X'mas for OPEL

This Christmas, I had got a window design job for the OPEL showroom. Happy with the process and the result, it was a good Christmas gift for me!

Tai O

Tai O photos

Back to reality

Finally on 8 October, I took the flight from Zurich and landed on Hong Kong on 9 October. Mix of feeling strange and warm! It's a new start!

Switzerland

From 1 to 7 of October, I left London for Switzerland. I went to Basel, Luzern and then Zurich, the last short trip in this 10 months work holiday in Europe. Though it's a bit sad, it's still an unforgettable journey!
Switzerland

National Movie Awards

The first ever National Movie Awards in UK was held in London. So I took the chance to go and see the celebrities like Bruce Willis (Die Hard 4), Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), Tobey Maguire (Spider Man 3), Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom (Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End)...supposedly. However, it was just disappointed that I can't see any of them except the whole group from Harry Potter which I had no interest in it at all. I thought it was pretty much like just the game for themselves and it didn't catch much attention from the public. Anyway, it should be the last party that I had in London because I am leaving London finally! Through the hard stages of job searching, interviews, finally can get a training post in a design consultancy. However, it is just not starting now but in the New Year time. So it's a bit embarrased timing! Really not sure if will come back to take the job at that time. But let's see how things are going in the near future! By the way, still learned a lot from the job hunt and the September's London Design Festival had just added more colours to my staying in London!.....m.....it's getting cold, maybe it's time to home!
National Movie Awards

Zaha Hadid/Future System

2 big architects came together in a seminar. Both are world recognised with their fresh architectural form and experimental perspectives to architectuture.
www.zahahadidblog.com
www.future-systems.com

Dove evolution and its similarity

"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." clearly stated the ironic concept of what Dove had brought about their views of real beauty in this TV advert for the dove self-esteem fund. This hidden true story had achieved a huge success and aroused a wide attention globally. I attended a talk by this advert behind agency, Ogilvy, Toronto to have their experience sharing. It's a risky approach to compare to the other body care or cosmetics brands. But it's a creative approach that build on truth and mutual trust between agency and client. And more, I think its documentary way and the background music (which I liked) had added the sympathy to this advert.

That advert makes me think about what I saw in a window display with a fat female model in swimming suit in Sweden. This would not be happened generally! That somehow got the similar true idea of beauty as Dove!!!

Mirror

This was the Super Design Market where the young designers were selling their inventions and creative products. The ambiance of creativity was just so good that everybody was enjoying their discovering!

And in it, I found this one. This is not a pair of sunglasses actually, but a mirror can be hung on wall. The idea is just witty and nice!
www.richardshed.com

The Conran Shop

These are 2 pieces of tomato seeds. The seeds is actually the eyes of the figure. When growing it, have to bury the figure's head into the soil. This is a funny idea.


I bought this little seeds in the Conran shop which is a famous lifestyle shop for modern living owned by Terrence Conran. And I especially like the paper bag with the colourful patterns. It's a bit 80s I think, but it's beautiful!
The Conran Shop

The Southbank Center identity

During this year's London Design Festival, the Southbank Centre is served as the central hub where many activities were held. And I found the new Southbank Centre identity is very visually attractive with the inter-weaving coloured patterns. As an art and culture centre, its identity unique, modern and flexible to adapt to different colour scheme.
Southbank Centre

Pentagram posters exhibition

Pentagram held an exhibition of posters from throughout the firm’s 35-year history on this Thursday at the London office in Notting Hill. This was also a good chance to looked around the office as well. The works are single-minded, human and typographically excellence, which are thought to be their design philosophy behind the firm.
More posters photos taken in Pentagram

Irma Boom

The new D&AD president, Simon Waterfall made the introduction.


The 2,136-paged-SHV book.

Yesterday night, I attended a lecture by the famous Dutch book designer Irma Boom. She showed us couples of beautiful books she had been designed and talked about her design process. The pictured one is the SHV anniversary book with 2,136 pages, which was spent 5 years to finish it. That's really devotion and passion. Her works were all unique. And each one was striked to make the most of it. Most of her books' structures were deconstructed then constructed to a new form and new perspective to readers. This just enhanced the books contents with Irma Boom's beautiful and inspiring ways - “If there is something in common about my books, it is the roughness,” she says. “They are all unrefined.”
Irma Boom

The Replenishing Body

SHOWstudio has devised a fun, interactive video installation that allows visitors to make a one-second video recording of a close-up section of their body to become part of one big replenishing body. The work is using a 25 section, touch-screen video grid which will be added to a constantly moving, composite video portrait. For me, I just want to leave a clue of memory, being part of this design event in London!
www.showstudio.com/project/thereplenishingbody

A unique showcase

mint is an interior design store, renowned for its contemporary collections of specially handcrafted ceramics, glassware, textiles and furnitures. It is somehow liked an art gallery of surrealistic products!
www.mintshop.co.uk

'Ten commandments' of Good Design

Vitsœ’s shelves and chairs were conceived to be timeless. Designed by Dieter Rams who concerns good design should meet the 10 most important criteria...
1) Innovative
2) Useful
3) Aesthetic
4) Self-explanatory
5) Unobtrusive
6) Honest
7) Durable
8) Thorough
9) Environmentally-friendly
10) As little design as possible

www.vitsoe.com/ten_commandments.php

Deptford Design Market Challenge

This is another about "redesign" exhibition. The idea is to give a new meaning, beauty or function to that of an old product. As we have been talking "Sustainability" all the ways, this exhibition has become more meaningful and the ideas exhibited are really fun and inspiring. Here are some examples.
www.deptforddesignchallenge.com


"Glasses for all Occasions" - Each glass is reversible: choose from champagne, wine, sherry or cocktails, so this set of glasses are for all occasions.


"Team Walk" - Ten pairs of trainers are connected together. In order to get the piece to move, ten people must wear the trainers and walk together. A piece to train people team working.


"No Strings Attached" - The broken guitar is recovered to its music function in a modern manner with the iPod.


"Spare some Change" - From spending to saving. The jewellery box which is orginally for saving the luxuries now is turned into a piggy bank. The three saving compartments in which one might be for the next holiday, one for the next car, and the other for the most amazing new shoes. The pleasure is in the planning!


"Jigsaw Jigsaw" - An impossible jigsaw puzzle. It's crazy! It's a joke!

[re]design

How would you deal with your daily read newspapers? [re]design is a series of inspiring workshops on utilizing household waste and sustainable materials to make fun and desirable products. So using tightly rolled newspapers to build distinctive furniture can be a clever example.
www.redesigndesign.org

London Design Festival 2007

The London Design Festival from 15-25 September finally began. This is a huge annual design event in London and I am lucky to be being there. So I will try to record down what I can see and share them to all.
www.londondesignfestival.com/Default.aspx

d~r~a~w

Media: pencil and water colour on paper

Fields of Gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in the fields of gold...

...um...moody song.
Memory in Bergen.

Annual Reports - Get Me Rewrite!

This is a pretty long passage. But I think it's worth to read especially for those who are engaging in the preceived "boring" annual report designs. Let's rewrite them!!! Looking at the case from Cahan & Associates may find some clues!

How one design firm adds creativity to business's most predictable document: the annual report?

Most annual reports showcase business at its worst: dull, cliched, uninspired. So companies that are redefining how to play the game — are reinventing what annual reports say and how they look. And many of those companies are turning to the design firm of Cahan & Associates.

"Who says annual reports have to be 8 1/2-by-11 inches?" asks Bill Cahan, 44, the firm's founder and president. "Who says they have to start with a letter from the president? Who says they have to focus mainly on numbers? Annual reports need to evolve: They need to become more interesting and more entertaining. Otherwise, they won't be able to compete for people's attention."

Cahan's 16-person firm, based in San Francisco , is driving that evolution. It created an annual report for Network General that reads like a Boy Scout guide. It created an annual report for Adaptec that looks like a children's book. It created one annual report — for Progenitor, a biotech company — that uses just one sheet of paper.

"Annual reports aren't merely financial documents," Cahan says. "They're branding vehicles and statements of strategy." Which means that they have to be honest: "I hate it when companies pontificate about their 'core values' — which are the same values that everybody else is pontificating about. I'm glad that you're 'global' and 'collaborative' and 'innovative.' But what do those words mean? Tell it like it is! And if you've had a bad year, say so."

According to Cahan, you can't create new kinds of annual reports in the same old way. That's why his firm spends three to four weeks in research mode before it begins to create a document. Sure, staffers interview a company's CEO, COO, and CFO. Sure, they review analysts' reports, white papers, and company presentations. But they also spend time with rank-and-file employees, customers, and suppliers. "We're like archaeologists," says Cahan. "We look and listen for the hidden kernel of an idea that will tell a company's story — and tell it in a way that will engage people."

There's more than one way to tell a story, of course — which is why Cahan always assigns at least two designers to every project. Working independently, those designers create multiple options for each client to choose from. And annual reports don't always have to look different to be effective. One of Cahan's favorite projects was the 1997 annual report for Coulter Pharmaceutical Inc. The report isn't avant-garde; in fact, it is stark in its simplicity. The cover features a black-and-white photo of a woman with the caption "June 22. I was supposed to die today." Inside, a set of photos accompany stories about patients who were helped by Bexxar, Coulter's cancer-treatment drug.

That design wasn't any kind of radical breakthrough. But the night before the report was supposed to go to press, Coulter's attorneys decided that the approach was too aggressive and urged the company to scuttle it. Cahan called Coulter's CEO at home at 9 p.m. and got him to stick with the design.

"If you look at most biotech reports," Cahan says, "you'll see colorful photos of smiling patients playing with their kids. That's not the reality of cancer. There's a lot more to treatment than just being happy to be alive. We wanted to show the complex range of emotions. Our basic approach was honest — which is what made it edgy, even though the design itself was quite classic and traditional."

What comes next for annual reports? Cahan predicts that they will become, well, less "annual." At the very least, companies will use the core message that they develop for annual reports to help explain important developments throughout the year. Says Cahan: "Companies that are smart enough to understand how powerful an annual report can be will want to use that power more than once a year."

by Lisa Chadderdon

www.cahanassociates.com

My transformer

Inspired by the movie, Transformers, I did an experiment of a letter transformation.

Strip

This new teasing perfume "Strip" from Agent Provocateur advert. got that rebellious but strong and seductive glamour!!!

Transformer, transforming life!

Source from kevinshintani
Inspiring!!!

visual journey

visual journey

Want to start out a visual journey, as to organise the photo stocks and the journey experiences so far...and also an exercise to experiment composition and typography.

d*r*a*w

In the metro...
Medium: Pen on paper and photoshop colouring.