENING: A Night of Néojaponisme
A night of presentations, discourse, music, and booze.
DATE: 31st of July 2009
OPEN: 1800 START: 1900
FEE: open charge (Nagesen)
PLACE: hybrid so+ba gallery
5-29-20 KYODO SETAGAYA-KU
TOKYO 156-0052
WWW.SO-BA.CC

Come on down to the infamous Hybrid SO+BA Gallery in Kyodo (Odakyu Line) for a night of revelry with the staff of Néojaponisme. A smattering of presentations by the editors of and contributors to the site will be accompanied by Funkmaster DJ Jean Snow on the wheels of steel.

Firefox 3.5 is out now- go get that sucker!

The Mozilla Japan team asked that Craig Mod and I jointly write and design this demo page of what is now possible using Firefox’s new @font-face, a CSS rule implemented in Firefox’s latest 3.5 release which allows web designers to reference fonts not installed on end user machines.

(In other words: it allows web designers to store fonts on their server and reference them in CSS, regardless of what fonts the user browsing the page has installed.)

Look at it in Firefox- it is designed for that. It looks OK enough in Safari, but we’d rather have you see it in all its glory. Click around a bit and see what the future of typography for the web looks like….

We lucked out in getting Underware to agree to being our foundry partners in making this demo happen. The demo coincides with the release of their new typeface, Liza.

Original referring page on Mozilla’s site is here.

Thanks to Craig for dropping crazy hours with me on getting this project together. Shoutouts to Mozilla for their support, encouragement, and sheer radicalness!

I just started a new series of two-color posters called “Poster Initiative” that will be distributed for free around Tokyo. The first batch were dropped off at Nagi Shokudo last night and another went to Cafe Pause today. Poster Initiative 001 was printed in a series of 1,000.

I will be in San Jose, California for the Scion Installation tour stop there at Anno Domini. The opening is on June 5th and goes from 8PM to 12AM. If you are remotely near the Bay Area, come on down!
Other artists who will have work on display include luminaries like Dave Choe, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Kofie One, Usugrow, and Eye One.

Now out: In Search of the Lost Taste, a vegan cookbook by Joshua Ploeg. I art-directed and designed this half-recipes/half-adventure/sci-fi/fantasy novella with cover illustration by comic maestro Aaron Renier and copious interior illustrations by the mighty drawing overlord Nate Beaty. The typography within is something I’m a bit proud of, as well- a hodgepodge of no less than twenty typefaces are deployed to make the book fun to read while still communicating effectively.

The author Joshua was the singer of some of the best West Coast weirdo hardcore bands around including Mukilteo Fairies and Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live before his most recent stint as an amazing itinerant vegan chef.

The book is available via the publisher, Microcosm or directly through me in Japan.

My new shirt for Tokyo Art Beat is now available in their shop. The elusive custom green and pink colorway pictured above is available only at Beams T.