We share because we care.
Yet another witty line—just for you.

Its been a blast!

The day has finally arrived and I must pack up my things and say farewell.

Two and half years have now passed since I began at Nichiai. Its been a pleasure working here and being part of something that I’ve seen grow in countless ways.

In the early days I saw myself getting to grips with the clients that we had and figuring out simply how to get the work out quick enough for mere client satisfaction. This was fine in the beginning, but then as products and projects came and went I decided that, to not just stay in the game, but expand and broaden, adding value to the client, getting the right mix of quality and quantity was going to have to rely on something else.

I poured myself into the job, fueled by my passion to make an image of the company that we’d be proud of, not just on a designer-aesthetic level but also making the money work. By reaching for the best in every possible project, and attempting to bring the best out of the client each time, I felt that this was the method to success. By utilizing great talent and know-how with a positive attitude and inquisitive spirit each project continues to receive excellent analysis and direction. Sometimes we didn’t produce material we were always proud of; such is the nature of the beast – Trying to bring together sometimes disparate ideas while protecting unrealistic or impractical objectives was always something that I felt obliged to warn of at the beginning of any project. Its amazing to see the different perspectives held by clients and third parties towards the designer and the industry in general, and I’m happy to look back over the jobs and say that everyone of our clients got excellent work, truly representing the effort put in by both sides of a contract.

My decision to move on was not an easy one. Having put so much into the department and having been at there at major decision making times its hard to leave something that has grown on you and that you’ve become so much a part of. That said it was at this point that I realised I had succeeded in bringing the image and quality of Nichiai Creative to the level I had envisioned at the time of entering the company. For both myself and the company to grow, fresh ideas and challenges need to be fostered. Despite the satisfaction and success I felt, I feared that I may enter a comfort zone and this, as we all know in 2009, is neither the time, nor creatively a wise move for the future.

The world is in a very bad situation and most people I’ve talked to are hurting from the effects of the recession, looking forward to 2010. Its been a struggle and all the while industries are changing. These are indeed interesting times, and those capable not only to make bold decisions, but also see that their execution of them, is true will indeed prosper. That said there is now a level of flexibility required in any one single position, no matter what the responsibility, job, department, company or organisation.

Its been a ride and one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and gained immensely from. In turn I hope that I’ve given something back and that my influence was positive and nurturing for those that I worked with. I wish nothing but success for Nichiai and all her staff, vendors and of course clients, without whom nobody can prosper, and lastly as the new year is fast approaching I wish everybody health, wealth and happiness in 2010.

-Raymond

Tokyo Design Week 2009

The culmination to the recent flurry of design events was the Tokyo Design Week. I managed to spend some time at Midtown’s Design Tide and also the larger event space at Gaien Mae, 100%. Both events were full of creative and talented individuals and businesses from various parts of the world, and it was a great opportunity to see people coming up with new and interesting designs in a whole range of design disciplines. I have to say that spending a whole day at these events can be quite a tiring  endeavour especially if theres been any drinking the night before (!)…

I did find that different nationalities brought their own flavour to how they design and what impressed me most was the participation from the Korean contribution. I felt they were really the most creative and exploratory in most of their designs, however if they were to be successful in Japan the level of execution would need to step up to another level. The event allows me, as a graphic designer, feel previliged enough to directly compare product and architectural design from one country to another and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Having it all laid out in front of you and also having the designer right there to talk to about how they got to their conclusion is an exceptional benefit of events like these. I look forward to the next one.

Here are some of the snaps I took over the weekend:

Busy boy

The entrance to Design Tide

A 2-way drawer unit

Flower holders

Jewelry box

Paper light

Net bonding tape

Sore ass

100% Tokyo

Tokyo Design Festa

Everything that’s weird and wonderful in craft and hobbies, cottage industry up to larger enterprise was on exhibit in the Odaiba district at Tokyo Big Sight over the last weekend (24th/25th October 2009). Nearly every form of art and design was on display and available for all to see.

A view of the gate on the way out.

The range of talent and interest and sheer ability in areas of illustration, fashion & accessories and costume, graphic design, painting, textile art, dance, song, tattoos, animation and many more was quite a sight. the two days of visual and aural extravaganza pulls in all sorts of contributors, and not simply from these shores. Often foreigners get involved in the exhibition as well and on the same basis as the Japanese – for either fun, interest, or business.

It had been a number of years since I had visited last and I was keen to see how my memory of the event would compare to the current fads and trends.  My initial response was to take in all that I could but after my 20th or so jewelry stand and cos-play fanatic my interest and energy level started to wane. The distraction and all encompassing wealth of activity was still no match for a pachinko parlour however I did feel that there seemed to be a certain sameness that permeated throughout the event. The general numbing effect of this was on occasion rattled from me when I saw some really fantastic skill and professionalism on display. Among the normal day to day manga fanatics and goths there were really some great illustrators with really strong ability for life drawing from their imagination. As I come from this type of background seeing people doing it with greater quality AND quantity with multiple media was a real thrill. Nowadays there are so many people out there who can think creatively and apply themselves to their work with amazing design sensibility, but have almost no ability to physically make a mark on a surface.

Here are just a few snapshots of the best that I found. I hope I can get an opportunity to work with talent like this in the near future.

Moriyasu Kowase: excellent vector graphics of daily Japanese streetlife.

‘Shimadat’: Multiple sketch and life-drawing styles and beautifully put together.

Beautiful pencil and ink work. I just love this stuff.

An interesting illustrative approach to cereal packaging.

Simple and fun – The polar bear, drawn by an 11 year old, was snapped right up!

And for those people who wanted to see some of the more fantastical creativity that was there on the day, have a look at this!

Don’t ask me why… Japan – Gotta love it!

Holiday Graphic Injection

A little later than I had hoped, however after getting some business put to bed I have uploaded this report of my weekend’s graphic interests.
I also have some short entries into the upcoming creative feast of activities in the run up to Tokyo’s Design Week at the end of the month.

The Good Design Awards Exhibition (Visit website)
The Design Hub in Tokyo Midtown
Naturally the awards cover a whole range of design fields and not simply graphic design.
Taking a visit to the venue alone is a very pleasant experience; not only is Midtown a very plush site, but also it is one corner of the Roppongi Art Triangle. The others are the Mori Arts Center Gallery, located at the Roppongi Hills Complex and The National Art Center, Tokyo. Download this pdf for a detailed map of the area. There are a huge amount of places to visit.

I have a particular fondness for Midtown as it has a concentration of venues within the vicinity and it was just built when I first moved to Tokyo so I became attached to it very quickly. As I will detail later there are a number of events being held here as part of the Design Week and I also appreciate the fact that the area has a mild-mannered mood by day and then by night… well, Roppongi by night – I hardly need to go into too much detail.

The Design Hub has always a relaxing and settling environment to enjoy the exhibits on display. There are also a lot of finely produced fliers and advertisements to keep art-lovers and those interested in the creative circuit to keep in the know. While I won’t go into my opinion of the awarded designs there were two particular winners that appealed to my graphic side. One was the small “Starter Kit” for airbrushing, and of course the traditional stationery staple of Yamato glue products.

The exhibition goes onto the 8th November.

Tokyo Graphic Passport – International Magazine Conference (Visit website)
Kudankaikan 12th October 2009
This event was great! Not only was I able to receive a huge amount of material from the +81 magazine team, but I was also able to have seriously creative individuals go through the thought processes and goals behind their publications, one after another, in front of me. The event space itself was great too. Very western in its design and traditional in its architecture that after a while I was ended up thinking I was at home listening to visiting experts. It was only when the Japanese presenters came on stage without any translators I came back around and had to pay attention to the Japanese.

I’ve also always been interested in how certain styles exist among presenters and of course among different nationalities when speaking publicly. That aside the presentations were from 11.30am to 7.30pm, featuring speakers from the Purple Prose magazine – Art Director, Cristophe Brunnquell; 032c Creative Director, Jorg Koch; Newwork Creative Directors, Studio Newwork, Fantastic Man’s Creators, Jop van Bennekom & Gert Jonkers; Intersection Art Director, Yorgos Tloupas; Art Director and Graphic Designer, Hideki Nakajima; and Werk Creative Director, Theseus Chan.

I was blown away by the quality of the material of these publications and despite a tiring day sitting on my back side, I felt incredibly enriched from the experience. Suddenly I’m considering doing something similar myself. Anybody want to start a magazine with me?

Its funny how work can impose itself so heavily on your own time and personal schedule, that doing anything but sitting in front of a monitor can seem like a far-fetched fantasy. However, once you can get out and about, even just once or twice, to see what else is going on, can be such a refreshing experience invigorating  your own creativity. This is definitely the time for it too. With October at mid-point its high time that people take advantage of the oncoming plethora of activities in and around Tokyo for Design Week.

Design Week & Upcoming Events
DESIGN FESTA (Visit Website) (English Website)
Tokyo Big Sight
24th, 25th Oct.
International Art Event
Admission – 1 Day: ¥800/1000 – 2 Days: ¥1,500/1,800

DESIGN TOUCH (Visit Website)
Tokyo Midtown
23rd Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Theme: ’shaping a dream into a design’
Admission – Free

TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK 2009/100% DESIGN TOKYO (Visit Website)
Jingu Gaien Aoyama
30th Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Theme: ‘Love Green’
Admission: ¥2,000

DESIGN TIDE (Visit Website) (English Website)
Main Site: Tokyo Midtown Hall
30th Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Trade Show that mainly centres on product design
Admission – ¥1,000

CREATOR’S PARK VOL. 1 (Visit Website)
Claska Gallery
22nd – 24th Oct.
Subsidiary event of Japan Fashion Week
Admission – Free

Just a little something I saw under the Yamanote bridge in Ebisu. Great illustration!

Ebisu’s cheeky underbelly

Living in Ebisu is usually a very relaxed and somewhat sedate experience. Having been here for two years now I no find myself wanting to go further afield for my weekend activities. That said when I do decide to wander about I rarely go beyond the places that I’ve already made my favourite spots.

This weekend I pushed the boundaries! (He said knowing that he barely drew the curtains, never mind pushing any boundaries.)

The following two images were a little on the cheeky side. One of which is probably illegal and the other should be. You can make your own minds up as to which is which.

The Blogs have arrived!

So after our release of the site last month we have pushed the boundaries once again with the addition of our blogs!

From here on you will find all our musings on our professional and personal lives (I know I have no life so I’m still thinking of something to replace that with), and of course you will be able to see what makes us tick, what we get up to when not cracking the whip, reading other people’s blogs or bashing our keyboards in frustration.

Stay a while and read some of our useful hints and tips on sales, working with creatives or simply checking whether we’ve finished your design that should have been at the presses an hour ago.

Looking forward to see what comes next,

- Raymondo

Midnight Soul Searching

I spent another long night working on some drawings and what not at home. There was nothing abnormal about this, except that I hadn’t done this for an extremely long time. I realised so many things as I watched the time change steadily go from 10pm to almost 2am… (Damn I did it again! Gonna be tired tomorrow!”)

The more that I got into my drawings and started to finally make some breakthroughs it dawned on me how accessible information really is on the internet. I must have had about 30 browser windows open full of articles and resources for designers and creatives. I realise this sounds fairly daft to the vast majority of you, but sometimes standing back from this resource and thanking modern technology is a must (especially when I find myself shouting and cursing at my computer in the office).

It was here that I realised that despite the tough times of economic depression and being out and about all of the time networking and striking new leads and accounts etc, that behind it all I want to create great visual stimuli and design. Illustration or graphics or web or print, its all about how interested you get and about forgetting the environment for a time while you obsess about the geometric curve that you want to integrate into some typographic draft, or how the sketching that got me into graphic design at the very beginning would still grab my interest for hours. The short term, other world that you can manifest while focusing on the page, scribbling and making marks that seem pleasurable not only to do, but to look at and adjust again, is so very exciting and seems to enrich the soul. An incredibly difficult emotion of joy and entertainment and satisfaction, all mixed into one.

Then there are certain little breaks in it that let you change the pencil for the keyboard to search for other terms and imagery and histories and meanings within meanings, all for that spark of possible interest to further the design.

Its at this specific point that I came to the AIGA (American Institute for Graphic Artists) site. I had always known about this and seen it many times but the more I read it the more I wanted more of this bonding and supporting network. Its not just American. In case you don’t know I’m not American… but this was great stuff for everybody, and when I say everybody I mean clients and non designers too. Its all about demystifying it and supporting the understanding of the profession. This I feel is always a major obstacle with clients and then I saw this document.

If you are a client or a designer this should be read!

Anyway I best get to bed!

- Raymondo

IFJT Website Renewal

After a long and windy road we completed the Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo et Yokohama website. I must say that the team pulled in so many hours to get this complete and after the hard month of August this was by no means an easy task. Hats off to Manuel and Stan for their perseverance.

Looking through the bi-lingual site you can see just about anything you need to do with studying French, enjoying French events here in Japan or just being involved in the community.

This is our largest site to date and we worked with a large number of staff over at the Iidabashi insitute, making sure that all desires and prerequisites were catered for. For me this once again shows our ability to deal with even the largest of projects, and thanks to our small size makes us a great choice for all those organizations wanting to seek the best work without inflated agency expenses.

If only I could now get the holidays in July and August that our clients had…

- Raymondo

R & R

Well one week surely goes by quick these day! Here I am back at my post manning the hotline ready for the call… Or more often stated as, “I’m back at work”

Select your fish and wait for it while on the beach looking at the night sea…

I’ve posted a few snaps to introduce something different into the blog. Its not all work and no play. After the work that was done for the promotional package we put out recently it was really great to relax in the sun and not have deadlines badgering you, or lists of tasks and people to get in touch with. Unfortunately it was just a little too short in my experience. It was over a year and a half since my last trip away so 6 days was fairly quick in all honesty. – Better start searching for my trip home in Christmas.
In the meantime its back to the drawing board. Mata ganbarimashou!

Simple Grand Hyatt Logo on the coaster. Localized and slick!

A local street theatre play in mid session.

- Raymondo

Self promotion versus promoting the self

Well it was finally good to get the huge and seemingly unending production finally finished, on time, for our website newsletter and portfolio. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into its production and I must say what an experience! Not only is the work so darn good that I occasionally find myself perusing over it ogling at work that we’ve all had so much input in, but I can rest easy now that we have finally an identity and presence worth its weight in gold. (Was going to say worth its salt, but went for the bling approach.)

At any rate the self-promotional build was an experience that I won’t easily forget. Handling busy client work and all the day-to-day management of people and the office along with making sure that our own deadlines are being met, as well seeking new work was indeed an unusually difficult feat, however here I am at the end of it.

I love the sense of joy and accomplishment in producing great things but there’s always the slight concern about the subsequent void that arises afterward. Often this is more pressing than the accomplishment of the project immediately preceding it.

Anyway its time for a much needed break and so its enough self-promotion and more promoting of the self! See you in a week!

- Raymondo