The Thousands

The weird Nieves mascot reminds me of Grimace – which is an unpleasant association – and he’s kind of ugly. So it’s strange that such an unsavory character could now be a stamp of ‘good, quality stuff’ whenever I see it.

Aussie designer Chris Hopkins has been doing great work for a long time now, so it’s nice to see Nieves recognise his designs as ‘good, quality stuff’. This small zine, limited to 150 copies, collects drawings Chris and Emi Ueoka completed at cafes around Tokyo, including the Matterhorn cake shop from whence its name is taken.

Like the story behind them, these images are elegant, sweet, and simple; stylistically it’s sorta like a cross between Kandinsky / Memphis Group basic shapes in balanced compositions and Geoff Mcfetridge’s enlivened objects. Content-wise, they are images of waiting, daydreams, and the spaces and objects we encounter during either.

Chris and Emi have just relocated from Tokyo to Melbourne, and while we’re sure they’re sad to say goodbye to their favorite coffee haunts, we are greedily glad to have them here.