Scription

Sweetroad, Iwata Denki, Vintage Revival Productions

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:05:30 +0800

It's time to gear up for lots of store visits, there will be a lot of layout changes, one more new store and multiple phases of Xmas promotion happening from this week onward. My gears will change from office setting (mind.depositor, Moleskine diary, fountain pen, calculator, camera) to field setting (pocket Moleskine, camera).

Gear up with Moleskine

One of the indispensable tool is this "Holder for M" from Vintage Revival Productions. It is an ingenious two piece product made from a combination of leather and denim label material. One piece acts as a holder which allows you to insert your M into your jean's back pocket (8,800 yen), the other is a pen holder (4,500 yen). Both pieces are looped so that you can slide to the front and back cover of you M easily without permanent damage.

Moleskine Holder - on the go

Where did I found this you asked? It was last July when I thought I was having the last meeting of a business trip in Tokyo, Mr. Doi from Sweetroad (a great store to visit mind you) told me about Mr. Iwata and his shop Iwata Denki. I had to rush to that store in Setagaya before it's closed. Full of sweat and unable to communicate in Japanese, I was signing and nodding a lot and had a great "conversation" with Iwata san, a designer himself, who published 2 design books called GOALD (goal of design), and constantly working to create new products. Do visit Iwata san's blog to get a glimpse of his works and product collections from his friends.

Iwata Denki shop - Iwata san holding his leather M skins

Iwata Denki shop - Iwata san's leather goods

Iwata san made some very nice leather Moleskine covers. They are like stickers, only in leather, which are removable and probably can last several uses when you change your Moleskine. I was about to buy the brown snake skin embossed or the wood imitation cover but too bad they were out of stock. He also made those cute little leather photo clips which look like smileys, they are put into recycle film cans and sold in stores like Tokyu Hands and Loft.

Iwata Denki shop - Vintage Revival Productions' Holder for M

Iwata san was very keen to show me his collection of great products in the shop, wooden iphone case, his leather credit card holder, coin pouch etc. "Holder for M" was the one thing I got from his shop, then I was out of cash in Tokyo :)

So if you are going to Tokyo, I suggest you to dig up these interesting small shops to go, it is far more rewarding as a journey. As for myself, the connection and sense of discovery always give me the thrill.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Story About Cats and Dogs

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:32:23 +0800

Story about Cats and Dogs

Xmas to me for the past 6 years has been a gradual build up of pressure and anxiety because of work. After yet another day of number crunching I reached home finding a surprise in our guest restroom. I would've expected a lonely cat or dog lurking around in the house if it wasn't our restroom, the only culprit here must be Olgua. I was furious for a few seconds and click..... I switched to story telling mode, about dogs and cats at home and why they do things they do because nobody clip their nails etc. Then it was the plead to tell yet more bed time stories. I must remember that flick of switch, to turn anger into stories, to turn anxiety into something creative. It shouldn't be a positive reinforcement of bad behavior or emotion if the subject can grasp the good intention behind given a review is done, and it is no surprise and a pity that this works best with children, 'mature' people just have too much pride to see things through.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Getting Things Done the KOLO Way

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:45:04 +0800

"What?" You asked.

Yes KOLO is synonymous with archival/presentation and most often associated with photography, scrapbooking and art projects. Their Essex Travel Book released this year seems like an odd addition to their product line-up but when you think about it, the whole idea of the Essex series is to bring the KOLO aesthetics and these associations from your archive to your everyday life. You don't carry a typical KOLO product everyday, but you can carry an Essex all the time and treat it as a process to create your final archive/project.

GTD the KOLO Way

How does this lead to the KOLO-GTD association? If you've been a follower of Scription or lifehacker, you've probably seen my mind.Depositor and its subsequent version as a GTD index card cover. Well, months ago when I received a long awaited Essex in leather, I decided that I wouldn't want to put it into rough use as a notebook. So I employed the law of subtraction, took away the refills and elastic loops and made the cover my new GTD tool.

GTD the KOLO Way

The medium size Essex is just right for the 6x4" index cards. Since the elastic enclosure is quite strong and I don't intend to walk around dangling this, even though the index cards are not secured inside any pocket, I feel safe enough.

GTD the KOLO Way

The back side of the window pocket becomes very useful to hold a notepad as a temporary drop box too, how perfect! With a few more creative twist, you can secure the cards when enclosed, unfold the cover all the way to make an "A" stand so you can see your top index card in standing position, etc... I will leave this to you for fun. Don't forget to share here or at Koloist.com if you decide to GTD this way.

Enjoy!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Mini Cameras Everywhere

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:39:17 +0800

Whether it is digital or analog, mini cameras are the most trendy thing happening in the industry. Digital Minox, Rollei, Diana mini, Digital Harinezumi (just released new white edition), etc. They are all in this tiny little promotion happening in Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON.

Mini Camera Promotion - Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON

And yes we are including the Olympus E-P1 too coz it is somewhat a smaller version of SLR. If you missed the chance to grab a Lomo mini camera keychain packaged in beautifully printed film cans, they are now back in stock, talking about 20% the size of the actual camera (hmmm, I did say they are keychains, not real cameras).

Mini Camera Promotion - Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON

Most of us are bored by the strap came with our cameras right, so we've been collecting from Korea and Japan some of the nicest straps ever produced and some of them are here, the rest will be coming to the stores this year.

Mini Camera Promotion - Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON

Friends from Lomo, Superheadz and Fujifilm gave us some very nice supports including some left over film canisters, cute POP and displays, etc and I feel thankful for their generosity and help. Superheadz even shipped from Japan a dozen foam boards printed with versions of the lovely Russian girl character.

Mini Camera Promotion - Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON

One of the pink display took me a few hours to create using films, MT tapes and various products from other departments. If you have time, please do visit these two stores and see if they are still intact :) This promotion lasts for 2 weeks from now on. Hope you like it and able to find some inspirations from it. Check out the Flickr photo set of this promotion.

Note: thanks Martin for the hard work. Get well soon Moon.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Skull Earphone with Flashing Red Eyes

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:00:36 +0800

The earphone market is getting more crowded these days. Two years ago a good pair of earphone at about HK$200 was difficult to find, quality earphone often means at least over a thousand HK dollar from names like Shure and Sennheiser. Now a reasonably good earphone costs only around HK$150 and you get to see so many choices in retail stores. Earphones like candy indeed. The price is definitely going down further but I also observe a drop in quality from some of the bigger manufacturers, obviously hurting their brands and allowed some of the new comers to catchup with the market.

Skull headphone, eyes flash with music

I think good ones should charge properly instead of competing at cut throat price. Anyway, I saw this cool skull earphone from catalog and asked for a sample to try before I decide to order for the stores. The company producing it is not a professional earphone maker, that's why I had doubt before ordering. Surprisingly it its bass is not bad at all for a gimmicky earphone like this. Included in the package are two LR754 button cell for the LED light module. The skulls' red LED eyes flash following the beat of your music. Priced at HK$280 I think it is a good enough gift for Xmas, if everything goes smooth it will arrive our stores early December.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

BERLIN Through My Lens Exhibition by KOLO

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:09:42 +0800

Berlin Through my lens by KOLO

More information here.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Impossible Happens - The Comeback of Polaroid Film Cameras... and Films

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:04:21 +0800

Breaking News! Announced in Hong Kong today, Polaroid licensee The Summit Global Group will launch new Polaroid film camera in 2010, while The Impossible Project is in its final stage to create its new black and white 600 film. Since the media hasn't reported much, I'm gathering the details in bits and pieces from these two sources for you: Neonpunch.com and Alvinhui.com

Polaroid One600 Rossa, SX-70 and Holga

The Summit Global Group managing director Mr. Giovanni Tomaselli lives in Hong Kong, that's why this press conference is done in Hong Kong.
iZone Kids camera will be relaunched, due to its previous popularity, along side with films supplied by FujiFilm.
Florian Kaps from the Impossible Project said there will be two kinds of black and white instant film to be released in 2010. Color film will be released near summer 2010. Both will be in the same 600 format.
Both Giovanni and Florian said Spectra film will be relaunched ~~in addition to pack films~~. (Thanks to JC helping to clarify this with Mr. Kaps)
Polaroid One and One Step cameras will be relaunched in mid 2010.
Wing Shya (Polaroid fanatic, photographer and director), Maurizio Galimberti (famous Italian photographer) and Florian Kaps (the impossible project) were invited to the event.
Wing Shya will be the key photographer for marketing in Hong Kong.
Pogo is the printer, Pogo 2 is the printer with camera. Both already launched some time ago (not yet in Hong Kong though). Pogo 3 will be able to do 3x4" prints

I'm so happy about the comeback of films by The Impossible Project, but certainly disappointing to hear about the cameras. Re-producing One and One Step may just be Polaroid's tactic to buy time for converting loyal analog fans from the classic to their PoGo dream. They should've spent their time to develop an advanced analog instant camera, there is still edge in the photography arena.

Check out photos of this event here in Neonpunch.com

Western news:

Polaroid cameras to be produced once again

Polaroid classic instant film cameras to make a comeback

The Impossible project also made an announcement about this exciting news.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

GreenMaMa's 2010 LOHAS Calendar - 樂活日誌

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:02:35 +0800

Today cultural creative GreenMaMa Betty Lam came to our office to show her LOHAS Calendar 樂活日誌. It is a Chinese calendar filled with green, health and lighthearted spiritual tips, often expressed in localized humorous ways. She is also including references from interesting books and URL so you will find LOHAS inspirations on daily basis. According to her, she is definitely including the phone number of an "uncle" who specializes in helping people to sharpen their kitchen knives, talking about sustainability and supporting traditional business.

2010 LOHAS Calendar

The entire calendar is supposed to be decomposable, using recycle paper, soy ink and traditional Chinese binding. You can place order to her now at HK$80 each until 30th Oct. After that, you will need to buy it from retailers at HK$100. Place order to her for over 500 pieces, for example as a corporate gift, price drops down to HK$60 each with your company logo printed.

2010 樂活日誌

The dummy I saw today doesn't show much, like how the paper is perforated, how does it react to tears. I also worry a lot about the minimal packaging idea coz it is a retailer's nightmare, for there will be a lot of damaged product during transportation and customer contacts. Despite the fact that I like the design a lot, we still have to see a closer to final product version to decide how will it appear in our stores.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Karma in the New Times Square in Seoul

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:44:30 +0800

The day before I left Seoul a few weeks ago was the grand opening of the new Times Square in Yeongdeungpo (永登浦). For stationery lovers, you gotta visit the Kyobo bookstore there, trust me. It was a brief stop but the sculpture in front of Times Square captured my attention.

Karma Sculpture by Do-ho Suh in the new Times Square in Seoul, Canon F1 50mm f1.2 AGFACOLOR Pro 200

The very tall sculpture by artist Do-ho Suh is made up of over a hundred human figures all stacked up into four pillars. These pillars converge to a single point with gradually smaller and smaller human figures as they go up in height. You can't find anything on the net about this sculpture in English, but luckily I got the floor guide from Times Square.

Karma Sculpture by Do-ho Suh in the new Times Square in Seoul, Canon F1 50mm f1.2 AGFACOLOR Pro 200

The piece is called KARMA. "KARMA is created based on oriental philosophy that every person is related to a number of former lives. The work is placed in Times Square Plaza with a concept of "TIME". The work visually embodies the relationship of lives that a present reason may cause a present or future result by showing a number of people riding on each other", the leaflet said.

Fashion Shop in Seoul, Canon F1 50mm f1.2 AGFACOLOR Pro 200

Then I recall the day before, I was in Hongik (弘大) taking picture of this lonely cloth-less red mannequin man in a fashion store. "Do-Ho Suh's sculptures continually question the identity of the individual in today's increasingly transnational, global society."

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

New GTD Workflow Map by Xplane

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:58:35 +0800

David Allen spent the last 2 years crafting and fine-tuning this GTD Workflow Map.

GTD Workflow Map

This kit includes an all region code DVD plus one large and one small poster. The poster is definitely a great tool for you to preach GTD in your office, it is created by Xplane which I'm a big fan of.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend