Tokyo Design

It’s impossible to narrow the essence of Tokyo design down to a single style. It’s a remix culture, that borrows icons and motifs from abroad and spins them in their own way. Usually these remixes are very clean and iconic, pattern oriented, making them ideal for the jump from pure design into wearable fashion.

But the trend of design I’m liking, is a more casual and less fashion ready style. One that mainly exists in the multitude of art mags you can find at the local shops and galleries. It feels to me like ‘photoshop enabled photocopy art.’ And I enjoy seeing that style in a printed and bound volume.

It’s not an attempt at photorealism. It’s a kind of clunky surrealism, that goes for more of a mood than trying to augment reality. It feels very random, but in a visually striking way. Almost like the freedom of doodling in a sketchbook, but with fully realized images.

In Tokyo, there is also a solid mastery of a kind of perfect-imperfect typesetting. Letterforms that look so awkwardly placed, that you soon realize they could not be more awkwardly placed, therefore giving it a certain puzzle solving, eye-pleasing reward. Very ordinary fonts used in a way that makes them alarmingly ordinary. A rebranding of the taken for granted.

If Van Gogh was inspired by classic Japanese paintings, maybe the modern designer can be similarly influenced by the graphic aesthetic of Tokyo today..

Anyway, I’m aiming to post more bits of Tokyo design inspiration on here.