Japan: The Graphics That Made It Worth the Trip

There’s probably a very good reason why the Japanese are light-years ahead of the rest of us when it comes to cutting-edge graphics, although it’s not my job to speculate. Instead, I simply marveled at it all as I had the opportunity to wander the streets.

MSLK’s recent trip to Japan found us taking picture after picture of cool trends, colors, shapes, and patterns. These are things you needn’t go to a gallery or museum to see, either — they’re all around you — in subways, on buses, on sale in convenience stores, and all over the street.

Click below for some of our favorites…

An amazing set of colorful toy packaging…

And speaking of color, you can have your cell phones in Pantone shades.You don’t know what Pantone colors are? You must not be a graphic designer. Nor Japanese.

Crazy gambling place…

Japan has a thriving, docile punk scene with very colorful posters…

From Peace & Destroy to an even nicer message.  I have only a few regrets in life. My biggest is not purchasing this shirt. This is the most insane concept I have ever seen (Note: It reads “Love & Peace Metal God.”)…

This was a store sign in the famed shopping district of Harajuku. This one frame hardly captures the frenzied display as it animated. Well done, Japan….

This was just neat, as the pin-mounted type created some very  interesting shadows:

Sheri and I fell in love with this logo before we even knew what it was for. Can you guess? It’s for a shipping service. We shipped a very large  bag from Nagoya to Tokyo for only $16.00 You can’t even send a Fedex package for that price. A great value, and great design, too.

There were many über-cute signs throughout the subways telling you to keep your fingers clear from closing doors. For some reason, the message is so much better when told by animals….

Sometimes they were a bit sad, too…

Okay, really sad…

This was for the New Year’s celebration. The year of the Ox. Don’t mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns.

Funky wallpaper. In a McDonald‘s…

An amazingly effective poster which speaks loudly, without many words. I love its sense of sale, along with photography and illustration…

We thought this looks vaguely Obama-esque…

Very cool:

Ditto:

This was interactive…

Condoms can be cute, too..

This mall has incredibly cool letters…

Beautiful….

Faces are everywhere…

From mischievous sponges…

To happy food-covered oven mitts (AKA: “Mama’s Assist”)

To weird, fearful looking corn snacks…

To diapers. This character is actually on a lot of products. He’s a red bean cake who goes around letting hungry animals eat from his cheek. We are so primative, by comparison…

We had the honor of seeing this painted (or rather performed) live. The artist used a brush that must have been weighed as much as I do and the paper was the size of my first apartment. It reads “ox” for the new year, as it is customary to practice calligraphy on January 2 every new year.