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...

Ten Graphic Design Paradoxes

Another article by Adrian Shaughnessy which i think is worth reading.
Kinda like his thought because he is always being honest and constructive. He mentioned something in his recent article which i feel relevant to me:

"For designers, verbal skills are as important as visual skills."
"Ideas usually fail not because they're bad ideas, but because they're badly presented."

Years ago i keep insists 'good design can always speak for themselves'.
But after awhile i realize that is not utterly true. Knowing how to present really helps a lot in selling an idea, and that is why some suck businessman-designers can win the business whilst some good otaku-designers cannot.

I'm completely suck in verbal skill and presentation. Damn it, although i'm not really enjoy talk cock about my design... but better be modest and keep learning.

Read Adrian's full article here.

Grid is great

I was always fascinated with typography. During my college time, the lecturer only teaching us "look at this, look at that." for whole semester, in the end i still have no clue what is typography all about.

Thanks to the internet, now we can grab any information online. The thing that I've learned recently and really excited about (after years working in this field), is how to set a baseline grid! Shame on me...
So basic yet so important. Check it out!



The grid is the foundation of any solid design, I wish i've learned all this years ago... Anyway, here are more stuff about grid system too.



The grid is just so great~

Sexiness

Just finish reading this seductive book - 固态阅读, a book about Irma Boom's design. She is definitely one of the best book designer in the world. Totally amazed by the thinking and efforts behind every single book designed by Irma, from the big idea, layout, typeface, binding, paper, ink, and so on, every single details had been taken care of. By reading her actual books will get stimulation of various senses...

See more, or buy the book here.

finally think simple act simple

Started from middle of 2008, It's already more than a half year i've been planning to work on my portfolio site. Doing personal stuff always can't see an end, everything seems not good enough and the changes are like forever...

Finally make up my mind and put everything all up. Let's check it out :D
www.thinksimpleactsimple.com




In fact at the very beginning i was thinking of make up a fancy flashy site, well actually i'd already did... with a lot of helps from lovely 'Abang Jay' from Kinetic, really sorry Abang i throw away all your efforts >.< ( for girls please consider this lovely guy, add him in facebook ).

To not waste Abang's effort completely, i decided to put this incomplete version online too ~ www.thinksimpleactsimple.com/beta



The end is just another beginning. It's time to work on next project... XO

Fame

"If you want to be famous, the first thing you have to do is stop wanting to be famous." - Adrian Shaughnessy

This is one of the most important quote that influenced me a lot few years ago, by Adrian Shaughnessy in his very first book - How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul.

Read Adrian's interview here.

Don't cry

what's a graphic designer do...

during his two weeks holiday back home.

Creative Brief - touch up a picture of his grandmother, to clean up the background and remove the 'dirt' on her face, then print it out big.


original image.


version 1 and version 2.


unreleased version. Banned by the account servicing (my mom)
before showing it to the client (my grandma).

I'm not gay

After years working as a graphic designer, I feel bored by flipping at those purely graphic art, advertising or illustration magazines. In contrary, I am slowly into other fields like industrial, interior, architecture, fine art and so on. Looking at design from other fields actually keep my mind fresh when I'm working on my own.

I don't really want to admit this... But i do attracted by fashion design recently. What i means is really fashion kind of fashion, not only about printing graphic on a T-shirt. Probably started from my Tokyo's trip 2 years ago, i was really fascinated by all the fashion brands like Undercover, Head Porter, Neighborhood, Visvim, A Bathing Ape, Beams, etc. By visiting their stores are totally different experience from what we read from magazine, although i'll never be able to afford one of those...

And then slowly I learn more about those Hi-fashion labels like Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, agnès b, Maison Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe, Vivienne Westwood, Bernhard Willhelm and so on. All the names that I used to see on magazine every time but have no idea what the heck are they really about. (I still have no clue though)

Looking into how a fashion perfectionist taking care of every single details in their cloths, branding, and also their fashion show, I realized why my printed tees can only sell for $10 while Comme des Garçons's can sell for $1000. It's the same theory where some 'designers' charge a logo design for $10 while some can charge for $10k.

I'm not a Hi-fashion person, we doesn't need to buy all those cloths to appreciate a fashion designer's work. Just thinking that if we can appreciate other's design, others might try to appreciate ours too. I used to be a raw and ragged person and proud of wearing a fake Ape Sta. But nowadays i started caring about what to put on my body. Sure is not those big name, but will try to examine the details, cutting, and craftsmanship a little bit more before I'm wearing it.

I'm not a gay, maybe just one tiny step closer to a metrosexual...