…Phew, that was close! I almost messed up my New Year’s resolution of “a new piece every month” already! (;^ω^)


It’s been two weeks since I finished my tax return, huh? Time flies! I’ve been spending all my free time coding a website. I’ll put together a separate post about that sometime later.

About sign

The “peace” in the Japanese peace sign stands for peace, but overseas, it’s generally understood as the “V” for victory. It seems it was popularized in Japan by Jun Inoue and Konica (now Konica Minolta).

Konica acquired Minolta as a subsidiary and merged with it, but a few years later, the camera business was handed over to Sony, so I wonder if the DNA of this peace sign now lives on in something like the α7R V.

When Chinese action cam and gimbal camera makers like DJI’s OSMO series use the peace sign as a signal to start tracking, it feels more like the Inoue-Konica gene rather than the V-sign one (gadget geek rapid-fire speech). There are various theories about the origin of the V-sign, but they’re pretty intense, so look them up at your own risk.



Why I made it circular

Because I want a badge-making machine.

…Wait, isn’t it usually the other way around? Normally, you’d want a badge-making machine because you want to sell original badge merchandise, right? (´・ω・｀)

No! I wanted a badge-making machine, so I decided to sell badges, and since there aren’t many dragon designs that work for badges, I drew a dragon. Why? …Because I’m a gadget geek! ♪


Retro-style lettering

I created a font with a Showa-era retro vibe by combining diagonal lines. Since it’s round, I took inspiration from something like menko (a traditional Japanese card game), but when I think of menko, I get more of a vibe from the Kamen Rider curry premiums than the traditional ukiyo-e or warrior illustrations—probably because my mental growth stopped in the Heisei-era kid days. m9(｀・ω・´)9m
I wonder if those still exist? (；´∀｀)


Summary

Born in Heisei, drawing ukiyo-e, now in Reiwa, I somehow cut out an entire section about wanting a Minolta new md 50mm f1.4 after rambling about Konica, Konica Minolta, and Sony, and ended up drawing on my iPad Pro for a badge-making machine. Man, this is just overflowing with the kind of human quirks AI could never replicate, huh? lol