Scription

Stationery Landscape

 

(Video shot with Leica M240, stablized by youtube)

Imagine flying on a plane looking at my stationery landscape from high above.  Beautiful song by Dimitri From Paris featuring Pink Martini.  Yup, I was busy flying around HK/Shanghai/Japan/Korea lately.  Next trips to Shanghai/Korea in October.  Sorry, I'm so slow in my blog, but rest assure the instagram feed is the best place to tag on my journeys.

 

Syracuse

J'aimerais tant voir Syracuse
L'ile de Paques et Kairouan
Et les grands oiseaux qui s'amusent
A glisser l'aile sous le vent

Voir les jardins de Babylone
Et le palais du Grand Lama
Rever des amants de Verone
Au sommet du Fuji Yama

Voir le pays du matin calme
Aller pecher le cormoran
Et m'enivrer de vin de palme
En ecoutant chanter le vent

Voir le pays du matin calme
Aller pecher le cormoran
Et m'enivrer de vin de palme
En ecoutant chanter le vent

Avant que ma jeunesse s'use
Et que mes printemps soient partis
J'aimerais tant voir Syracuse
Pour m'en souvenir a Paris

Why I did this update?  I needed to slow down and turned down going out on Sunday, listening to Jazz radio and dwelling in these beautiful landscapes.  So beautiful I had to make a video and bring everybody with me flying for just one minute.

Then all hell broke loose, there are so many stories behind each piece of treasure, I am to write just a little bit here after.

Something annoyed me for a long while, right behind my desk there is this window I hate.  Normally I love windows, this one, landlord decided to replace a broken air conditioner with one that must be sealed onto the window, somehow the contractor had to glue the whole thing and the window couldn't be turned open anymore.  The heat, the vibration noise, arghhhh, I couldn't even install a curtain anymore, my desktop monitor would be impossible to look at during day time.  Anyways, I faced the same problem today, kid just gave me a solution which I never thought of.  I got some nice Norens (Japanese fabric dividers) bought from Traveler's Factory and ITOYA, and we just clipped them onto the window and it was almost a perfect day.  Beautiful Japanese design.  Vibration still goes on, but it is alreay a lot better.

A few days ago, as usual I got pissed off with vague empty monkey ideas which everybody seems to have opinions about how to realize but none could specify exactly how.  I could "let it go", but my problem is I couldn't bear such ugly outcome if I were not getting my hands dirty.  Luckily I have the experience using SketchUp for close to 10 years now, I found a crack of time and I had to specify it clearly.

Got me into thinking: physical form follows function, conceptual form follows intentions.  Yes design is an iteration process, building something starts from fulfilling function with form, great designs infiltrate aesthetics and intentions into the form in the process.  Most people forget that the most important aspect of customer experience is YOUR intention, how is that being designed.  Losing focus on that, you get a piece of junk sitting around doing nothing.

Got me into thinking: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Buddhist's word.

Got me into recalling: "Who?  Who is but the form following the fuction of what and what I am is a man in a mask".  V for Vendetta.

Back to stationery.  I usually use my Kaweco SketchUp 5.6 for rough draft, Rotring 800+ (which has a nice twist and hide mechanism to protect the needle head and a nice stylus tip, got it from ITOYA a week ago in addition to my Rotring 800) for finer lines drawn on my Traveler's Notebook.  Then I move on to SketchUp for simulation in exact measurement.

Which lead me into another project, a space to be created in a new store coming up in December, for gathering with customers having fun together, once in a while with interesting exhibitions.  I can't be fully involved but according to some, this space is important to my departments, so if I don't specify it will go astray to my dismay.  Then there was this Saturday afternoon having fun and deeper discussion with partner Out of Stock.  What interests me is that picking people's brain trying to integrate and elevate something satisfies me immensely.

Got me into thinking: what's the most common pattern in nature?  I was thinking of honeycomb hexagon when designing flexible tables, allowing multiple arrangements and collapsable for storage.  Turned out there is no such thing as "the most common", there are variety of patterns in nature, spirals, fractuals, chaos, waves, etc.  Thank God I have this wondering journey of discovery and linkage back to my science education, which is mostly an intellectual process I enjoy most for the work I do.

Which leads us back in time for a week when I was in Tokyo/Osaka.  It was a 7 days travel to visit trade show, meet suppliers and explore places and spaces.  At one point I sat down in a nice cafe in Nakazakicho (中崎町), Osaka, which is a really nice area with small shops and cafes.  I thought of my extremity being in certain roles at one time but completely another roles in other times crossing disciplines, it felt almost unbearable having my personality and skills split into compartments, unable to manage it I would become a mad man getting nowhere.  How to simplify such management was the thought in that very cafe.

Got me into a thought experiment: Can't just be a lighthouse in a tea cup, able to show direction but knowing just that and in a small world.  Can't just be an explorer seeing so much there is no place to berth and share what I see into the future.  Can't be both at the same time either.  What I need to become?  Need to be fluid-like waveform and become Schrödinger's cat, observe me I'm a lighthouse, observe me again I'm an explorer.  Can I master this meta personality?  I have a long way to go.

(Flannagan, Osaka)

Alright Osaka was fun, I wish I stopped by Kyoto instead but it was a rush decision.  I thought I hadn't been there for 5 years so I wanted to see what was changed.  Visited 15 stores, two most loved ones are Flannagan and Standard Bookstore.  Despite unable to communicate in English, staff at Flannagan tried very hard to explain everything I asked.  It has no big difference than the last time I visited, but this time I asked more.  Except Meister Tools Pen, which is from Japan, all of their products are imported from Europe/USA.  The most recent import was from Russia, a 350 yen 2.0 lead mechanical pencil with a sharpener cap, an attractive deal.

(Standard Bookstore)

Standard Bookstore was relaxing to read, to grab stationery and to have a nice cup of coffee.  I got a Apartamento magazine and a book called True Portland.  Spent more than the usual time to walk around the stationery and lifestyle product sections and of course a cup of coffee in their cafe.  There is a certain rawness in it, kind of organized un-neatly yet organized and motivates a sense of discovery.  It is a perfect place to spend an entire day, we need these spaces.

(Trans-Lankhe)

Oh there is another place I stumbled upon, a home/interior shop called Trans-Lankhe, close to Flannagan.  I feel that this is a shop managed by Dulton, a brand I love a lot, but I'm not sure.  I love their cabinets, far-sight eyeglasses, small things like wooden trays and clips as well as those cans and accessories.

(Doutor Coffee, working on Chronodex planning 5 people's schedule for the next day)

Back further before visiting Osaka, it was almost all business and meetings in Tokyo, except in small chunks of time when I was in Doutor Coffee, ITOYA and Angers.

(ITOYA, Ginza, Tokyo)

ITOYA, ITOYA!  I lost a lot of blood over there, it is a family in stationery business I admire a lot.  There are intentions and histories there.  Yup, you can spend a full day there and it is not enough.  Currently their original building is still under re-construction hopefully seeing light into opening in 2015, a temporary building is used but you still get a full 7-8 floors full of stationery, an annex close by called K.ITOYA hosts finer selections of fountain pens, art supplies and study room essentials.  Be prepared to die in this heaven, I got a wooden pencase called AvanWood there, well and many other stuffs too, its a poison.

(Angers in KITTE Marunouchi, Tokyo)

Angers originates from Kyoto since 1993, it is one of the stores with stronger intentions you can tell from product selection and merchandise mix, things are right beside each other for reasons, unlike Loft and Hands which are more commercially oriented and you would have no interest to find out who's behind them (they are still far superior than many Western stationery businesses IMHO), Angers shows telltale signs in every corner.  To put it simply, signage speaks character, as to what character you can perceive from the store, you just have to visit it.

(Traveler's Factory, Terminal 1, Narita Airport, Tokyo)

Oh of course there is the Traveler's Factory in Narita Airport.  This time I brought two colleagues to see it, every corner of the store speaks of details.  You know all the signages there were painted by hands from the original designer, factory only products, rubber stamps, etc all guarantee a few hours of stay even though it is a tiny shop comparing to the flagship factory shop in Meguro.

Why TN is loved by so many?  In addition to the flexibility for customization, the leather, the paper etc, I will tell you why: Serendipity.  It's a long story by itself of where this TN movement came from, it is other long stories of how things evolved around my life with it.  Simply said, I met a lot of friends from around the world because of it, you too have to step out of your zone and meet other users, it changes your perspectives and I mean it.

(mini meet-up in Tokyo with Shigeru and Rocketman, together with Suzuki and Rita)

For a while, Mr. Shigeru follows my instagram and I thought he only plays Ukulele, nothing to do with stationery or TN.  Then this July I saw his feed showing Traveler's Factory Narita in construction as well as Designphil's booth construction in time lapsed video, I got curious and asked if he is involved in the same industry.  Turned out he is a contractor for Designphil helping to build these things and he has been a TN user for many years.  Alright, let's come out when I visit in Sep I said, then dispite the language barrier we met in Nonbei Yokocho for a drink, together with my visiting colleagues.  Then Rocketman joined all of a sudden, I knew him only on Flickr liking his photos and he is actually a TN user too, he is probably uploading the most TN photos to the Flickr group and what a surprise I could finally meet him in person.  Rocketman sings in a hobby band, catalogs his meals meticulously on his TN, loves photography just like me and tries to visit new places every year.

Aren't we all connected?  Yes but if you are connected to people just on the net and never met any one of them, you missed a lot.  There are so much more in each of us that's worth sharing and peeking.

(mini meet-up with Traveler's Notebook Korean users)

Each TN is a conversation starter.  Last year I had a great time visiting Korea to join a TN user gathering and we couldn't have enough.  So far, users in Korea are way more willing to show and share their TN usage than people in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  This year I visited Seoul again for business but at the end of the last day my friend and business partner Mr. Shin said we should head back to his office for discussion, alright we were tired but no problem, a few more hours of hard work will pay off.  Turned out it was a surprise gathering with familiar and new faces!  I was so happy despite being tired.  We swapped TNs to see what's happening lately to each other and how each one added personal touches to their TNs, be it customization or usage.

Who they are? Mathematics teacher in University, fashion industry mercahndiser, fountain pen fanatic with a background in theoratical physics, tour guide, fine art student etc.  See the diversity and how everyone enjoys sharing?  I learned a lot too.

One unexpected nice gift was from a fine art student who painted in very fine lines my avator onto a TN refill! 

Earlier this year, Voloymyr from Ukraine came to Hong Kong travelling with family, we knew each other briefly on facebook only but when he said he was going to leave Hong Kong the next day, I couldn't resist to come out very late a night just to catch up chatting with him.  I wondered what is happening in Ukraine, how he can spend 6 months working and then 6 months of vacation with family year after year, etc etc.  Stories and life diversity again and again.  Well, he didn't really go away, he left for Indonesia with family and filled up 128 pages of his TN and came back to Hong Kong for yet another brief meet up.  Amazing, he is back to Ukraine now, hopefully I will meet him again.

August this year, I was in Shanghai for a brief stay to help set up our ¬ [DESKBOUND] campaign (I would love to tell you more about this but maybe later).  On the last day I was carrying my luggage walking around the campaign area for a final glimpse, "Breeze in May" came and poking here and there in the TN zone, I was trying to answer her questions as much as possible in such short time.  She finally became a TN user, at this moment I think she is working on her USA vacation itinerary on TN :)

I met many new users in Hong Kong too!  During the ¬ [DESKBOUND] campaign in Hong Kong in early August, I brought my Kingsley machine to Times Square for a pop-up event, helping customers to emboss their TN with gold foil.  A family from Singapore, a secretary, a TN couple, etc etc.  We are going to have a great meet-up in Hong Kong soon I promise!  How about December when there is a new space we can use?

(¬ [DESKBOUND] event in city'super, Times Square, Hong Kong)

(a sample TN I drew on the cover with gold acrylic for display)

Alright, I'm writing too long and heading nowhere.  Before wrapping up, let me give you a little tip on TN.

If you have bought the brass index clip, have you ever wonder how other people are using it so that it won't fall off from the edge?  I did.  Here's a simple solution for you, just tape the back of the clip onto the page with masking tape, that's it.  Masking tapes are easily removable and you can relocate the index clip very easily.  Securing the clip using masking tape also helps to prevent excessible movement of the index clip which can easily damage the paper on the edge.  Good tip eh?

Finally, back to the Stationery Landscape topic.  I travel relatively more than other people, yet I feel seriously not enough coz most of my trips are on very tight business schedule, leaving me not much time to explore with people and places.  But life is like that isn't it?  Not enough not enough not enough, when can we start to enjoy more?  Let's steal time, find cracks, take moral advantages and be explorers meeting new people and making new friends on those common landscapes, I'm sure through that, we can be lighthouses to other people once in a while.

If you have reached this far of this blog post hahahah, its time to go back to the video and enjoy that one minute fly over with me once again, over the stationery landscape of mine.

Do You Light Up Things Differently?

Beneath my lightweight passport sized notebook and above my wooden tray is the Lumio, an amazing invention by Max Gunawan.  I first saw Lumio from Kickstarter and immediately became a backer coz it is totally original with a clean design, most importantly it is non intrusive to my workspace and easily portable to anywhere I want, transforming my environment into pleasing atmosphere anytime I want.

 

I love the laser-cut walnut cover which quietly matches almost every object I hold dear of.  My Lumio arrived in early October, to this date I still have to resist the urge to carry it with me all the time.  It is hard to remain un-noticed if you pull it out in public, I had even brought with me to Seoul to show off in front of a dozen of die hard Midori Traveler's Notebook fans.

(photo credit: Barambaram)

(photo credit: Barambaram)

(photo credit: Barambaram)

You get 8 hours of continuous portable bright warm light from one charge through micro USB, extremely efficient.  Opening it like a book means it has adjustable light angles from narrow to 360 degrees, allowing you shine direct light only to where you want to, perfect for bedroom reading.

My kid loves it, we even went out at night to check out some of the trees rooting over rocks nearby.

 

Eager to put Lumio into our shop so that more people can check it out in person, I've been in touch with Max for the past 10 months, patiently waiting for him to fulfill the Kickstarter backers' orders.  Finally we met 2 weeks ago when he stopped by Hong Kong.

Max got Lumio into a great start, if you read his updates on Kickstarter or have met him in person, you know he is a solid and hands-on guy doing everything from design to managing production, I sincerely hope he gets good helping hands for bringing Lumio to more people, so that he can focus on the next iteration or new designs. I personally would like to have a Lumio Pocket for ultra portability :)  

And talking about light.  I found out not long ago GummyGoods nightlight, squeeze the bear belly and Voila! 3 high-powered LED light up the 100-times-bigger-than-the-real-thing Gummy Bear, it has a one hour timer switch so that you don't waste too much battery power, it is perfect for kid's room but I'm sure most of us Gummy Bear loving adults won't be able to resist the temptation.  We were lucky to get some colors (red, yellow, green) to put into our stores, but thank God new colors also arrived a week ago, they are gonna be sold out in the next 2 days, I just bought a blue one myself, you know how it excited my kid tonight?  Watch the video, it was spontaneous.

 

Alright it was my turn after he went to sleep, so I hooked up my bear with my Laserpod (wow, it's been a long while you haven't heard anything from Laserpod right?):

 

So you see, I am kind of obsessed with things which light up differently.  Do you light up things differently?

Tools to Liveby

In such a short period of time, Karen Yang has achieved what I've been dreaming for so long, I hope to visit her shop Tools to Liveby soon.  But of course she would be facing a whole new set of accompanying problems she couldn't have imagined before, I presumed.  It will be interesting to interview her, let's see.

 

Scription's Perfect System 2011-2012

I didn't realize until 3 days ago when I put these 3 things together (which contain a whole lot more of other things inside each), that this bunch of tools are actually EVERYTHING I need wherever I go, and it is quite compact IMHO.  Powerful isn't it?  In a moment I'm gonna share with you the details but first, let's contemplate on the pattern behind, which is beyond objects and tools, but of planting seeds which someday all coagulate and become something more.

Today I have a dream job most of you envy and I myself enjoy tremendously, but this dream job is just one of the things I surrounded myself with.  My core has always been planting seeds, finding tools, connecting unrelated stuffs and sit back to look at all of these actions once in a while.  Sitting back is most important of all, it is one of the happiest moments when you can most certainly find and reap innovations and insights.

Back to objects and tools.  This so called "Perfect System" which I assume is valid at least until the end of 2012, is a result of me continuously simplifying my daily needs, finding tools that fit and beautifying them along the road.  Somehow it all made sense when I put them together.

Traveler's Notebook

(customized Traveler's Notebook refill cover)

It is not a perfect notebook but you have a choice to carry only what you need and I customized it to fulfill my needs for: travel, GTD, scheduling, mind mapping and drawing.  It is basically holding all my plans and thoughts.

(all travel essentials can be put inside my Traveler's Notebook)

(card pockets to hold credit card and name cards, etc)

(zip pocket to hold tickets, receipts, anything even coins)

(a journal page I made during my stay in Phuket)

(journaling pages)

Travel: card pockets to hold business cards, hotel access cards, mileage cards, medical card.  Zip pocket to hold receipts, post cards, stickers, paper clips.  Elastic band to hold my flight itinerary, boarding pass and passport.

GTD: I carry two refills inside Traveler's Notebook.  One is used for GTD, drawing and mind mapping.  Instead of carrying extra deck of GTD index cards like before, I use my Leather GTD Tabs to clip on specific pages for various purposes (Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For, Someday).  In addition, I created some custom inserts to facilitate my mind mapping needs.  It is a PDF in A4 size which you can download, print double sided, cut into the right size, fold in half and insert into a refill notebook very easily.  Here's the file!  Try it out and let me know your feedback.  On blank page of the refill, I enjoy drawing things randomly or sketching my next leather project ideas.

Scheduling: The second refill I use for scheduling.  I've decided that no commercially available diaries fulfill my needs and most of them too rigid.  So I created a way I temporarily called Chronodex, which you may already had a glimpse in some of my previous photos.  I'm still adding and modifying things but here's a version you can download and try: CHRONODEX VERSION 6.  It is a PDF in A4 size, you can process it the same way I mentioned above and use it as a free weekly diary.  The main advantage of it for me is that I can use the space freely but still referring to the correct time slice/pie, it is visually more pleasing and less rigid to me.  Again, I'm happy to hear your comments, good and bad.

(priority based mindmapping, more important things appear earlier in the clock face)

(my GTD leather tabs)

(mindmapping ideas, book darts seen)

(meeting notes in the form of mindmapping)

(hang tag + masking tape + clips, helpful to locate pages quick)

(my typical week schedule using Chronodex concept in weekly format I made for Traveler's Notebook)

(detail view of a typical day in my free weekly planner)

(fun to use rubber stamps to start my week)

Well, I also stitched a leather loop onto the back cover of the Traveler's Notebook to carry an extra pen the way I like it.  Other customization is just aesthetic, like the bookmark charm and the camera charm.

Twelve South BookBook and iPhone

This BookBook leather case for iPhone is super popular and we are always out of stock.  I found it perfect to be my wallet and communicator all-in-one.

Wallet: I use Twelve South's BookBook to hold my credit cards, staff access card, transport card and occasionally paper money.

Communicator: I customized the BookBook to allow better experience photo shooting with iPhone.  For work, using iPhone for photos is good enough most of the time.  Besides, my iPhone is, like many people, for: Instagram to have fun with photos and image loving communities, email, music player, phone calls, Facebook, whatsapp, audiobooks (I now "read" books mostly in audiobook format, at least I won't fall asleep), meditation (I use binaural beats to achieve mind states), alarm, address book, teamviewer (to connect remotely to my work or home computer), tethering, calculator, etc.  Thanks to Charles Kao and Steve Jobs, never been so powerful connecting to the world.

Pen Holder on Neck Strap

It seems trivial nowadays to many people but it is so useful for me.

Pens: I carry 3 pens close to me (I want to carry one more, a mechanical pencil either by Rotring or Kaweco, but that's just too much to carry sometimes).  A Pilot Capless Matt Black: it is efficient like a roller ball, just click and write, but produces elegant strokes as a fountain pen even at fine nib, I use it mostly for scheduling and mind mapping.  A Kaweco Sports ball point pen: I hate ball pens but sometimes you need to use them on laminated name cards or coated papers, very good price and small to carry.  A Graf Von Faber Castell Classics Platinum fountain pen: thanks to a dear friend who bought me this, I now use it for important signature (not much actually), its medium nib allows me to generate beautiful calligraphy and heavier strokes for sketches, I love the classic shape a lot and …err it is also something I can brag about :)

Leather Pen Holder on Neck Strap: I made this pen holder modeling after one made by 4GATS, a talented Japanese leather-craft company made of 4 staffs.  If you like the look of this, all credit goes to 4GATS, I made it because I couldn't get one myself and I love to DIMyself.  Having pens readily accessible but with style is satisfying, how?  I get more than 30 people staring at my chest every single day, anyway I hate putting pen and especially more than one of them on my shirt pocket.  One additional function I like to have this on my neck is that I can clip my visitor's pass onto it whenever I go to trade shows, no more ugly event straps hanging on my neck!

The leather pen holder is usually hanged from my neck or in my shirt pocket, BookBook in my pant pocket, while I carry by hand the Traveler's Notebook.  Well, the "Perfect System" may sound like a clumsy organizer to you, but it is my constant (remember Faraday's "constant" in LOST?) and I invite you to think more about the constant concept if you will.

Finally, if I had the luxury to carry one more thing I would carry an analog camera: Voigtlander R4A 35mm f1.4 or Canon F1N 50mm f1.2 or Polaroid 110A converted to use Fujifilm peel apart.

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".

Moleskine Trade Show Covering Products for 2011

Today I spent a wonderful morning in a great exhibition space organized by Working Unit (the Moleskine Asia people).  This is by far the best Moleskine trade exhibition I've ever visited, I couldn't believe I spent 3.5 hours there.  The following video was shot and edited on iPhone so that you can have a quick look at what are to be offered in 2011.  Better photos will be uploaded soon.

 

The most waited for and probably going to be sold most is Writing series IMHO.  Refillable ABS matte black finished, the roller pen has a special rubberized metal clip for attaching to the cover of your M.  It works great for both classic and reporter notebooks.  Basically you don't remove the cap from the notebook, just pull the pen out and start writing, no need to worry losing the cap coz it hang on to the cover pretty strongly.

Fine tip at 0.5mm, medium tip at 0.7mm, the refills come in 6 different colors: black, blue, green, red, violet and brown.  Its a pity for 0.5mm tip, you only have black and blue color to choose from.  I personally love the dark brown color, wish they would make it to 0.5mm as well.  If you plan to get a few roller pens with different color refills, there is a way to distinguish between them since each pen comes with 24 adhesive labels with different patterns.  There is a spring at the end of the pen barrel so your refill is "springy" when in use, it is supposed to give you a smooth writing experience, but the feature sounds a bit trivial when comparing to typical Japanese writing instruments.

Sold separately is this "3 slip-on grips + pen holder" accessories set.  To me it looks bulky to carry 3 already thick pens on a notebook, but it works, not exactly sleek but its functional.  I can't help thinking about UNI's StyleFit or Pilot's Colleto which can accommodate 4-5 refills plus mechanical pencil in one single barrel about the same size as this pen.  But I guess a Moleskine pen is not interested in competing in that direction, besides it is somewhat cool to accept being simple.  Well, back to the pen holder, you simply snap the pens on the grooves that's it.  Great to carry 1 pencil and two rollers.  I hate the rubber sleeve though, how it destroys the contour of a perfectly matched rectangular round cornered aesthetic.  But guess what, you may really need the rubber.  Because of the clean barrel design, I have a tendency to constantly re-adjust my pen holding position, up and down, up and down, almost like I couldn't find the correct way to hold the pen, that is until I slipped the rubber on.  Try and you'll see what I mean.

The metal roller pen in silver feels solid, a handsome matte grey lacquered brass and aluminum surface looks sharp on black notebooks.  As with the ABS roller pens, I wish the cap and clip is a single piece of cast or at least looks like one, that would make an even cleaner signature IMHO.

The "2 pencils + cap + sharpener" set is surprise.  The 2B graphite at 3mm diameter is actually very good for sketching, the broad cedar wood body gives you a firm grip even without a rubber sleeve, especially when you hold the pencil sketching horizontally using the lead's widest surface.  The sharpener of 12.5mm opening operates smoothly.  I assume I can use this pencil until its last inch without much need of a pencil extender.

I've covered the Writing series above.  For Reading and Traveling series, which consists of reading glasses, booklight, reading stand, backpacks, tote bags, etc., it takes time to actually use the products in order to give an honest review, besides I don't have them with me, so I'll just give you a surface remark :)  They all look handsome and smart.  Usability and quality, I can't tell.

Now that Moleskine is venturing away from a pure notebook brand, the concepts encompassing these new categories becomes so much more important, in order not to loose focus.  I think the Reading, Writing, Traveling concepts works pretty well together, in addition to Organizing, the brand has a sound approach to expansion.  This direction also gives retailers much more opportunities to explore new grounds.  The past two years we tried to create box sets for Christmas but the response was, as expected, not encouraging, after all, these box sets were just boxes of notebooks.  But now it gets more interesting when new product ranges compliment the notebook category, finally some meaningful box sets came out.

• Writing Set: 1 pocket black ruled notebook, 1 ABS roller pen with cap
• Drawing Set: 1 pocket black sketchbook, 2 pencils, 1 sharpener, 1 cap
• Gourmet Box: 1 recipe journal, 1 wine journal, 20 gourmet notes for food tasting, 20 coaster notes for wine tasting
• Gardening Box: 1 gardening journal, 1 gardening pocket, 12 seeds envelopes
• Travel Box: 1 travel journal, 2 luggage tags

I'm sure there will be more interesting sets to come in the future.

As for the Organizing series, Peanuts limited edition found its way to the 2012 diaries!  Here in Hong Kong, The Little Prince limited edition sold much much more than Peanuts, but I heard that customers in Japan love Peanuts far more than the rest of Asia, which probably explains such addition.  4 SKU will be released, weekly and daily, both in pocket and large size.  Cahier also made into the Organizing series, I love these thin diaries, you can be really flexible adding them to your pocket size notebook or simply use it individually.

Finally, Star Wars limited edition!  Gee, soon after I posted this photo on twitter, I got quite a number of retweets, proves to be popular :)

We had a great time today in the show, thanks to Arnault and Carlos, the two heads of Working Unit.  Always a pleasure for city'super/LOG-ON to work with these guys and their teams.  And somehow in this show, I was being interviewed as a die hard Moleskine fan by Phoenix TV :)

Hashy Top-in's Phone x Phone

This cool new iPhone gadget arriving not long ago were being sold like hot cakes in our stores and we went out of stock for a few days, luckily we are able to grab some remaining stocks from their factory.

Hashy Top-in's Phone x Phone is an all-in-one charging/sync/speaker/handset station with a nice matt rubber coating, which allows you to dock your iPhone to charge and sync while having the added benefit of reducing your brain's exposure to cell phone radiation (or more scientifically known as the level of cell phone specific absorption rate (SAR), which measures the quantity of radio frequency energy that is absorbed by the body).

 

The button on the back of the handset is used to end calls.  When music is playing, you can use it to jump forward/backward to the next/previous song.  Black, white, pink, yellow and blue colors are available, each selling at HK$238.  It works for iPhone 3G/3Gs/4.  Tell you what, Pink is our best seller so far, if you can't grab it this weekend, you won't get it as a Xmas gift in time.

Micro Blogging Reposts Coming Up

The next several posts will be a collection of things happened in my micro blogging on Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.  We've successfully opened a new LOG-ON store in Langham Place in mid-November.  And right after that, I was working on yet another LOG-ON to be launched early next year before CNY.

(Photo: sketch of the stationery corner in the new store to be launched early 2011)

Now you know why things are kind of slow on Scription's site, work has become so busy also because of Xmas is fast approaching, I had to blast off tiny updates instead of giving you more details which you will find here on Scription's blog.  Enjoy.

Travel Photo Cafe 2010 Starts!

Thanks to my Stationery and Moving department teammates, each of us went to different stores to help set up the event and it went smoothly.  I wish I could add more of some craft examples to show newbies how things work, but I only have 24 hours a day, I guess smart people can figure out by themselves without much explanations.

Apparently these stamps are so popular we will be running out of postcards on the 3rd day of the event in some stores.  This year's stamps are so beautiful people do feel like missing something if they don't collect all 6 of them on their postcard or journals.

If you are in Hong Kong between the period 18th June to 1st July, do visit Times Square and New Town Plaza city'super or Festival Walk and APM LOG-ON to find out more coz the event is morphing itself as some of the new Korean stationery designs such as those super cute stickers from Pony Brown are arriving stores as soon as we are receiving them from port.  Our limited edition Strida bike is also attracting a lot of attention, so go play with us!

From Drawing Board to Reality - Stationery in city'super Shanghai in the form of Travel Photo Cafe

2 weeks has passed since I went to Shanghai to setup this tiny stationery corner in a city'super food store.  Yup, stationery in a food store and I'm proud of it.  Thanks for all the helps from Midori, Moleskine, MT, Lomo and KOLO, it was just a concept, then it was on my drawing board in 3D and every party contributed a little bit and there it is now.

I was proposing to put a real Travel Photo Cafe there, combining a real cafe with travel gears mostly in the form of stationery and photography.  It was subjected to a lot of inattention and my inability of conveying the concept.  Finally, to the company, it is just a stationery section in a food store.

Interestingly, one day before soft opening, our managing director came to me and asked if I can use the huge backdrop around my stationery section to create something related to the concept, rather than hanging up typical posters.  I immediately pulled up my Macbook that night in the hotel and quickly composed the look I wanted.  Finally yesterday, the day before our grand opening on 1st June, the backdrop was finally posted on the wall (I'm not in Shanghai so I can't take a picture or have a good look of it).  Everything just fell into the right place, the only difference from my original idea is just the missing of a real cafe.  But that's fine, I'll find another opportunity.

From just the merchandising you see from the photo here, you may not be able to tell the concept.  What I put there in the Travel Photo Cafe are all about recording and creativity through stationery and photography products.  I hope people visiting this section will appreciate it and learn about the concept through the backdrop and the little make up samples I did.

I particularly like the Midori Traveler's Notebook display, both Midori and I put some efforts into making it compact yet able to convey the mood of the "traveling spirit".  For MT masking tape, I picked up some nice food containers from the store to make it look like candies/cakes, which is quite matching.  Moleskine is of course highly supportive to create a Moleskine wall decorated with lightboxes and video.

As of today, the best sellers of this section is the city'super x Moleskine recipe journal and Midori's Traveler's Notebook.  I'm quite sure when people are visiting this store expecting to find only food related stuffs, they will be surprised by this little section with delight.  It is just eye widening to many, when I observed during soft opening.

Well, I maybe mumbling to myself here for the little inner pleasure of a personal experience.  But if you have been there, or haven't but like the way it was done, I appreciate it.