If Steve Nishimoto — Nish, to the design community — is as driven by change and culture as he claims, then today’s inspiration must be in no meager supply. The designer just returned from his first trip abroad, where a last minute tag-along to the Tokyo premiere of Mash landed the seasoned artist in the same country from which his relatives emigrated four generations ago.

Not to say that that inspiration has ever been elusive to this sponge of a visionary — a long list of clients, including Burton, Uniqlo, MTV, and Beautiful Decay seems to prove the opposite — but if the 4,000 pictures Nish took during his travels serve their purpose, then we will surely see trails of his trip across the ocean in his work to come.

We caught up with the freshly de-planed New Yorker to chat about the past, present and future, and were left with three things: an itch to doodle, an itch to travel, and a new sense of what it truly means to marry art with life.

Joshspear.com: Tell us about your background…

Nish: I’m 100% American Japanese (fourth generation), born and raised in Chicago. I’ve been living in New York for the past six or seven years, and was bi-coastal with San Francisco for one or two of those. I’ve been a skateboarder for as long I can remember, I enjoy riding a fixed gear around the city, and I have been full time freelance for the past 3 or 4 years. I survive on coffee with milk (soy if possible), no sugar, please. READ MORE…

I have a few events coming up before the end of the year and I knew my mashup of blazers, slacks, and dress shirts from different designers no longer passes muster for a suit. I knew I had to get a real suit, and rather than paying exorbitant costs for an off the rack solution atn a local brick and mortar, I decided to have one custom made to my specific measurements. I first learned about Jason Hue’s company, Thick as Thieves, at the beginning of this year through the StyleForum message boards. Given his reputation on the site, it was not a surprise when he announced he was starting a line. TaT was born out of frustration at the higher price points commanded for suits with a slimmer, more fitted physique and those that featured finer details such as full canvassing and premium (Mother of Pearl, horn) buttons. Pricing varies, depending on fabrics and special requests, but most fall in the $500 range with an average completion time of three weeks. The one-button suit is his “signature” cut, though 2 and 3 button variations are available as well. Each one is created specifically for each customer which must provide a set of 13 measurements. While the end result varies depending on preference, basic themes such as slim lapels, shorter jacket length, and slim trousers with a slightly lower rise than normal are prevalent. There are currently over 20 fabric options, and nearly any solid color can be specified as a lining. Not one to limit himself, Jason has expanded the line recently, with a knitwear collection which currently includes a cardigan, and soon, a v-neck tennis jumper.

While some people may be talented at reading between the lines, Sylvan Lionni excels at painting inside them. The Brit-born, Brooklyn-based artist breathes new life into the seemingly mundane world of forms and diagrams by injecting them with lively and meaningful color schemes. His painstakingly perfect renderings of stadiums and arena seating charts take into account elements such as size, shape, symmetry and color coupled with cultural meaning as they “chart democracy and class structure by its leisure events, and to coax the entire social organism out of the flat serenity of a seating chart”, proving there’s more to charts and graphs than meets the eye. Though computers are certainly involved in the design of his pieces, it’s Lionni’s adept touch with the brush that’s responsible for turning something that just would normally seem to be “there” into a deeper subject matter.

A special collector’s limited edition release collaboration between The North Face and Goldwin Japan has resulted in a very small collection of snowy winter pieces to be sold for one day only in three US stores. The NSE collection, inspired by the white birch forests of Japan’s Kitakami Mountains, will be sold on December 8th at The North Face Soho (beginning at 6am), alife, and at San Francisco’s HUF, and offers the latest innovations in insulation, construction, and high-tech fabrics. The collection includes hoodies, puffy jackets, and accessories, but the centerpiece of the collection (and likely the most sought after item thanks to its smokin’ hotness) will be the birch forest camo print jacket and snow pant. Hunters should know to roll out of bed early for this one — it’s been blogged and read and hyped all over, so you might face a frenzy at the front door. Check out more pictures at Cool Hunting.

Mathew Waldman’s Nooka, the alternative line of time-keepers that we consistently preach about, is offering some new wrist candy for the holiday season. Profound Blue and Cool gray have made their way into Nooka’s color palate, giving the increasingly attention grabbing watches a nicely chilly vibe, while still keeping the NY company’s fun interpretation of time at front and center. I think I’d like the new blue face with a white band (you can buy extra bands in any color for some of the styles now! Awesome.). Browse the newbies here.

I love winter fashion so I was immediately drawn to Nau — just like Josh and Jamie were, earlier this year. In case you’ve forgotten, their outerwear is aesthetically pleasing as well as being technically functional. It doesn’t stop there, however; they offer a full range of solutions from the most basic base layer to down-filled jackets. Their forward-thinking and holistic design philosophies touches every aspect of their business from the choice of materials (some can be sent back to be recycled) to their Partners for Change program. Their retail space is green in every aspect, even down to not keeping excess inventory in the store. You actually order at a kiosk, and the order is shipped to your home. Unlike many other companies, both the men’s and women’s lines have incredibly attractive pieces. I am drawn to nearly every item in their FW07 collection, and the free holiday shipping promo means I’ll be placing an order as soon as I can narrow the choices down.

The crew at UNKL, famous for their UniPos, SUGs, and everything else they’ve ever done, just released something only the possessor of the finest Ivy-League education could contrive: UniPoker. Like it’s name suggests, UniPoker is a brilliant mix of fun and figurines, landing their owner with two of the four royal UniPo figures and a deck of customized playing cards. Common to anything good debuting this close to the holidays, the UniPoker set comes packaged in a “really cool collectible tin,” perfect for filling up with fifties — er, cookies — to take along to your next tournament. ‘Tis the season, y’all.

I just read about this today over at Core77, and you can bet that I’ll be down there in the next week or so to take a look. The project is part of the Re:Construction Program, an art program taking place in lower Manhattan. The Fulton Fence was completed by three Venezuelan designers: Mateo Pinto, Carolina Cisneros, and Carlos Gomez de Llarena.

The purpose of the Re:Construction Program, and therefore the Fulton Fence, is to “clean up” the visual pollution of public constructions sites by introducing them as canvasses for emerging artists. (Funny how without permission, they just call that graffiti…) The most interesting part of the project, though, is the online component. As part of the piece, the team will continually be building a web-based project, which…takes the form of a continually scrolling web page….Just as the physical installation weaves elements of vernacular construction materials into the frame of the fence, the website will embed media driven ‘interventions’: process documentation, location information, online widget mash-ups, and mobile downloads among others. Check out the progress and online component at fultonfence.net.