Norwegian Wood Poster Competition

Dedicating pretty much entire week developing design for iPad application, this weekend I manage to go back to 'After Lethaby' brief (investigating the building of our school) and also I entered Norwegian Wood poster competition.
You can vote here (voting finishes on 28th...which is today...): Don't Panic Norwegian Wood Poster Competition

My final art work looks like this:Closer it looks like this:
The yellow type reminds me of 'Somewhere' and I tried to avoid yellow as much as possible since I'm not even a big fun of that poster but yellow here worked so well I just had to pick this. I hope you feel the same too.

'Norwegian Wood' is my favorite novel and I have been well jealous of fellow Japanese friends who've seen it. The judging pannel for this competition includes the director and it's quite exciting thinking that he will see my work.

Here is the process with some drafts, in the order of initial to newer (I do go back and forth quite a lot):

A7

I worked with Duarte Carrilho da Graça to create a magazine "A7". It's a news magazine with a new concept:

Each article is separate sheets of paper, can be any sized paper but they all fold into the size of A7.

It's a monthly magazine, which comes with 7 articles per issue.

There is no cover, and no table of contents, but its spine act as a table of contents and can be able to see all the article titles before purchasing.

It's a magazine that is heavily visual oriented.

When we thought of creating a news magazine, one of our concerns were why have it on paper. Online is the fastest and a convenient way to read news articles for free. Why would people consider paying money to read news magazine?

The form is relevant to its content. For instance, showing a page of the book in actual scale or making an article about tuition fee small and portable so that people could carry it and share the information with peers. It could feature a photograph that is printed largely like a poster, or could be thin and long to show a timeline. It embraces and celebrates paper as a physical medium.

Because it's the magazine is heavily visual, it is attractive for audience who would otherwise not be interested in reading news articles. For instance, people in visual culture, young people, people who speak English as foreign language, or anyone who prefers to gather information visually are our target audience. Its visually characteristic can be regarded as more friendly way of presentation than traditional heavily text based articles.





The characteristic of magazine in comparison with online article is the way it has been complied by an editor as an 'packaged' product. It's a medium where editor has to really consider things such as an order, layouts or what contents to include in a limited space. This magazine pushes that even further. Here, editors have to think about the visual way of telling story, and consider the relevant size and scaling of elements for that particular article.

Mengxi Zhang

Recently I modeled for Mengxi Zhang's work.
I love her pictures and I really recommend you to visit her website to see her work http://www.mengxiz.com/

I find her photos to be very silent. As if I hear no sounds. It's quite a strange feel considering that she takes personal portraits.
In any case I was honoured to be photographed by a great photographer like her, and those images became my last photos as a blonde. I went back to brunette few weeks ago.

"Die Zauberflöte" at Royal Opera House

I've always wanted to watch an opera. The reason is as simple as because my favorite book/film had a scene where a couple save up money to go and watch an opera together. That was enough to make 14 year-old Shiho to believe that watching an opera is cool. It's silly, but that's how I am. (I am pretentious and am easily influenced.)

I never managed to watch any opera until today because:
1) Operas are expensive (so much more than ballet)
2) Because I didn't know which one is a good one to watch

Yes, operas are expensive and I discovered that the audience were posh too. That definitely isn't a bad thing by the way. I like being surrounded by well-dressed people.

I like the story of "Die Zauberflöte". Especially because it changes its enemy halfway. That lesson can be put along the lines of "Don't believe something is bad/good just because someone told you so but you have to investigate it yourself to make any decision". That goes perfectly with the book I just finished reading by Enrich Fromm "Escape from Reality". That book basically talks about the same thing but in social psychology terms.

Obviously I cannot comment what I just watched of the Royal Opera was any better than other operas, but I did enjoy it a lot. It's really impressive how singers can fill their voices in the theater. It must feel really good to be able to do so.

前々からずーっとオペラが観てみたかった。・・・なんて書くと、オペラのテープを聴き、ビデオを観て、「ああ、いつか本物が観てみたい！」と思っていたかのような言い方だけれど、そんなことはまったくなく、オペラなんてCDで聴いたことすらなかった。
でも、観てみたかったのは本当。『GO』という本・映画で、高校生の杉原と桜井が、バイトをしてお金を貯めて２人で『椿姫』のオペラを観に行こうとするのが、なんとなくかっこよくて、中学の頃から憧れがあった。表面的な憧れからとはいえ、ようやく行けたことはやはり嬉しい。