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PONY BROWN - My Little Friend, Korean Stationery Series

(PONY BROWN character model, strolling with her friend in PONY BROWN house)

My lack of post is only the evidence of more amazing stationery adventures coming up, this time Korean stationery.  Yes it was crazily busy to implement yet another successful year of Back To School promotion in city'super/LOG-ON, yes there is the preparation of Xmas 2010 and an upcoming new store in Langham Place in November, but all these melt when I was in Seoul last week looking at the innovations from some of the most creative souls in the world.

(beautiful porch in front of PONY BROWN house)

("always smile!" with PONY BROWN)

(Characters with attitude fill the wall of PONY BROWN's house)

(posters used in character fair in Korea)

PONY BROWN is a new Korean stationery brand only started since 2008.  The key character which has no name, gained popularity in our Hong Kong market.  According to the creative pair Mrs. Lee the owner and Mr. Oh the designer, the name PONY BROWN is not the name of the character at all, it came from Mr. Oh's birth year zodiac as a horse thus PONY and his love of brown color.

(Mr Oh sketching when we were talking about how to decorate the PONY BROWN shelf for city'super/LOG-ON)

(Taru, one of the cats in the PONY BROWN house, sitting quietly beside a poster)

(PONY BROWN's house is definitely a cat friendly place, other than a dozen of residents, cat friends from the neighborhood also visit once in a while)

I had a great time spent in PONY BROWN's house, a 2 stories tranquil cat heaven in the middle of Seoul.  It has all the elements I love right there, great sunlight, woody, quiet and space to think and relax while connectivity is not a problem at all.

(newly released post-it from PONY BROWN)

As for why the main character has no name, Mr. Oh told me that the idea is to have people loving the character fuse their life and spirit with the character's attitude, to be bright and positive with attitude.  The super cute character has a nick name though, since the series is called "My Little Friend", in Korean language fusioning with English, the character is called "Mylipu" (My Little Pu, "Pu" means friend in Korean).

(tiny stickies which can be used as bookmark or inspiration messages for diary and notebook)

The most popular items we sell at city'super/LOGO-ON of PONY BROWN is their free diary.  They have just released some new post-it and diary stickies which will be in Hong Kong market soon.  Lastly, we have worked with PONY BROWN to prepare a super attractive Xmas gift set with very nice packaging for the season, stay tuned!

For Those Beautiful Souls,

may them rest in peace and for those survived, God give them strong will to live and change the world.

Philippines hostage ended

Going to Seoul with a heavy heart and restlessness.

 

Harder Than Making a Leather Case

So my son is going to primary school one year from now, we have to prepare his profile showing off to various schools soon.  Believe me, it is harder than doing my own resume, harder than making a leather case for my camera.

(The above photo went into Flickr Explore on 21st Aug 2010)

But I do enjoy looking at all his drawings all over again, reminds me of great times we spent together making up stories and putting them in drawings.

 

Pilot Hand Writing

 

 

 

ISOT 2010 - Tokyo Stationery Show

Here comes some stationery porns.

Lazy me did went to ISOT 2010, THE most exciting stationery show in the world IMHO, but I didn't post any report as diligently as Mr. Tadashi Tsuchihashi (土橋 正), who is a professional stationery commentator, writer and published several books and maintains a blog called Pen-info.jp.

(name card holder and albums in cassette tapes outlook, by Artemis)

Tsuchihasi san have just posted a 4 pages long report of the show, featuring things he captured in his short visit.  While I was featured on page 4, I figured I should've done something here.  So I looked at the pictures I took and found a very different approach to the show.  I have a feeling that he sees things more widely and pragmatically, while I tend to be emotional and go with the flow.  Simply look at the differences I learned a lot.

(Eiffel Tower pen holder for your notebook, by Marks)

(Masking tapes for your scrapbook projects, by Marks)

(Traveler's Notebook diary version with stickers and usage guide, by Designphil)

(Pen style compass and scissors, by RayMay)

Thank you Tsuchihashi san for gifting me the latest book you wrote!

Leica CL Custom Leather Case

There is no replacement of film photography, some of my best photos were taken with film cameras and I often give them good clothes.

For poor men wanting to own a Leica, Leica CL is the cheapest choice.  This treasure can't be perfect without a case I tailor made for it particularly.  Glad that I got some scrap white leather from a leather craft class I joined, the leather case design is after certain sport car paint pattern.

The snaps behind also act as good grip for a compact camera.  Happy about it, tiny pleasure but that's the essence of life.

LOMO Girl Inside Diana Flash Unit

One of my Diana flash bulb burned, so I had to change the circuit board inside the good one to my favorite black one.  After disassembled both flash units, I found loom girls inside them, great attention to details LOMO!

Back to School 2010 - best stuffs in town

After months of preparation, we now present you Back To School 2010!

Everything simulated on computer became real to the exact measurement, thanks to my great teammates, store colleagues and friendly partners like Apple Computer, Japanese stationery brands and Korean partners.  To get a glimpse of what categories we offer, check out this Back To School 2010 leaflet downloadable in PDF (and soon as an iPad app!)

This year's big hit is of course Apple Computer's great teacher/student offer, Chocolate Rain's brand new Fatina USB memory and accessories, smoothest pens in the world, Korean stationery and our famous Put Together A5 personalized notebook system.

Check out these demonstrations from UNI and Pentel competing with each other to be the smoothest pen in the world.  UNI's test platform allows you to pick any other brands' pen to compete with Jetstream racing down the slide, the time it takes for the pens to finish the race is displayed in the monitor behind.  This platform is going to be in our Times Square only for a week's time then it will be sent to France for another event.

 

Check out the Flickr set of Back To School 2010 for some highlight photos.  In the mean time, here's some amazing offers in the fair:

• Apple Computer in Times Square, Festival Walk and New Town Plaza promotion.  Exclusive free cases for computer purchase, teacher/student price, citibank installment plan
• Chocolate Rain new range of products including cloth changing Fatina USB memory sticks and iPhone cases
• iPad and iPhone 4 cases show down
• 4 major Korean stationery brands: Indigo, Antenna Shop, Magic Soup, Pony Brown
• Toy Story booth where loads of USB gadgets and stationery products
• and more.....

Alvin Reborn

Thanks to Festival Walk LOG-ON store colleague sending me this valuable banner after the event!

2 Days in Macau, 3 Families, 5 Camera Personalities to Take Care

Wow I had a great time the last weekend in Macau, 3 families and kids.  The 4-5 year-olds are classmates, all one-kid families, so you can imagine how the kids love this short summer retreat.

I enjoyed myself too taking along with me 5 cameras and had some fun shooting.  Panasonic GF1, Leica CL, Canon F1, Ricoh auto half, Fujifilm Instax 210.

Yes 5 cameras this time.  I had to give each camera an assignment and it was real fun, like working with 5 different persons each get his/her own task but you have to manage them.

Panasonic GF1 being the only digital one was used by my wife mostly, for video and snap shots with kids.  Leica CL was for well thought of shots, the Summicron-C lens on it was being switched to the GF1 for shallow DOF mood shots once in a while.

Canon F1 was used to capture dreamy bokeh.  Richo auto half was to create color contrasting pairs (like the photos you see in this post).  Fujifilm Instax 210 was to offer the kids a real instant photo they can touch.

 

Clockwork Banana's Photo Time

Lately I've been working so over clocked things start to loose meaning, you know Back To School 2010 is coming….. Well, to save myself from insanity, I turned to look at my cameras, I mean really look at them, I wouldn't say caressing but its close.  Tonight I just had to take a pack film shot no matter what.

"Instant Reborn" Wrap Up - Video of the Talk Held on 24th July 2010

Wrapping up an event being held every 2 years in Hong Kong (Polala in 2006, Our Last Polaroid in 2008, Instant Reborn in 2010), with support from alvinhui.com, polaroid collector TM Wong, camera addict/thinker/lecturer Tony Lim, venue sponsor City University Hong Kong arranged by Eddy Hui - Deputy Program Leader, antique Polaroid display support by Chris Yeung, and organizer city'super/LOG-ON, … and fellow Polaroid friends on the forum, we had such a great time in an informative afternoon on 24th July 2010, and here's some of the scenes we captured in the talk!

What will happen in 2012 before the end of the world?  I'm certain there will be another great Polaroid event as we are already planning ahead, gathering thoughts and ideas at this stage.  I hope it will not be a lonesome event just in Hong Kong ;)

Thank you so much friends!  I had such a great time.

Instant Reborn recap:

• Instant Reborn event details and planning
• Instant Reborn gathering, stamping, etc on a Saturday afternoon
• Calling for participation on alvinhui.com forum
• Mijonju Show reports Instant Reborn
• Instant Reborn, a flickr set (adding more photos soon)
• Instant Reborn talk by TM Wong and Tony Lim, a youtube video

Done Making A Leather Bag for Compact Cameras

OK, after a few weeks away from the class I registered at Fungus Workshop (check out my previous project), I went back again to finish off the bag I designed specifically for a Ricoh Auto Half I got from Ryu Itsuki san in Isumi city Japan.

It is actually perfect for my kid to carry his own camera in outings.  To keep the loose end of the strap from dangling I made a little "flag" which says "love camera",  if I carry the bag on the right hand side messenger style, the "flag" is just in front of my chest and I think it is kind of cute.

The bag is designed to carry one camera and 3 rolls of films.  You can separate the inner pouch, the white leather part, from the outer casing and it becomes a pouch to be put inside your other camera bag or knapsack.

Honestly the bag looks much more beautiful when it is carried by a girl or kid, so eventually it might just be a handbag for my wife or a cool bag for my kid.  Still, I enjoyed the process of designing and making it from scratch.  It works not only for my Auto Half though, any compact cameras such as Rollei 35, LCA or Natura Classica sits comfortably in it.

So, I was away for a few weeks working on our upcoming back to school campaign, particularly went to Tokyo's stationery show and appeared in the Mijonju Show too.  Check out the video below!  (Yup, I sweat all the time and looked awful :))

 

 

Instant Reborn - A LOG-ON Polaroid Event As Reported By Mijonju

We had an interesting Polaroid talk yesterday.  After collector TM talked about the official history of Polaroid, he brought us through a visual journey to The Impossible Project factory and shared with us quite many interesting tibits.  Tony Lim shared with us what he thinks of the difference between creativity and innovation, how it makes such a big difference when a product is presented to a consumer.  We had quite some laughs too.  Each participant got a free passport and 20 got a nice polaroid poster for answering correctly some of the the questions we posted.

 

 

Two girls One girl flew from Shanghai just for this event.  A camera addict from Thailand couldn't make it because plane ticket was too expensive during the 4 day long public holiday.  Mijonju from Tokyo did came but couldn't attend the talk, he is already back and published a video about the Instant Reborn event, thanks Mijonju!  Check out the prequel of his visit to Hong Kong too.  I wish I too some pictures of the talk but I was on stage, hope somebody can pass me the photos they took.

Because of … Passions

Last trip to Tokyo was really amazing, 6 days of stay filled with passions and friendships, imagery and life.

Because of the love of Moleskine, I met again 2 Japanese friends whom I met 4 years ago and had some interesting intellectual discussions.  Because of Traveler's Notebook's aesthetic, I explored the area of Nezu and found inspirations.

  

Because of Mijonju's love of all things camera, I met auto half legend Ryu Itsuki san and his friend Nakamura san and explored the area of Isumi city.  Because of my dream job at city'super, I got chances to roam in realms perhaps only a few can do.

  

A life without passions is a life not worth living for.  So where is your passion?  Don't be a shadow , don't be a machine, stay hungry, stay foolish.

 
 

Instant Reborn - gathering on Saturday afternoon

Instant Reborn event started 2 days ago and quite a crowd gathered on this sunny Saturday afternoon in the store.  I felt happy seeing familiar faces who were here in our event 2 years ago, lingering around chit chatting with each other.

Interestingly camera people usually have quite decent stamping etiquette, not like those who make quite a mess stamping on the table and wasting so much postcards without reading instructions on the how-to.

The passport book is so much fun and from what I heard, many like the idea and decided to own one at HK$25.

Polaroid collector TM refurbished some 636 cameras and painted them black and white, added "Instant Reborn" face plates, there you go, a limited edition "Instant Reborn" camera for the event, at this stage only 10 pieces are available.  A leather/camera/watch fanatic Jemmer helped to add a leather strap too.  It also came with a nice cotton bag and is sold at HK$1395 with a free pack of PX-600 film.

 

I did sold an SX-70 and a few pack of films myself today to a lady who is going to give this as a gift to her husband.  I forgot to ask her to take a picture with Dr. Land though, people from the community did this naturally and one of them looks very much alike Dr. Land :)

BTW, Mijonju came all the way from Tokyo to this event, I bet he will be having a lot of fun going through TM's camera collections tomorrow in a private appointment.

Although the exhibiting items are not as jam packed as in 2008, we do have some polaroid T-shirts, poster, SX-70 shutter button, straps, etc for sale.  I wish I could have more time to create better contents, but the not so stable PX films did gave me a few hiccups.  Anyway, I'm glad we have good support from the community, I can't wait for next week's talk in City University.

   



I will be updating more photos of this event to the Flickr set Instant Reborn 2010, stay tuned.

Instant Reborn - a Polaroid (and instant photography) Event

Amazing how time flies, it was 2 years ago when we had "Our Last Polaroids" event, now that film is once again available by The Impossible Project, I'm glad that we will be hosting an event once again.

A lot of hope were put to the TIP film and we were getting hints about reproduction of instant cameras by Polaroid, even the possibility of having color films in this summer.  So earlier in this year I boldly made a reservation (or snatched) of space in 3 shops' entrance, instead of just one, to do a Polaroid event.  However, things were not that smooth, the stability of film, the delay of color film and the unforeseeable camera reproduction. I had to rename the event from Polaroid Reborn to "Instant Reborn".  Turns out including any instant photography products in the campaign.

 
I love the postcard and rubber stamps I made for this event.  With help of Polaroid camera collector TM, part of his collection will be shown in the event.  He also spent his precious time making an Instant Reborn passport book, which helps newbies to get started, in it some free pages for stamping fun.  I'm glad that City University of Hong Kong sponsored a lecture room for one of our gatherings.  If you happen to be in Hong Kong, do come play with us.

Here's some details of the event, most updated gathering news can be found in our Polaroid community forum at alvinhui.com/forum.

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由 The Impossible Project 誘發的即影即有菲林重生，意味著以寶麗萊格式為主的 Instant Photography 得以復甦。過往兩年沒有菲林的黑暗期內，愛上寶麗萊的新手無法入門，玩家亦只可以空菲林盒剩下的電源回味按下快門後的一連串奇妙機械聲。是次 Instant Reborn 活動由 alvinhui.com "麗奈"同好會的成員及city'super/LOG-ON 策動，希望在菲林重生的2010年能匯集新手與玩家，藉此機會分享即影即有的經驗與樂趣。 

日期：15th - 28th July 2010 

地點：Festival Walk, APM and iSquare LOG-ON 

寶麗萊相機展 

由寶麗萊收藏家TM先生借出三十多部罕有相機於 Festival Walk LOG-ON 展出 

限量版本 Instant Reborn 寶麗萊相機 

特別為是次活動而製作的 Instant Reborn 寶麗萊相機連皮繩及布袋將於 Festival Walk LOG-ON 限量發售 

Instant Reborn Passport 

誠意為是次活動製作的 passport book， 內含寶麗萊的歷史資訊、相機概覽及用作蓋印的空頁，將於各 LOG-ON 門店發售。 

蓋印留念 

四款 Instant Reborn 別緻印章，將被放置各 LOG-ON 門店給大家蓋於 postcard 或 Instant Reborn Passport 上。 

Instant Reborn 講座 

感謝香港城市大學借出演講廳 LT-9，於七月二十四日，二時三十分至五時正開放給公眾參與是次為題 Instant Reborn 的講座。演講廳設置一百四十個座位，不設登記，自由入座。 

講座內容 

講者：TM，寶麗萊相機收藏家 

內容：寶麗萊簡短歷史及 The Impossible Project 菲林廠房遊歷相片分享 

講者：林志堅 Tony Lim。遊走於設計、攝影、印刷工藝及教學之間。擁有四百多台攝影機的他對攝影機的結構，用法和歷史通通都不太深究。他收集的態度是尊重過去和欣賞他們的想法。（http://holga.com.hk) 

內容：創意、重生 

Instant Reborn 

Reigniting our passions of instant photography 

The discontinuation of Polaroid format instant films happened in 2008, after two years of hard work The Impossible Project acquired essential film making machines and restarted film production in 2010. During these two years of silence, Polaroid instant photography lovers had no film to use, while newbies could at most find only second hand cameras. This event is organized by alvinhui.com, city'super and LOG-ON, we hope it can be a bridge between newbies and the Polaroid instant photography community, to share a little history and a lot of fun ahead of us. 

Exhibition of rare Polaroid cameras 

Thanks to Polaroid camera collector TM, we are exhibiting over 30 rare models in Festival Walk LOG-ON store 

Limited edition Instant Reborn Polaroid camera 

Specially made for this event, a limited number of "Instant Reborn" Polaroid camera will be sold at Festival Walk LOG-ON store. The camera comes with a leather strap and a fabric bag 

Instant Reborn Passport 

This passport book consists of a brief history of Polaroid and its cameras, with pages of information and empty pages for stamping, will be sold in all LOG-ON stores 

Stamping 

Four interesting Instant Reborn rubber stamps will be put in all LOG-ON stores so that visitors can stamp on their postcards or Instant Reborn passports 

Instant Reborn talk 

Thanks to City University of Hong Kong being the sponsor of the venue, lecture room LT-9 will be opened to the public on 24th July from 2:30pm to 5pm, where two speakers will share their views and insider knowledge about "Instant Reborn". 

Speaker: TM, a well-known Polaroid camera collector 

Content: A brief history of Polaroid and the Impossible Project film factory visit photo sharing 

Speaker: Tony Lim, his adventures in design, photography, print art and lecturing does not make him an expert in camera structure, history or usage, but his passions lies in respecting their past and appreciating their content. 

Content: Creativity, Reborn 

What If There is No Electricity

Well, this came up when I had dinner a few days ago in Tokyo with two Japanese friends I first met almost 4 years ago but never had the chance to see each other again through these years (we met online through the love of Moleskine BTW).  I felt great that we had yet again another intellectual conversations and sharing what's happening in our lives. Facts vs. Context, Facts vs. Patterns, the ability to see is the ability to recognize patterns and context, books recommendations to share, kids etc.

One tiny topic was about "what if there is no electricity" which we all take it for granted.  The topic came after we were contemplating the pattern that when we live in our own cultures so familiar with us we take things for granted which is also the reason why a understanding others' cultures opens our eyes to brand new grounds and patterns.  And we should make this pattern recognition a compulsory education to our kids.

(This photo is on Flickr's Explore page on 11th July 2010)

The day after, I went to stay in Ryu Itsuki san's home for a night to find out about his works and passions.  He brought along some friends and we had such a great time even though I can't speak Japanese.  Fat boy Mijonju and his wife was there all along having fun and video taping (do we still call this video "taping" nowadays?).  Itsuki san published two books about auto half cameras in Japanese, if there is any English book publisher out there interested in having the books in English please contact Itsuki san or me.

Incidentally, I got myself a beautiful auto half from Itsuki san, which requires no battery for light metering and winding.  Talking about patterns here, can you see the pattern of this particular trip of mine to Tokyo?  Well, it comes to an end tomorrow when I will fly back to Hong Kong.  I took a photo of the little pleasant objects I have in my room's desk.  BTW, when I was walking on the street of Tokyo today I came up with the idea that "men tends to possess objects while women tends to possess relationship", I don't know if you agree with me but I mean it in a positive way.

Fungus Workshop Leather Craft

I learned leather craft from a few books but I felt kind of lonely just doing things I like all by myself.  Thanks to Bubi Au Yeung, a figurine artist, who told me about Fungus Workshop, so I signed up for a beginner's class, two lessons passed and I got to know stuffs I didn't learn from books, plus knowing these passionate people who enjoy life and craft genuinely, which is kind of rare in a city like Hong Kong.

(The above photo went into Flickr Explore on 3rd July 2010)

Each classmate choose what he/she would like to do from a bunch of samples.  I chose to do something in the line of stationery (later I will do a camera/laptop messenger bag).  Their template was a notebook cover, but I decided to make it a GTD index card holder.  After finishing it, I decided to add a notebook for note taking and an antique key to nostalgize the whole thing.

For all leather projects I did, improvisation in the last minute seems to add beautiful touches to a plain project.  As you can see, the enclosure here doesn't wrap the back of the cover to the front, instead it leaves the back wide open so I can dangle the whole notebook or even hook it up to my messenger bag.

Instead of a Moleskine notebook, I put a Rhodia notebook inside just because of its bright orange color, to lighten up a bit.  However, I hate the fact that the PU cover of Rhodia discolored after just 6 months from my acquisition of it.  In addition, it just doesn't lie flat like a Moleskine does when opened.  Anyhow, the discoloration did added the raw and battered look I like.

     

For those of you who are in Hong Kong and hunger for leather craft, I highly recommend Fungus Workshop.  Hoiming and Baldwin, Grace and Philip, all four are friendly souls you can chat with and learn from.  I am so happy Hong Kong is catching up with Japan and Taiwan in leather crafting.  Keep it up Fungus!

   

A Quickie All-in-one Moleskine Diary/Sketchbook in Leather Cover

The day I decided to use the Moleskine 18 months weekly diary from July I knew I would have problem pulling out what I need from my bag.  It has the same size and look as the Moleskine sketch book I'm using.  Knowing that I will be using both quite often in this coming half year starting from my trip to Tokyo next week, I did something drastic in 30 minutes.

(The above photo went into Flickr Explore on 1st July 2010)

First I ruined the back of these 2 notebooks by putting 4 snaps on them so that they can stick together yet removable if I want to.  Note that the two notebooks are snapped together so that the top of one is aligned with the bottom of the other.  There is a good enough space in between because of the height of the snaps, so it works well to put a pen holder there.  I just punched and set two eyelets to hold the broad elastic band together, then a metal wire is passed through the two eyelets to make a ring which helps to keep the elastic band in place on the spines, again this is removable if I don't need a pen holder. 

   

Assembling it is easy, just put the pen holder in between the back of these two notebooks, snap the notebooks together and there you go.  At this stage leather freak like me couldn't stop but made a cover for this so that the metal ring of the pen holder is concealed and I have the look I want.

Finally, to distinguish which side is which notebook, I stamped on the leather cover "Time" for the diary side and "Note" for the sketchbook side.  Whenever I feel like using the other side, I flip the notebook vertically.  The original Moleskine elastic bands can be used to enclose the leather cover but I like a clean look so most of the time they are enclosing the pages only.

You are probably wondering why there are some flying pigs on one of the Moleskines, that's a gift sketchbook from Steve Light.  What's that pen you asked?  Pilot 1979 Murex fountain pen, also a gift from a good friend Kelly.