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.

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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!

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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.

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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.