Tokyo Balcony Garden Press

Shu Kuge has shifted his art from comics to wood block prints, using the name Tokyo Balcony Garden Press. I love that the name references our Tokyo home. Above are some of the wood blocks he made this winter in Tokyo. Looking forward to spending the rest of spring and summer in Japan together.

In addition to his art work, Shu has also helped my consulting company, Social Models, with comics, personas, and mascots for corporate clients including Hitachi Design Division and Facebook. It’s been an amazing collaboration, with Shu’s comics going viral in my clients’ offices.

Shu Kuge draws our Tokyo balcony garden, now online and for sale in print

My husband Shu Kuge‘s 8 page comic about our Tokyo balcony just got published. I am thrilled that our tiny garden measuring 1 by 5 meters, often featured in this blog, inspired Shu’s story about life in Tokyo today.  Shu’s creativity and perspective always amaze me. The inimitable drawer Luis Mendo invited Shu to participate in a special issue of architecture magazine MAS Context devoted to Tokyo and illustrators. It was Luis who suggested using our balcony as the focus of Shu’s story.

You can see the whole comic online. www.mascontext.com/issues/24-tokyo-winter-14/shu-kuge/

Print copies can be found at Chicago Design Museum in Chicago, IL | www.chidm.com, and Avril 50 in Philadelphia, PA | www.avril50.com, and soon online at www.mascontext.com/purchase/

Tokyo Tower posing with Mount Fuji, and feeling fine

２１世紀の富士山。Shu Kuge comics.

Tokyo Green Space appears in LiVES magazine current issue (in Japanese)

久家衆生さんのおかげで、最新号の『LiVES』に東京グリーンスペースについての記事と写真が載りました。

Thanks to Shu Kuge, LiVES magazine published a two page article with original photographs about Tokyo Green Space in their current issue.

Comic artist Shu Kuge creates new Tokyo – San Francisco map for Social Models

もう紹介したかもしれないのですが、Shu Kugeという漫画家がこの地図を描いてくれました。１３年前、初めて作ったビジネスのホームページにも素敵な地図とスタッフの似顔絵を描いてくれました。今回も地図を描いてもらって嬉しいです。「ソーシャル・モデルズ」は東京とサンフランシスコをつなぐデザイン・リサーチ会社です。

Maybe you have seen this already? Comic artist Shu Kuge made this map showing how the ocean connects Tokyo and San Francisco. For my first business website thirteen years ago, Shu drew a very memorable office map and staff avatars. I am lucky that he has created something new for Social Models, my new design research studio that is co-located in these two great port cities.

Making a giant green map with pre-schoolers in Shibaura. Kids still enjoy drawing with pens and markers.

芝浦の小学校で、未来町を考えるのために、子供たちは生き物の絵を書いて、巨人の地図にはりました。水辺と公園が子供たちを引きつけました。このイベントで、たくさん新いテクノロジーがありましたが、子供たちまだ絵と塗り絵がまだ好きです。

Recently I conducted a kids art workshop at Shibaura’s public elementary school. The free event was organized by Mitsui Fudosan, Recruit, and Neighbors Meeting, which printed this cool map of Shibaura. We asked kids to draw an animal or plant and add it to the map.

There were several surprises. Many of the kids who participated were two to four years old. They loved the coloring book of land and sea creatures created by Shu Kuge. On the Shibaura map, the kids were drawn to the water, both Tokyo Bay and the canals, as well as to the existing parks. One kid made his own Tokyo Tower and folded it so that it would stand vertically.

The other surprise is that kids still enjoy coloring and drawing. The event was billed as a celebration of future city, and our workshop competed for attention with a very cool pedal powered, ride-on-top shinkansen, a 3D printer, solar-powered remote control cars, and iPad games.

 

New illustrations by Shu Kuge

I am very fortunate that Shu Kuge created several wonderful illustrations for Tokyo Green Space, which will form the center of the graphic identity for this evolving project. Above is an iconic human and plant illustration that I will try using as a new logo. Two more detailed illustrations are on the About Tokyo Green Space web page, and may become part of a stationery set.

https://tokyogreenspace.wordpress.com/about/