Nike is opening a new store in Harajuku tomorrow (November 14), and the shop’s website is now showing a time-lapse video of the construction (or at least of the exterior’s temporary display).

As a follow-up to the post on “Fumiko’s Confession,” here’s another short directed by Hiroyasu Ishida (Tete). Via Tim Rudder.

Click through to see a very cool panorama photo of the JAN track bike shop in Tokyo by Kyoichi Ozaki — best viewed fullscreen. Via Gordon Kanki Knight.

Muji has launched its annual Xmas campaign section, which includes the new collaborative project between Muji and Lego. Imagine a mix of paper crafts, using Lego blocks and pieces as accessories. I don’t know if these are sold at all stores — I don’t think so — but I saw a huge display at the Tokyo Midtown Muji store during design week.

I first previewed it a while back, but here’s a better look at the exhibition design by Nendo created for last month’s “Kanazawa World Craft Triennial 2010 Pre-event” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Photos are by the always amazing Daici Ano, pretty much “the” name in architectural photography.

The design for a exhibition of 62 craft objects by 50 artisans at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, in western Japan. The objects’ materials range widely, including glass, wood, ceramics, metal and cloth. A variety of techniques were used in their creation, and they range widely in size. For the exhibition design, then, we chose the opposite strategy. Small mass-produced home-use greenhouses give a sense of order to the space and provide visitors with a flat perspective from which to view the exhibition, allowing the rich variety of the objects to stand out.

The greenhouses are made completely of glass, and each comes with its own shelving and pre-installed wiring for lighting. They are inexpensive, perfect for small budgets, and are easily assembled with only a screwdriver. It took only one day to assemble all 62 of the boxes. They can be broken down and stored after the exhibition. This not only eliminates nearly all waste from the exhibition fixtures, but also allows for possible reuse during the the Kanazawa World Craft Triennale 2010.

Simply amazing: the above short, “Fumiko’s Confession,” was completely animated by one person, a student known only as “Tete.” Please, studios, give this person some money to produce a series or a film. Via Japan Probe.

Update: The short was actually produced by a team of five — they are listed here (in French). “Tete,” or Hiroyasu Ishida is the director.

Designboom posts a huge round-up of images and products from this year’s edition of DesignTide. Above, Hironao Tsuboi’s “Sun” sensible time clock.

“Sun” is purposefully minimal except for a small colorful dot — a day begins with sunrise, it ends with sundown. Sunset and sunrise times are dependent on your exact latitude, and longitude coordinates.

For the upcoming semester starting in January at Temple University Japan, Ian Lynam wil again be teaching his “All About Typography” (TYP101) class, and also introduce a new one, “Image Making” (IMA101). Below, details on both classes.

Image Making (IMA101)

In the contemporary world of graphic design, designers must be able to not only convey information, but do so in ways that are engaging and entertaining. Image Making teaches strategies for creating unique visual form to incorporate into graphic design projects. A hybrid of manual, analog, and digital processes including drawing, collage, manipulating found imagery, pattern-making, and typographic assemblage will be utilized to help students with the goal of the class: for each student to create a 100-page book of a range of form-making styles that will greatly benefit their professional portfolios.

The class will work together to explore different formal and conceptual strategies for creating new and exciting visual illustration. This class will appeal to graphic designers interested in both print and web, illustrators, fine artists, and students with an interest in editorial illustration. It will also appeal to designers and illustrators working within a signature style, as the strategies utilized will help loosen up professionals, push boundaries, and create new work.

This class is a studio class but will require a bit of homework for visual research (collecting source material and light reading).

All About Typography (TYP101)

An in-depth look at typography (designing with fonts) for both beginners and experienced practitioners. This class is a working examination of Western typography including lectures on type history, type classification, and contemporary practice.

Practical exercises, as well as in-class critiques will help broaden students’ understanding of typography practically and critically

The class will conduct projects to explore typographic styles, learn correct typesetting practices, and increase design acumen. The class will host guest lectures by some of Japan’s top graphic designers. The class is Mac-based, but will apply equally to PC-based environments.

The official start will still be at 20:00, but from 19:00 we’ll be playing the new Tokyo Realtime Akihabara audio tour — great chance to find out exactly what these tours sound like.

Yamaha has introduced a new model of its TENORI-ON digital musical instrument, originally developed with media artist Toshio Iwai. The new version is stripped down to bring the price down (now around $1,000), and features orange lights. Via Designboom.

Update: $1,000 is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, but the street price for the device should be under $800.

Here’s a video of Yuki Yamamoto’s Spica, a speaker that uses water and light to give you quite the show as you listen to your favorite tracks. It was on show at this year’s DesignTide, and I can confirm that it looked just as good in person as it does in the video. Via Designboom.

Takashi Shinozaki of *studio has an upcoming exhibition at the Living Design Gallery in Shinjuku entitled “A New Domestic Animal Landscape.”

For a long time, human beings coexisted with animals. Today, however, our cities make it difficult to do that. Instead, we find ourselves surrounded by animal characters and toys. This exhibition attempts to take a proactive stance in reappraising these characters and toys as new “domestic animals,” showcasing a new “domestic landscape” featuring hybrid animal toys original furniture prototypes, etc.

The show will run from November 19 until December 1 (closed on Wednesdays).

Just a reminder that the opening party for the “PROTOTYPE 03” exhibition happens tomorrow night (November 12, 19:00-22:00) at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub — for more details see my previous post. You’ll definitely want to catch this.

First Brad Pitt, now it’s Quentin Tarantino’s turn to appear in ads for Softbank. Unlike Pitt’s CMs, Tarantino will be joining the “cast” of the regular series of “White Family” ads (named after one of the mobile provider’s plans) as a wacky uncle. The video above, courtesy of The Japan Times, shows a preview. Via Japan Probe.