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Japanese social illustration service Pixiv launches e-commerce platform for creators

SCORE 1,318 Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original article in Japanese Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th. So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users. The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples. Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So…

Booth

See the original article in Japanese

Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th.

So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users.

The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples.

Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So creators will be paid nearly the full amount of the product price.

Also if the user stores products in Booth’s warehouse, the company will assist the user in storing, packaging, and shipping. By providing these services, Pixiv hopes to help eliminate these problems to let creators focus on making better products.

I often visit the Pixiv site, as well as Tokyo Otaku Mode, a website curating content about Japanese Otaku/geek culture. Otaku Mode is divided into galleries that presents creators’ works and pictures, and online shops to sell Otaku-focussed products. Unlike Tokyo Otaku Mode, Pixiv previously had only a gallery. As a user of both services, I think Booth will add much value for Pixiv, in the same way that it added value for Otaku Mode, bringing more exciting experiences to users.

Tokyo Otaku Mode

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Japan brings brilliant colored designs to boring paper receipts

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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If you go into a Japanese convenience store, you might notice a little box by the register where customers can trash their unwanted receipts. Since the usual purchase is relatively small, many people don’t bother to keep the receipts. But this could change, thanks to a creative little idea called the Design Receipt Project. This project focuses on transforming receipts into a new communication tool. The initiative was started by Hiroaki Sato, and over 16 designers joined in to put their designs on the back of receipts. One of the many talented designers on board is includes Issei Kitagawa, the lead designer at Graph, a design and branding company. The colorful receipt paper can be purchased over on the DRP official website, starting at 2,310 yen. In the digital age, receipts are one of the few physical things we all still come in contact with. But yet no one pays attention to the empty white space on the back. At least, not until now. Thanks to the Design Receipt Project, we may see this previously empty space suddenly being used in new and creative ways! image via. Roomie

Design-Receipt-Project-designs

If you go into a Japanese convenience store, you might notice a little box by the register where customers can trash their unwanted receipts. Since the usual purchase is relatively small, many people don’t bother to keep the receipts. But this could change, thanks to a creative little idea called the Design Receipt Project.

This project focuses on transforming receipts into a new communication tool. The initiative was started by Hiroaki Sato, and over 16 designers joined in to put their designs on the back of receipts. One of the many talented designers on board is includes Issei Kitagawa, the lead designer at Graph, a design and branding company. The colorful receipt paper can be purchased over on the DRP official website, starting at 2,310 yen.

In the digital age, receipts are one of the few physical things we all still come in contact with. But yet no one pays attention to the empty white space on the back. At least, not until now.

Thanks to the Design Receipt Project, we may see this previously empty space suddenly being used in new and creative ways!

Design-Receipt-Projectimage via. Roomie

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Japanese web service lets you request a portrait from professional illustrators

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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Drawing apps like Draw Something and French Girls are still wildly popular all around the world. I recently came across a similar service here in Japan called Draw Me, and if you like the aforementioned apps, you’ll want to try this one too. Draw Me was launched back in April of this year as a sort of crowdsourcing platform where users can get professional illustrators to draw their portraits. There are over 160 professional illustrators registered on the site, some from Japan and even some from overseas. To date, there are over nine million people who have used the platform to create portraits. Examples can be viewed in the gallery over on the Draw Me website. By looking at the profile pages of these professionals, users can choose who they want to draw their portraits, and then upload their photo to place an order. It usually takes about a week to complete a portrait. A one-person portrait of Twitter icon size is 980 yen, for two people it’s 1,480 yen, and for more people or for post card size, the price is set at 3,980 yen (or about $41). There is also a neat feature where you can ask anybody…

DrawMe!

Drawing apps like Draw Something and French Girls are still wildly popular all around the world. I recently came across a similar service here in Japan called Draw Me, and if you like the aforementioned apps, you’ll want to try this one too.

Draw Me was launched back in April of this year as a sort of crowdsourcing platform where users can get professional illustrators to draw their portraits. There are over 160 professional illustrators registered on the site, some from Japan and even some from overseas. To date, there are over nine million people who have used the platform to create portraits. Examples can be viewed in the gallery over on the Draw Me website.

By looking at the profile pages of these professionals, users can choose who they want to draw their portraits, and then upload their photo to place an order. It usually takes about a week to complete a portrait. A one-person portrait of Twitter icon size is 980 yen, for two people it’s 1,480 yen, and for more people or for post card size, the price is set at 3,980 yen (or about $41). There is also a neat feature where you can ask anybody to draw your portrait for free, although there is no guarantee of when the picture will be submitted.

The paying method is pretty convenient too, allowing users to pay at the nearest convenient stores, or by mobile carrier billing (only available on NTT Docomo). Users can also pay with PayPal, and that is likely a big reason why 20% of their orders come from outside Japan. This is interesting, considering that the website is currently available only in Japanese. So far international orders have been made from countries such as the United States, England, Canada, Australia, and Asian countries like Taiwan or Singapore.

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Ancient Japanese art finds an unlikely purpose in new Hello Kitty iPhone cover

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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The traditional Japanese style of lacquer art known as Maki-e goes back thousands of years, involving the use of metal powders or seashell material to create spectacular designs under a fine lacquer finish. And one company has brought this ancient tradition into the modern day by using it for the creation of intricate iPhone covers. This special smartphone cover, which goes on sale tomorrow, is the amazing Hello Kitty iPhone cover pictured above. It was created by Echizen Lacquerware Ltd, with planning from Principle Co Ltd, and of course licensed from the folks at Sanrio. As you can see in the video below, it’s a handcrafted product that requires great care, and the resulting cover doesn’t come cheap. The Hello Kitty case will go on sale tomorrow for the price of 18,000 yen, or about $200. It can be purchased at Kusuyama stores in Japan and around the world, and it can also be bought online. This is not the first time that we’ve seen an old-school Japanese art encasing Apple’s iPhone. Last month we looked at elegant ‘Musubi’ paper cases from Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shufudo.

hello-kitty-iphone-case

The traditional Japanese style of lacquer art known as Maki-e goes back thousands of years, involving the use of metal powders or seashell material to create spectacular designs under a fine lacquer finish. And one company has brought this ancient tradition into the modern day by using it for the creation of intricate iPhone covers.

This special smartphone cover, which goes on sale tomorrow, is the amazing Hello Kitty iPhone cover pictured above. It was created by Echizen Lacquerware Ltd, with planning from Principle Co Ltd, and of course licensed from the folks at Sanrio.

As you can see in the video below, it’s a handcrafted product that requires great care, and the resulting cover doesn’t come cheap. The Hello Kitty case will go on sale tomorrow for the price of 18,000 yen, or about $200. It can be purchased at Kusuyama stores in Japan and around the world, and it can also be bought online.

This is not the first time that we’ve seen an old-school Japanese art encasing Apple’s iPhone. Last month we looked at elegant ‘Musubi’ paper cases from Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shufudo.

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Japanese manga artist crowdfunds digital exhibition overseas

The Bridge The Bridge
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This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter. Yuta Kayashima has been working as an illustrator while trying to realize his dream of becoming a manga artist. Ever since he was a student, he has been experimenting with the blending of manga and digital technology. His works Manga 2.0 (made with Adobe Flash) and Hack to the Brain were honored by the judicial committee for the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs. He has also distributed a special vertically written comic called Saiyu Shojo (A Young Girl’s Westward Trip) on the booklog site Puboo, a service where anyone can make and sell ebooks. From January through March 2013, Mr. Kayashima will participate in a modern art exhibition in Mexico featuring a Ukiyo-e theme. This Ukiyoe x Digital Comic project is a effort that combines traditional Japanese drawings and the latest media technology. He is planning to make an interactive comic, which will allow the audience to perform operations on the exhibit using a…

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter.

ukiyo-e-digital-comic

Yuta Kayashima has been working as an illustrator while trying to realize his dream of becoming a manga artist. Ever since he was a student, he has been experimenting with the blending of manga and digital technology. His works Manga 2.0 (made with Adobe Flash) and Hack to the Brain were honored by the judicial committee for the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs. He has also distributed a special vertically written comic called Saiyu Shojo (A Young Girl’s Westward Trip) on the booklog site Puboo, a service where anyone can make and sell ebooks.

From January through March 2013, Mr. Kayashima will participate in a modern art exhibition in Mexico featuring a Ukiyo-e theme. This Ukiyoe x Digital Comic project is a effort that combines traditional Japanese drawings and the latest media technology. He is planning to make an interactive comic, which will allow the audience to perform operations on the exhibit using a mouse, and the scene will be displayed using a projector. The exhibit is described as follows:

Three beautiful sisters from the Ukiyo-e world travel through a time warp to the modern era. To their misfortune, in the present-day world their looks are no longer considered to be quite so attractive, but that does not curb their desire to be considered beautiful. They discover that many modern day anime characters are considered beautiful. As such, the jealous three sisters search for modern beauty, stealing various parts from other characters and competing against each other to enhance their own images.

It sounds like a pretty fascinating story, and if Kayashima’s past work is any indication (see video below), the exhibit should be equally impressive. For all our Mexican readers (we know there’s at least a few of you), do check out the exhibition if you get a chance.

The project recently appeared as a crowdfunding project on Campfire, and happily it turned out to be a success story, as the target of ¥250,000 (over $2,700) was successfully reached on Nov 3, 2012.

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