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It's time to gear up for lots of store visits, there will be a lot of layout changes, one more new store and multiple phases of Xmas promotion happening from this week onward. My gears will change from office setting (mind.depositor, Moleskine diary, fountain pen, calculator, camera) to field setting (pocket Moleskine, camera).
One of the indispensable tool is this "Holder for M" from Vintage Revival Productions. It is an ingenious two piece product made from a combination of leather and denim label material. One piece acts as a holder which allows you to insert your M into your jean's back pocket (8,800 yen), the other is a pen holder (4,500 yen). Both pieces are looped so that you can slide to the front and back cover of you M easily without permanent damage.
Where did I found this you asked? It was last July when I thought I was having the last meeting of a business trip in Tokyo, Mr. Doi from Sweetroad (a great store to visit mind you) told me about Mr. Iwata and his shop Iwata Denki. I had to rush to that store in Setagaya before it's closed. Full of sweat and unable to communicate in Japanese, I was signing and nodding a lot and had a great "conversation" with Iwata san, a designer himself, who published 2 design books called GOALD (goal of design), and constantly working to create new products. Do visit Iwata san's blog to get a glimpse of his works and product collections from his friends.
Iwata san made some very nice leather Moleskine covers. They are like stickers, only in leather, which are removable and probably can last several uses when you change your Moleskine. I was about to buy the brown snake skin embossed or the wood imitation cover but too bad they were out of stock. He also made those cute little leather photo clips which look like smileys, they are put into recycle film cans and sold in stores like Tokyu Hands and Loft.
Iwata san was very keen to show me his collection of great products in the shop, wooden iphone case, his leather credit card holder, coin pouch etc. "Holder for M" was the one thing I got from his shop, then I was out of cash in Tokyo :)
So if you are going to Tokyo, I suggest you to dig up these interesting small shops to go, it is far more rewarding as a journey. As for myself, the connection and sense of discovery always give me the thrill.
After my previous post about using Gfeller's Moleskine leather cover to put 2 Field Notes for a light trip to Seoul, Bob Corrigan told me about his "field testing" of a prototype leather cover specifically made for Field Notes, also done by the same maker. Here's Bob's review on his ack/nak site.
9 hours from now I'll be on my way to Seoul to source more quality Korean stationery for the stores. KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) is sponsoring air tickets and accommodation for about a thousand people from all over the world to Seoul this week to meet potential suppliers. Initially they didn't have a good list of suppliers suitable for us, but they are kind enough to help dig out some of the manufacturers I listed out. I will be able to meet these suppliers finally whom didn't respond to me even though I sent them numerous emails, they are probably shy to converse in English or not familiar to do international trade. I'm so glad my company allows me to stay two more days other than this event to look around and see some nice stores.
Here's yet another post about what's in my bag. If you like, check out the "What's in your bag?" flickr group to see what other people carry, you will be amazed.
- Stationery and photography travel gears (19th June - 2nd July 2009): Canon, Fuji, Lomo, Moleskine, Midori, KOLO, MT-tapes, LUXE, Kodomo stamps, Staz-on inkpads, etc
- Travel Talks: 3 different sessions on 20th June 2009 presented by traveler and photographers. Learn how to steal time and write better on your journal, life hack tricks included. Why a trip to Cambodia changed a portrait photographer's view on life and how a traveler's mindset is different from a tourist's. How imagery and text combined can create lasting memory through photo journaling. Only a few days left for registration!
- Mini Game with interesting prizes: Follow the instruction on the postcard and go to Festival Walk LOG-ON store, find the hidden message which is a travel quote written by G.K. Chesterton, write it down and submit. You get a chance to win nice gifts from great brands (check out this Flickr photo and move your mouse over to see what they are)
- Stamp your notebook/postcard: Yes stamps, bring your notebook or use our postcard. I've made these icons into self inking stamps for your fun: Moleskine, LCA, Travel Cafe logo, fountain pen. They sort of summarized what this event is all about. Also, Designphil (Midori) in Japan made these two stamps for our event too! They are only available in Hong Kong during this period, so collect them while you can!
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Enjoy!
Thanks to an online friend Kelly who sent me these Gfeller Casemakers' Moleskine case, in pocket and large sizes. I use them every day and I absolutely love them because the appearance changes all the time and I'm often being asked to disclose where I got them. Steve showed me how to customize it using shoe polish to create a distress look.
As you all know, Moleskine has been associated with artistic and creative professionals for a long time, but there is the other side of the Moleskine brain that is not being tapped into since the beginning. It is the GTD/Hack/Productivity side of the other hemisphere. So last year I tried to work with Moleskine to generate a brand new promotion about this unexplored terrain. Too bad the content was not good enough so we gave up until this year.
Japanese stationery giant KOKUYO launched the Systemic series of notebook cover since Nov 2008. I totally missed this new product range but when I was in a trip to Shanghai meeting KOKUYO representatives there, I saw a nice leaflet for Systemic and enquired about it. A few days ago I received samples and found them very pleasant to use.
- A large Moleskine notebook: I write down key events and funny stuffs I heard from my son. Sometimes I stick photos in it.
- A Moleskine Japanese album in small size: It was unfolded and used as a decoration of our living room shelf. It contains pages of me and my wife's baby pictures, wedding pictures and my son's baby photos. It is like a story unfolded.
- Photo copies of drawings I made for my son, postcards I sent to him when I was overseas for business, his first movie ticket, all these small stuffs.
- A large sketch book: this is the most interactive part of my treasure chest. I would pick up this sketch book once in a while and ask my son what he wants to see on a page. Most of the time he would say McQueen or Thomas, he is never bored by them, but I would ask a few questions to steer him away from those thoughts. Eventually we would end up with a very nice page we both like a lot. In this picture you see a blue/red stripe box with a hole. My son looked inside using a flash light and found 2 blue birds, so we went to a dark room bringing this sketch book and try to investigate further how they look like. We used flash light, we inserted our little fingers to the hole to feel their feathers, we were pecked by them, they flew out in the dark room and our flash light went wild searching for them while we could hear them chirped. We finally realized that we were actually in the same situation as these 2 blue birds. We were in a dark room with windows, "perhaps a huge finger will push through the window and poke us like what we did to the blue birds!" And then we ran around the room to hide from the window. I asked my son if that huge finger really poke us, what would he do, he said "hit it! hit it hard!", I said "Oh I see, we would do the same like those two little blue birds! That's why they pecked us, they were scared". And "what if that huge finger belongs to a giant who's also inside a bigger box called Earth? ...." Our mind flew away and we had such a great time imagining, all through one drawing. This I treasure a lot.
