Girls Day { HINAMATSURI } Celebration

March 3rd is a special day for girls called Hinamatsuri in Japan.

It's the day to wish girls' good health and happiness by decorating a house

with a set of Japanese dolls. If I remember correctly, setting of the Hina dolls are for Ohina sama (the empress) and Odairi sama (the emperor)'s wedding celebration. So along with 15 dolls, a set of furniture is displayed as well as special food and drink such as three-tier mochi and sweet rice wine for the wedding.

As most grand parents in Japan, my grand parents also bought me a set of Hina dolls with a seven-tier stand to express their joy for the birth of a little girl. I used to help my parents with decorating the dolls. Those are good family memories.

Me and my friend at work felt that we shouldn't live this special day as just any other

day so we decided to set up a set of Hinamatsuri dolls on my desk.

We didn't realize until we actually made the dolls and stage how delightful it is to have these cute little dolls and share our childhood memories of Hinamatsuri. Our spirit were lifted.

Rainy Day Fun Craft Project { PIPEROID }

Publish Post
Saturday was a bit cold and raining in the morning. For some reason

I felt like being productive so decided to make a paper robot called PIPEROID.

All I needed to prepare was scissors, no glue required.

Just cut 6 pipes into pieces, assemble pipes by following the instruction on the back of the packaging.

I spent about 30-40 minutes cutting, folding, and assembling.

It was rather challenging but it was satisfying to look at the result.

PIPEROID
http://www.piperoid.com/

Like A Rock Star ☆

It is interesting to say that when I got home, it felt like as if I just came back from my favorite rock band's live concert : )

A day passed and I can still recall most of the stories that were told by Sean Adams and his wonderful team. The reason is because they are simply very good story tellers. Their stories felt genuine, touching, and insightful. Oh boy, they really know how to communicate themselves both visually and verbally. Amazing people...!

I have been using Sean's Logo Design Workbook as my design process bible for a while. It's such a great book that I always go back to and remind myself of what are the essentials for good visual communication. Last night was so unreal. I felt so privilege to be at the studio and experienced the live version of the book : ) Thank you AIGA! Thank you AdamsMorioka! You are my rock star.

Studio Tour at AdamsMorioka

I just came back from an AIGA event at AdamsMorioka studio. It turned out to be such an inspiring night. I will talk more about the event tomorrow. Good night!

Black Bird Fly, What a fun Camera!

Today I finally opened a box of a new camera Black Bird Fly(BBF.)

It was the first time to test it since I got it last year.

This camera has two lenses, one to look through to make a composition, one to capture the image. Image looks reversed through the view finder so it took some time for me to get used to it. It's tricky, but it's really fun getting to know about this camera. I can't wait to develop the first roll : )

Also I love the color combination of this camera(Orange x Black).
It looked really good when it was placed on a brown wooden table

with some green plants in the background.

MINIATURE WORLD by TiltShift Generator

My recent obsession is to create a miniature scene using an iPhone application called "TiltShift Generator." I am a fan of Naoki Honjyo and with this app, I get to make pictures like Naoki within a minute. I researched a bit about what makes a successful miniature picture and found out that the key is to shoot from above and have plenty of space in the front side of the composition. I am still learning the trick and it's been really really fun and addicting. So these days, wherever I go, I look for a good miniature scenery to be.

Visited the LA Printer's Fair 2009 at The International Printing Museum

''The International Printing Museum'' in Los Angeles is added to my list of favorite places in LA. I visited the facility last Saturday when they were having the LA printer's fair and showing the place to the public.

As well as touring of the museum, I enjoyed talking to people who have the same passion & interests as I do. It would be my dream to own a letterpress studio in woods and print all day long for living...