Illustration / Ankoro Rock
I’ve never had a head for languages. I was terrible at French and, despite living in Hong Kong, I can only swear and bargain in Cantonese. I also can’t understand a word of anything on the Ankoro Rock website. Lucky then that a picture is worth a thousand words, no matter what language it’s in. [see also the work of Japanese printmaker Naoji Ishiyama]
RELATED
Based in Osaka, Japan, Shige Tomo is a graphic designer and illustrator who lends his formidable talents to creating deceivingly sweet looking, doll-like creatures, whose malicious stares are quite at odds with their sugary features. Aside from conjuring up an impressive portfolio filled to the brim with these effortless evils, Tomo also has a wonderful collection of dolls and other products available, which bring his saccharine creations to life. Lovely in their simplicity, yet malevolent in their intent, you have to wonder if Tomo had nightmares about dolls when he was a child.
We used to depend on sundials back in the day, but now there are multiple ways to tell the time. And Tokyo Flash has just invented another one. Based on LED technology, these watches are not only stylish but futuristic and wildly innovative. They even have a watch from minimalist designer Naoto Fukasawa that is more than just your basic timepiece. The Tokyo Flash site says that their watches are supposed to ‘resemble the various moods of a human’, and they’re definitely an attention grabber. These are watches to take us right through to the 22nd century.
Oh, ok, so now I’ve seen it all. Or perhaps, in this case, I’m not seeing enough. Japanese game shows are so much fun. Seriously.
Also by KATE BARNETT
Black and White Freedrawings by Zeptonn Willem
If you haven’t heard of illustrative designer Zeptonn, then you should have. He’s the creative force uniting a group of talented designers who operate on the brilliant design site Black Rock Collective. Read more
Falling in between Enya, Bright Eyes, and Air, The Republic Tigers have been tagged ‘indie rock meets new age fog’. If that’s all too wishy-washy for you, then check out their new album Keep Color and watch the video to the album opener, Buildings and Mountains.
Listen to The Republic Tigers track, Golden Sand
Bath based Lucy Oldfield has just moved onto a Canal boat — a risky move for an illustrator whose art is based on delicate linework. Luckily it hasn’t affected her steady hand. Her work is beautifully constructed with a fine eye for feminine detailing. She’s currently working on greeting cards, having previously worked for the design company I Love Dust, with clients including Orange, Mini Cooper, Conde Nast, The Times and The Sunday Express.
YOU'RE SAYING (0)
No comments yet.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Laura Veirs is one of my favorite songwriters. I can’t think of a single song of her’s that I haven’t loved instantly, and continue to wear out on my inner-ear iPod. I interviewed her recently, a few nights after I saw her awesome set at New York’s Gramercy Theatre. Read more
Austin band The Low Lows are one of my most prized finds of the year so far. It’s introspective music — staggered harmonies delivered by a distant, agonised voice that filters through a wall of tranquil guitar distortion and measured drumming. Every instrument carries a powerful emotion, sometimes keeping their distance from one another, floating up and around the airwaves, and other times colliding and crashing back to earth.
These small but innovative in-ear headphones from Audio-Technica are part of a new wave of noise canceling buds that claim to block up to 85 to 90 percent of outside sound. Read more
Hello, my name is Zolton and I’m a non-dancer. That’s right, a non-dancer. I choose not to dance for the mental welfare of others, though my inability to shake and roll with the best of them can probably be traced back to the Id, the Ego; that darn voice that sits somewhere at the back of my head and reminds me that any inclination to hurl myself about the dancefloor will not go down well in public. So I choose not to. Heck … it’s my party and I’ll sit quietly and observe if I want to. Read more
We have a bunch of new playlists up on our sister site, My Secret Playlist, a music discovery website and weekly email publication in which we invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. Over the past few weeks, acts such as The B52s, Team Genius, Pivot, Jukebox the Ghost, Moby, Katy Perry, and the Dandy Warhols, among many others, have written about the music that inspires them. To sign-up to receive the weekly My Secret Playlist publication, just enter your email address into the website’s subscription box.
The strategy based architectural firm Popular Architecture has created a scheme that takes on the spread of cities. Based on the estimation that London will need to provide housing for 100,000 new people each year up until 2016, this building houses 100,000 in one hit. Read more
This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
The directorial debut of John August, a writer who was worked on films such as Go, Big Fish and Corpse Bride, is a complex and thought-provoking arthouse feature crowned with a spectacular performance by Ryan Reynolds in the lead role. Like most films, it is in three parts. However, these are three distinct parts with the same actors all playing different roles. Read more
When it comes to making an entrance, nothing says rock star quite like a pair of leather pants. If you’ve tried this look at home, you’d know that finding a flattering leather statement piece is much harder than it looks. So it’s lucky for us that leather is Melbourne label Shadows & Dust’s specialty. Designer Stephen Jones sources skins from all over the world to create butter-soft ruffled jackets, skinny trousers, vests and shorts. And what makes this label stand out from the rest is that it takes three workers an entire day to create each unisex leather garment. In a society of mass manufacture, that’s what we like to call a rarity.
The last time we heard from Melbourne label TV, they were busy preparing for their debut at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Since then, the girls behind one of this year’s most talked about labels have delivered a stunning collection. Read more
Kikkerland, the company behind those campfire tea light holders, has a line of amazing snap-together anatomic models of beetles, frogs, moths, cows, humans, and a wide range of other animals, even a wooly mammoth. Where the hell were these when I was a kid?
I love the sense of intimacy about the work of Chicago-based photographer, Brian Ulrich. His retail project Copia ‘is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live’. We interviewed him recently and asked him what camera he uses once he gets inside a store he’s photographing: ‘For many of the pictures in the Retail project I used a medium format SLR with a waist level viewfinder. Having a finder that you can look down into instead of holding it to your eye calls a lot attention to yourself as well as allows one to hold the camera still at much slower shutter speeds. Regardless of those things though, the majority of the time it takes a combination of patience and boldness. Strangely I don’t run into people having much of an issue with it. Most often I really don’t think people notice. If an employee does ask me not to take pictures I simply laugh and move on, I’m well aware that what I’m doing looks odd. Better to own up and walk across the street to the Kmart’. Read more
Your enemies can always be counted upon to be just that. Unfortunately, your friends sometimes cannot.
Created by graphic-tee fashion label, the-affair, and printed on beautifully soft American Apparel in a limited edition of 200. Purchase now. Read more
UNKLE’s new album, End Stories … Music For Film, comes in a limited edition gatefold vinyl gloss with sculptured panel embossing. We have three copies to give away to randomly selected Australian Lost At E Minor subscribers who leave a comment under this post.
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
TAGS: acoustic music animals animation Australian artists Australian bands black and white illustrations black and white photography blogs Brooklyn Brooklyn artists Brooklyn bands cartoons China collaboration colour colourful illustrations comics electronic music flash games folk music Hip Hop Japan London Los Angeles magazines Melbourne New York New York artists New York bands New York illustrators New York photographers pop music portrait portraits prints rock music San Francisco soul music street art street fashion Sweden Sydney t-shirts technology UK bands
POPULAR:
- Marc Collin: My Secret Playlist!' - loved 60 times
- Brittanie Pendleton - loved 48 times
- Elaine Biss's feminine charms - loved 25 times
- Ed Harcourt: 'My Secret Playlist' - loved 22 times
- Prefab House - loved 19 times
- Andreco's brilliant visions - loved 18 times
- I Give Up On T-Shirts - loved 16 times
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you’d just like to talk amongst yourselves, that’s cool too. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.









