Design Festa Autumn 2011

Just a few photos from last Sundays Design Festa, a wonderful event for makers, artists, designers and craftsmen from all over Japan (and quite a few from abroad) held twice yearly in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. There’s hundred if not thousands of exhibitors, some great, some very enthusiastic.

I got there early since I didn’t have much time to spend but even being 30 minutes early I met with this massive line of people, literally thousands of people lining up to get it. And I didn’t even have a prepaid ticket to get it! Luckily, for once in my life, being unprepared turned out to be the best thing since all these people lined up all had prepaid tickets! The line at the ticket booth was about 25 people and moved very quickly. I was in in no-time! I have already posted one paper crafter, and here’s one photo of a young lady designer and illustrator. I couldn’t look closer at her work since she was… not very talkative. For as long as I watched she stood immobile with what I thought was a bag but later I noticed her walking around with it, some sort of mask. Quite a few people watched me take her photo. From the look of it, it seems she had some really nice illustrations in her booth! Maybe next time I’ll catch her without the mask. If anyone talked to her, please let me know!

Siryu Paper Craft Dragons

At the twice yearly Design Festa I saw this wonderfully creative papercrafter and his amazing creations! Most of his work is of dragons but there’s a few people and other animals as well, tigers and even a kitty! The deisgner’s studio is called Siryu (his official site is here and his blog is here). He is located in Nagoya and came over to Tokyo for the weekend, which explains why I have never seen his work before. I got a model-kit of a small golden dragon for myself. It looked really complicated but now that I’ve read the instructions I realize that it’s easier than it looks. It’ll make a great Christmas present to one of my craftier little relatives.

Shinkairyuh – Deep Ocean Steampunk

Another intriguing and totally unexpected find at last years Design Festa! Shinkairyuh is the name of a project by a Japanese designer/maker who tinkers up these wonderful little mechanical toys in his spare time. There is an elaborate back story to his creations, which is basically advanced models, complete with moving parts, electronic and lights made in plastic and metal. I instantly thought of Deep Sea Steampunk when I saw it, and also remembered the Disney Sea underwater rides. If you want to see more, he has a site here. The man is a wonderful scratch builder of toys! I didn’t want to photograph all the hidden gems, moving parts and light of these models, so you’ll have to try and see it for yourself!

Pink Elephant

Another find at last year’s Design Festa was a booth of young Korean artists. They had quite a few beautiful statues for show (and probably for sale as well), and especially these elephants caught my eye. Obviously inspired by Salvador Dali’s famous painting. For some reason I didn’t manage to catch the name of this artist, but if you happen to know, please inform us in the comment section, I would be happy to give credit!