Jayhan Sim, Author at Jayhan Loves Design & Japan - Page 23 of 44

Bon Odori 2008!

14 Jul 08

. Japan

Last Saturday, the long awaited annual Bon Odori festival was finally arrived! I’m very excited about this event because it was fun! Bon Odori in Malaysia was celebrated in less associated with Buddhism and more with Japanese culture. This year’s edition was a little different because I was one of the volunteer staff there to distribute fans. I’m so happy that I can contribute my little part to the great event. 😀

The event is so alive and many people attended this event. Everyone is enjoying the event, dancing, eating and getting with friends. I can see many Japanese dressing in traditional wearings and the little kids are cute! Well many Malaysian also wear Yukata too. Well, while duty I also not forgetting bringing my humble camera and shoot some pictures. Overall it is a fun and tired day. What a wonderful experience, and I will have the same passion for next year’s too. Saikou na Ichinichi! 最高な一日!

Bon Odori 2008
Tabemono! Many varieties to choose from! But many are quite expensive!

Bon Odori 2008
People are getting more! With a mixtures of traditional and modern costumes.

Bon Odori 2008
You want a free fan?

Bon Odori 2008
Arigatou papa!

Bon Odori 2008
Welcome, welcome! We have tasty food serving here!

Bon Odori 2008
A pair of kawaii little girls in Yukata.

Bon Odori 2008
The event is about to begin! As the performer going up to the center stage.

Bon Odori 2008
Crowds of people following how the dancers dancing…

Bon Odori 2008
…while other just spectating the center stage. Dancers and drummers are working hard, because it is quite hot that day!

Bon Odori 2008
Nante nigiyaka! How lively!

Image inspiration sites

08 Jul 08

. Inspiration

Image inspiration sites

You are sitting in front of the computer, scratching your head and scribble your sketchbook to churn out the great idea. But the idea just won’t come out. Sounds familiar? Sometime I will get into this kind of situation, it is very frustrating and helpless. But the image inspiration sites will come into rescue. In this article I will show you some sites that showcases the best designs, illustrations, photography, creative videos etc from talented creative workers from all of the world that for sure inspires you.

These kind of websites contains loads creative images and have minimal text, to let the picture speak for itself. I really like to visit these sites because I love visuals and certainly love to observe other people’s work. Some of them are really inspiring and really respect their creativity and skill. So below are the image inspiration sites. Note that some of them are presented in episodes, just like a magazine.

Depth Core

Design You Trust

Designflvr

Creativestem

The Raster Group

Behance Network

Computerlove

FFFFOUND!

Fubiz

Phirebrush

Reform & Revolution

Typeish

Yay! Monday!

That’s quite some sites up there. I think there are more out there which I did not know yet. If you know any image inspiration sites, feel free to tell me by leaving me a comment.

Who? me? wallpaper download

06 Jul 08

. Downloads

Who? me? wallpaper download

Hello everyone I’m back with the new free wallpaper that designed by me. The inspiration came from the character that I sketched quite some time ago. I think it’s quite cute so decided to redraw it in Illustrator and make it into wallpapers.

I really like the expression of the “creature” (supposedly a dragon/godzilla inspired character), which giving me a kind of “Who? Me?” uncertainty expression. The dark background and the spotlight effect adding up the mood. Hope you like it and make it into your desktop wallpaper. As usual, various sizes to download:

Widescreen resolution

Normal, LCD & notebook resolution

Amazing Japanese style web designs

29 Jun 08

. Inspiration, Japan, Web Design

Amazing Japanese style web designs

Japan is a country that has a very rich and unique styles in designs and culture that balance between usability and aesthetic, modern and traditional. I really like the traditional Japanese styles of designs, patterns, and colors which implemented into modern living lifestyle. Well, web design is no exceptions too.

Recently, i came across this great blog with the article about amazing Japanese style web designs which separated into part one and part two. Japanese style is pronounce as “wafuu (和風)” in Japanese. Indeed the site designs are really amazing and in a very detailed design construction. Below are some of the design examples that listed on the two articles above. Be sure to click the links above to see more Japanese style web designs.

4th of July Special Event – 2008 Elections at TemplateMonster!

26 Jun 08

. General

Today I want to announce a special event. TemplateMonster.com is going to hold a 4th of July lottery with give-away to any participant. This promo will start on the 26th of June and the lottery will be held up until the 9th of July. And below are the details of TemplateMonster Lottery which reminds elections in its structure.

Two TemplateMonter’s website designs will be exposed for the elections which you can see both of them here. In order to take part in the lottery one should vote for one design or the other. The design which gets the most votes becomes the winner. Note the best design is chosen during two weeks period. What you should do is just fill in your name and email address, vote for your favorite candidate and press the VOTE! button! It’s just that simple.

And here are the benefits for users to take part in their lottery: Everyone who participates in the lottery gets the free Patriotic Icon Set. All icons included into this free Icon Set also relate to patriotic theme and 4th of July topic. Besides that everyone who participates in 4th of July lottery has a chance to get one of the special prizes.

The special prizes are:

1 Gift Certificate giving the opportunity to get any product from Template Monster database for free;
Two 80% discount coupons for purchasing any product from Template Monster database;
Three 50% discount coupons for purchasing any product from Template Monster database.

So, basically this is the idea of the promotion. Sounds good isn’t it? Be sure to stop by the promotion page and vote for your favorite candidate and get free icons, plus stand a chance to win the lottery price. By the way, everyone who purchases any product from Template Monster during this promo will get the Icon Set that mentioned above for free too. In addition to that there will also be a 20% discount for the Patriotic Templates product category at Template Monster.

Download, print, cut & fold papercraft

22 Jun 08

. Art & Design

Download, print, cut & fold papercraft

So suddenly you found out that your working space is a little boring and wanted to put some little cute miniature stuffs but without spending any money. Well, why don’t just making this do-it-yourself free papercraft?

There are several sites that offer free downloadable nicely designed paper models in PDF or picture format. You can print them out on a heavy paper or card stock, and cut out the model shapes and fold and lock/glue them to become a 3D model. It is really economic and fun to do too. Personally I haven’t try making any but I would like to try somewhere near future! Below are the sites.

Fwis – Readymech Series 002

Readymechs are free, flatpack toys for you to print and build. They are designed to fit on an 8.5″x11″ page and printed with any printer. You’ll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time.

Papercraft – 4Kids TV

You can find papercrafts of cartoon and game characters like Sonic, Yugi oh, Ninja Turtle in this site.

Canon 3D papercraft

Presenting every kind of papercraft you could imagine – from simple toys to intricate crafts, there’s something for all the family! Enjoy papercraft – it’s free to download!

Corbis Readymech Cameras

Take a break from your computer! Download, print and build your own pinhole camera. Follow the instructions and enjoy!

Cubecraft.com

Each toy features interlocking tabs for construction – eliminating the need for tape, glue or other messy adhesives. To download click on the model you would like then save the template image. Each toy is designed to be printed on a standard piece of 8 1/2 X 11 A4 letter paper.

Paper Foldables

You can find really unique designs of papercraft models here!

toylava download

This site offers really cute papercrafts like rabbit and panda. By the way, you can check out their other cute works at here.

Paper Crafts from Yamaha Motor

Make your own paper models of motorcycles, rare animals and more.

Extra
For more information and more links access to the world of papercraft, please visit this blog article about 100 Exeptional Free Paper Models and Toys and this dedicated papercraft world blog!

Button design PSD resource download

17 Jun 08

. Resources

It’s free resource time! Well this is a button design resources with different styles and colors that created by myself. The button is make out of scalable shapes, so you can adjust or resize, it’s flexible and highly customizable. Feel free to download if you like it or find it useful.

You can download the PSD resource file at link below. The file is hosted at Box.net and best is to work on it with Photoshop version CS2 and above, but I think CS version should be fine too. Well the buttons work great with darker background. By the way, to use this as web button, you can refer to this great tutorial about Make fancy button using CSS sliding door effect.

The button design above are part of the sleek button designs at Useful Web Button PSD file. Please purchase it if you want to own one of them too. Check out my fresh GraphicRiver portfolio too 😀 .

Update: Have you downloaded Firefox 3 today?

Firefox Download Day

Finally it’s here. Today is Firefox 3 Download Day, I’m just downloaded and currently using it and it’s pretty good! 😀 I’m very impressed on the numbers of the downloads, it’s already at 2.7 million, just 8 hours after I received the email notification from Mozilla. Well if you have not download it yet, please do it now in order to be part of the creation of Guinness World Record of most downloaded software in 24 hours!

To make things even nicer, everyone who participated has the opportunity to own a “Thank You” certificate from Mozilla like below, as appreciation to help setting the world record. That was nice!

Certificate

Thank you dad! and Happy Father’s Day

15 Jun 08

. J-Pop

Today is Father’s Day, so I take this opportunity to wish “Happy Father’s Day” and dedicate this song “Arigatou” by FLOW to my dad and every father in the world too 😀 . Arigatou means thank you in Japanese. I think the song’s Promotional Video is meaningful and touching, so I embed it along with this post. Hope you like it too.

THANKS father. Thank you from my heart, and this feeling will continue carry on, no matter what day. Happy Father’s Day.

FLOW – Arigatou

arigatou kokoro kara itsu no hi mo kanjiteru kono omoi wo…

toki wo kasanete sukoshi de mo bokura ha otona ni nareta ka na?
tabihitasura ni jibun dake wo shinjite yatte kita kedo
ito mo tayasuku taisetsu an mono wo ushianeru mijukusa ni
iyaki ga sashite nasu jutsu nai mama tohou ni kurete ita

demo doushite hongurai yoru no
fuchi ni tatteru no ni konna ni atatakai no?
Aisubeki hito no tashika na hikari ga ima boku wo oshiageteku

arigatou kokoro kara
komi ageru kimochi wo koraekirezu ni
afureru namida no sono naka ni utsuru no ha kimi datta yo

tomaru koto naki toki no naka nokosareta wazuka na jikan wo
kyou no inochi wo bokura ha dore kurai taisetsu ni omoeru ka na?

tada koushite sugusu mainichi wo kazoekirenai hitotachi no sasae no naka de
ikite iru koto no shiawase kanjiru kara nanka honto ni ureshikute

eien ni hakanasa wo
nageku mae ni kittoyareru koto ga aru
„ima“ to iu shunkan wo
sakiokuri ni suru no ha yametanda yo

mou dou shiyou mo nai! tte omoi ga tooku ikiba wo ushinatte
hitori BERANDA ni tobidashita
futo miageta yozora no tsukiagari ga yasashii yo
itsumo mimotte kurete itanda ne

arigatou kokoro kara
komi ageru kimochi wo ima ari no mama ni
nagashita namida to sono egao wo mou nido to hanasanai yo

tsutaetainda kono omoi wo…

FLOW – ありがとう

ありがとう　心から　いつの日も　感じてる　この想いを…

時を重ねて　少しでも　僕らは大人になれたかな？
ただひたすらに　自分だけを　信じてやって来たけど
いとも容易く　大切なものを失える未熟さに
嫌気がさして　成す術のないまま　途方に暮れていた

でもどうして　仄暗(ほのぐら)い夜の　淵(ふち)に立ってるのにこんなに温かいの？
愛すべき人の　確かな光が今　僕を押し上げてく

ありがとう　心から
こみ上げる気持ちを　こらえきれずに
溢れる涙の　その中に映るのは　君だったよ

止まる事なき　時の中　残された　わずかな時間を
今日の命を　僕らはどれくらい　大切に思えるかな？

ただこうして　過ごす毎日を　数えきれない人達の支えの中で
生きている事の　幸せ感じるから　なんか本当に嬉しくて

永遠の儚さを
嘆く前にきっとやれる事がある
「今」という瞬間を
先送りにするのはやめたんだよ

もうどうしようもない！って想いが　遠く行き場を失って
独りベランダに飛び出した
ふと見上げた夜空の　月明かりが優しいよ
いつも見守ってくれていたんだね

ありがとう　心から
こみ上げる気持ちを　今ありのままに
流した涙と　その笑顔を　もう二度と離さないよ

伝えたいんだ　この想いを…

CSS Gallery Gallery

12 Jun 08

. Inspiration, Web Design

CSS Gallery Gallery

When I’m out of design ideas or have free time, I love to visit surf web showcase galleries to see some fresh web designs and get inspiration. But there are so many web galleries out there available and it is impossible to remember them all. Fortunately this website just solved the problem. Introducing Gallery Gallery, a summary list of popular web galleries gathered in one place. Currently listing 179 galleries, well I think that’s a lot!

Alternatively, there are some similar lists like Dia Chronie Web Design Gallery Links or The Great Web Design Gallery Round Up, but both of them are not as complete as Gallery Gallery. I think it is a very useful sites and should bookmark it for future reference.

Frequent visit web galleries

Among all those galleries, there are some web galleries that I often visiting:

Actually there are some more others too but above are the most frequently visit one. And what’s your favorite web gallery?

I search using del.icio.us too

10 Jun 08

. Web 2.0

When searching for information on the Internet, normally I will go to search engine sites like Google or Yahoo. However, I also use social bookmark site Del.icio.us as search engine alternative too. Well this is because Del.icio.us has the tagging system that make search result more precise and focused. By searching through Del.icio.us, you might discover many interesting sites that bookmarked by other users which maybe buried deep in Google search result.

I also want to suggest (especially Web Designer) that to use Del.icio.us to store bookmarks instead of in your web browser, because you can access to your bookmarks everywhere, and you can save as many as you want too. Plus, you can also check what website/blog article is hot on the popular list.

Bookmark Suggestions

Today I stumbled upon an interesting site Bookmark Insuggest – This tool will analyze your online bookmarks and recommend other bookmarks that matches your taste. Provide your del.icio.us username to see Your personal suggestions. Besides bookmarks, it also suggest websites and images that you might interested in too. Well, pretty slick and cool sites to use.

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