Ato no Sankou

A collection about japanese visual culture. For "Future Reference" only.

[flaviohobo]

3D picture yourself is now reality with this japanese technology.

[flaviohobo]

... because contemporary culture is a core part of visual culture (that lead us to graphic design). Has this kind of humor finds room in the West?

[soyatree-blog]

[flaviohobo]

Yusaku Kamekura annulled the mountain's pictural qualities to represent a blank canvas and used the skiers as brushes. The trail in the snow works so well as temporal recording of the "brush strokes". 

We can find similiar assimetry, simplicity and strokes quality in sumi-e paintings. That poster is one of the great Kamekura visual achivements.

[flaviohobo]

Oval Buddha sculpture in Paris. 2007.

[flaviohobo]

Sumo program poster. All sumo wrestlers are illustrated and named by importance order. By Yoshiiku Ikkeisai.

[flaviohobo]

"Love in Color". New lipsticks colors from Shiseido for women. The different lips colors attract themselves and the girls cannot handle that attraction. 

BUT, I ask you... where is the girl's left ear? 

Nakamura chose to take it away from the picture to improve the visual harmony and keep the visual reading clean from the excessive information that ear would provide.

[flaviohobo]

Kenya Hara was the designer responsible to handle the Muji visual style. To Hara, white is the ultimate essencial. Complex in its essence, it is the results of the lack and the synthesis of all other colors. White represents the possibility for the designer it is the painter's blank canvas. 

The background image is blurred, so there are more soft colors and less forms. The background image is the perfect support for the white sofa to stand out. of course, put it floating helps a little...

[flaviohobo]

Magazine advertisemenst for the movie Shazen'nin. Takashi Kono.

[flaviohobo]

[flaviohobo]

Magazine ad for the movie "Tawamure ni Koi wa Sumaji" from 1930 by Takashi Kono.

[flaviohobo]

Tōei shuttle bus linking Roppongi Hills and Shibuya station. Tokyo. 2003. By Takashi Murakami.

(Additional photos from Nekobus and EmmaBurnham)

[flaviohobo]

Lithography gave japanese posters color improvements. The flatness of woodblock prints is no more the only option for visual communication. Also, lithography made mass communication in Japan possible.

[flaviohobo]

Poster for the movie "Runin" commissioned by Zero Pictures.

The film story is set in 1838 and the man character Toyogiku (in the poster) was exiled to a remote island. Release date was 2004 and had Eiji Okuda as director.

Here we have a story from the 19th century Black and White movie. if attention is paid to the top left hiragana, it is a highly contemporary japanese design. the diagramation and poster layout is also very contemporary. These visual language has nothing to do with the movie plot. Outstanding choice of Asaba.

I've Also attached poster that would usually fit the movie plot. The lettering is the first thing that would change...

[flaviohobo]

[flaviohobo]

"Project Ko² (Miss Ko²)". Picture of "Wonder Festival 2000 Summer" installation. 1997 (Miss Ko²).

[flaviohobo]

This poster could only be designed in Japan. This poster intended to promote the "Conference for Stopping Dog Droppings Left". Kamada used the kanji for dog (犬) and used a stroke of that kanji to represent the "dog droppings". Perfect. Any native japanese speaker instantly recognizes this ideogram and the visual communication is dead simple, direct and clever. The small serif in the top of that kanji gives the final touch for the composition.