Latest Articles

Creative packaging inspiration ~modern & vintage~

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Resources

Packaging is one of the most common example of graphic design in the world. Apart from displaying the important information, the packaging has become an important sales tool. With the use of illustration, color, typography and even various packaging materials, designers can create an attractive image and build a brand identity that is eye-catchy and impactful, yet preserve the contents.

A beautiful and attractive packaging or corporate sign can boost the selling and stands out from the rack of competitors. For example the IZZE beverage packaging shown above, their sales grew 450% per year over the first two years without any TV commercials, print and web advertising. It must be its unique & simplicity of graphic approach together with clear and refreshing typeface that attracts people to buy it.

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Toda Erika in stunning beautiful kimono

. Japan

I’m absolutely stunned by these extremely beautiful pictures featuring my favourite idol Toda Erika on kimono. She is doing promotion for Kyoto Kimono Yuuzen (京都きもの友禅) which offering kimono rental and so on. This is the first time I saw her in kimono She looks absolutely gorgeous in it. This makes me like her more and more!

To be exact, Toda Erika is wearing furisode (振袖), which is one of the style of kimono. According to Wikipedia, the name “furisode” literally translates as swinging (furi) sleeves (sode), as furisode are distinguishable by their long sleeves, which average between 39 and 42 inches in length. Furisode is the most formal style of kimono worn by unmarried women in Japan.

The furisode is made of very fine, brightly colored silk, and is commonly rented or bought by parents for their daughters to wear when celebrating Coming of Age Day the year they turn 20. By wearing a furisode, a young woman signifies that she is both single and a legal adult, and thus available for marriage.

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Say Hey to Hey! Say! 7

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Bokura wa heisei ONLY! Showa De SHOW wa muri,
Acchi mo kocchi mo ii ne! HEY-SAY wa ii ne!

This is how is the song lyric begins in Hey! Say! 7’s first single “Hey!Say!”. They are the latest Johnny’s Junior group which consists of five members. They were called Hey! Say! 7 because all the members are born in the Heisei era and that the year of their formation was 2007. The smallest is 13 and the eldest is 17 this year.

I still remember when I watch Music Station on Animax last week, Hey! Say! 7 was one of the performing artists and they were supported by their senior Kamenashi Kazuya. He was noticed about the youngness of this group, and he was keep saying that “I’m from Showa era”.

But what is this Heisei and Showa mean?

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5+ business card inspiration sites that you can’t miss

. Art & Design, Inspiration

5+ business card inspiration sites that you can't miss

Business card is important. It reflects you and your company’s image and identity. Although the format is small so that it can be fitted into everyone’s wallet and card holder, but the design creativity is unlimited. It depends on how you want to make use of that small space and create the best designs.

Sometimes business card designs can be gone wild too, from transparent material to unconventional shapes. Here i present you 5 sites that will sparks your business card design inspiration and go out of the box. Business card printing is easy. Make your color business cards look their best with Ps Print custom printing services.

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Senko hanabi – beautiful Japanese sparkler

. Japan

Remember the first time i saw this fireworks is on BoA’s “Valenti” PV. The fireworks is very different from the fireworks I played during festive season. The sparks are beautiful, but not very strong, and less smoke produced, and there’s a big red ball at the tip of the fireworks. It is very nice to watch. Then these few days I watched J-drama “Yama Onna Kabe Onna”, the fireworks appear again! After doing some research, finally i know that the fireworks is called Senko Hanabi (線香花火).

Japanese loves to play fireworks during festive season. From huge to small, fireworks is a very nice thing to play and it makes people feels better. And senko hanabi is the perfect companion, ideal for couples, friends and family gathering. A senko hanabi is a thin shaft of twisted paper about 20 centimeters long with one end containing a few grains of a special gunpowder.

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Nice website – LittleDeviant xD

. Inspiration, Web Design

Yesterday, I stumble upon a website and found it very interesting and decided to share with you here. The website is called LittleDeviant xD. When I first visiting this site I never know it is a viral site for Scion, a very creative minded car brand. The site was developed by branding agency ATTIK, to promote the new 5 door xD Scion with a very unusual way.

This flash based site presents a gothic digital novel/video game, “Book of Deviants,” that opens to reveal a pop-up world. The animation is fluid and animation is creepy but fun. Then, you have to going through chapter by chapter to wipe out all the boring Sheeple who makes the city lifeless and gray with a character “Little Deviant”. The Little Deviant (xD) is driving a Scion, and it requires the user play a small game to control the xD to kill the Sheeples as screenshot shown below. I’m using mouse to control the xD’s hand to slash the sheeples, haha.

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Dondake & MTV Student Voice Awards 2007

. Japan

Recently 2007 MTV Student Voice Awards is held in Japan. This award is something like Teen Choice awards where the awards are choose by Japanese students. This is the first time I heard about this award. From the winning list, Micro of Def Tech was crowning the Best Artist award while Oguri Shun won the Best Actor award. Lets take a look on who won the other awards.

Award List

Artists/Music Categories

  • Best Artist: Micro of Def Tech
  • Best Group: W-inds.
  • Best Dance Artist: EXILE
  • Best Party Song: “Girlfriend,” Avril Lavigne
  • Best Ringtone: “Lovin’ Life,” FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
  • Best Lyrics: “Ketsui no Asa ni,” Aqua Timez
  • Best Karaoke: “CHE.R.RY,” YUI

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Happy 50th Independence Day!

. General

Today is a very special day for us because Malaysia is celebrating 50th Independence Day! This is definitely a day to remember as Malaysia has been Independence for half a century. Today is public holiday, many people are going hometown, others are going to Dataran Merdeka to witness the marching while me, sitting in front of computer and writing this post.

This year National Day’s theme is “Malaysiaku Gemilang” (My Glorious Malaysia), and the logo is shown below. According to The Star survey, many people was still unaware of this year’s theme. To be honest, I also not informed by the new theme and logo until yesterday. This shows me how lack I’m reading the National section of newspapers.

The logo is using back the national flag’s 4 color, red and white waving Jalur Gemilang resembles the number 5, while the yellow crescent resembles 0 to form 50. While at the bottom of 5, a hibiscus flower (Malaysia’s national flower) is depicted. The whole logo is surrounded by a oval shaped dark blue color to achieve the harmonious design. While a handwriting like typeface to write out “Malaysiaku Gemilang”. Overall, the design is logic and I like it very much. It looks refreshing.

To get to know more about the current and the past National Day emblem and its rationals, please log on to this site. This is not going to be an easy weekend for me because I had to sketch out some logos for a new game… still doing research, hope I’m doing fine! Finally and once again, HAPPY 50th INDEPENDENCE DAY! 😀

Note: Title image from sxc.hu

7 time saving Photoshop tips for web designers

. Art & Design, Tutorial

As a Photoshop user for more than several years, although cannot consider myself as Photoshop experts, but I did had some tips and guides for Photoshop beginners and fresh web designers to do stuff faster and more efficient in Photoshop. With this tips, you can know more about Photoshop and learn some essential time saving skills. Here I have 7 in total.

1. Save frequent used layer style

Sometimes we do some layer style that is quite repetitive, for example I will frame a transparent grey border for each picture posted in my blog. Because they are the same, so I save it as my Layer Style. To save, just double click the layer containing the styles u want to save, then click the Styles tab and click “New Styles”. A window prompt out, name the style and save it. So next time, instead of going to the Stroke properties to make the border, I just click the styles I just made, convenient!

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Toypography – A puzzle toy of type

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Japan

Wonder how to connect an English word to its kanji character? Well, let Toypography tell you. Toypography, which is a combination of the word toy and typography, is a toy that consisting of fragments of separate letters that can be put together to either English or Japanese letters and characters.

Toypography is created by a Japanese typography creator group called Dainippon Type Organization. The unique features of Toypography is that Japanese expressions can be transformed into English expressions of the same meaning. For example, the picture shown below. The English word “Bird” and transformed into kanji “鳥”. Amazing isn’t it?

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