A recent exhibition at Matsuya’s Design Gallery in Ginza that covered signage design, like the kind you find in the vast new shopping/residential complexes that are all the rage these days.

A month without a Graniph t-shirt (or long-sleeve) purchase? Say it ain’t so! Well, it ain’t, although I didn’t pay for this latest Graniph tee. I actually managed — embarrassingly so — to fill up one of their point cards, so this latest one, Agraphia, didn’t cost me a penny.

As I will do every week now, I’d like to thank — and point out — this site’s sponsors, currently residing in the sidebar to the right. The latest one is Tokyomade, an online store that offers all sorts of fun design goods, straight from Tokyo. It joins other sponsors Tokyo Recohan, OK FRED, and affiliate TAB Jobs. As always, if you are interested in advertising on this site, please contact me for info on rates.

Generate is a Canada-based product design store that has recently launched a Japanese online store.

OK, now this has got to be the coolest guitar ever! Link via Kotaku.

This month’s edition of my “On Design” column is in today’s THE JAPAN TIMES (and can be read online here). In it, I cover the latest products from Kyouei, D-BROS‘ A Path to the Future packing tape, Lemnos‘ Oblong clocks, and Teruhiro Yanagihara’s Cover It flower vase.

Jason DeGroot is more than just 6955 or the Baito Hell Master, he also contributes to game site 1UP, and in his latest review he tells you why you’ll want to get PICROSS DS (despite some flaws). For me, it’s all about FINAL FANTASY III these days on my DS, closing in on 20 hours of gametime!

I mentioned it last week, but here’s more on Amanda Browder’s upcoming exhibition at the Nakaochiai Gallery, “Beautiful Flux.” The show runs March 4-24, with an opening reception on March 3 (19:00-21:00).

With all the pictures of me on the site recently, it’s starting to look like a MySpace page, and for that I apologize. But hey, the traditional haircut day shot is a mainstay, and it’s simply out of my hands.

Music Related’s offshoot online-only label, Creation-Centre, has a new release, this time from a Japanese duo called The Number. How does label master Trevor sell you on them? “Chopped-up instruments, found objects from around the house. Bounce and pulse through the insanely unique vision of modern music. An off-kilter soundtrack to life in Japan. It’s as equally unsettling as it is fun and charming.” As with all Creation-Centre releases, it’s free, free, free…

A couple of weeks ago I was at Unjami, and Okinawan restaurant in Nakano — I also wrote a post about it for Gridskipper — and this picture was taken by my friend Ian. I really do still love my Neon!

Just a friendly reminder that tonight (19:00-23:00) sees this month’s edition of Tokyo Fun Party’s “Juliana” event at Soft. See you on the dance floor!

• Under the Bridge with QP
• My Private Nakameguro: Jean Snow’s First Time

You can read all of my Gridskipper posts here (or even subscribe to a feed).

I’ve just gotten the news that my dad, Gérard Snow, is to become a member of the Order of Canada — Canada’s highest civilian honour — for his contributions to the development of Common Law in French. He receives the award this fall in Ottawa, from the Governor General. It’s a shame I won’t be able to attend, but I’m still pretty damn proud of him!

When I was last at Junkudo, I spotted this terrific book, THE SECRET SENSE OF JAPANESE MAGAZINE DESIGN. It was put together by CAP — the company behind most of the great layouts you see in Japanese magazines these days — and covers the history of Japanese magazine design by spotlighting 12 or so magazines (titles like POPEYE, ESQUIRE, and STUDIO VOICE). The intro is bilingual, and the rest of the text is Japanese-only, but don’t let this stop you from picking it up, since it’s all about the layouts found within, and that’s what you mostly get here.

Also, while looking up the link for CAP, I was greeted by a major update to their website. Should now give you a better idea of what they’ve done in the past.