Crash Course to Entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur is not easy, particularly when you’re a fresh graduate out of college and just trying to navigate your way through life.  For the past year of my life, I’ve been focused on starting my own design company with a few of my fellow classmates from college.  At first, the idea of working together and working for ourselves seemed like a dream come true since our group dynamic had been unbeatable at school but the reality is, we seem to be at each other’s neck for more then half the time.

I’m Back to Creative Writing!

Wow, its been a year since I’ve been blogging about design and now I’m back (all thanks to school that got my writing juice all pumping again).  My next post will talk about entrepreneurship and it will be posted up sometime this week (I promise!).

- Chun-Lam

Stay Tuned…

Hey all,  I’m currently taking a break from creative writing and focusing some other small projects that are going on.  Will be back to blog some more about design in the near future.

Stay tuned for my next entry about Confessions of a Blogger Part II.

 

- Chun-Lam

Turning Down Times into Up Times

A quote from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities best summarizes the current economic recession:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was a the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”

Sustainability Does NOT Equal to Recycle

Recently I’ve been walking down the streets of downtown Toronto and to no surprise, most stores have their window displays redecorated to the back to school promotion theme.  Most stores just focuses on how great of a deal (or should I say ‘steal’) to buy all new back to school products right now, for example the advertisement for Staples but one store in particular caught my eye.  Chapters have started to promote their back to school promotion but beyond the deals that the customer would get on great products and books, they’ve taken their campaign to an extra mile by endorsing their potential costumers with the fact that they can do their seasonal shopping while doing good to the environment.  As much as I like their new advertising strategy, there’s one thing that I was bothered by.  And that was the use of the recycling symbol as an analogy towards sustainability.

Confessions of A Blogger

Blogging seems to be the latest new medium that business and individuals use to express their thoughts and ideas.  People blog about everything and by everything, I mean literally anything you can think of that can be blogged about has been blogged.  From day-to-day personal experience, to specialties (such as recipes for the coolest mix at liqurious.com), blogging has become of our lifestyle.  It’s easy to become a blogger, but it’s hard to become a popular blogger and to become a successful blogger (or to take on a career as a blogger) you need the following ingredients:

1.)  A topic/theme that you have your heart in

2.)  A catchy title

3.)  A simple yet easy to navigate layout

4.)  Supporting images

5.)  Your thoughts and idea written in an easy to understand tone

6.)  And a pint of humor

I’m Not Another 5¢ Plastic Bag

Sustainability has been a major design factor for different industries and amongst them, fashion can be considered as one of the most influenced field of work.  From the choice of raw material, the type of dye, production method as well as the longevity of the garment, considerations for a greener alternative are slowly seeking into the minds of fashion designers while preparing for their next big hit in the up and coming season.  As many of you know, a lot of designers these days have started to go ‘green’ by designing a series of sustainable shopping bags to encourage consumers to shop in a more responsible way.  Amongst the many different sustainable shopping bags in the market is the infamous “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” by Anya Hindmarch.

When Play Inspires Creativity for All Ages

Since the minute we were born, we are gifted with the ability to play and to create play in any given situation.  It’s in our natural instinct to want and desire things that are ‘fun’.  Fun is something that is highly subjective where certain acts can be frown upon because of its level of ‘inappropriateness’ from a person of a certain age; our society has a set of rules and boundaries that we are suppose to play by.  For example you would have no problem passing by a park with a bunch of 5 year olds building a sand castles or chasing each other around and throwing sand at each other in the sandbox, but if the same behavior was carried out by a group of adults (aged around 30-40 year old) then this would be considered as an immature/inappropriate act as they’re suppose to have ‘better judgment’.  And because of this assumed age appropriate behaviors, we can’t seem be able to enjoy certain activities that we did as a kid without having others looking at us as if we’ve grown a 3^rd eye on our foreheads.

When Community Fights Against the Smell

Summer time is when I’d recommend people to visit Toronto if they want to experience its multicultural vibe from different festival and events.  But this year summer isn’t as pleasant as it could’ve been.  One of the city’s largest union CUPE, whom represents numerous outdoor workers decided to put on a strike, affecting many public services paid by Torontonian taxpayers.  The most noticeable affect is the garbage collection service where the city’s smell and grossness has made its way to headlines of other countries (take CNN for example).

The Definition of Good Design

A recent Globe and Mail article on Michalange Panzini’s Solair chair has led me into questioning the definition of a good design.  The definition of good design has been an ongoing debate since I can even remember and of course, the idea of a good design varies from person to person, which evolves according to the social changes.  As the mass public becomes more design savvy, good design becomes an attractive selling point.

So what exactly is good design? According to Metropolis’s March 09 issue, a good design lives up to the following criteria’s (in no specific order):

1.)  Sustainable

2.)  Accessible

3.)  Ergonomics

4.)  Functional

5.)  Well Made

6.)  Beautiful

7.)  Socially Beneficial

8.)  Affordable

9.)  Enduring

10.)  Emotionally Resonant