…….seen here Aiko Minezaki at work in west 1F!…..pop in and say hi to this colourful young lady!

…..now this guy i’m sure you all know! and what a pleasure it was for me to get to meet him here at the gallery! the totally mental Nambu…..charismatic leader of the Tokyo Dengeki Network! “Nambu! what are you doing here?” “well i often come here…it’s so cool!”  IF i had a firework strapped to my bollocks THIS is the man i would want to have light it!

and the KOALA BEAR!!

….thats right! over at east gallery under the expert guidance of Hiromi Adachi classes in vegetarian-orientated cooking will be held on the following dates, 9/3, 9/16. 10/7 & 10/25. i popped over just now and caught up with Hiromi and student “chef” Takako Ajiro as they prepared today’s mouthwatering menu….Yam curry rissotto, mushroom potage, beansprout & plum dressing salad with apple, white wine & tofu cream dessert! of course you eat what you learn to prpare and the whole affair only costs 3,500 yen !

anyone interesested just turn up on the dates listed above at 11am!

…….for those of you also missing former DF staff Miki Fukuda (recently Mrs Gaja!) here’s a photo taken today at her new place of work on the other side of Harajuku where she works at a very funky and eccentric curio shop! when i popped in to say hi the shop was packed with people enjoying performance art from Tadashi Nakamura slightly spooky “goat” character Mrs Mary! Miki sys a big HI! to everyone and hopes to see you all at DF Vol 30 october 24th/25th at Tokyo Big Sight!

……as you may or may not know Stephen Lebovits recently joined the Design Festa team, but what you probably don’t know is that he recently published his own book of photography quirkily entitled “brokenfotografy-volume 1″ which offers you a chance to see over 100 photos taken over an 8yr period, this time period being significant in that it is also 8yrs ago that Stephen first embarked upon his adventures in photography while based in San Diego “more as a commercial venture initially as i was actually taking shots of auction items for ebay! I’ve always been a visual person though, ever since i saved enough money to buy my first camera as a kid. I’m totally a digital photographer and i’m most comfortable in that medium, film scares me! I have 1000’s of photos in my computer and with websites only being one dimensional I figured i would put together my own book, a kind of vanity project”

….and it works well, no text to speak of, how you interpret the shots (taken mostly in Tokyo,San Diego & Montreal) is up to you ,it’s available at the reasonable price of 2500 yen, it’s in flexiback and it would be a cool addition to anyone’s chill table! for further info go to Stephen’s website Or his blog. The book can be ordered directly from www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/623630

…….enthused gallery visitors Kyoko Asai and Shannon Ong both living and working in Singapore as graphic designers. These two ladies just arrived in Japan today and made straight to the DF office in order to get their “origibal art tickets” for Saturday at Big Sight! well i can tell you that it was a great boost for all the staff here today to know that and so here’s a photo of all of us with Shannon & Kyoko in order to express our appreciation to all those who  travel from overseas to become part of Design Festa!!

…….preparations for ASIA’S LARGEST ARTS FESTIVAL DESIGN FESTA VOL 29 ,(now in our 15th year!!), continue here at the gallery as staff bustle about attending to all those finicky last minute details……

This coming event will kick off at 11am with a performance on the Indoor Stage from OLIVE, a truly awesome transgender artist! and when i say “truly” i can vouch for that having seen her/his/it’s outre performances before! In fact i was present yesterday at NHK studios in Shibuya where OLIVE and i were amongst other DF artists as judges filming an episode of Tokyo Kawaii and let me tell you the only star in that studio was OLIVE!!

anyway all of us here at the gallery are very excited about this forthcoming sold-out event and look forward to seeing all of our friends and exhibitors old and new at Big Sight this weekend……just a quick reminder to let you know that we will be unable to respond to your Emails after 12 midday tomorrow although we will be answering the phones until 7pm at which time we’ll all be off to Big Sight for a night of unpacking and setting up!! until 11am on saturday then……..from all of us here at DF Gallery!

seen below are shots of DF staff members Fuyo-san,Osamu-san and Hiromi-san all helping with this weekend’s preparation!

seen below a few scenes of some of the frenetic preparation activity happening around the office! we are all psyched for the next event and everything is coming together nicely for next weekend’s BIGGEST EVER event!!

…….and until the 14th, the stunning poster art of Daniel Johanson aka VENOM PALETTE with his “LOST IN ILLUSTRATION” exhibition in space 1G “an image journey stemming from travel throughout 2008, through Tokyo and through myself!”

French tv programme KiraKira Japon came to visit the other day, and we took this short video with the director…
Thanks for stopping by!