Hasta La Ideas

Artist and Illustrator Mic Itaya became famously became excited by the connections between rock music, art and design from a young age, after Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, praised his drawing of a rabbit during a visit to elementary schools across Japan.

That was his inspiration to become a freelance illustrator, and he was instrumental in the creation of the sound and visual magazine called “TRA,” launched in 1982. Following that, Itaya was deeply involved in the success story of Japanese retail giant UNIQLO as visual art director for shop development.

Following a series of carved, etched and tinted mirror works that expanded on his playful and sensitive illustrations during the ’00s, Mic Itaya eventually turned his interest towards traditional Japanese arts and crafts. It was from this period that he designed and began producing the innovative “Suzumo Lanterns,” based on traditional washi paper-making, and “Suifu” lantern-making techniques from his hometown, Suifu, Ibaragi. They are produced with a traditionally-made thin but strong Washi paper, designed so that a warm light can filter through.

(Tori) MIC020

Although the designs are influenced by tradition, the lights themselves—their construction, design and features—are thoroughly modern. Replacing the flame of a candle are some high-performance LED lights, set for natural-light luminosity and to create a flickering effect in order to evoke traditional lanterns. Rather than a switch, many of these lanterns are equipped with a sound sensor for turning them off and on.

The low voltage yet bright LEDs last up to 10 hours on a single set of AAs

DEN-CON 2

For the Lotus Root design of the base, Itaya explained that one of the original designs for the lantern used a clear plastic base. However, since the look of the plastic didn’t match with the traditional design of the lantern, Suzumo Chochin’s design team worked on various designs to convey an essence of traditional, yet modern design. The soft patterned light of the lotus, in an organic radiating design, comes across as soothing, and provides plenty of light whether it is hung on a stand or carried as a torch.

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Images and reporting by Hayden Martis

What do you get when a jewelry and flower designer come together? The answer: Proof of Guild. The Nagoya based duo Minoru & Keiko Takeuchi were at Design Tide Tokyo exhibiting their “Hands and Hand” vase for the first time.

Founded in 2002, Proof of Guild has been cranking out eclectic animal-inspired accessories and ceramics including a clever Giraffe sugar bowl and Penguin salt & pepper shakers. Proof of Guild believes in creating artisan products with a philosophy of traditional handmade craft over mass production.

Like many of the pieces showing at Design Tide Tokyo 2011, “Hands and Hand” is multifunctional, however rather than set that function in stone (yes stone!) themselves, Proof of Guild want you to exercise a little of your own creativity and put it to use as you see fit. Aside from the more typical vase or jewelry holder arrangement on show was a neat desktop option complete with a cute little lampshade—an easy winner!

“Hands & Hand” can work well as a cluster—it’s slim profile lends itself well to be strewn along a bookshelf or countertop creating an interesting visual statement in itself or fill-as-you please with objects of your desire.

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What could all of these people possibly be staring at?

It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s—

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On the west side of City Hall in Philadelphia sits Dilworth Plaza; a public space designed in the mid-1970s as an urban renewal project. The plaza received funding through the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program and is in the midst of a major makeover.

Philadelphia’s Dilworth Plaza lies above several levels of transit infrastructure and is known to those that use it as a labyrinth of granite walls and stairs as well as a home for the homeless and the current site of Philadelphia’s Occupy Wall Street tent city. In fact—since the beginning of the Philadelphia Occupy Wall Street protests in October this is possibly the most Dilworth Plaza has ever been used in its 40 years.

Dilworth Plaza hosts a number of aesthetic and logistical issues which include: surfaces cladded in stark granite, various level changes confusing to everyone and impossible for those with disabilities, no clear entrance to the transportation center below and vacant and isolated arcades commuters must walk through to get to the concourse.

In the 1600s, the space that Dilworth Plaza (formerly known as Center Square) and City Hall currently occupy was envisioned by William Penn to be the cultural, social and commercial hub of Philadelphia. Failing to meet any of Penn’s wishes in its current incarnation, Philadelphia-based architecture and landscape architecture firms OLIN and KieranTimberlake have teamed up with the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts Culture & the Creative Economy (OACCE) and the Center City District to rejuvenate this historic civic space as the cultural, social and commercial hub it was meant to be.

Construction on the new plaza will begin this fall and is expected to be completed by early 2014. The new Dilworth Plaza will feature amenities such as: a cafe with indoor & outdoor seating, a large lawn, a kinetic fountain, tree groves, space for events and a new gateway to and from the transportation center below.

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Sebastian Herkner for ABR, Bell Table

We recently had the opportunity to attend Valencia Design Week and were witness to the beautiful landscape and a certain quality of light that illuminates this region of Spain. Madrid-based designers Cutu and Eva of Stone Designs pay homage to the Spanish passion (their words, not ours) towards light during Tokyo Design Week with Spainalight, an exhibition of 117 objects at the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo. Tokyo Design Week kicks off this weekend with events scattered around the city in addition to the two major fairs: Tokyo Designer’s Week and DesignTide Tokyo.

Tomás Alonso, Apple Table and Bottle Light

Stone Design explains the inspiration behind the theme of the show:

The Spanish have always been known for several qualities, the strong use of colour, masterful and shameless at the same time, uncensored passion that print their works or in their own way of showing the contrasts of a country that has been a melting pot of cultures and in which its geographical position has given a privileged place in history…The light in Spain has made us sociable, restless and has allowed us to see things from an optimistic view overcoming our most difficult moments in history. Our light, that complicit Mediterranean light, complicit in our short nights and the enemy of sadness, is what we want to articulate in the mounting of exhibitions, appearing through these works with an architectural character, like spots on an orange, so intense that it can be troublesome at times, but makes clear the strength with which light influences our creations.

Antoni Arola for Santacole, Blanco White.

As an introduction to the Spainalight, the Embassy commissioned a documentary about the influence of light, “in the process of creation for Spanish creatives.” Three Spanish artists from the world of architecture (Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas), industrial design (Joan Gaspar) and fine art (Daniel Canogar) representing three Spanish cities were interviewed about their work and the way that light is used as a starting point for various projects. Check the documentary after the jump (a nice Friday film, at full length it’s about 45 minutes) or see the full exhibition during Tokyo Design Week.

Embassy of Spain, Tokyo
1-3-29 Roppongi Minato-ku
Tokyo 106-0032

Patricia Urquiola for Ganrugs, Mangas

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