About The Journal
Photo by: Sebastian Mayer
Hawken King is a designer and illustrator living and working Tokyo. He has been keeping and online journal since 1999 – this is it.
pimps
Published 29th of Jan, 2007. Stored under diary
Got invited to a “pimp’s & ho’s” party this Saturday, in some blokes apartment in Roppongi (Tokyo).
Lots of pimp’s, not so many ho’s. Unfortunately. I think with the Japanese dress code you see around Shibuya and Roppongi, most girls look close to the western image of ho’s anyway, thusly a failure to understand was apparent. So we ended up in a party with many evening dress ladies, standing amongst men in chest hair wigs and gold chains / rings / shades.
Apple & Ikea
Published 19th of Jan, 2007. Stored under ideas
Marriage made in heaven?
Apple sells it’s products from it’s website. Apple sells products from it’s flagship inner-city stores and selected retailers. Is that really enough? Read More
Shooting for Summer!
Published 15th of Jan, 2007. Stored under diary
Spent the whole day art directing in Jingu today on a shoot for the Salon Boutique Spring / Summer collection. Model was from Germany.
We interviewed the models a few day previously, it’s was a strange “cinderella” ordeal, as the models needed to fit into a size 25 shoe! (Japanese shoe size is in centimeters) Only 3 of the 11 or so models made it, goodness knows how these bounding amazonian gazelles were going to make a size 25. The zoo keepers scuttled them off as swiftly as they scuttled in.
The photographer put some of the shots up on his site, eventually they will be incorporated into my illustrations, in a similar way to the Autumn and Winter shoot we did for the same client.
Basement Jaxx secret gig
Published 11th of Jan, 2007. Stored under diary
Myself and a guy called Jack went to a secret after show gig at the Ruby Room here in Shibuya, Tokyo. From 2400hrs.
Totally un-publicised, they didn’t play anything of their own, was fun!
iPhone Mini
Published . Stored under ideas
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that Apple Inc. released details of it’s new iPhone at the start of this week. It is rather interesting, and well worth checking out http://www.apple.com/iphone/
So I got thinking over lunch with fellow “planters”; “what would make an iPhone mini?”. Read More
Brutus
Published 8th of Jan, 2007. Stored under press
I’m in the current issue of Brutus magazine (#608) along with two other German designers I know from LessRain, we were invited to test Kirin Beer for an article. This is issue is entitled “cool Japan!?” and deals with Japanese famous things. I’ll update this blog entry with pictures when it’s out of print, it’s on sale nationwide until the 15th of January 2007 (Japan)
buying a new PC for 2007? read on…
Published 3rd of Jan, 2007. Stored under ideas
Often friends and family come up to me asking what computer they should buy, what type of laptop is best, how much ram and so on. Read More
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happy new year
Published 30th of Dec, 2006. Stored under Illustration, print
year of the boar!
I made this post card to send to my friends and colleagues.
winter 2006 – new coat
Published 11th of Dec, 2006. Stored under diary
Santa bought me a new coat. Not that there was anything wrong with my old one, except for a few holes here and there, it kept me warm and that was the main thing. Apparently it wasn’t good enough to be seen in, and thusly a new one must be purchased. The old one was referred to as the “sleeping bag” by my previous co-workers. Indeed, it could be used as a sleeping bag. This one is made from real coyote… cheers mate!
Looks like I won’t get much use out of it this week. Although Japan is entering the insanely cold season where pesky Russia blows down upon us, I’ll be tucked up in the office 24/7 with projects.
I hope it snows again this year.
new website X
Published 8th of Dec, 2006. Stored under Journal
I’m in the process of remaking my website, for he Nth time, following the E2R doctrine. Many thanks to Anatole for his help in importing all my old diary entries! The kind chap wrote a small PHP script to help me convert my old blog (started in 1999) to an RSS XML document. Needless to say that old data was a jumbled up mess, but I am now privy to some very powerful and interesting PHP
Also, unfortunately I have my 7 diary entries from March 2005 to March 2006. In summery I think all I wrote about was coming to live in Japan & buying various Wacom tablets anyway. Kinda boring! (hence the header image) I must change my matter of fact writing style, too many sentences starting with “I”.
Over the next few weeks I shall be importing my hundreds of gallery / work-history pages into wordpress as diary entries with custom pages. Now that I have learnt the ins and outs of wordpress, it seems anything is possible! The future of dadako.com is here, however at the moment it is fading in and out of view. Expect a clear image on the new year.
100% readability
Published 21st of Nov, 2006. Stored under japan
After reading a friend of mines blog and wholeheartedly disagreeing that my blog actually needs to be readable, I have finally bitten the bullet and adopted the 100% text size mandate.
The idea is, text on the web should be readable. Have a peek at his site for more information, and other usability ramblings.
100% E2R
Junk Mail Stories
Published . Stored under diary
Often, I get junk mail, as we all do. Thankfully it’s not to my main email address, but it still lands in my junk mail box anyway. Cleverly, the senders of this junk mail try to fool junk mail filters by writing scripts to cut certain phrases from random text documents, then the email filters think it’s a real message. I’m not sure of the actual purpose of the junk mail that gets sent to me, as it’s just random text. Read More
Today I noticed a kind of poetry or random story type quality to the junk mail though. Who knows, maybe these are the un-intelligent whitterings of a bored server, or 21st century throw away literature? Here is an automated story I have entitled “Gum”, I have only deleted lines from the original junkmail:
I'm sick
Published 31st of Oct, 2006. Stored under diary
Not sure how I got it but now have a stinking cold. Or “Kaze” (ka-zay) in Japanese.
In a bid to kill myself off early, I’ve opted to coming into the office, a good 20 mins from my home, because of an urgent request to send data to a client. Unfortunately the data is on my broken back-up hard drive, which I am in the process of fixing. It’s tough. The recovery process takes about 8 hours and then the actual shifting of data takes a lot longer, about 20 hours I guess, to move the data from one hard drive to the other.
Still, I’ll be the wiser for it. Always back up to DVD every month!
To the left is my new invention to curb my torrent of snot, which seems to be draining out of my face in a hurry. The more that drains out and I suck back in, the more I snease and cough. And splutter. And infect the others in this office.
Tonight is “designers week” here in Tokyo, to which I have been invited to the opening bash (which is invite only) and I can’t go! I swear I got in this state from drinking in the first place, so maybe it’s just as well that I am giving it a miss.
OK. Time to rest now. I think I have a fever.
ever have one of those days?
Published 20th of Oct, 2006. Stored under diary
OK here’s an indication of what I look like today.
nothing special, a bit of creative shaving and my jacket. But hell, why was everyone looking at me on my way into work?
There’s paranoia (easy to have in Tokyo, where everyone looks at you any way because 99.99% of people are Japanese) and there’s people looking at you, directly in the eye. No looking up and down, which sometimes happens and is rather annoying, like someone is scanning you (as some of my tall Japanese friends can attest, first people look to see if they are wearing heels). I counted at least 10 or 15 people look me directly in the eye on the metro and literally stare with a burning gaze until I had past them, as if I had a giant sign above my head or something. In the end I had to burst out laughing, just as the Nth person was staring at me (sadly she was a very pretty girl, that’s omotesando for you). I must have given HER paranoia!
In tokyo, where you see girls dressed up as dolls and mohawk punks working behind the counter of convenience stores, one would think that a tall foreign man might go unnoticed.
Oh to those who I told I was going to shave my head today; apparently I’m not allowed. :/
Jerrys Gift
Published 13th of Oct, 2006. Stored under Journal
Working for Notion Design I produced this interactive flash website, for Jerry’s unique collection of Jewelry and clothing. Originally I was going to make a real pirate map and scan it in, but in the end I decided photoshop could probably give me the same results without all the mess. Photography is by Kyosyu Mizohata.
flight sketch
Published 5th of Oct, 2006. Stored under diary
I really don’t enjoy flying, unfortunately. Usually it’s take off and landing, the bit in-between is OK. However this has not always been the case, I have clocked up well over 200 hours in the air – on everything from Jumbo Jets to small passenger light aircraft. My nerves come from an incident that happened in 2003. I was on a 747 coming in to land in Amsterdam from Tokyo. It was a long flight, I guess everyone was looking forward to the descent. The seat-belt sign came on as we hit some turbulence, most people returned to their seats, I feel sorry for the ones that didn’t as moments later we hit an area of what some call an “air pocket” (although it’s disputed what to call them). I have no idea how far the plane descended in those few seconds, with the entire plane’s occupants screaming it was hard to tell what was going on. I guess it was a close one, any lower and we might have been at risk of landing strangely. Read More
okinawa
Published 4th of Oct, 2006. Stored under diary
I spent a long weekend in Okinawa (Japan’s most southerly islands). The countryside and seaside really reminded me of Cornwall in the UK.
While there, I picked up inspiration and new Japanese words. Also I was able to turn my phone off for 4 days, and not see a computer. (not sure they have computers in Okinawa, much like Cornwall) Indeed, this was very relaxing for me.
Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawken/sets/72157594312167743/
Some of my favorite moments were spent in the sea, canoeing and snorkeling. I do have a film taken by the snorkeling instructors (who appear to have one of the best jobs in the world, considering I saw at least 3 girls bare their breasts by accident while taking off wet-suits, in just one morning.), when I get this scanned I’ll post it up (minus any breasts unfortunately).
Blog Spam
Published . Stored under Journal
I keep getting spam posted to my blog entries, some of it incoherent, others links to random products or porn sites. I have comments on my blog set to moderation accept for pre approved posters, so it’s not a fantastic problem because I can delete it very easily, just I wonder why they do it and does anyone else get spam comments? I wonder if it’s totally automated or if someone actually sits down and spams peoples blogs by hand.
Blog spam, what will the bastards think of next?
fishing in the bins
Published 22nd of Sep, 2006. Stored under diary
I’m an avid recycler, I love nothing more than separating my garbage. I even scrape the little bits off plastic trays or from the inside of cans, even going so far as to wash the cans. Knowing that not that many people do this does get me down, and often people visiting my apartment will just throw mixed garbage into my bins. Or better still, miss the lining bag completely. Read More
The only reason I do this? Well, Japan is rather hot in the summer. If you don’t separate your waste foods from what it came in, it will stink the place out, as different types of garbage are picked up on different days, with burnable (waste food & waste paper) being the most frequent.