“No Color No Life”

This is the motto of “The Halations” (ザ・ハレーションズ) a three women team from Japan, consisting of an Illustrator (チヨミクス), a designer (ブッチーナ) and an writer & editor (タケチーヌ). Founded on Februar 1st 2009 this year marks their 5th anniversary (have a look at the awesome postcard they designed for this occasion).

Over the past years the three ladies have been unbelievably productive. They have published five books, collaborated with the Jeansmaker Edwin inside Brand “Something” to create colorful and comfortable clothing for the wear at home, they held exhibitions and events all over Japan, even debuted in London (at the Japanese art festival) and Paris (Exhibition at Boutique Culotte) and handcrafted a mountain of colorful, extravagant, extraordinary accessoires, collages and decorations.

The Books

So far you can buy five titles from The Halations (from the first to the most recent):

• Colorful Grown-up rooms (カラフルワールドな大人の部屋)
• Vivid Color Pallettes (世界のパンチカラー配色見本帖)
• Idea Book Vol.1 – Inspired Collages (ひらめき・コラージュ)
• Idea Book Vol.2 – Hanging decoration interior (ハング・デコ・インテリア)
• Crochet motives – a color and collor combination collection  (かぎ針編みのモチーフ 色づかいと配色の見本帖)

The books are a conglomeration of ideas on how to make your life more colorful. I own the Idea Books and they not only contain beautiful pictures and illustrations, they also come with detailed “How To” sections for every item shown, so you can do it yourself. The Idea Book Vol.1 contains daily goods, interior, accessory and fashion item tutorials, while the Idea Book Vol.2 has sections on garlands, mobile and ornaments.

On the first glance the color combinations and collages might seem to go a bit overboard or be “too much”, but I found that it’s this extravagance, not being afraid of color and combinations, what makes it special. It’s not what one would think of being “typical japanese” but The Halations integrate traditional (and popular) japanese motives into their art and stay true to their motto “no color no life”.

Something X The Halations

The collaboration brought, as expected, colorful clothes you can wear at home with motives by The Halations.

They are sold over the Cupop website (http://cupop.cecile.co.jp/) that sells  Teen Fashion from all the popular brands.

But Clothes are not the only great finds from the three ladies. Click here or here to find out even more and go check their official website and facebook.

Though this post might sound an awfull lot like advertisement I am just amazed by the enthusiasm and am happy every time I see one of the colorful illustrations pop up on my facebook feed. I’d recommend a little bit of The Halations for everyone to brighten their day and hope that many people all over the world will get to know them. I certainly will keep up to date with them and try to stock up on The Haletions merchandise the next time I get to Japan.