The importance of hobbies and interests

It is really important to cultivate your hobbies. Not just as a graphic designer or working in the creative industries, but for any job or even if you are unemployed, it’s very important. It’s really important to meet new people, experience new things or just do something you really enjoy.

If we had no interests it would be pretty hard to be social.. I use a lot of my interests or random gathering of useless facts at work so I’m very thankful for my hobbies and interests.

I could possibly put, gatherer of random information. Just now I’m really hooked on old British history. I have a thing for he get the 8th and Anne Boleyn. I have no idea why but I just do.. Her daughter Queen Elizabeth also intrigues me.

I also really like to belly dance. Not exactly a regular run of the mill hobby but very interesting. I’ve been doing it for 6-7 years now and I like to dance with my friends at many events in Japan. Last week I helped out at a friends networking meeting and performed a 30 minute set! It was very fun and thankfully I didn’t mess up too bad.

Also manage to meet some wonderful people too. Hobbies are great.

What sort of hobbies do you have?

Graphical Clothing Favourites Adidas

Recently I have had a huge desire to wrap myself up in comic book inspired fashion. I already own a large amount of Marvel related clothing, but recently I’ve had a craving for something new.

I’ve always loved Rita Ora’s take on the adidas originals clothing brand. This time I think that the range has been created with my own personal taste in mind! However in Japan we don’t have the larger sizes and I can’t buy it here. I’m in two minds to buy it in the UK and get it when I am home next!

Look at colours…..mind blowing!

Unfortunately it is very difficult to find clothes like these in Japan. Well outside of Tokyo anyway. Craving a trip home already!

Love the promotional youtube video’s too! Loving Adidas’ focus on their brand.

TBT GEISAI #15

I was looking through my old pictures for my latest youtube episode and I came across my GEISAI pictures! Nostalgia time!

GEISAI is a market for fresh artists in Japan to promote their work and have it judged by many top artists and designers. They have two or so shows a year and it’s for young artists under 29. I was so lucky to take part twice since being here. Since I joined CHOREO I haven’t taken part in the exhibition but I did enjoy it when I could. I even managed to meet one of my hero’s Takashi Murakami. He originally started the exhibition and judges it with a panel every year.

I was even lucky enough to talk to him.. He said I must be an “Otaku” (geek) by looking at my work. I guess i must be a bit of a geek! Nothing wrong with that!

I had such a great time at the exhibition. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to get a start as an artist in Japan.

Check out the website here : http://www.geisai.net/g20_en/

How I ended up in Japan [Youtube] HayashiDesign

I’ve been making youtube videos for a few weeks now and I never actually thought about giving a back story about how I came to live in Japan! Thats something you are supposed to do at the start! Ops! So I got round to doing one this week.

I’m really enjoying making these movies so hopefully I can keep them going. I really wish I could take videos in work but we aren’t allowed phones or anything that means we can record data outside of work.

Anyway, have a look at the recent video if you have time and enjoy! If I have more time I hope I can up my uploads to twice a week. I’m getting used to the sound of my own voice and it’s not too bad (I’m less embarrassed!).

Favourite Inspirational Female Designers.

I live in Japan, so I’m somewhat stuck in a bubble at times, but when I do get to find new things or new work it gets me really excited. Unfortunately a lot of my coworkers don’t share this passion with me and talking about design or new things on the internet or even just the Grammy’s is a one sided affair.

So today I thought I would introduce some of my current favourite Graphic Design people. I didn’t purposely choose only females! I just realized that most of my favourite designers are females.

So lets start! Also these are not in any order!

Kate Moross

http://www.katemoross.com/

A Jack of All trades, I love the bright and colourful work of Kate Moross. I’ve been watching a lot of her talks and some of the things she has shared personally helped me in times of “Where is my career going?!?!” and “I do so many things how do I get good at just one!!!”. Her attitude towards her work made me more comfortable in the choices that I was making in my career. It is perfectly ok to be a jack of all trades, and you don’t have to specialize in one thing.  I personally love the Music videos she creates as well.

Design dream goals!

In Love with the hand drawn typography.

Jessica Walsh

https://www.behance.net/jessicawalsh

I think there are a lot of people in the world that love Jessica Walsh’s work. It’s simple, yet bold and very eye catching. I love hearing about her career and how she joined and made Sagmeister & Walsh. She’s an inspiration and I have been watching her career since she was dubbed “One to watch”. I particularly love how instead of working for Mr Sagmeister, she ended up heading the studio with him. The one thing she taught me, which I have yet to put into practice is to have some balls and don’t be scared to reach out to your hero’s. I think when I get back to the UK I will be reaching out to some of my Graphic design hero’s.  I also love the way she uses models in her work. This bodypainting is amazing and very very bold.

I love these inspirational pieces.

Jessica Hische

http://jessicahische.is

Jessica Hische has a passion for typography that she practically lives for. I love her enthusiasm. I love the way she talks in her inspirational talks at other graphic design events, and I love the soft but strong lines that she uses in her lettering. I love to try and work out how she does her work. Its elegant but with a playful edge. I wish I could be a letterer some days. Maybe next time I will try out my own lettering. Her work is very inspirational.

All of the work above is the property of the respective designers and you can find more information on them on their pages. Please have a look and see what you think. Everyone has to have their Design Dreams now don’t they.

White day! Times so fast!

March already! That’s pretty crazy! The Japanese work – school calendar starts in April, so it’s the end of the working year now.

March also brings around White Day. Here Valentine’s Day is where the women make chocolate for friends coworkers and boyfriends. White day is 14th March and the boys are supposed to give back to the girls they received chocolate from.

This year the boys at work gave us some chocolates so we were spoilt on Monday!

Very happy for white day in Japan here! Even managed to get some came from my husband too!

Happy white day!

Graphic Design in Japan – Cultural Differences! Youtube Update!

Happy Sunday! This week I managed to keep up with my youtube channel and get another episode out.

This week I decided to talk about Cultural Differences in Japan. Now I haven’t worked much in the UK as I came out here once I graduated, but I’m pretty sure these are pretty big differences in culture. Theres a lot of Japanese in there as you would expect, but I’ve tried to make it easier to understand.

If you have time please have a look. I’m hoping to update next week with some more videos.

If you have any questions about anything, please let me know.

A New LINE Sticker set! Eye Stickers!

At work we created another set of LINE stickers! LINE is insanely popular in Japan. It’s just so simple for people to communicate and to exchange stickers to express their feelings and intent.

We previously released another Sticker called “Usui-kun” but this time we worked on a new concept. Using the Eyes only to express the users feelings and intent.

Using Comic books and Manga as inspiration we created a set of eye stickers with lots of personality.

You can check out the stickers here on the website :

https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1027555/ja

Here are some examples of our Eye Stickers.

We only released the Japanese version at the moment, an English one is in the works too. I like how there is a mix of Japanese and American style Japanese manga eyes.

Please check it out if you are interested!

New You Tube Post! Daily Life [Hayashi Design]

Third week in a row! I managed to get another youtube episode out. I still have a lot of subjects to cover so I don’t think I will be stopping soon but filming can be super embarrassing and I still can never get over the sound of my own voice! Still keeping it up though.

My aim is to hopefully help someone out there who also wants to come to Japan and work! But we shall see!

This weeks episode is about the Japanese daily working life! As most people expect, the working day is pretty long, but I go much more into detail in the video.

Check it out and let me know what you think of it!

Sakura season or 2

It’s Sakura season still in Japan! Or rather, it will be at the end of the month but for now everyone is releasing their Sakura edition foods and things!

Let’s take a look at what’s been impressive so far.

First off Starbucks do a GREAT Sakura latte! Now that the store bought take away drinks are popular, you can find a ton of limited edition drinks! Hurrah! This one was with a hint of strawberry, very impressed.

Talking of strawberry… Mr donuts went against the trend, again! To release strawberry limited edition donuts! What?!? But they were so cute, just had to have one.

Then, to my champion this year. Sakura limited edition packaged Asahi beer. Nothing flavour wise changed, but oh my, it feels fantastic to buy pink beer.

It’s the “tradition” to have hanami, Sakura watching parties, so I can see this being a very popular drink with people this year. Fantastic. I need to drink more beer this year!

Smart move Asahi. Very smart indeed.

And with that, I will leave with my first sighting of Sakura! Oh yeah! Bring on spring and pink parks please!