Design/Photography

21 of 30 from the Open Tibet series.

20 of 30 from the Open Tibet series.

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I briefly emerge from my cave for an update ...

A small form study of yoga poses.

Sukiyabashi Jiro, the mind-blowingly delicious Sushi shop I photographed in 2006 was just awarded 3 stars by Michelin.

Hitotoki London, now accepting submissions.

Hitotoki New York Launches!

Some photos and details on Goodbye Madame Butterfly.

Back from Tibet. Upgrading the 'ole installation to MT 4.0.

The teaser site for our latest book is up.

New photos up.

Nigiri Te: a continuation on Sukiyabashi Jiro.

Happy New Year!

The third book from Chin Music Press is due out in stores September 1st. Designing, editing and printing is complete. And about 3800 copies are now floating somewhere between Japan and Seattle.

Updated the portfolio for the recent Do You Know release. Which, we just found out this morning, has sold out of its first print run!

I've finalized all of my plans for February and the schedule, packed and varied, is looking something like this ...

Wow, so much for doubting Jobs' ability to convince networks that iTunes is the way to go. Popped into iTunes to download another episode of Lost and found dozens of new (old) shows available.

This is going to be nice once Do You Know gets wrapped up. I think I'm going to need a good 2 or 3 days of mindlessness. For now, back to drawing maps and laying out covers.

(Also, bumping into this stuff before the rest of the world wakes up is one of the weird side-advantages of living on Tokyo time -- right now it's 4am EST, a great hour to update web-services.)

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? is now available for pre-order on the Chin Music Press site. All profits during this campaign are being donated to relief organizations working in the New Orleans area. So pick it up now and help out!

Might not be new news but I just noticed that Amazon has added user editable Wikis to their product entries. This plus tagging means it looks like Amazon is really trying o reel in and put their huge user base to work.

This is good for publishers like us because it means we can finally add additional product information without having to conform to Amazon's strict templating system.

Painfully busy over here trying to pull off the Do You Know book design with only 2 weeks left. Two weeks sounds like a lot of time but it's not considering how much proofing you need to do with a book. Anyway, keep following along over here.

I'll be the first to admit that my approach to the creative process is as scattered as anyone's. Perhaps most detrimental to me getting anything done is that my "on" and "off" modes are so polarized and intense that when I'm "on" and working, I usually work until physical exhaustion takes me down over the course of a week or a month. And when I'm "off," attempting to get back on track is like trying to push a buffalo onto a ski-lift.

I don't think it's a big mystery that light has an effect on one's mental health. Good lighting is certainly one of my highest prerequisites when I'm looking for a place to live. The fact that apartments which receive better sunlight are usually more expensive hints that most people feel the same way.

I decided to upgrade my copy of Indesign before embarking on the layout of the latest Chin Music Press Book, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans. Wow, Adobe's servers are slow.

Finally, it's done. After months and months of ... procrastination and stagnation, we worked like maniacs over this holiday weekend and finished it. http://www.cannedcoffee.com.

Go, drink, and maybe even buy something!

Space: Japanese Design Solutions for Compact Living

This is just too good.

The Guardian redesigns and Design Observer has a nice write-up. I'm also impressed with the depth of information the editor's blog goes into. And finally, there's a short but interesting video with Mark Porter discussing his rationale for design and format choices.

If the next book project I work on requires only a couple of copies, has insanely weighty content, and isn't on a tight schedule then I'm calling up someone from The Society of Bookbinders. This is some breathtaking bookmaking.

Akiko Ita is Japanese.

Pierre Javelle is French.

Together they make some fun, surreal, beautiful photographs.

Square format. Shallow depths of field. People on pastries. Mmm.

(Nice clean flash site too.)

Some impressive and clean architectural specimens By William Carpenter over at Lightroom.

Wired has a great article on Steven Sacks, the guy spearheading digital art as sellable and gallery safe. He heads up Bitforms, a great NYC based gallery you should check out if you are into this sort of media. Now, if only they had some of their archived prints (i.e., Casey Reas) on display too.

The Design Observer has an absolutely amazing listing of both general and design related relief efforts going on for the Katrina victims. It also looks like they're offering a spot in their design studio, Winterhouse, for a young displaced designer.

A fairly surreal video showing that good design -- camouflage, big gooey arms -- can be useful in the most unlikely ways.

A photographer I've been watching for years now. Phil Toledano has mastered the use of subtle, elegant light. Breathtaking minimalism. His photos make you want to lick them. And now he's getting commissioned to do great stuff for fancy bag companies.

I can't curb my fettish for BD-1 ("Birdy" in the rest of the world) folding bicycles. In my opinion they're one of the best looking, most functional folding bikes out there. Here in Japan the obsession runs wide and deep.

William Drenttel of Design Observer writes a well thought out piece on the problems with emotionless -- in a sense unidimensional -- mapping of terrorism data.