I suppose I have been a fan of Yurio Seki before I even knew it- she was the designer of that favorite Olle Eksell book and a more recently posted Lotta Jansdotter book. But not only does she do amazing graphic design- books, cds, logos, packaging (which takes up the back half of this book) but she also makes patterns. Ahh.. I now have a really serious design crush. The patterns are subtle and simply beautiful and even with the more plain shapes you can see that they still have a handdrawn quality. She’s taken her designs and made them into fabric- clothing, bags, shoes, aprons, stuffed animals, towels, change purses, pillows- the list goes on. Her designs also decorate paper products- stationery, journal covers, small paper block-printed boxes, matchboxes. There’s even carved wood objects and ceramic jars with her designs. All of these products can be found in her line Salvia -whose site has very little English. Salvia also publishes a quarterly to show how you can, like Savia, “use traditional techniques in a modern way”. It just gets better and better- Salvia uses natural techniques (loquat leaves for dye) for making these products and shares them each issue. I have to get a subscription to that magazine - and a Japanese translator. For now I have this treasure of a book full of her work- which I am afraid of getting dirty- the cover wrap seems to be silkscreened and the text letterpressed. Even the book is a work of art. I found it while browsing the new Kinokuniya NY bookstore (across from Bryant Park now- two stories-it’s enormous) but it seems you can pick it up on Amazon UK right here. Oh and be sure to check out this inspiring interview with her for PingMag.

© Julia Rothman 2007