a book dedicated to the children of Japan

"I love Japan" - a drawing book for the children of Japan

2012-01-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

We are a team of 24 international designers and artists who created a activity and colouring book for the children of Fukushima Province – to put a little smile on their face. On the 11th of March it will be a year since the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. And rather just money, we want to give something which truly comes from our hearts: a book to be creative with, to draw in, to cut out, to colour in or to simply enjoy.

1.000 copies of this creative book with 48 pages will be donated to children of Japan who were affected by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. To cover the costs 1.000 books will be sold to the public. For each sold book, we send one to a child in Japan!

The background and idea is simple: 24 designers or artists have donated two pages to this book. This way we have created a children's book of 48 pages of various artistic styles. The work and unique style of all artists and designers make this book truly diverse and creative – which makes it interesting for bigger people, too!

The books will be ready for distribution beginning of March. One book costs HK$ 100.- / 10.- € This is a non profit project and all money raised will go into covering expense.

With each book you buy, you are buying a book for a child in Japan!

This project was initiated by Liina Klauss (illustrator from Hong Kong) who has raised awareness and money for Japan by printing the ‘I love Japan’ T-shirts in 2011. For the “I love Japan” book she teamed up with her project partner Anna Dabrowski (graphic and product designer from Berlin) who is responsible for the book design and over all look.

For further details or images please contact: japanilove2011(at)gmail(dot)com

アイラヴジャパン、日本の子供達の為の絵本。

日本の東北大震災が起きてから３月１１日で１年になります。

私達は　世界で活躍している２４人のデザイナーとアーテイストです。その中にはロンドン在中のイラストレーターのマリオンドーシャー、香港新聞のサウスチャイナモーニングポストで活躍している風刺画家ハリーハリソン、ベルリンのストリートアーテイストジムアビニヨンなどがいます。

私達は　福島県の子供達に何かをしてあげたい気持ちからお金を寄付するよりもっと心が伝わる方法をと考えました。そこで行き着いたのがこの絵本の製作です。この本は塗り絵として使ったりはさみで切って工作などして遊べます。

この絵本を１０００部　福島の子供達に贈呈する予定です。

この「アイラブジャパン」の本は　一人一人のアーテイストが２ページイラストを担当し　寄付して下さいました。それぞれの個性的なイラストが４８ページにわたり編集されてます。この本は子供の為のみならずアート本としても大変に希少価値があります。

この本は３月の初めに販売となります。１冊香港１００ドルです。

この企画は　営利目的としてません。売上金の全ては今回掛かった出費、印刷、紙代、　配達費などの支払いの一部に当てられます。

この本を１冊買って下さる事により１冊が福島の子供達に渡ります。

a simple idea ....... from liina klauss

2012-01-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

As a fashion designer I had the privilege of working and living in Tokyo in 2001 and I feel a special bond towards the land and the people. When the earthquake and tsunami hit in 2011 I wanted to help. So I came up with a project that comes truly from my heart: giving back the one thing I cherish most.... creativity!
Rather than money, I want to give something that comes from my heart and hands.... drawing, painting, paper cutting, printing, being creative. I got in touch with the people who I met along my path as an artist: illustrators, designers and artists from all over the globe, from Hongkong, Berlin, New York, and London, to name just a few.
This is how "I love Japan" was born as a simple idea: each one of us designs and donates two pages, all in all a book of 48 pages. The result is a book to be creative with, to colour in, to cut out, to skribble, to continue drawing or to simply look atand enjoy. The book will be bound and ready for distribution beginning of March. The first print run will be 2000 copies, which means at least 1000 copies will go to Japanese children:))

Each book sold will ensure a book that can be given to a child in Japan!

If you got any questions concerning this project please feel free to contact me: japanilove2011(at)gmail(dot)com

This flower is called 'Pink Sorrel' (Oxalis regnellii) and it is native to Hongkong. I have been portraying it on the illustration above, combined with a lot of traffic, skyscrapers and satellite towers. The inspiration comes from my great grandmother Else Wenz-Viëtor, who was a well known children's book illustrator in the 1920s in Germany. Her favourite subject were flowers and little elves pushing prams made out of nutshells and carrying primrose umbrellas. So I took the same theme into 2012 Hong Kong. My illustration is much less romantic and maybe even critical of the situation we humans put ourselves in, considering that there are only 100 years between the illustration of my great grandmother and me.

You can see my profile in the reflection of the computer screen as well as my daughter Lucia, colouring in the print outs on our kitchen lable in Hong Kong ... she loves pink:)

Liina lives on an island called Lantau in Hong Kong together with her two children and husband.

For more information about Liina, please visit www.liinaklauss.blogspot.com

my right hand ...... anna dabrowski

2012-01-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

Anna is a friend of mine who I met at art school in Berlin in 1997. I always admired her work, she's so talented!

When I asked Anna to join the 'I love Japan' project, she said there was no question: she will do it!

So for the last weeks we were mailing, calling and skyping back and forth between Hong Kong and Berlin. Anna is amazingly hard-working, reliable, commited and (last but not least) fun to work with!

She put together all the artwork and gave the book an all-over layout. It was her who had the great idea to put a map in the front of the book, so children can trace back where the artwork comes from.

A design research project in Japan in 2005 was Anna's start of a never ending love story with Japan, which still inspires her in her work as an designer and artist.

Anna is a graphic and interior designer. She works from Berlin.

For more information about Anna, please visit www.anna-dabrowski.com

ann cathrin raab

2012-01-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

Ann Cathrin is a friend of Eleanor Marston. My two children love her illustrations! They are so funny and very animating! More of this style of drawings are to be found in "Krickel-Krakel-Buch" published by Oetinger Verlag. Also check out her picturebooks published at Hinstorff Verlag, Thienemann Verlag and mixtvision Verlag. For her illustrations, Ann Cathrin got the BIB Plaque-Award and honors for "best designed books".
Ann Cathrin has a little daughter and lives with her family in the North of Germany in Neumünster.

For more information about Ann Cathrin, please visit www.anncathrinraab.de

coletta ehrmann

2012-01-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

"When Liina contacted me and told me about her idea to make this book, i was immediately inspired to make a contribution. I was imagining the children in Japan and then thinking about myself: when i was a child i loved dressing up and playing a character. Sometimes a mask is enough to start a play and then imagination will do the rest. For the 'I love Japan' book I made a link to the Japanese culture by taking my inspiration from the faces of the 'Kabuki' theater, as well as from my own memories and my love to Japan."

For more information about Coletta, please visit www.coletta.at

david stelfox

2012-01-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

"I am a print maker based in London working out of a small studio in my spare room at home and I produce prints, cards and other stationary. My work for the' I love Japan' project was inspired by what I saw as archetypal Japanese graphical figures especially the maneki neko (beckoning cat) which is a lucky symbol. I combined these with geometric designs inspired by traditional kimono designs and more contemporary ideas."

For more information about David, please visit www.handprintedbydavid.blogspot.com

eleanor marston

2012-01-05T00:27:00.000-08:00

For more information about Coletta, please visit www.eleanormarston.de

eriko yamazaki

2012-01-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

For more information about Eriko, please visit www.erikoyamazaki.com

harry harrison

2012-01-03T01:31:00.000-08:00

Harry is well known cartoonist in Hong Kong. He does politcal satire cartoons on the last page of "South China Morning Post". When I asked him to join 'I love Japan', he said: "My drawings won't be as arty as the others but is relatively true to my style. Godzilla playing volleyball with a samurai. I've left the ball plain because if the children happen to colour it red, it becomes the rising sun."

Harry illustrated a lot of children's books as well: www.sarah-brennan.com

For more information about Harry, please visit www.procartoonists.org/members/harryharrison/

jane black

2012-01-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

Jane is an illustrator/artist in her art, she loves to combine the sarcastic and scary with the cute and beautiful. Her creations carry a variety of influences, ranging from punk-rock to morbid underground and include life, death and happiness and manga comics. One of her characters is Jane Black a little strange and curious girl, which discovers the world.

For more information about Jane, please visit www.janesnation.com

jim avignon

2012-01-01T04:35:00.000-08:00

For more information about Jim, please visit www.jimavignon.com

laura polin

2011-12-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

"The reasons why I choose the phones are many... on the one hand I believe that children these days are unlikely to use this kind of phone in their real life. So when they play on paper with old telephones they get curious about them. On the other hand these telephones are the root of today's social network. They can be traced back to Mr. Meucci/Manzetti from Italy, who invented the telephone in 1871. For the first time these telephones made it possible for people to get in touch with each other virtually. In addition to that their design is quite funny and somehow childish ... or at least this is the way it looks to my eyes :) "

For more information about Laura, please visit http://laurapolin.tumblr.com/

maike biederstaedt

2011-12-29T01:42:00.000-08:00

For more information about Maike, please visit www.maikebiederstaedt.de

marion deuchars

2011-12-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

Marion Deuchars is a graphic artist living and working in London. She studied at the Royal College of Art together with Tania Willis. For her graphics Marion utilises everything from pencils and paint to photography and print. Her new book published in August 2011,which she wrote and illustrated is called "Let's Make Some Great Art" (Laurence King)

For more information about Marion, please visit www.mariondeuchars.com

mei yan jane lee

2011-12-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

Mei is an artist from Hong Kong.

For more information about Mei, please visit www.meimeilee.com

nick shearman

2011-12-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

Nick Shearman is an established information graphics editor, his works deal with the visual display of information. He is currently a graphics editor at The Wall Street Journal. The animal featured is the Okapi, a species that embodies aspects of the giraffe and zebra. I combined it with an image of flowers and switched to a negative to show the perspective change.

If you want to contact Nick, please email him: nwshearman@gmail.com

nina takata

2011-12-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

Nina is an illustrator from Hamburg.

For more information about Nina, please visit www.ninatakata.de

peter quinnell

2011-12-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

Peter Quinnell studied Illustration at Chelsea and the Royal College of Art. He lives in Hastings on the south coast of England since 1999 with his partner Claire Fletcher and daughter Alice. Peter has made collages and 3D assemblages for clients large and small as well as producing fine art assemblages, making costumes and props for performances. He is also a lecturer at Sussex Coast College. "I really just like collecting things. I try to make objects and pictures from different places work together in the same frame. Like the rubber bike horn hooter bulb and the Edison screw light bulb cap. They were both washed up on the beach at Hastings in a recent storm."

For more information about Peter, please visit www.peterquinnell.com

ray moore

2011-12-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Ray is an artist from Mississippi who lives in Munich, Germany.

For more information about Ray, please visit www.raymoore.de

roland brückner

2011-12-22T19:38:00.000-08:00

For more information about Roland, please visit www.bitteschoen.tv

samuel oswick

2011-12-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

Samuel lives in Berlin.

For more information about Samuel, please visit www.indigobronze.com

sheila seyfert-menzel

2011-12-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

Sheila Seyfert-Menzel lives in Berlin and works as an art director and illustrator.

For more information about Sheila, please visit www.spoonlight.com

tania willis

2011-12-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

Tania Willis' illustrations have been used for all manner of things and have appeared on T-shirts, on homewares, interiors and even airplanes! Last year Tania illustrated a series of 12 children's travel books called kidsGO (www.kidsgotravelguides.com). She lives in Hong Kong together with her husband and two children.

For more information about Tania please visit www.taniawillis.com

wendy j lewis

2011-12-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

Wendy J. Lewis is an artist who works with many different techniques and styles. Not only does she draw and paint, but she is also a sculptor of fountains and kinetic works that use a magical mix of motors and found materials. "I've been wanting to write and illustrate a book with gorillas for a while and this project gave me a good reason to finally work on images that include them. I've always loved gorillas as animals, one of the images represents Japan, the other NYC. This is a picture of NY with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Woolworth Building in the background."

For more information about Wendy, please visit www.wendyjlewis.net

yui kato

2011-12-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

If you want to contact Yui, please email her: yuikatoh@gmail.com