James Bowskill is a British Art Director at A.C.O. Tokyo, where he develops brands on-line.

He also collects Japanese packaging, occasionally writes articles for Tokyo's web magazine PingMag, and is a member of London design team Superblue.

Free Umbrellas For All Oct 23 2004

I came across a new scheme at Komaba Todaimae station earlier today. "みんなの傘" (everyone's umbrellas) is a rack of umbrellas free to take... as long as you return them when you're finished walking in the rain. All the umbrellas have advertisements printed on them, and "remember to return this umbrella" stamped on the handle.

A very worthy scheme indeed, it's just that I rather like my turquoise frog version.