Retro Kanban is a fascinating web site dedicated to old Kanban which means “shop sign“. This site carries a collection of enamel signboards, which were familiar from the 1930s to the 1970s and is a fantastic resource for designers, who just pure eye-candy who love the era.

Retro Kanban

Via Retro Thing

Technorati Tags: design, enamel signboards, Japan, Japanese shop signs, retro, Retro Kanban

Chordata, a project by Singaporean Joanne Lin consists of a design made up of four square polypropylene sheets and two customized clips. You wouldn’t think it looking at the gorgeous result which shields a lightbulb to create a lamp.

Read more on CulturePush

Technorati Tags: Chordata, design, pendant lamp, Joanne Lin, Singapore

Korean designers Maezm created the Table-Dish-Cover, a silicon table cloth with integrated dishes. Looks like the sizes are perfect for kimchi with your main meal!

The flexible, injection-moulded silicon product is spread over a table at meal times and then removed and washed afterwards as a complete unit.

Read more on Dezeen

Technorati Tags: cuisine, design, injection-moulded silicon, Korean, Maezm, silicon table cloth, Table-Dish-Cover

Pop Wuping posts the following image of a Chinese pawn ticket. Apparently, in the 1950s, most small Hong Kong shopkeepers still used an abacus for calculations, and a brush rather than a pen for their accounts and receipts. Bits of ephemera like these seem to be rare in current times, but I still look out for them when traveling.

Via PopWuping

Technorati Tags: Chinese calligraphy, Chinese pawn ticket, Hong Kong, pawn ticket

We spent a day at the Design Festa in Tokyo last May. It’s an amazing arts event full of lots of independent artists!

We covered alot of the Design Festa over 5 posts on our other blog MangoVine.net, which you can check out via the links below. The event happens every May and November and its worth timing a trip to Tokyo especially for it, if you’re interested in creativity!

Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight – Personal Creativity at its Finest!

Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight – Linh’s Big Hair

Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight – Amazing Variety of Artist Work

Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight – Performers and Entertainment

Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight – Amazing Cardboard City Model

Technorati Tags: arts, crafts, creative, design, Design Festa, ideas, illustration, Japan, Tokyo, Tokyo Big Sight

Free Vectors website Vecteezy has a vector file featuring a Japanese Geisha character. It looks pretty good on a tshirt as they show, but as a free download, you can place it where you like.

Get the Japanese Geisha Vector file at Vecteezy

Technorati Tags: culture, design, geisha, illustration, Japan, Japanese Geisha character, vector file

Fans of The Godfather films and designer toys will love this new figure by coveted Hong Kong figure artist Michael Lau. The Godfather figure is the first product from MINDstyle’s Godfather licensing deal with Paramount.

This figure will be released at the “Family Tradition” art exhibition on Sunday, July 19th @ De La Barracuda in Hollywood.

Read more on Vinyl Pulse

Technorati Tags: design, designer toys, Hong Kong, Michael Lau, toys

Watch this superb and luscious animation created by Ani7ime Studio. It was created by students at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and runs just under 15 minutes.

Called “Brain Water” it tells the story of mental pressure, depicting kids being constantly forced to do their home work by overbearing monsters. They have water for brains that can get heated by tension, and when over-stressed, the kids produce steam that feed the monsters and the city they live in.

Via 88-Bar

Technorati Tags: Ani7ime Studio, animation, Brain Water, China, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

Vecteezy has a vector file of five traditional japanese kokeshi dolls free to download for creative types interested in Japanese culture. The dolls are wearing colorful kimonos embroidered with patterns.

Download the Kokeshi Vector file at Vecteezy

Technorati Tags: culture, design, Japan, kokeshi dolls, vector file, vector illustration

Shanghai designer Jiang Qian created a kinetic charger concept that takes the idea of those traditional Chinese baoding balls and uses them to harness energy to charge AA and AAA batteries.

The Roll Charger harnesses energy from the ball’s motion when they’re rotating in your palm and include LED indicators for when the batteries are charged.

Since the balls work like shiatsu massage and stimulate acupuncture points in the fingers, these would be great for your body and good for the environment too!

Read more on Treehugger.com

Technorati Tags: acupuncture, Chinese baoding balls, Jiang Qian, Roll Charger, Shanghai, Traditional Chinese medicine