Summer Bear for EeBoo stationary fair!

Hello!I'm back from Toronto.  Toronto Comic and Art Festival went really great! Met some wonderful Comic Artists in Canada, I will update the drawing diary from the trip soon. My first gig back in New York was my favorite client Eeboo. I went to their office and tried out their new products, shinny fancy papers and wavy card-stocks. I love their fancy sparkly papers!  I think this is the only company that I know of making these kids' craft goods with amazingly beautiful packaging! (Art Director Fumiha Tanaka does great package design!) So this is what I came up with, Summer bear!  You can meet her at the booth of EeBoo at the Stationary Fair this weekend in NY!

1 2I made this watermelon crown for this fancy lady ;) 3 4 5 6Eating Ice Cream Candy, summer is coming soon to NY!  I put a Bee on her cheek but it looks like a Fly in the photo. hmmm... that works, too I guess.

316212_10151678815932959_1261687979_nJust got this photo via Fumiha, Bear at the stationary show!

Book of tea delivery bear

This is a little pouch of Japanese seaweeds and fish flakes for rice that my mom sent me.  I love the packaging so much, I was thinking hmmm... how to use this beautiful packaging and turn into something special.FxCam_1364049658057So it turned into a little book! FxCam_1364049685083It's an accordion book about "Tea delivery bear" FxCam_1364050119714Here is the story! FxCam_1364049726300FxCam_1364049758010FxCam_1364049773090This is the "tea delivery bear" he is carrying a box of tea. FxCam_1364049799540He travel through the forest FxCam_1364049830560On a ship across the ocean FxCam_1364049862114Through Mt.Fuji FxCam_1364049884694To a little lady's house FxCam_1364049920158The end!

Chinese New Year!

IMG_1788 IMG_1789 IMG_1790Happy Chinese New Year! (I'm 10 days late for the real Chinese new year...)But I got this new year envelope in my mail and I wanted to share! I illustrated those for a department store in Hong Kong. I love the Foil printing, so shinny and pretty.  Not much in this photos but it's very shinny with gold and red foil! I gave one to my Chinese laundry owner, and he reorganized the company that I worked for so that was exciting.

Happy 2013!

happy2013sHappy New Year!I wish this year will be very special and the happiest year for all of you!!! Love, Aya

HongKong Christmas!

Happy Holidays Everyone!I've been working on this project since late summer and finally it's done! It's a holiday installation in a department store in Hong Kong. I designed the background and the characters, and some products for their holiday season.  Here are some pictures and the original sketches!

backgrounddoneOriginal sketch for the installation! 1Final photo tree_new12lion11elephant10candy13 It's a very interesting feeling when you design something in 2D on paper, then it goes out of your hands and someone else fabricate them in 3D life size installation.  I have never seen my characters in life size which I'm super excited about! Hope kids in HongKong will enjoy this decorations!!!

If you know anyone in Hong Kong please pass it along. Here are the info: Dec 21st 2012 - January 6th 2013 Tai Po Mega Mall, Hong Kong Christmas installation http://www.taipomegamall.shkp.com.hk/20121203104354_field10TPMM_Dec_2012R4_AW_08-01 Here are more fun photos they sent me with model!

3 2 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hello Crafty --- eeboo spring

FxCam_1355436175037 FxCam_1355436195963 FxCam_1355436242683I went into Eeboo office for few hours yesterday and made some spring crafts for their show room.Here are "happy spring caterpillar" and "flower polar bear with little penguin!"Still long winter to go but eeboo office and making those fluffy springy color objects made me warm inside!  thank you fumiha and eeboo!

Ready for Society of Illustrators show / Annual book

poster_framedBali_dreamAll Framed and ready to go! I have 3 pieces in Society of illustrators show and their annual book. "Hanabi Monster", "Amarillo poster", and "Bali Dream"

"Hanabi Monster" silk screen poster was made for the events this Summer for Rojo Bermelo in Mexico City + Monterrey (Mexico)

"Amarillo Poster" silk screen poster was made for my exhibition at Amarillo design center in Xalapa (Mexico) also this summer.

I'm very happy that those two got selected because they are my favorite clients and my dear friends, and I the Mexico trip this summer for me was the high light of this year :)  Thank you Rojo Bermelo and Amarillo!

"Bali dream" is a large size gouache painting on wooden panel made for 3 person exhibition "Creamy Cat" at the Lower East Side this Fall. This is a personal piece which I got inspiration from visiting Indonesia this May. I'm making this series bigger now so it's a nice encouragement patting my back from society of illustrators.

Here is the info for the exhibition, please come if you are in the area!

January 4th - 26th, 2013 Illustrators 55 - part 1- at the Museum of American Illustration, Society of Illustrators NY (Opening: January 4th 6pm-)

Mr. & Mr. beautiful products!

ground+by+aya+kakeda aya-kakeda Picture 2 My lovely friends Pierre and Alexis launched a new brand call " Mr. & Mr." I love it!  All the products are so beautiful and unique.

Pierre, my soul sister Celia Picard, incredible illustrator Marina Vandel, and I have designs in their unique product "Ground by" it's a nice concept that you can decorate your floor with the stencil of different artist's art! I'm very excited to be part of this project. Thank you Pierre and Alexis!  Congratulations on your new brand!

Check out their beautiful site: http://www.mr-mr.fr/

 

Thank you Society of Illustrators!!!

Thank you Sooooo much to Society of Illustrators and the judges for the Silver Medal!The selected piece is a poster "Hanabi Monster" for Rojo Bermelo in Mexico City, silk screen printed by Arturo Negrete.  (yey Rojo Bermelo, and Arturo! Thank you guys!)I'm so so happy!!!!!

Eeboo Felt Pillow

Getting a call from Fumiha Tanaka is always a good news and a start of fun projects!Fumiha is the head designer of Eeboo, a paper toy company where they also create a fantastic craft item. This felt project was great, something I really love to do (crafting and making character) and felt like this is not a job but pure fun which is the best kind of job I can imagine ;-) Thank you Fumiha and Eeboo!

My job was to create stuffed pillows using those 18 different color package for people to see what they can make with this product. And the photo of the pillows went on the back like this. Here are the photos of all the pillows I made for each color!

See you in MEXICO!

Hello everyone.My Mexico trip is starting next week!!! 6 months of planning and working with my warm Mexican friends over tons of emails, it's finally coming to reality.

I've been to Mexico twice and I was in love with the country and people there, this is a dream come true projects for me!

My First stop and this trip's sponsor is Amarillo Centro de Diseño June 27th to 30th Stop motion animation workshop June 28th Exhibition "Aya Kakeda works from 2000~2012" opens at http://amarilloespacio.com.mx/

Amarillo Centro de Diseño is a design Center in Xalapa, Mexico which invites both Mexican and  international artists to have workshops and Exhibition. My talented and top illustrator friends Yuko Shimizu, Marcos Chin, and Brian Rea have shown their work here in the past years. I'm honored to be part of this group!  Thank you for inviting me!

Here is some exciting photos that they sent me! they are also painting my characters on their window!!! wowwwww~ I'm excited about what kind of stop motion animation the students will make. I will update you on that soon!

I'm also launching 2 toy lines in Mexico, one is a hand made ceramic figure "Box-kun Mexican version"  and " Hanabi Monster" plush which I collaborated with Mexican Artist TOLOACHE. My Ceramic Toy " Box-kun Mexican version" will be launched on July 6th at SK Sarukaku Toy store in Mexico City.  It's super limited and comes with hand made silkscreen book, I'm only bringing 10 figures.  [vimeo 44558034 w=500 h=375] box-kun mexican version promotional video from aya Kakeda on Vimeo.

Last but not least! On July 13th at Rojo Bermelo store in Monterrey, I'm having an event "Hanabi Monster!" where collaboration plush toy with TOLOACHE and  limited edition silk screen will be launched! Fluffy cuteness!!!! And here is some photos of the limited edition silk screens getting printed for this event! If you are in Mexico, I really hope to see you in one of those events!

Love from New York trying to pack huge mustache in my suitcase!!!

Printing cover for mini books!

I've bee posting about ceramic studio but realized I didn't post any image from my silkscreen studio!I've been preparing mini books, posters, and comics for stump town comic festival coming up in the end of this month. http://www.stumptowncomics.com/comics-fest/ Here are some photos of mini books that I'm working on right now. They are book covers.

(First print/ white ) (Second Print/ Egg plant color) (And last color/ red) (And here is some system that I came up for printing this book cover. Registration was very easy doing this)

Voila! I'm done! I really like them as a group looks kind of like a chocolate! Oh that would be my dream to print on Chocolate!

Look what I found in my mail box today!

After long day of silkscreening I came home pretty tired, but as soon as I found this in my mailbox I was so happy!It's  a book call "Asian Illustrators" by Monsa published from Barcelona, Spain. Book Features 17 illustrators from all over Asia and I'm one of the artists. yappy~!!!  Thank you Monsa!

Here are some pictures from inside of the book. (I should scan it...these photos are taken by my camera phone... they are in such a terrible quality... ) Here is the Monsa website where you can get this book---> http://monsashop.com/es/ilustracion-y-arte-urbano/237-asian-illustrators.html

Happy New Year!

On New Year's day everything becomes new and sparkly like every experiences become "the first."  First Laugh, First meal, First dream, etc... so nice to have brand new year! welcome 2012!!!