和四个美女在巴黎散步才是正经事

实在不想再留在新加坡做埋晒D不正经的事⋯
I just notice the uniqlock beside has changed theme again.
This time they are flying to Paris! Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower,
Notre dame... I really have to leave this city soon.

for those who are sleeping

Back then in W+K Shanghai office, there is a comfortable cotton sofa lies right behind my desk. Everyday there is people hanging around behind me, chilling out, chatting, resting, or even sleeping. I used to take pictures of all these sleeping people with my instant mini.

Before I left the company, I decided to compound all these photographs into a tiny booklet (I love book), and gave out as a souvenir for my lovely friends and colleagues during my last day at work.

Some of them told me that they were really touched after seeing the book, even their eyes were wet. I felt so warm indeed... that was the first time I truly felt that design could really touch someone heart... Thanks for all the beautiful memories.

I will always miss you all, hope we can meet again real soon...


上海的哥们，请继续牛B⋯

柯德莉,关于风景

沒什麼秘密，
可以及現在更秘密。
月亮將下沉，
可是末日未會如常降臨。
看著天和海，
仿似連成一物，
但是不曾接近。
你像片大海，
柯德莉藍的海。
願望看著天，
包括樹木、唱片、
皮鞋、情侶、公路、
石頭、河流、商舖。

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor is always one of my favorite post-rock band. Their band name is actually derived from a Japanese documentary directed by Mitsuo Yanagimachi in 1976. The movie started by following one of the member of Bōsōzoku - the Black Emperors, and his interaction with his parents, after he gets in trouble with the police...

I've been looking for this film for a while... and finally found it online!
Godspeed Youtube.

Everything is just the fucking same.

Different Names For The Same Thing
- Death cab for cutie

Alone on a train aimless in wonder
An outdated map crumbled in my pocket
But I didn't care where I was going
'Cause they're all different names for the same place.

The coast disappeared when the sea drowned the sun
And I knew no words to share with anyone
The boundaries of language I quietly cursed
And all the different names for the same thing

There are different names for the same things
There are different names for the same things...

Universal Everything

Amplifying. Exaggerating. Pushing the boundaries.

Universal Everything. Definitely one of the most cutting edge studio in the universe. I'd actually bookmark their project site - Everyoneforever at the bottom left menu since i started this blog :D I was in love with their stuffs from the first time I stumbled upon their website.

I always thought that such advance design studio must be teamed up by a huge bunch of great designers, animators, or even scientists. I was wrong, just found out that Universal Everything is mainly run by this one guy, with his laptop and mobile phone... unbelievable. Matt Pyke, the founder of UE, worked for The Designer Republic for 8 years, and started his own studio in 2004. He only hired a studio manager, and then work closely with talented people from different fields on different projects.

They always pushing the works to the edge, being different from the norm. I really love what he say about "I like not knowing about 3D animation probably... partly because I'm rubbish at it, and partly it keeps that childhood innocent... ". (Maybe simply because I'm actually doing web design now -_- but I have no proper knowledge in it as well, hehe...) Have a look at his lecture, very inspiring.


Also read his interview : Here.

the pursuit of happiness

It's Stefan Sagmeister again! Learned a new word today:
Sabbatical (n) - a period of paid leave granted to college teacher for study or travel, traditionally every seventh year. 休假年

This is almost my 5th years in the industry after graduated (although 1 and half year in between I worked as a freelancer together with Chris, and was doing my robonut stuff as well). There are officially 2 more years to go for me to have a good reason not working for anyone. Should plan ahead for this and we shall never give up on our personal projects =)

lovely malaysian designer / part2

Since I've already started the thread, and also added a new tag called 'Malaysia'. Let's talk about some more talented designers from Malaysia. (It's only up to my personal taste and knowledge, it'll be nice if you have any names to suggest, drop me a line.)


Kawakong / www.kawakong.com


"like the others, we have mission too. for us, design is categorized into two sections, 1.‘design for client’ and 2.‘design for us’; and our mission is to make the gap closer each everyday."

Kawakong just have their new site up! This lovely and incredible friendly couple really inspired me a lot few years ago. While I was just a fresh grad who only draw illustration/characters, and thought those were cool design! I got to know Chung and Ming around 2005, they commissioned me to put up their website by my very limited knowledge in flash... yes, I'm the one who did their v1 website years ago, haha... I was so impressed by their works, how can these people make those boring graphic design looks so good... and their personal illustrations too, which were so amazing.

I have to admit because of them, I started appreciate graphic design as it is. And slowly realize that Nice graphic ≠ Good design.

---

Alvin Chan / www.alvinchan.nl


This is a very mysterious man for me. I never heard about his name, only stumble upon his website via some design portals quite recently. Flipping through his works and his bio really gave me a shocked. He worked for Studio Dumbar, Koeweiden Postma before, and currently is a Design Director for Nike Europe in Netherlands. Impressive!

---

Tattfoo Tan / www.tattfoo.com

He called himself a social sculpture artist. Tattfoo is one of a kind that blurring the border between Art and Design. From what I know he used to lectured in Dasein long times ago even before I enrolled. He is currently based in New York, did a lot of conceptual projects and write a lots @.@ It takes time to understand the concepts behind each projects, but it's worth to look at all the interesting projects that he has produced.

---

to be continue...

lovely malaysian designer

"Sueh Li is a graphic and type designer from Penang, Malaysia. She stay and study in The Netherlands since 2007. She is a graduate from the Type and Media Master program in Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. She is currently based in London."

Real good designer from Malaysia, wow... she makes me want to pack my stuff now and go study Typography again! Check it out. www.suehlitan.com

life is like roasting a chicken

突然想起麦兜，其实当年看第一部麦兜已经非常喜欢里面的简单朴素，幽默，亲情，伤感，还有那些生活上的一点点小哲学。尤其喜欢结尾林海峰旁白的那段话，原句不记得了，大概是这个意思:

" 烧鸡，材料是鸡，做法，拿只鸡去烧⋯⋯ 但是，如果你想只鸡好味D, 食完吾会夭心夭肺，甘咪拍烂挡⋯ 烧好D咯。"

其实做人都很简单，材料就是人，同埋得过做字。但是如果你想你的人生精彩一点，值得回味一点，甘咪拍烂挡⋯ 俾D心机咯。

This is a line that I kinda like long ago from the ending of My life as McDull. I can't recall the whole sentence but it sounds something like this:

Roasted Chicken. Ingredient: chicken. Method: roast..... but, if you want your chicken to taste better, and doesn't spoil your mood after the meal, please... roast it better.

榴莲飘飘

These was done few months back then while I was still in Shanghai.
Just to compile my folios into a box set, including a cotton box, a book, booklet, poster and a CD. It took me few months and spent hours after work everyday to made all these happened. It can be troublesome and tedious to do personal portfolio. Beside the idea and design, I still have to shoot the works, touch up the pics, test print on different papers, and send it to binding, a lot of trials and errors going on too.

Although it's not really a mind-blowing job, and looks a bit like student's works in the end... But I do feel glad that finally had it done. It was always my dream to go to Fabrica, a creative lab that gather young designers who are 25 or below. Well, at least I managed to send my portfolio before my twenty-five ended, the rest have to leave it to fate...

And now I'm already 26. It is time to figure out my next target, my post-Fabrica dream. Anyway, check out more pictures of the work Here.

green green grass

- by grass studio

Grass Studio, is where I first started my career as a graphic designer right after my graduation. Working with the talented lecturer Herbie and colleague at that time, Lian Siah, is definitely one of the greatest experience in my life, I've learned a lot from them. No Grass no me.

Grass has the spirit of being alternative, has guts, and seems like getting better and better all these years. I'm so proud that I used to be one of the team, 各位老细大恩大德细佬实在是感激不尽。

Recently Herbie is putting up all Grass's works online, it's suppose to function as an open report from Grass to Dasein Academy Of Art, it'll be good if you can post your thoughts and comments on the blog, coz they are gathering some feedbacks from public. Go Here.

And also I re-uploaded the old Grass site as well, Have fun~

random images from random occasions II

时囧火锅

当兰州遇上既白

i love panda, but she loves bamboos.

real spiderman, fake spiderman.

你看你后面

i know where the meats come from...

男女混合秤

Zeitgeist: Addendum

watch it or download the film here.

an email from Mr.Jay

A Violinist in the Metro

Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 mins a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 mins later the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 mins: a 3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes; the musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.
He collected $32.

1 hour; he finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments .... how many other things are we missing?

everybody loves crocodile

I was walking around Nanjing XiLu, and realize that crocodile is one of the Chinese's favorite animal besides panda...
有天路经南京西路发现中国除了熊猫之外，也钟爱鳄鱼⋯⋯

Our neighbour designers

Stumbled upon a list, a damn long list of Singapore creative and design studios. I was so impressed, and at the same time i do feel ashame...

Honestly, I can't even think of more than 10 Malaysia design studio which is really great in quality and pioneer in the industry. Those who know how to promote themselves and act to be famous usually cannot do good works; those who are doing good works are never exposed and also never have their website updated. There are many young and passionate designers around but only selling their works in flea market. And we got some established studios but are just too old fashioned and not energetic enough, we also got very good advertising people, but they usually only care about their awards and fuck care the design industry.

Is there something to do with our market or uneducated clients? I don't know... of course there are tons of talented Malaysian designers around, I don't know why our design industry is not moving any forward. We check many good stuffs everyday, we know what is good and what is bad, but why we can only produce so-so works most of the time. Maybe we're not trying hard enough, maybe we should stop doing 'good, but not good enough' stuff, maybe it is due to our country leader don't have any art sense, maybe we Malaysian only want to be relax... I don't know. Maybe I'm not even qualified to talk about this, of course I'm blaming myself too.



- werk magazine by workwerk



- high and dry by &larry



- 20/20 movement by black design


- brill by couple



- chocolate research facility by asylum



- a catholic view on marriage+sexuality by H55


Damn... you should check out the Singapore's creative list.
Never able to see every single one, but some i do really like:

http://www.workwerk.com
http://www.andlarry.com
http://www.theasylum.com.sg
http://www.phunkstudio.com
http://www.equus-design.com
http://www.kinetic.com.sg
http://www.blackdesign.com.sg
http://www.h55studio.com
http://www.10am-asia.com
http://www.couple.com.sg
http://www.silnt.com
http://www.jonathanyuen.com (this is Malaysian)


If you have any good suggestion on really kick-ass local design studio/ individual, please send it to me, maybe we should compile one Malaysia creative list too (atleast 1-10). We still have a long way to go...

random images from random occasions.

整理电话里的照片时发现的:


－ 单车碎路牌


－ 我的衣架在街头


－ 靓Font


－ 我爱装书厂 a.k.a 企业是我家 发展靠大家


－ 你的狗仔在街尾


－ 在某公园的贩卖机发现避孕套(左上角)竟然与零食摆在一起卖

Onwards by James Jarvis

All time favorite illustrator James Jarvis' latest moving image Onwards in collaboration with Syhnola.



And part of the video is actually inspired by David Shrigley's work, who i admired a lot too:

'I had been an admirer of Shynola's collaboration with David Shrigley in their promo for the track Good Song. I liked the way it maintained Shrigley's drawn aesthetic in its transformation into moving image, so I contacted them to see if they would be interested in working with me on the idea. Richard 'Kenny' Kenworthy agreed, and worked heroically on the film.'

Always love James' works for being so whimsical and humorous. I still remember and inspired by his talk during IdN My favorite conference in 2004, about his theory on 'logically illogical' or 'illogically logical', which i think is still reflects on his works nowadays.

By the way the music by Caribau is lovely too.

a good week

This is a pack and interesting week for me.
Quite inspiring and meaningful:

---
Wednesday:
Caught the performance by the multi-instrumentalist - Otomo Yoshihide
大友良英. Been expecting something more noise or experimental Jazz, but the show turned out quieter than i expected, feeling more like Minimal Tech. It was also the first time in my life seeing a gig that the organizer shouted at the crowd: "Be quiet!". I was once wonder that am I in a cinema or what...

In fact, should called this an art performance instead of a gig.



---
Saturday:
Attended exhibition of the photographer - Yasumasa Yonehara 米原康正, the one who famous for taking sexy hot babes' photos. Yes, I hate Japs! This is a crossover exhibition with the graffiti artist Reach. I was slightly late for the opening, and missed the live painting on model's body. Damn~





Found some more event pics here.

---
Sunday:
I've been living in 番禺路 for almost half a year, but just found out few days ago there is such a huge sculpture gallery nearby. The Red Town, which is located in the opposite direction on my daily route to my office, and only takes 10 minutes walk from my place. It is kinda like the sculpture version of M50. And there got bookstore that sell design books too! Woohoo!




Sometimes good things might just beside you and me, we just need to wander to the other direction...