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What Happened in 2 Months

Hong Kong is such an amazing place a lot can happen in just 2 months.  For those of you who don't follow my tweets or Instagram feed, I feel obligated to blast out what happened (Colin, I'm talking to you!).  Or to put it better, I want to share my colorful life with you because I know I won't have the time to go back and post tibits I wanted to describe in more details.  So here you go.

Had a privilege to be invited to speak in a conference in Basel.  Flown to Zurich on Swiss Air.

Before the conference, I had a few nice walk with conference attendees from different parts of the world, taking time to see and had coffee while journaling.  Visited stationery and lifestyle stores like Waser, Book Binders, Seven Sisters, etc.

One afternoon was particularly pleasant with nothing to do, so I cycled to all 3 countries sharing this lovely little Basel.  Between the border of France and Switzerland I had a couple of beers by the river and a nice chat with a fellow conference attendee.

After my presentation and the weather permitted, we went for the maiden flight of the newly made Cyberclean hot air balloon.  I was privileged to be on that very balloon, while the rest of the conference attendees rode on the other 9 balloons.  Champaign after that.

I stole half a day from the conference and met two persons I knew but never met before.  My blog reader Yvette who took me to Zurich to see stationery stores and bought me a nice pen, we had lunch in a famous restaurant Zeughauskeller, she showed me her lovely Traveler's Notebook and pens in brass pen case, we shared love in stationery and photography.  We talked about business and management near the end of the day as she is the head of a medium size company.  Since I'm a serious Treemap user, I arranged to meet the founder of Macrofocus Treepmap, Luc, in Babu's Bakery & Coffeehouse.  Interesting to see his other versions of Treemap and found that surprisingly the software's biggest clients are … I can't tell, but very interesting.  Thanks Yvette and Luc, I had a great afternoon with you even though it was very brief!

Visited Museum Tinguely amazed by his work, went up to 1291 meters Weissenstein mountain top to lunch afterward.

Chased by a cow there after showing her my Traveler's Notebook, literally chased by her and being laughed at by a 10 years old kid.

Before we left Weissenstein, I had 30 minutes laying on grass breathing clean air while looking over this beautiful country.

It was quite late that day but we managed to stop by Solothurn, a beautiful little town having a lot to do with the number 11… (check out my flickr feed by clicking the photos).  Fountains, churches, clock tower, cafe, etc.  Too short a stay but feeling lucky.

Back to Hong Kong from Switzerland.  Mid-autumn night playing with kids and lights and camera.

A cycling day with my Strida and Olympus PEN.

Worked a lot on Inkling campaign, which has a long queue of waiting list now as production speed is still slow due to their strict quality control standard.

Went with my modified Polaroid 110A (by Patrick Putze) to Ma Wan in Hong Kong, where an Instagram event in Hong Kong took place, check out Hong Kong Instayay keyword.

The Instayay group is getting bigger and bigger, lots of new faces I couldn't find time to meet.  Great to socialize with a very diverse group of people.

Oh I did take my Voigtlander 35mm too, stunning colors to capture in Ma Wan.

And it was the first time I saw my son so seriously taking photos with his digital camera, love that he enjoys photography as much as I do.

September was Switzerland, October was Korea.  For some reasons this trip was delayed to October and I couldn't change flight schedule but to accept a midnight flight to Seoul.

Rare in Seoul but it happened to me, bed bug bite in a decent hotel, luckily they moved me to a super nice traditional Korean style room, 5 times bigger but I was not so used to sleep on the floor with thin bedding.  Managed to find a lot of great stuffs to bring to customers in our shop.

First time to try Budae Jjigae (Army hotpot).  A type of hotpot originated from Korean War when meat was scarce and people picked left over food from US army base.  Yummy.

Met dozens of suppliers over there and found new masking tapes which quality finally catching up with Japanese MT Tapes.

Stopped by 10x10 cafe again, a must visit cafe even though the decoration is changed significantly from my last visit.

Finally visited Jetoy's very own shop, met the founder once again and had a real nice meeting and planned ahead for the coming year's collaboration.

Visited dozens of stationery and lifestyle shops, as usual.  Small world, I arranged a meeting with a Korean guy I met back in Switzerland, to learn more about his business in Korea.  Chose the Toycamera shop to meet.  Found in that shop selling a book with dozens of my Polaroid photos inside.  I agreed to let them use my photos for the book, for free, in return I asked them to send me the book but they never did!  Toycamera shop owner was nice enough to ask me to sign that book and I was happy enough.  And I bought the book.

Turned out there was a firework display in one of the night I stayed in Seoul, went all the way to get close to the firework and it was awesome, so many people.

Back to Hong Kong from Seoul.  Kid is having more homework, I invented some ways to help him learn English spelling, turned out successful and each round I would make a small booklet for the bunch of words he needs to memorize.  Eventually, I made a leather cover for those booklets.  My kid supervised me to make the leather book, and he specified a pencil holder too.  I named in "Spell(ing) Book".  Fun.

Cycling in Cheung Chau with kids, what a lovely day.  Ice cream, cycling, chit chats and of course Instant photography, this time with Chocolate Polaroid film.

Middle of October, after weeks of thinking about it, I finally took 4 hours (or 6?) to make this leather pen holder with strap for myself.  I followed a design from a Japanese company called 4GATS, I admired their design a lot but I couldn't buy it anywhere in Japan in my last visit in July.  Will import their products to Hong Kong, but I just had to own one created by my hand :)

More product sourcing, repeatedly, happily.  Knew Jac Zagoory's key pen for a while but finally saw it in person first time.  Great quality, good looking, but probably cannot arrive for this Xmas.

Couldn't join Strida gatherings, but managed to visit a bike store opening.  Met a serious biker who customized his Strida with speed drive, drop bar and Megahorn.

Got my hands on the Polaroid Z340 instant digital camera!  Love the look, hate the Zink prints.  Launch event with media on 23rd Nov.

Lomokino launched.  Got a sample but haven't tried to use it, I have low motivation to do that afraid of spending all my money in seconds.

Phew, a whole lot more happened, I guess these are just tip of the iceberg.  Better follow my tweets Colin! :)  BTW, finished reading the "Steve Jobs" biography and re-read "Why We Buy".  In the process of reading "Thinking, Fast and Slow".

Shelves and Shelves of Treasured Things and Stories to Tell

If I were to have my own place (gee it is almost impossible now given the high property price here in Hong Kong and I am probably too late, too unwilling to work my butts off giving my entire salary to mortgage), I would have all walls filled with bookshelves, custom made or genuine trays of the letterpress shelves, boxes and blackboards etc to build memories, concepts and ideas.

In these shelves/trays, they hold small chunks of memories though collection of objects and visuals.  Each object tells a story of my adventures, places I've been to and concepts coming from my little brain.  A real life Akashic Record of myself open to everybody.  I don't know what it means in front of God, or if it means anything to anybody, but at least being able to see those shelves of my life in my mind already gives me the basic grasp of who I am, that's what life is about isn't it?  To discover yourself.  Now I accept donations :P

From Ideas and Simulations to Making Them Real - with a lot of help from colleagues

Yet another year has passed, I really didn't realize until I grew tired of something at work lately and counted, that it is the 8th Back To School campaign I managed.  I couldn't believe it, and it is best for me to stop and let the next guy take over.  To linger a bit more, I imagined next year's campaign would feature "The End Of the World BTS Catalog" hahahah, a lot of fun games, dressed up staff, in-store characters displayed…. etc.  What do you care, it's the end of the world…. kind of cool.  Anyway, the idea will perhaps stays with me and still looks beautiful without actualizing it :)

I strived to add new elements to every year's campaign, mostly on concepts, accurate 3D layout, analysis and games.  Too bad this year there are not much new merchandise from Japan (after the quake) and things are pretty slack.  But so far this is the best year ever in terms of contribution from every division.

I'm particularly happy about this year's simulation, in fact so proud I showed my son how it was done from scratch.  First it was a sketch on paper, then I worked on 3D simulation on Google SketchUp accurate to the millimeters, fantastic colleagues from VMD made them real finally.  My son was watching me orbiting the simulated scenes on computer, asking all sorts of questions, he wanted to go to help setting up the actual event and to watch when it first opened and customers coming in.  Eventually I took him to Times Square in the middle of the event, at first he was just casually looking around, not particularly excited I guess because it was not really a back to school event for young kids.  All of a sudden, he said calmly "so amazing".  That's enough for me, I didn't need any award.

So let's see what will come to change and I will put some thoughts on it during my trip to Switzerland next week (yes for work).  After all, my tarot amplified my thoughts about putting plans into action, inner strength and courage to take risks.  Will see, will see.

Meet Yourself - A Back To School 2011 Event 12th Aug - 1st Sep

This year our back to school theme will be "Meet Yourself!" in city'super and LOG-ON.  I realized for a long while that we've never really geared our promotion in terms of "school supplies", but rather "Personalization, Customization and Individualism".  So I decided to play down the "back to school" name a bit and "invited" 9 very distinct characters whom you will find appearing in our event area and on leaflets, to show you what they like, perhaps you will identify yourself to some of them naturally.

In this event, which is a painstakingly difficult thing to pull off involving so many parties, we will have Personalization Zone, Gadgets and Basic Stationery Zone, iPad/iPhone/Headphone Zone, Fashion/Bag Zone and Brand Zone.  All in Times Square city'super for the period 12th Aug to 31st Aug (while in other stores, they are the smaller sized versions of the Times Square one and last until 1st Sep).

As usual, we get the privileged support from various Japanese stationery makers to have offer items that are new and exclusively imported for this event: UNI StyleFit single body with dot patterns, UNI Cutie & Cool series, PILOT Coleto Heart series (very difficult to get from Japan!), PENTEL Vicuna 2+1 pen, ZEBRA award winning Arbez series.

Our dear friends from Korea stationery industry also supported us with brand new product lines and beautiful displays.  I wish we had more time and manpower to cope with their sheer volume of creativity. Brands include: Antenna Shop, 7321 Design, E2, Pony Brown, Lollipop, Indigo, Elago, Vistadesign, etc.

Chocolate Rain fans will be delighted to see a 1.7m Fatina along side with a bunch of new products such as umbrella, keychain, iPad cases, etc, thanks to Prudence and her friendly partners to make it happen again this year.

Staedtler will be demonstrating how to use their coloring products, while an exclusive DIY pencil set will be available too.  Cote et Ciel new arrival from France.  Soul by Ludacris demonstration booth with show girls.  Hello Kitty speakers, Jays earphones, Tunewear collections, iHome mood light speakers, mix tape USB drive, music match and doll earphones, water dancing speakers, etc etc.

Purchase any Nike bags from us you will also get this cool notebook set for free (while stock last, about a thousand pieces).  It is a nylon cover with 3 A5 sized notebook refills (ruled, squared and plain).  North Face, Puma, Gregory bags will be present in the event too.  Don't forget to check out our own production bags which each of the series are named after those 9 characters I mentioned above (Nicole, Nic, Mandy, Rika, Nikki, Matt, Max, Wilson, Eagle).

I'm not very organized here but you will soon see our "Meet Yourself!" leaflet coming out, feel free to pick it up and explore.  There is even a matching game with very nice prizes, you just have to figure out which pair of those 9 characters are currently "in a relationship" :)

Digitally Retro Analog - Roberts Radio and BookBook iPad Case

Despite the numerous bombardment of new products from my everyday work life, things like retro/analog always catch my eyes.

Starting from mid-November, a series or Roberts Radio will be arriving our stores for those who like our selection.  The iconic Revival R250 series of analog radio is a nostalgic 1950's style retro radio with LW/MW/FM wavebands, battery or AC operated, which is important as a portable radio.

Yes any simple and tiny music gadget nowadays already accomplishes the basics of a radio but it is an entirely different experience carrying a good old analog radio to shower or a BBQ event.  I love the fact that it looks like a nice handbag, carrying it on street did attract attentions believe me.

This Roberts radio is made with high density wooden cabinet for sold analog sound, the hand finished leatherclothing is done in UK still.

For those of you owning an iPad like me (I was being convinced to get one for the sake of my kid but turned out the entire family is addicted to the iPad) and look for a retro twist.  Twelve South's BookBook for iPad is a great choice.  We already found a huge crowd of BooBook for MacBook lovers from our stores so this BookBook for iPad is certainly going to get a lot of attentions during Xmas.

One thing I don't like about BookBook for iPad though is that it is not very handy to make the iPad stand although it does provide a leather string you can adjust the viewing angle.  I do have a problem with a zipper enclosure of anything portable like my notebook, laptop and now the iPad.  Whether you like it or now, it all depends on how you would use your gadgets or how the aesthetic balances out the pitfall.

iBall: Wireless Sound that Never Blinks

iBall’s unique design reflects individuality – nothing is typical here. Roundly shaped with an 8-inch diameter, the iBall is designed to be a portable wireless speaker for the Apple iPod® generation, even iPod nano! The iBall’s transmitter base offers three functions: synchronizing the iPod with the computer, charging the iPod, and broadcasting music wirelessly.

• Advanced 2.4 GHz, adaptive frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) wireless technology delivers crystal clear digital stereo audio up to 100 feet
• Three-speaker array system with ported bass cavity provides a smooth and powerful listening experience
• Adjustable treble and bass
• Built-in remote control enables iPod operation wirelessly – directly from the iBall
• Easy to read LCD display illuminates the time, volume, bass, treble, wireless signal strength, input selection, play/pause status and battery power
• Runs six to eight hours on rechargeable batteries or from AC adaptor, both included
• Charges iPod and synchronizes with iTunes® through standard 30-pin connection to USB or Firewire port connections for your Mac/ PC
• Compatible with Apple iPod, iPod photo®, iPod mini®, and iPod shuffle® (seven iPod adaptors included, iPod shuffle adaptor sold separately)
• Auxiliary stereo line-in mini-plug for use with one additional audio source
• S-video and A/V stereo line-out mini-plug for listening and viewing through other A/V components (i.e. stereo, TV)

Shure New Black Headphones for PSP and iPod/nano

We've compared Shure with other high quality headphones but still Shure is our best choice.  The original Shure headphone was grey in color before it is wildly popular as the best noise isolation headphone in the consumer market (despite the fact that Shure has long been known as musician's best choice for on stage equipment).  Following iPod's success, Shure expanded its headphone line to have E2C, E3C and E5C in white color.  In addition, a new E4C in white color was also released in July this year.

According to Shure, the "C" series denotes "Consumer", now in end-Oct we are proud to be the first to start a brand new "G" series, which denotes "Gaming".  Shure will release 3 new black models: E2G, E3G and E4G targeting PSP and iPod users.  The shiny black finishing looks remarkably similar to PSP and black iPod casing and they are perfect matches for your cool black dressing.

If you are new to Shure's headphone, it is the best noise isolation headphone around and the high impedance specification creates the best listening experience with stronger base comparing to similar headphone like Etymotic.

Retail price of E2G:HKD$790, E3G:HKD$1548, E4G:HKD$2350. (more information of the gaming series: http://www.shurestore.com/earphones/index.html#gaming)