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Photo Journaling A Lot Easier with Pivi

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:55:19 +0800

I longed to get the Fujifilm Pivi MP-300 and finally last week in Tokyo I bought it. I wish I bought it earlier because instantly my travel journaling or photo journaling becomes much much easier.

Photo Journaling with Pivi

The size of Pivi's photo is just fit for my Moleskine notebook. For Traveler's Notebook, it leaves a lot of space good for writing and sticking precious stickers/tickets/etc things you collect in travel. I love the fact that it is instant yet not wasting any of your film because you can choose which photo on your digital camera to print. My Canon support pictbridge so there was no problem at all. I can now journal with photos whenever I can have a coffee stop, instant!

Pivi Photos and Delfonics new albums

Delfonics just released a series of new albums, which one of the ranges allows you to put pivi sized photos in the paper album. I'm not particularly fond of the quality because the photo pocket openings are on the edge of each page instead of near the spine, which makes it easy for photos to fall out. In addition, the album pages are bound by just one staple, so inserting 10 photos (half of the album's capacity) already makes the album bulky. However, I love the colors of the covers they offer and bought 4.

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Moleskine in Orange

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:02:45 +0800

Catchy title isn't it? No they don't produce an orange leather Moleskine, it was just me playing around with colors to decorate my Moleskine. Gfeller leather cover was a gift from friend Kelly, which was painted with black shoe polish, a technique taught by illustrator/artist Steve Light, Faber Castell perfect pencil in orange, a promotional leaflet in the form of typewriter from Orange Airline (a stationery company in Japan), and orange/red brick floor tiles.

Moleskine in Orange

Tokyo, 8th - 13th July 2008, trip for the ISOT (International Stationery Show).

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That Moleskine Cow...

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:39:59 +0800

It has been less fun to see all those Moleskine exhibitions nowadays, for me. In June I visited Tokyo's Lifestyle show and just last week I visited Tokyo again for the International Stationery show. In both event, Moleskine was elaborately exhibited there. My feeling towards the writing, journaling, drawing culture of the Moleskiners lowered significantly simply because it all became too commercial.

Moleskine Detour Exhibition in Lifestyle Show Tokyo June 2008

In both events, I got a little time to look at all those drawings from the Detour project, (as corrected by Paola - Moleskine brand equity & network relations, "the exhibition in Lifestyle show did not contain any works from Detour project, all the Detour events are listed on the official website www.moleskine.com/detour where you can take a look at the notebook and also read some lines on the single author's biography. The Detour Project is not a commercial event and it's meant to support the non profit foundation lettera27") as well as those from Invitation au Voyage. Who were the artists and what's their stories? I didn't care to find out anymore. They became one of the thousands of notebooks with drawings. The booth design and display however was great.

One large table was dedicated to all those examples of corporate-premium-limited editions. Do I want to collect them all? No. And look, in June I went to Shibuya's Loft and the space dedicated to a short-term promotion of Moleskine was so huge it spans nearly 4 meters wide.

Moleskine in Shibuy Loft, Tokyo June 2008

The ever increasing SKU now becomes unbearable to me. Now the spinners made by Modo e Modo are invading retailers especially department stores. Yes these are negative feelings of me not liking product marketing being too commercial and people forget about the artists who contributed. I even heard that there will be more stationery products from Moleskine, e.g. maybe a ring binders with an elastic band (which was used as a catalog distributed to distributors last year).

Moleskine New Products 2008

Now many asked about when the leather version of 2009 diary will be launched. I heard that it will arrive in Hong Kong around end-August. So it will be around mid-August for people in Europe to buy them. The catch, only 1 retailer per country is allowed to sell the limited edition. It will be disappointing a lot of fans, I love the look and feel of the notebook though :)

A note from a recent meeting with a French stationery maker: Société Générale, one of the main European financial services companies which acquired Moleskine for 60 euros (3 times Moleskine's market value back then?) back in 2006, experienced a 4.9 billion euros trading lost in just three days in January 2008. They are going to milk the Moleskine cow!

Well, I have a thought. The tremendous success of Moleskine's revival is a true marketing success story. Millions of community effort to promote its branding. What have Moleskine done to return favor to the community? Now that Moleskine is made in China, a fact that not many people adore, what did Moleskine do when there was a great earthquake in SiChuan China when more than 71,000 people were dead? Well I did a search on Google "Moleskine Charity" and nothing really came up. Enlighten me if I'm wrong (and Paola did, the lettera27 projects are making changes that will certainly produce a larger results in longer run, the next Chatwin waves may change the world as we know it. As a retailer we are increasing our efforts to source from companies that encourage food chain sustainability such as farming/fishing, while on the product manufacturing side the burden is now on top tier vendors/manufacturers to set examples when fair trade, environmental protection and cultural preservation become common terms. I hope Moleskine as a global brand will create conscious efforts to localize the such practice in countries they appear and source from, especially when they enter the CHINA market in the near future. Yes, a huge challenge for a company with only a dozen of staff, but the impact they can make will be tremendous.). I mean I love the brand and product, just that I expected a little more from it to be more cultural instead of commercial, more world-class in terms of charity instead of world-domination.

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One Fine Day

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:14:09 +0800

Typhoon passed followed by days of raining, finally the sky is clear and blue on this public holiday. I stayed at home musing on recent events while my wife had an afternoon walk with my son.

Afternoon Walk

The afternoon is so quiet: coffee, polaroid, fragrance candle, camera.... This rare opportunity is definitely a quiet moment before storm, I mean usually 2nd half of the year is the busiest at work, stress tends to build up drastically events after events.

Grotto Tiles

One of the objects I recently fell in love with is this coaster set I got from Shanghai 2 weeks ago. Designed by Shanghai architect/designer Leslie Chen who founded Grotto Design Creations, these coasters/tiles incorporates the cloud motif found in textile fragments from the Ma Wang Dui Han tomb (馬王堆漢墓, ~180 B.C.). The artworks were first hand painted on ceramic tiles and then went through a delicate printing process to look exactly like the original hand painting in both colors and textures. Looks like they are going to have stickers available too. Absolutely love the patterns.

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Travel Photo Cafe 2008

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:21:54 +0800

This concept cafe is finally here (development), don't be deceived by just the look, I've added some very nice contents inside, i.e. if you care to discover.

Travel Photo Cafe 2008 FW poster

I had great fun to design the event poster and postcard, which went well into production. I thought marketing was going to print a glossy postcard but they didn't, I still love how it turned out though. I'm posting several written postcards to friends around the world.

Today I went to the store to give a final touchup on the entrance display. I was so happy to see people stopping by the entrance display right after what I did to it. Just what is this event all about? It is a concept cafe filled with things related with travel and photography. Travel/photography magazines, Moleskine, Lomography, Traveler's Notebook, Lonely Planet, LUXE cityguide, Cavallini notebooks, Authentic Models globes, Chronicle Books' Wanderlust series, antique keys, travel jewelry cases, Eiffel tower keychain, etc etc.

Travel Photo Cafe in Festival Walk

There are great prizes for patrons too! Anybody purchase over HK$300 in Times Square and Festival Walk store will be eligible for a lucky draw. Prizes include: Samsonite Valiance spinner, upright; Virgin Atlantic Airways tickets from Hong Kong to Sydney, Lonely Planet compete set of ENCOUNTER guide, Lonely Planet Travel Photography book, Moleskine bestsellers, Moleskine HK/Beijing travel set, Mendoza Panzer Z luggages, Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS, Canon SELPHY CP740 compact photo printer, Cosmopolitan Paris trolley, Lomo Diana F+ with flash, Lomo Diana White Edelweiss, Lomo Fish Eye No.2, LUXE Asian Grand Tour box set, KOLO albums, Design Go kettle, Dr. Willard's moisturizing lotion.

Travel Photo Cafe in Festival Walk

I've invited several people to be speakers for a culture talk in our store. The topic is about how simple it is to carry a totally different mindset in your travel and act upon some simple techniques to create stunning photography and travel experience. Speakers includes a Lonely Planet travel guide writer, a lomographer, an architect and me. The architect will also share with us some of the great spots in Hong Kong where you can experience our rich cultural heritage. This talk will be held on 5th July 2008 in Times Square city'super.

Travel Photo Cafe in Festival Walk

I've already dreamed up something new for next year's Travel Photo Cafe event! Time flies.

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Want to Hold the Hammer a Long Long Time ...

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:39:11 +0800

Hammer

Today I promised my son to make him a paper doll if he would sit still letting me cut his hair. He did and after a shower together I made him this paper doll. Early in June when I got a new book shelf from IKEA, he helped me out enthusiastically, got me interested to show more craft stuffs to him, letting him know that almost all of the things he sees in this world is made from scratch somehow. Just so happened today he learned the word "hammer" from a story book, so I decided to use a hammer in front of him to fix the eyelets on this paper doll. Later tonight before he went to sleep, he said "Daddy, I want to hold the hammer a long long time ..." If I let him, he would've held the hammer into sleep just like how he did with the NY taxi toy I gave him.

Hammer

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Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Versions Launched!

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:52:43 +0800

After a week of setting up the Travel Photo Cafe promotion in various stores (which I will cover later), I must say a BIG THANK YOU to Moleskine, its distributor and colleagues who helped to pull this off smoothly. Finally, the long awaited Hong Kong and Beijing City Notebook versions are launched, the first 2 Asian cities for many to come. Moleskine enthusiastically rushed to release these two notebooks in order to catch the Beijing Olympic event, which generated a lot of excitement among the locals.

Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Launch - Times Square city'super

I first received the prototypes of these notebooks a month ago, the feeling was totally different from the time I received Paris/London/New York versions. I immediately flipped through the maps of my own beloved city with excitement despite the fact that I had some negative comments about City Notebooks in general. The Beijing version is quite special, there is an Olympic Game Area insert at the back pocket, which contains 6 pages of maps, 2 pages of street index and 2 pages containing a calendar month which you can mark your own schedule for the game. This is definitely a collectable as they won't include this insert forever :)

Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Launch - Times Square city'super

The release of these notebooks is just in time to join our Travel Photo Cafe fair held in 4 stores. In collaboration with a local group called DayTauChung (literally translates to "neighborhood worm"), a mini theme called "Digging Up Local Favors" was created. Several Hong Kong notebooks were customized to show some lesser known but highly interesting spots with pictures and routes. We will even hold a small session on 5th July 08 in Times Square to mingle with customers sharing travel tips.

Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Launch - Harbour City city'super

An interesting incident happened during this launch. A customer walked into our Times Square store on 24th June 08 expecting to find the new City Notebooks but couldn't find it. He asked one of the sales floor staffs but she said it wouldn't be available until the Travel Photo Cafe promotion setup, which was 3 days later. While he walked away disappointed he found the notebooks he wanted displayed somewhere with amazing price. HK$108 as supposed to the advertised HK$188! So he grabbed it immediately, just as he pulled out his wallet to pay for it, the staff ran to tell him the correct price. Disappointed and unhappy about the whole incident, he paid for it anyway and went back to send a complaint email to Moleskine and to our office.

Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Launch - Festival Walk LOG-ON

In a very short time, Moleskine responded by forwarding this complaint to our distributor, when we received the same complaint from our end, our store manager got in touch with this customer, apologized and arranged a credit to his membership card for other purchases. Turned out the sales floor staff who'd just gotten back from lunch break when the newly arrived stock was shown somewhere she didn't realize. Comparing to my previous customer service work over 10 years ago, the whole incident from start to resolution happened real fast, almost instantaneous and globally coordinated, isn't it amazing? This also shows how Moleskine is in constant alert for customer complaint/satisfaction and I'm very happy with their dedication in this respect.

Moleskine City Notebook Hong Kong & Beijing Launch - New Town Plaza city'super

One more interesting thing about this incident is that the customer was just like me flipping through the maps excited, but he immediately found two spelling mistakes in the Hong Kong City Notebook. On page 12, "Bo Ma Shan" was incorrectly printed as "Bo Ma Chan", while on page 11 "Choi Sai Woo Park" was printed as "Coi Sai Woo Park". I guess Moleskine has already noticed this.

More photos of the Hong Kong & Beijing City Notebook launch and press coverage in this flickr set.

Hint of new Moleskine product: I overheard somewhere that there will be something related to filing from Moleskine. Yes it is still a rumor.

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Clairefontaine 150th Anniversary Exhibition (1858-2008)

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:44:14 +0800

Thanks to Clairefontaine and Working Unit, an exhibition of Clairefontaine's 150 years of achievement is now showing in Times Square city'super! I couldn't go to Paris for their anniversary event on 1st April 08 but I received the save the day invitation.

Clairefontaine 150th Anniversary Exhibition

To celebrate this achievement, Clairefontaine launched a limited edition perfume called L'Eau Si Belle, named after a quote from a famous old ditty entitled A La ClaireFontaine, which also serves as the inspiration for the brand's logo representing a woman with flowing hair pouring water from a vase. The 100ml bottle is sold for 52 euros.

Leau-si-Belle-Clairefontaine

Yes Clairefontaine did send us vintage notebooks dated as early as 1950 to show, you can see the cover design changes across the years. Exhibits also include Paul Smith Rhodia series (his designs of tie, perfume bottle and ceramic rabbit) and well known Rhodia fanatic Francis Ford Coppola's (God Father's film director) involvement with Rhodia.

Do visit this exhibition until 30th June 08 in Times Square! You will find the new Black Rhodia series, Black & Red Roses notebook/paperbags and Four Seasons range of new arrival.

(More photos of the exhibition in the Flickr set here)

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Visiting 40 Stores in 3.5 days, Tokyo

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:59:21 +0800

Arrived Tokyo on 10th June 2008. From 11th to 14th's 3.5 days I visited Interior Lifestyle show, met 4 vendors and toured with a colleague 40 stores! Unbelievable in hindsight.

Stationery from Japan

Among dozens of great lifestyle and gift products I found, some of them are stationery specific. Shown here Autopoint's Twinpoint 0.9mm mechanical pencil and refill, Artecma Ltda's wooden ruler, letterset from COATED Design Graphics, Propeller Studio's natural paper notebook and a book called Interview with Kyoto Stationery etc. I'll be back to Tokyo again in July for the ISOT stationery show and explore a lot more of the stationery arena.

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Recruitment: Stationery Buyer at city'super/LOG-ON

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:38:42 +0800

Stationery Buyer Recruitment

I'm looking for a buyer for our Stationery department. It will be a difficult task to find a like minded person who possesses certain industry required skills, but I'll give it a try by posting here in addition to recruitment ads.

Plan and select the range, type and quantity of products according to customer demand, trends, store policy and budget.
Process orders, track delivery and promotion schedules.
Prepare sales supporting materials, display products and share product knowledge with sales floor staff.
Analyze product performance and device actions to maintain departmental competitiveness in the market.
Keeping up to date with market trends and reacting to changes in demand are key elements of the role.
Hold considerable amount of responsibility and automomy in what is often a pressured environment.

Enough said of the job description. I simply need a passionate colleague who's mind is open and creative enough to work on concepts, technical enough to tackle all the basics of a retailer, analytical enough to translate data into actions, fun to work with and enjoy giving his/her best. The exposure will be overwhelming but that's part of the fun I get a lot from this company in the past 5 years. So I hope like attracts like, please spread this for me to your friends, send me a resume!

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