Tokyo Art Map was recently featured in the Japanese book Layouts for Catalogs and Pamphlets (カタログ・パンフレットのレイアウト）. The book is published once a year as a selection of print design case studies based on real projects in a variety of categories. The art map spread explains some of the thinking behind our design decisions, including typefaces, colors, and format details like the index tabs.

In other news, the latest edition of the map is now available at over 450 locations throughout Tokyo, with a illustrated suggestion from Eiko on how to make it through this year’s rainy season.

Recently, we started working on a new project with a quick launch cycle and several dev projects moving at once. We’re tracking the project with Google Analytics, and as you can imagine, there have been a lot of bumps large and small to follow in our stats.

One team member suggested that we keep a log of our releases so we understand how they correspond to changes in traffic patterns. That got me thinking, “it’d be nice to track releases in GCal and have them appear on Analytics timelines.”

This would be especially useful for large organizations where stakeholders not directly involved in the website are occasionally checking Analytics to understand which web projects are paying off, and how the site is affecting their business.

I mocked this up quickly, taking design guidance from Google Finance. If anyone at Mountain View is listening, this one’s on the house!

Next time, we’ll look into NYC art maps. We are looking for other art maps in US, Europe, China. We have a few already, but if you want us to review them, please send them to our office address. Thank you!

Since last fall, we’ve been busy cooking up a redesign of the ASICS website for Europe, and last Friday, we finally launched in the UK:

http://asics.co.uk/

Thanks to a clear brief and open mind from ASICS, and strong strategic insight on how to engage runners on the web from Analog Folk, this site was a dream for us to design.

A few quick highlights:

• Sparse, grid-based design lets the products shine and encourages consistently-designed extensions.
• CSS-driven typography easily accommodates other languages
• A zippy, one-screen shoe advisor
• Speedy, easy to use Merb based CMS by The Plant

We have more countries, content and features on the way in the coming months, and will do a full write-up soon, but for now, a big thanks and o-tsukare to Raphaël, Mairéad and Holger at ASICS, Ryan in Chicago, and Craig and Wada-san here in Tokyo!

Dear friends and family,

Thanks to all for making our 2008 a year a busy one!

Last year we moved into a great new office with our friends at Tokyo Art Beat and Birds Design. We helped launch a bunch of great new websites and projects, including a new Art Beat website in New York and an art map in Tokyo. Hitotoki published it’s 100th story, and launched in Paris, Shanghai and Sofia. We also welcomed our newest designer, Ryo Ishida into the AQ team, and look forward to doing some great new work with him and learning a thing or two along the way.

We hope you join us in proving the grumpy newscasters wrong about 2009, filling it with new ideas, inspiration, and endeavors, so a very happy and healthy new year to you and your loved ones!

Chris, Eiko, Paul and Ryo

Google.com home page:

Google Japan home page:

Google Korea home page:

Google China home page:

Thanks Gen!

In November, Tokyo will be host to Web Directions East, part of the Web Directions conference series started in Australia in 2004 covering everything from design to back-end development.

The event organizers, including our good friend Yasuhisa, has gathered up some of the biggest names in American and European web design, a rare treat for Tokyo. I’m personally most interested in seeing Jeffrey Veen, an ex-Adaptive Path web designer, who made a brief stop at Google to lead the redesign of one of the most visually beautiful Google interface and one that we use everyday, Google Analytics.

At around ¥35,000 a day, Web Directions isn’t a steal, but considering the airplane tickets it usually takes to see this caliber show, they should have no trouble filling seats.

Hope to see you there!

Naoshima’s main attractions include the Chichu art museum, a museum set into the ground at the top of the island, featuring art by James Turrell and Claude Monet in 100% natural light settings designed by Tadao Ando; and Art House Project in which old houses have been turned into immersive art pieces by contemporary artists.

In recent years, the other islands of Seto Inland Sea have suffered from an alarming decline in industry and population. During our brief stop on one island, Ogijima, we found quiet streets, empty schools, and a rugged, self-sufficient, but aging community of farmers and fishermen.

Only Naoshima, through its art, showed signs of revitalization. Tourism is booming, and some tourists have decided to stay, starting coffee shops and restaurants in spacious old houses, kept cool by portable fans and serving organic coffee and vegan food.

We were sent to Seto Inland Sea to see both Ogijima and Naoshima, Ogi as Naoshima’s past, Naoshima as Ogijima’s future. The Kagawa prefectural office has set in motion a plan for a new art festival, taking place on six of the islands in 2010. As web developers, our job will be to create a living online document of the coming years of planning, celebration and hopefully revitalization.

For now, we’ve built just a few pages, but please keep an eye on this project in the coming months.

Pumkin photo by Nicky Fern