Announcements

@Issue Editor’s Show Opens in Tokyo

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 2, 2012September 4, 2014

Some of you know that seven years ago I wrote a book called “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946,” published by Ten Speed Press/Random House. As usual, it was designed by Kit Hinrichs (Kit’s origami flag assemblage below) and photographed by Terry Heffernan. After more than 30 years as a corporate writer, I suddenly found myself propelled in another direction and immersed in a subject that I largely avoided my entire life. Although I had no thought that it would make a good art exhibition, I began receiving requests from museums across the U.S. and the array of objects made from scrap and found materials by people imprisoned in the camps were exhibited in some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. and the International Folk Art Museum of Santa Fe. Today it opens at the University Art Museum (Geidai) in Tokyo to kick off a one-year tour of Japanese cities. If you are in Japan, I hope you’ll take the time to see it. I’ll be back in my San Francisco office next week with more new posts. — Delphine

Advertising

Origami Goes High Tech

By Delphine Hirasuna | May 14, 2012September 4, 2014

Origami (which means “to fold” + “paper” in Japanese) is one of the oldest and humblest art forms around, dating back thousands of years, and stop-motion 3-D animation is one of the newest and most technologically advanced art forms. It’s interesting that the two mediums have found each other and it was love at first sight. As time-consuming and difficult as some origami forms are to fold by hand, paper as a construction material is sturdy but flexible, buildable at a small scale, and relatively cheap. In the case of this video ad for Hamburg’s charitable lottery, Deutsche Fernsehlotterie, a whole village with inhabitants and vehicles were brought to life out of paper. Hamburg-based agency, Zum Goldenen Hirschen spearheaded this ad, with Hans-Christoph Schultheiss directing.

Packaging

Grape Expectations

By Delphine Hirasuna | May 9, 2012September 5, 2014

Delhaize, a supermarket chain in Belgium, issued its own private label brand of regional wines and commissioned Spanish design studio Lavernia & Cienfuegos to create a label that looked festive and fun and great for casual entertaining. Quirky characters carved out of cork represented the regional origin of each wine in a playful, unpretentious way. The label design positioned the house brand as a value product with personality.

Packaging

Swedish Food Packaging That Delivers

By Delphine Hirasuna | April 3, 2012September 5, 2014

Middagsfrid — a service that delivers wholesome fresh foods, menu plans and recipes to subscriber homes in Stockholm — has launched a line of its own branded products. Stockholm-based agency, Bold, designed the packaging in collaboration with illustrator Peter Herrman. To create a sense of an ideal world filled with preservative-free, farm-to-table ingredients, Herrman sketched a fanciful landscape with a giant cheese grater and mixing bowl tucked among the houses, along with grazing cows and other livestock, horse-drawn cart, fruit-bearing trees and flowers. The idyllic scene is printed on newsprint-like stock to mirror the humble way locally grown goods are wrapped and affixed with a simple red label. The look suggests quality and craftsmanship.

Advertising

Berliner Philharmoniker’s Intimate “Surround Sound”

By Delphine Hirasuna | March 16, 2012September 4, 2014

Speaking of up-close-and-personal and really getting into the music, here’s a print ad campaign for the Berliner Philharmoniker. Designed by Scholz & Friends Berlin, with photography by Mierswa Kluska and art direction by Bjorn Ewers, these images were shot from inside the musical instrument using a macro lens. The wind pipes of the pipe organ gleam with wondrous complexity. The violin’s sound holes filtering in exterior light make the space look vast and architectural, like a medieval theater. The flute is beautiful in its simplicity. It’s a whole new way of appreciating music.

by Corporate Design Foundation

@issue