Categories: General

Caviar & Nicographics for Towa Tei’s ‘Mind Wall’

The Japanese did it again!

Been a while since I watched a music video that ticks all the right boxes. Is well-paced, not draggy. Has delightful, visual transitions. Accompanies a great song. Puts a smile on my face, making a drab workday afternoon much more bearable.

This video for the new single ‘Mind Wall’ by DJ Towa Tei (feat. Miho Hatori) did all these and more. Refreshingly kooky, with a marker-pen like texture that reminds me of those brilliant 80s/90s Japanese stationery graphics and adolescent scribbles, it’s such a visual treat. Exuberant and clever, almost effortlessly.

From what I could decipher, thanks to Google Translate, it was directed by Takeshi Nakamura for the Japanese production company ‘Caviar,’ illustrated by Hiroshi Hisashi and Yuko Yasunaga from Nicographics.

T his article at White-Screen.jp outlines the production process, and some background info on Nicographics. I find it interesting that the illustrations are done using Cintiq 21 UX,, and it seems that the project’s workflow is quite different to that of a western studio.

The automatic translation is rather confusing, however. So if any of you is fluent in Japanese, do help us out with deciphering the info!

Thanks to Graham Cross for the tip! Oh, and don’t forget to click ‘watch in high quality’ option.

Lilian Darmono

Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lilian moved to Singapore and eventually Australia for her studies, eventually graduating from Swinburne NID in Prahran, Melbourne. She then worked in print design before deciding to switch to the field of Motion Design in late 2003. Her obsessions include travelling, illustrating, and cats. She is currently in the London leg of her 'Mograph Tour Around The World', and calls Melbourne home.