Miyake and friends

French graphic designers Helmo and Japanese designer Shin Tanaka exhibit their works with paper at Issey Miyake’s Paris boutique.

Constantly engaged in a search for new shapes and materials along with a perpetual interest in the many sides of creativity, every so often Issey Miyake gives over his Paris space, inaugurated last September, to talented young artists and designers. Until the middle of March, the atelier at Rue Royale 11 is hosting a display of work by French graphic designers Helmo of Montreuil and Japanese artist Shin Tanaka. The common denominator between the works on show is the material used: paper. The installation at the Paris boutique by Thomas Couderc and Clément Vauchez, otherwise known as Helmo, forms an ideal complement to Miyake’s new collection. “For Issey Miyake the jungle provided colours,” they explain. “We decided to do the opposite, starting with colours to rediscover the forest.” And so “Color Hunting”, the spring-summer 2009 collection, inspired by natural colours and South America’s urban landscape, becomes “Hunting Colors”. The result is 20 posters hung in front of each other from the ceiling, forming an unusual visual paper corridor that gathers a number of insects attracted by the light of nearby lamps. Meanwhile, Hoophy and Spiky are the names of two characters that have sprung from the imagination of Shin Tanaka. The Japanese illustrator and graffiti artist publishes these Paper Toys on his website, making them available to other designers who can download them, cut them out, build them and after personalising them, send them back to form part of an extensive “open source” collection of comical coloured men, clothed in a hip-hop style with tracksuits and hoods over their eyes. Elena Sommariva
Helmo, Hunting Colors
Helmo, Hunting Colors

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