Rie fu's CD Jackets

Just found this awesome CD jacket that reminded me of both Rob Ryan and Jessica Hische. I'm really loving the curly font + drop shadows. I'm not sure who the designer is or if it's really paper-cut. Could be entirely digital.

The album is by a Japanese singer named Rie fu. Her previous two singles are also done in the same style.


So pretty! As for the music itself, the album is pretty enjoyable. Any jpop fans out there? ^_^;; I'm liking "Romantic" so far; it is produced by Taku Takahashi of m-flo, my first jpop love.

(Images are from amazon.co.jp)

CD Art

I recently bought an album by Japanese duo, wyolica, titled Balcony. I listen to a lot of Jpop (Japanese pop), and they are one of my all-time favorites. This album is their latest one in like 5 years, so I was pretty excited to receive the CD in the mail the other day. Of course, I was looking forward to hearing their new music but I was also excited about checking out the cover art, jacket inside, etc. I love opening new CDs.. don't you? It's like getting a hand-written letter in the mail. ^^

Love it when they use illustrations, especially underneath the CD slot:


Speaking of CD art, I am reminded of these cool CD covers by Kunie Kanbara for another Japanese duo called Orange Pekoe:




Oh, a short video promoting Orange Pekoe's 10th anniversary album!

It's like a collage of their CD covers. They do a nice mix of pop + jazz. I prefer their earlier works though.. as I do with Wyolica. *sigh* This wyolica's latest album was slightly disappointing by the way. Probably my expectations were too high..

Well, at least the artwork in the CD is pretty. ^^

Book - Hon no Hon (Le Livre du Livre)

I finally got my copy of Junzo Terada's Hon no Hon!




When I first saw this book over at Book By Its Cover and at Wee Wonderfuls, I knew I had to have it. So I ordered it at my local Japanese bookstore and just picked it up last weekend.

I love everything about this book of imaginary books: the nostalgic colors and textures, even typography (love how the title is written). The illustrator is so good at making graphic shapes simply work, and I'm jealous of him for this. I will definitely pick up this book for inspiration the next time I make rubber stamps.


The little stories next to each book cover illustration seem very interesting too.. how I wish I were fluent in Japanese! With my amateur Japanese skills, I tried reading the accompanying text for Harry's Guitar Store. The last part of it says something like this:

There is a special guitar in the store, a guitar Harry won't allow anyone to touch. For Harry has made a promise with its original owner, who is no longer of this world..

Argh, I wish this book really existed so I can continue reading the story! Anyway, I'm going to try to read the other stories whenever I have the time, with the help of a dictionary, of course. ;)

For more images, please be sure to check out the blogs I mentioned above. :) Thanks to those who recommended this wonderful book!