Category Archives: Graphic Design

Nagasaki Kites

Nagasaki-KitesWouldn’t at all mind hanging a few of these on our walls. These simply decorated kites are made in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. They were often used for kite battles with the strings coated with powdered glass to enable them to cut down their opponent’s kite. The Nagasaki kites traditionally uses three colors: red, white and blue. The colors were inspired by the Dutch flag and signal flags seen on the merchant ships arriving at port Dejima from Indonesia. Many of the kite graphics are simple and geometric sometimes embellished with plants, animals, family crest and Chinese characters. The ones shown above are from the Japanese online shop, Claska.

Images: Courtesy of Claska.

Tammis Keefe

TammisKeefeTammis Keefe was an American textile designer known primarily for creating hundreds of handkerchief designs between 1944 and 1960. She was probably the first designer to initiate
product branding by signing her artwork in the corner of the textiles. You can view more of her
work here at tammiskeefe.com and here at nwfestival.com.

Images: Courtesy of tammiskeefe.com.

Anna Lindsten

AnnaLindstenLove these patterns and products created by Stockholm-based illustrator and designer, Anna Lindsten. She works with various tools in her work but the paper cutting probably gives us the simple shapes we at Cari Mateo so admires. Here’s what we know about the artist from her bio:

“Anna likes the forest so there are lots of trees, woodplants and characters – imaginative or not – in her work. Her work is colourful and playful, inspiration come from popular culture, comics, art, fairy tales, fashion, vintage children books, magazines, children’s art, folk art, the Swedish landscape of Småland that has a big influence on her since she was a child.”


Images: Courtesy of Anna Lindsten.

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