Almost a year ago I heard from Midori's (Designphil) Traveler's Notebook creative team mentioning an intention to create a unique store, a destination store for world traveler's to pay homage, a place which you can enjoy just being there, a place which fits the Traveler's Notebook concepts - for all traveler's who have a free spirit.
It was a difficult task, the creative team I know of is very picky. It took them a very long time and serious thoughts to launch the brass range of products, looking for a place dedicated to Traveler's Notebook is even more daunting.
But finally I heard news from Iijima san! They've identified a warehouse in the back alley of Naka-meguro (中目黑) which used to be a paper processing plant many years ago (ideal and perfect fit isn't it?). It was suddenly available despite failed attempts to rent it. I am anxiously looking forward to visit it, which will open in October, sadly I've used up my travel resources this year for Japan, I will have to wait until next year. Now I don't want to expect too much, but I do. Imagine a place which all Traveler's Notebook users would dream to visit, to see what collections they acquired from all over the world, to check out some nice original products including book covers and accessories for customization, to enjoy a cup of coffee with books while journaling….
Back from dreaming, a few days ago I pulled out some of my favorite pens selecting which ones to carry in my pencase: from left to right, Rotring Rapid Pro 0.7mm, Kaweco mechanical pencil 2.0mm, Graf Von Faber Castell fountain pen, Pentel Tradio customized, Midori brass pen, Kaweco Classic Sports fountain pen, green laser pen.
And wow! This is just in. There will be an Traveler's Notebook event coming up in Kyoto, featuring MT tapes made for the event!
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.
Oh gee I just found that I didn't post anything about my beloved Travel Photo Cafe 2011 event here!! I thought I did. If you have been following my tweets you probably saw some of the pictures already, anyway here's some of the photos from the Flickr set (but more is coming)
I was finally able to grab all the gifts for the prize winners who joined our Facebook campaign. The 1st prize winner gets the limited edition Traveler's Notebook and 5 set of stickers.
I added a few stationery goodies to the package to compensate for the wait :) I don't know if it will still be me organizing this event next year, I had so much fun doing it and I miss it already. Will tell you more.
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).
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.
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" :)
One trip down, 2 more to go in July. And I still haven't created one single slide for a presentation to be done next week, which I'll not be able to attend but will need to present anyway. I plan to do a screen/voice capture and just send out the file which dozens of people will sit down and watch, while I will be enjoying sunshine in Phuket :)
It is an important presentation for me, mostly because of the inner journey it takes to figure out what happened, and what will come. Luckily I've already taken the inner journey multiple times and satisfied myself, the rest is just the last mile assembling thoughts in legible form into a file and a recording. Life is a like a Traveler's Notebook, it unfolds itself to people who want to see your journey.
If you are not following my tweets or Instagram feed (@patrickng for people who use Instagram app on iPhone), you are missing a lot since I can only update my blog once in a while. So many things going on I simply do not have time to sum up as a blog entry. So join me, I'm visiting 3 cities in July and a lot can happen ;)
To put the 4 stacks of GTD index cards (next actions, project, waiting for and someday) into the notebook, first you use 2 pieces of thick paper cut to the size of the notebook refill cover, then insert them to one of the elastic bands just like you normally would do with a notebook refill. This will give you 4 pages/placeholders for the index cards. You can make the index cards more accessible by reducing the width of each page, the first page being the narrowest and so forth.
The rest is just easy, using binder clips to clip each stack of index cards onto the corresponding pages. If you are like me looking for more stylish way to use the clips, check out my previous post about how to make these Leather GTD Tabs.
Perhaps you've noticed an extra notebook on top of my Traveler's Notebook in the first image. It is a Moleskine weekly diary I need constant access to, I customized to make it likable together with Traveler's Notebook. Next year however, I don't need to do that anymore coz Midori is going to release a weekly refill in the format I like most - weekly diary on the left page, note space on the right! Can't wait for the 2012 weekly diary coming out, which will be around September 2011.
If you don't know about mind.Depositor, Leather GTD Tabs and templates, here's a few pointers:
Travel Photo Cafe is a mindset and a collection of tools you may find them helpful to literally change the way you look at your next getaway travel. Yes your gears are important, but we figured through our extensive travel that, as Henry Miller precisely puts it, "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." So open up to what we are proposing and make it your mission to create a new journey ahead, and when you do, we hope you will bring back your very own new attitude to everyday life.
This 5th rendition of Travel Photo Cafe also marks the 5th anniversary of Traveler’s Notebook by Midori. On 24th and 25th of June, the Midori design team will be present at Festival Walk LOG-ON to meet you and share their customization experience. Don’t miss the chance, come by and grab a few exclusive items made just for this event!
究竟要怎樣才能跳出一般的渡假模式？選購功能性旅行用品當然重要，但更重要的是您會選擇背上一個怎樣的心態去看世界。這個 Travel Photo Cafe 的概念不僅包含了玩味極濃的文具及攝影精品，也送給您一些小貼士，希望您能從這裏出發成為一位能追隨著自心步伐的旅人。如作家Henry Miller所說：One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. 願您能把旅途上發掘到的新思維新態度帶回來，成為您日常生活的新自我。
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
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 :)
Do check out our Moleskine shelves in stores. We are planning to create an even more interesting Moleskine corner to include those non-paper products I mentioned before (Full release of product info will come in middle of April 2011)
In the mean time, if you haven't, check out the cool stop motion video of Le Petit Prince Moleskine made.
Blake Mycoskie: Start Something That Matters I don't know why I couldn't finish this book, maybe it was the tone it was being written. Gotta get back to it someday, or not. (**)
Paco Underhill: Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond Read this book 10 years ago. To read this updated copy is to refresh my memory of how things were done back then and what's changed recently. Although at the beginning it is kind of boring and you may not agree with their research methods, but later in the chapters you will find hidden wisdoms. Just follow the author's logic and see what you can learn from it. (***)
Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs Love hearing the stories all over again, some of them especially what happened in the past few years are new to me. Most importantly it is a closer portrait of Steve than all other books about him. Isaacson recorded audios during his interview with Steve, check out 60 minutes special and you will hear Steve's own voice. RIP Steve. (****)
Richard Branson: Losing My Virginity Read it like a novel coz you'll find it attractive as a story to follow through. Learn from his character through stories! (****)
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