Moleskine

Sweetroad, Iwata Denki, Vintage Revival Productions

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:05:30 -0800

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).

Gear up with Moleskine

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.

Moleskine Holder - on the go

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 Denki shop - Iwata san holding his leather M skins

Iwata Denki shop - Iwata san's leather goods

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 Denki shop - Vintage Revival Productions' Holder for M

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.

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Field Notes Leather Cover by Gfeller

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:28:06 -0700

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.

Field Notes Leather Cover by Gfeller

(Photo courtesy: Bob Corrigan)

During my trip to Seoul, I carried my Gfeller/FieldNotes all the time, for meeting records, market research notes and random thoughts. As Bob said the leather is thin and not very stiff, so I had some difficulty to write without a hard surface such as when I was on the streets. I guess that's the compromise to have a light notebook and cover, I can accept that. One important feature this cover lacks is the ability to store name cards, receipts or tickets in a more secure way. I did put some name cards between the notebooks and the inner flaps, but in several occasions I had them fell off to the floor. Steve, I'm sure it is quite important for many people, please consider adding a secure pocket.

What's Your Moleskine In?

If you are new to Gfeller's cases, do check out this fantastic video.

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Travel Analog and Light to Seoul

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:17:54 -0700

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.

Travel Gear: Field Notes, F1 and Perfect Pencil

Two days of store visits and two days of full-day meetings. I decided to travel light with just two cameras, a broken point and shoot digital IXUS and a Canon F1. Field Notes will be my pocket notebook this time. I'm be carrying two Field Notes and a Faber Castell perfect pencil inside a Moleskine leather case by Gfellers. I'm expecting a rewarding trip critical for the next 6 months. Thanks to KOTRA.

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What's in My Bag - Seminar Edition

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:42:35 -0700

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.

What's in my bag Aug 2009

Recently I sold my Ricoh GX-200 camera, so I don't have any digital camera with me all the time. I'm waiting for the white Olympus E-P1 to arrive as it is out of stock now. So here you go, what's in my bag in yesterday's My Moleskine 2.0 talk: Lomo LCA+ decorated with MT-tapes and Staz-On ink, Fujifilm Natura Classica, KOLO Essex Travel Book in leather, Shiny self inking stamp with my email and website info on it, Lomo film, Voigtlander R4A with 35mm f1.2 lens, leather camera strap and film canister holder from Monogram/CameraPeople, Citizen WR 200 or night hawk watch, Pilot Capless retractable fountain pen, USB memory with leather cover and envelope enclosure, iPhone, Moleskine weekly leather diary, shopping bag.

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Travel Photo Cafe 2009

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:51:57 -0700

This year marks the third year of an interesting event to be held in city'super and LOG-ON. In this concept cafe (particularly in Festival Walk's LOG-ON), you will find:

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!

Travel Photo Cafe 2009 Talks Poster
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)

Travel Photo Cafe Postcard A side sm horz

Travel Photo Cafe Postcard B side sm horz

Travel Photo Cafe 2009 Mini Game Prizes
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!
Midori Traveler's Notebook Stamp Hong Kong Version

And finally, special thanks to Lie Fhung from Ztampf.com allowing me to use her great digital scrapbooking graphics on the postcard and backdrop of the event. More photos coming up after setting up the event.
Enjoy!

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Gfeller Moleskine Case - the making of

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:49:28 -0700

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.

Gfeller Moleskine Leather Case Dyed

I eventually wanted my cover to be in red/brown, so I scrapped most of the black paint and dyed it the way I like it.

Gfeller Moleskine Leather Case Dyed

The effect is lovely and I still get that distress look. Yes a case like this is expensive and people always wonder why anybody would add stuff to the already expensive notebook. For me, I just like to customize. Moleskinerie recently posted a video made by Davide Bogie about the making of Gfeller's Moleskine case. Check it out if you are interested.

What's Your Moleskine In?

The Gfeller's Moleskine case is US$55 for pocket size and US$60 for large size. I also love a Japanese company called SLIP-ON's Moleskine case (I use their card holder for years and their leather ages super well), you get to choose from several colors and there is a pen holder built-in. SLIP-ON's pocket size case is ~US$60. If you are earth friendly and love to have a zipped Moleskine case with many inner pockets, do check out Rickshaw's Moleskine Folio by good friend Mark Dwight.

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Hacking Moleskine 2.0

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:32:33 -0700

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.

My Moleskine 2.0 Lifehack

Finally with help from Lifehack.org, we are able to find more great contents for an exhibition to be held in Hong Kong city'super's 5 locations in July. There will be a free booklet for visitors to pick up to learn more about all these hacks. We will put 4 stamps in every store (creativity, productivity, fun and archive) so that people can stamp their booklets. Soon as you get 4 stamps shown in our cashier counter, you get 20% off for any Moleskine purchase. Showing the stamped booklet to our concierge counter makes you eligible for one of the 3 workshops/seminars about productivity. You can also tear off part of the booklet to vote for the best exhibiting entry in the event, voters are eligible for a lucky draw! I can't believe how much efforts has been put into this cool event. Do visit us at city'super (http://www.citysuper.com.hk) and play with us!

Moleskine Speaker

And now my entry to the hack. I've converted my Mole into a loudspeaker. Battery and electronics are hidden inside a cut out Mole.

Moleskine Speaker

At the back of this MoleLoudSpeaker, a switch to turn it on, a mic for you to speak to, and a horizontal switch to select either speaker, police siren or fire engine siren modes. So have fun to innovate with a Moleskine notebook and do aim for a lifetime's supply of Moleskine! Again, check out the details here.

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KOKUYO's Systemic Cover for Campus, Also Works for Moleskine

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:23:11 -0800

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.

KOKUYO Systemic Notebook cover for Campus and Moleskine

The Systemic series has 3 sizes (B5, A5 and A6) and two colors to choose from. Although the cover is specifically designed for Campus notebooks in the same sizes, I found that the A5 and A6 versions also work well with Moleskine's large and pocket size notebooks!!!

KOKUYO Systemic Notebook cover for Campus and Moleskine

It is really a simple non-intrusive notebook cover. You can insert any two of the wide variety of Campus notebooks in it. The Campus notebook line also has free or dated diary versions so it can easily be used for business or personal. A nice looking ribbon tied to eyelets makes two bookmarks. An outer pocket on both the front and back cover provides temporary storage and act as a pen holder. A good quality elastic band provides enclosure function.

KOKUYO Systemic Notebook cover for Campus and Moleskine

I think it is a great answer to many people who like to consistently use a refillable notebook but need an outer jacket/cover to hold more items or have a better presentation. To Moleskine fans who are yet to find a nice cover, this might be an answer too.

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Moleskine Helvetica Special Edition

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:02:51 -0800

Moleskine Helvetica Special Edition

Lucky me, most will just drool all over these pictures. I got mine from Moleskineasia.com, the official Moleskine distributor in Asia. According to them, the first day they posted this special edition on their web store, a few hundred was already sold, they needed to find extra part-timer to help packing for shipping.

Moleskine Helvetica Special Edition

Helvetica is a great font, it is one of the two fonts I always go back to when I want something quiet. There is a 2007 documentary film by Gary Hustwit, check out the trailer below:

Helvetica Film Official Trailer

Moleskine Helvetica Special Edition

Now you know why I shot the first photo of the special edition over a NYC subway sign I got.

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These Are The Things We Store

nobody@vox.com(Patrick Ng) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:13:42 -0800

KOLO Havana Box

Following a discussion at Koloist.com's recent post "True Confessions of a Former Pack Rat", I'm to reveal my way of using KOLO's Havana boxes. I own 3 Havana boxes, a black bonded leather medium, a red cloth medium and a green cloth large. The 2 medium ones are in my office. I use the black one to store name cards bundled by events, the red one is for storing postage stamps and interesting papers I collected from company mails. So I'm not using these boxes for photos at all coz the hurdle to start get organized with ALL of your prints is simply too high I stalled.

KOLO Havana Box

The green large Havana box at home is used to store paper stuffs related to my son. I limited the collection to paper and some photos otherwise 10 boxes would not be enough. Here's the content:

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.

So these are things I stored in KOLO's Havana Boxes. If you look at the content disregarding the materials, you get to understand you are storing connections, love, exploration, imagination, happiness. These are things giving you smiles, motivations and inspirations when you open the boxes, these are things you pass to people around you too, they age well.

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