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The KEN-Platz site has a few photos of the construction work currently underway for the Tadao Ando-designed Shibuya station expansion. Via Dezain.net.

Enrico Casarosa, an illustrator and animator in San Francisco shared his love of Shugo Tokumaru when he created this short animated clip for his wife’s birthday, using Shugo’s “Such a Color” track.

My weekly Tokyo post is up at MoCo Loco, this time covering Plusminuszero’s 2.5R series, Nendo‘s Bambi table, Nosigner‘s “FLUOLESS” exhibition, and the Naoto Fukasawa-directed “Koo Fu Collection 2008.”

Last night I attended the first edition of TAB Talks in Gotanda at the new Gotanda Sonic event space. The guest speaker was Yoshio Suzuki, long-time editor at BRUTUS magazine who is behind most of the magazine’s art features. Expect a TABlog entry to sum up the talk sometime soon.

It looks like they’re off to a very promising start, with over 120 people making it out on a cold rainy night. It remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to keep the momentum on a weekly basis — yes, WEEKLY!

This month’s edition of my “On Design” column was in yesterday THE JAPAN TIMES, and can be read online here. It covers Moritoyoshi‘s Hang mirror, Juta Kan’s PhotoHanger, the Düller stationery line, METAPHYS‘ LADD magazine rack, and Teramoto‘s Arietta umbrella stand.

Naoto Fukasawa seems to have covered every single product category, and now he follows that up with… jewelry!? Fukasawa directs the “Koo Fu Collection 2008.”

Paul Baron‘s “Uroko House” sleeping area, designed by Point Architects, makes an appearance in the current issue of SHINKENCHIKU magazine.

THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINES profiles Rei Kawakubo, the designer behind Comme des Garçons. Via PSFK.

The official site for Mamoru Oshii’s upcoming animated film, THE SKY CRAWLERS, is streaming a new trailer. It also announced the release date: August 2. Via Anime News Network.

PingMag has a profile on Tomoko Sawada, a Kobe-based artist/photographer whose work I’ve been a fan of for a few years now. I absolutely love her photo booth series, part of which is pictured above.

What does Ian Lynam do when he heads back home for the holidays? He gets inspired by the games of bingo he plays with the family, and creates a new “typeface,” which you can get here.

Reminds me that I really need to do a full-on presentation of the work he did for me on my M31 identity (I presented it at PauseTalk, but not here). I’m finally ready to start handing out my new business card — for now there are 10 versions (beating the 8 of my previous series, that were designed by NCM), and soon to be 31!

Remember Claska‘s first-floor The Lobby? It’s now turned into a bookstore and cafe located in Osaka. I wonder if the original one will still be part of the new Claska, once it re-opens on March 29.

SMART GIRLS, “the world’s favorite hipster booby magazine” (so says Marxy), is back on newsstands. It had stopped a while back — you may remember the final issue, featuring a pictorial by Karia Nomoto — after founder and photographer Yasumasa Yonehara had a falling out with the publisher, but Yonehara is again involved in this re-launch. I haven’t looked through the issue yet, but according to Marxy, it features less nudity, but still has the same vibe as before.

The latest TABlog entry runs down a few gallery relocations, including news that the main Nadiff bookstore will re-open in Ebisu, sharing a building with the Magical Artroom gallery.