[Design Festa Vol. 29 is this weekend at Tokyo Big Sight featuring some of the best and brightest independent artists and designers from Japan and around the globe. Our man in Japan, Luke Rook, brings us this first-hand report of day 1.]
Designfesta: day one. At some point, it all becomes one big, giant blur. It’s like if you took all the parts that made swap meets cool and then filled a stadium with just that. So what happens when everything is interesting? You have a hard time seeing the really, really interesting stuff. There were a few things that jumped out today. Top of the list was Itokin Park’s killer display of one-off Lucha Bears. This fun little guy is quickly pinning my heart to the mat. It was cool to see all the different versions that may or may not make it into production. The jewel of the show was just that, a jewel of a rainbow fade made by the only guy that does it this well, Chef. If you weren’t one of the very first in line you better believe it – you missed out.
Other honorable mentions were the Artdenka and Goccodo boys holding it down with some new figures in both resin and vinyl. Among other sofubi makers in attendance were Sunguts with his new line of Space dogs. Cosmo Night Alpha made a surprising mini show with tons of drool worthy Bemons, Dempagons and Gas Bawers. There was a sweet new Paborasu in metallic purples. New on the toy scene, Elephant Chop , comes flying out the gate with two new figures; Elephant Chop and Plant Pot Monster. PPM is rad and kinda looks like if Nara Yoshitomo and Bowser had a baby. Lastly, Restore has the second coming in resin form. Who knew blasphemy could be so cute.
Tomorrow I’ll go to the second floor. Wish me luck.
