"Cell phones have become a creative playground for designers, illustrators or animators: a platform for visual expression, though somehow small in size, writes Verena in an article for PingMag, The Tokyo based magazine about "design and making things".

The article is illustrated and links to the works of many Japanese artists. It's a rare treat and explains what an important market this is in Japan where the average high-school girl spends around $127 per month for mobile content.

"Up until now most people are used to take pictures with their mobile camera and use that as wallpaper. Thanks Adobe's Flashlite -- an application that does all sorts of animated magic and is now so common on Japanese gadgets -- artists take over this tiny screen and create their version of an animated wallpaper, screensaver or calendar. Or they even create designs for the menu trying to find new ways of customizing the mobile user interface."

-- PingMag talked to Tokyo-based Mao Sakaguchi about his mobile art project called Gendai Geijutu Hakurankai.

-- This April Mao's newly founded project Gendai Geijutu Hakurankai started collecting Japanese illustrators, graphic designers, street artists or character designers to make cute little animated interfaces. You can browse through his Modern Art Expo Mobile Website and through the works of 20 currently linked artists via the mobile.

Continue reading PingMag for more on other mobile artists and their projects.