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Today I am celebrating the ingenuity of Japanese fabrics again with a look at some lovely prints spotted at Hokkoh. This Osaka based fabric company was founded in 1980 and manufactures around 600 designs a year. They exhibit at Premier Vision in both Paris and New York. Design highlights include graphic cacti and lemons, stylised trees and sharp colourful geometrics. You can find Hokkoh fabrics

Staying with the Japanese theme these fabrics from Kiruma caught my eye for their Scandi style designs. Kiruma is the work of designer/illustrator Masanori Inui who created the brand for fabric manufacturer Koizumi Tex Life. The designs were inspired by Northern Europe and the name Kiruma was taken from a village in Estonia.

Today we are looking at Japanese fabrics. Most of you will be familiar with Kokka who have become very well known over the years for their cute zakka style fabrics. But they also have sophisticated designs like these by fabrica uka - a designer from Tokyo who created silkscreen printed linens. Called 'Tayutou' their creator had wanted to collaborate with Kokka from the very beginning so it was

Staying with Kokka we have these fun Scandinavian style fabrics created by Eri Shimatsuka a designer who was born in Japan but is now based in Finland. Eri's studio brand label is called Pikuu Saari, which means 'small island' in Finnish, and the collection named Saaristo is Eri's first range for Kokka. Inspiration comes from various pie fillings (above & below) the island landscape around

I love it when I stumble across a fun Japanese website and see fresh new designs that haven't been seen in the UK. Like these fun bird designs by Kotoritachi spotted on stationery, fabrics, and tableware. The brand create all their own exclusive and original designs under the criteria that they will all feature birds. You can find everything from owls to budgies in their various prints and

Translation of Shakespeare’s works is almost as old as Shakespeare himself; the first German adaptations date from the early 17th century. And within Shakespeare’s plays, moments of translation create comic relief and heighten the awareness that communication is not a given. Translation also served as a metaphor for physical transformation or transportation.

The post Translating Shakespeare appeared first on OUPblog.

Last week I reported on what was new at Paris based company Mini Labo for Spring Summer 2016. Today I am looking at some of the products they license and design for their Japanese market. At the online store Belle Maison you can see Mini Labo bedding, cushions, curtains, and even fashions. Here are some of my dave picks which include three new key prints : 50's, bouquet and Herbier.

Whislt checking out the latest Mini Labo Japanese range I thought I would have a browse around the Belle Maison website and see what other prints and patterns I could find amongst their interior goods. You can see these and more including designs from Leah Duncan and Pattern Bakery online here at Belle Maison.

Regular readers will know I love to have a mooch around on google Japan and see what designs I can find - usually with a Scandinavian flavour. This week I came across these colourful trays by Anna Berger whom we have featured previously as a member of the Scandinavian Pattern Collection. Anna has designed for several Japanese companies including Kokka Fabrics. The trays were spotted online here

I wanted to showcase some of the cute designs in Japanese company Decole's latest collections. First up are the lovely graphic birds and trees of the Pichicu Pachic mugs and teapots... And these cute mugs are from their Scandinavian Style Mina Sopo collection... And for children's melamine there is the super cute Aurinko range... And also for

And also today from Decole Japan comes a selection of seasonal Christmas designs on mugs, tags, stickers etc.

Talking of Lagom I could not resist posting these striking age cards by Japanese Illustrator Koji Tomoto also known as Cozy Tomato (who we first saw on P&P in 2006). The beautiful illustrations have a lovely retro graphic feel and feature animals from 1 to 9. 

I am loving these official Moomin fabrics spotted on the web this week. The "Moomin Tribute Works" collection have been produced in Japan by Quarter Report. Finnish author Tove Jansson's Moomin characters are very popular in Japan, as they are all over the world. The Fabrics were designed by someone known to Print & Pattern readers already ( we previously featured him here) Masaru Suzuki who

Talking of things Japanese I also came across a really nice print called 'Twinkle' (above and below) from Osaka based company Spia (Fine Co. ltd). Spia have a selection of colourful patterns which are used on bags, purses, gadget cases, etc. Here are some of the highlights with more online here.

Lotta Kühlhorn is one of my favourite designers so i was really pleased recently to discover some more great designs she has created for the Japanese market. You may know Lotta from her gorgeous Koloni range of products or from her cards, wrap, book covers etc. but her graphic Scandinavian style designs are also very popular in Japan where she takes lots of commissions through her Japanese

Yasunobu Shimizudani is the Japanese designer behind these beautiful fabrics. Yasunobu graduated from the Tama University of Art in 2004 where since 2012 he also works as a part time lecturer in Textile Design. In 2008 he started his own brand Jubilee, using hand printed fabrics and now creates all kinds of textile products from shoes to cushions. You can buy Yasunobu's Jubilee fabrics on Etsy