Design Made in Japan

A Sheepy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year 2015 - Year of the Sheep - From Design Made in Japan

Happy New Year from DMIJ, or Akemashite Omedetou as they say in Japan!

New Years in Japan is a special time where people show their appreciation to those they care about by sending Nengajou (年賀状) or New Year’s Greetings Cards. Japan has the fun tradition to base most of their new year card designs on the Chinese zodiac animals. The animal for 2015 is the sheep which might explain quite a few of the designs.

Below we’ve put together a collection of notable Japanese Nengajou designs for 2015. Enjoy!

2015's Zodiac animal is the "Wooden Sheep" and this creative nengajo by Yu Ando captures both the "sheep" and the "wooden" concept.
2015’s Zodiac animal is the “Wooden Sheep” and this creative nengajo by Yu Ando captures both the “sheep” concept and the “wooden” concept with the 木 “ki” (wood) kanjj in the center of the page.

2015's Zodiac animal is the "Wooden Sheep" and this creative nengajo by Yu Ando captures both the "sheep" concept and the "wooden" concept with the 木 "ki" (wood) kanjj in the center of the page.

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The kanji for wood（木）”ki” in the center of Yu Ando’s nengajo to represent 2015, year of the “Wooden Sheep”.

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Graphitica nengajo designs
Clean, simple and stylish nengajo from Graphitica.com.
Graphitica nengajo 2015.
This set of nengajo also from Graphitica.com are a little more fun, still stylish.
shino-new-years-card-2015
‘White goat ＆ Black goat’ – by Shino.
Eiko Tamura nengajo 2015.
Behance designer Eiko Tamura‘s playful approach, using Sheep to form an “S” for… you guessed it, sheep.
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Clean and fun, by Satake Shunsuke.
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A typographic new years card by Shun Sasaki.
Something a bit brighter by Futoshi Nakanishi.
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‘Wool (3c)’ – a whole new level of minimal by Komiya Koji at Individuallocker.
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A sheep themed mobile toy by himmyk.
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A retro-inspired card by Mayo.
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Pixeltastic card by Miki.
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‘Holiday Heart’ – Photographed felt sculpture (among other objects) by Hine Mizushima.
Kazutomo Ryuko-fridge nengajo 2015
Kazutomo Ryuko / fridge Inc.’s yarn-wrapped sheep is a nice nengajo for all.
Bento Graphics nengajo 2015.
This fun pop-out Daruma doll designed for Univa Capital by Bento Graphics is a nice addition to any office desk during the New Year.
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A tidy sheep by Hama House.

http://vimeo.com/115574254

A fun animation by designer Kaito Mizuno.

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‘Sheep-igiri’ – Illustrator unknown, found here.

May 2015 bring us more good design, happiness and wool sweaters!

By

Eli Nygren

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