New Downloads February 18, 2008
I decided to upload this little gem for you to decorate your desktop. It’s a photo taken by Paul during our business trip to Tokyo last year. It’s obviously manipulated a little to add a little contrast, but easy on the eyes nevertheless. I wanted to add a photographic desktop as the majority of people probably use photos as desktop wallpapers.
Tokyo inspired us well before we went there, but after being there, breathing in the thick, Akihabara air in summer, it totally conquered our hearts when it comes to design inspiration. We’ve been around the world, but nothing really resembles Asia when it comes to complete isolation. From a designer’s perspective, it’s great to be able to experience complete disorientation due to language and script barriers. As Dutchies, we’re ver much used to foreign languages, as we live in such a small country. We got English, French, German and some of us even Spanish courses in school, so we tend to manage very well in other countries. Except for Asia. It’s a completely different world.
Now don’t get me wrong. I bought the Japanese For Busy People workbooks. I was able to order our dishes of sushi, sashimi, shabu shabu and many other exquisite things in Japanese and found myself very comfortable with the pronunciation of full sentences. But reading was hard as hell. But this is where Japanese design aesthetic comes in. Due to its minimalist nature and wide use of icons and pictograms, finding our way in Tokyo became easier every hour. Tokyo wayfinding became a great inspiration. Not to mention its rich quantities of resident designers, the otaku with their gadgets and anime and contrasting architecture.
I’ll write some more on our travels soon. Cheers.
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