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My friend Eric Chan (Eepmon) just recently just finished two art pieces done for Yahoo! in South East Asia, for a campaign called “BIG IDE CHAIR”. This is one of the two pieces he created for their event. Great, as always!
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Grab your passports, put your seats and tray tables in their upright and locked position, and get ready for PSFK’s Conference in Asia. Piers and crew are headed to tax-haven and very international city of Singapore to help spread the gospel of good design, marketing, advertising, communication and so forth.
The conference agenda “Creativity for Change, Ideas To Make Things Better” looks to be one of the tastiest I’ve seen yet, speakers include:
My pal Jeff Staple who will talk about how his great ‘accidental career path’ landed him at the help of an international company, Piers (the PF in PSFK) talks about “making things better” and a handful of others from places like W+K, NASA, Mindshare, Panasonic and MTV will be taking the stage (full list here). Also, Mark Dytha of Pecha Kucha fame will speak– that should be interesting. Tickets are on sale now, with the even happening on Friday, October 10 is the day. Say hi to everyone for me, I’m sorry I’ll miss it.
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A few years after its groundbreaking, the ace-looking Singapore Flyer has finally opened to vertigo challengers this week and I’m betting that Josh will be the lucky first among us here to ride it. A ferris wheel that wins the use of all superlatives, the Singapore Flyer is a monster-size observation wheel that towers 42 stories high, an important distinction the promo material likes to point out as 30 meters taller than England’s London Eye so why-don’t-you-stop-the- comparisons-already. Glass capsules each holding 28 passengers are affirmed to be a half-hour experience free of any palpable vibration or movement while riders enjoy a view of Singapore that looks into Malaysia and Indonesia. The company suggests renting an entire capsule just for yourself and your friends, and while you’re at it, might as well get married in it too (and uh, can you say Mile High Club?) . They also recommend the capsule as a prime place to hold business events, so I’m passing that very, very good idea on: Josh, how about arranging our next editorial meeting in one of these? I’ll bring the donuts and boba.
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OhGizmo! has leaked a rumor about our friends at Mimoco launching a series of Domo-kun related mimobots. Domo-kun inspired stuff has been almost impossible to come by in the USA, while it’s reaching the masses in Japan and many parts of Asia — on my last trip out to Tokyo I saw Domo-kun figures, dolls, keychains, posters absolutely everywhere. My prediction of Domo-kun’s rise to success, fame and fortune in the United States is finally coming to fruition; only a few halloweens ago I dressed up as the strange, fuzzy, monster-like creature. God, I can’t wait to store my secret files on these incredible USB drives!
Related: Undoboy + Spear Collective Mimobots
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 Many thanks to everyone who came out to the Imprint Culture Lab here in LA yesterday — great seeing lots of familiar faces and meeting many new ones. If you missed it, you missed a stellar day diving deep into Asian pop culture, blogging, street wear, and a whole bunch of other good insight into an amazing culture. The panel I hosted couldn’t have been more fun — guys like Brian from Gizmodo, jeffstaple, Danny Choo and Rob Heppler make me proud to be a part of the blogging community — really great job everyone! (Fly Photo Credit goes to new friend, Bobby Hundreds)
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There’s that annoying stereotype that we Asians have a passion for math and science, but here’s one thing I can whole-heartedly back up: we dress on the cutting edge. My bio photo, by the way, caught the only instance EVER in which this didn’t apply. Hong Kong and South Korea have been getting props for their emerging designers, and is there anyone who can look at me in the eye and tell me they haven’t ever panted over the stuff in Japanese fashion mags?
Let me get to the point: Online Asian retailer YesStyle.com is having a massive sale of up to 70% off on men’s and women’s clothes, shoes and bags, beauty products and other accessories until August 31. There’s frickin’ free express international shipping for orders over $99 as part of the promotion! And the fun doesn’t stop there…the site’s in English with products listed in actual U.S. currency! Prices, even for non-sale items, are already a deal, so this sale is making things sweeter. I’m going to have to put aside my calculus studies for an hour or so to do me some shopping.
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Korean artist Gwon O-sang calls his work a new method of playing with illusion and reality. We agree– his 3 dimensional paper sculptures are mind boggling. You can read an interview of him here or an in-depth article here. The sculpture on the left, Demand, is composed of 140 pieces, in the center is Fear, made up of 280 pieces and Difference, composed of 1800 pieces for Error C-prints. Go check out larger photos of his work to really understand how detailed this is! Via vvork
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 Utilitarian function meets sleek and simple fashion with Flake’s new line of laptop bags. There are a lot of laptop bags out there, but few combine all the essential elements like these Flake bags do. The sling is made from a single, continuous piece of fabric; the side is made from a layering of new wool (nice), recycled PET fabric, plastic sheet, and high density foam–the result is a stylish, light, thin, and protective package for your most prized possession (maybe I am just speaking for Josh and I, but I doubt it). Flake bags come in both tote and messenger styles, and offer different sizes depending on the size of your laptop. Flake bags originate in Singapore, so they may be difficult to get a hold of in stores–but you can email them from their website and ask them to send you one.
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 Mass Mayhem is the new crossover project by artist collective Radioactive (RDCTV) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Inspired by the way graffiti artists use large areas of walls to create murals, the goal of part 4 of the full print series was to utilize the t-shirt as a canvas and fill the front, back, or both with graphics and designs of any color and style, as long as the result was representative of the theme. The featured artist were selected from around the globe and include designs from Freaktendance (brothers Whip and Titifreak who live in Brazil), D/VISION (the collaboration between Furious and Hooked clothing), and Coffee & Cigarettes (C&C). Favorites from the collection include Chinese multi-disciplinary designer Qian Qian's “Hurt and Being Hurt†as well as Team Radioactive's introductory “Robot†design. With huge, rad graphics on white tees, these shirts will keep you lookin' fresh in the summer heat! Limited-edition of course!
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Our trip to Asia wouldn’t have been possible without the generous and gracious sponsorship of Malaysia Airlines. We upgraded to first class in order to experience this airline which some rank as “best in Asia.†(It’s one of only a few airlines Skytrax gives a 5 star rating.) The seats were wide and comfortable with practically enough room around them in the front of the plane to play a decent game of frisbee. On the tech side of things, they actually have a system to send and receive text message to telephone numbers or emails on the ground—a great step on the way to a full service WiFi planned for the future. The cabin attendants were deeply respectful, gracious and attentive. On our 14 hour outbound flight (in their Golden Club Class) we were treated to nearly a dozen hot towels, keeping us constantly hydrated and refreshed. Our return in First Class was a treat that provided an overall tranquility when our eyelids got too heavy. Our only regret was that we didn’t get a chance to fly the reconfigured aircraft with the new seats and entertainment system. We look forward to an opportunity to review the new configuration and fly with you again soon!
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During our last stop through Taipei on our way back to the USA we spent an evening checking out Kwang Hua Market, of the most famous night markets in Taipei. Pure insanity– words can almost not describe the hustle and bustle, streets packed with vendors, shoppers, animals, and what seemed like every possible thing in the world for sale at dirt cheap prices. Vendors sold fake everything, from Calvin Klein underwear for $2, suits, polo shirts, fake watches, cell phones, sneakers– jeans and t-shirts literally lined the sidewalks. Even more interesting though was definitely the food– I’m not even quite sure what some of it was, although I could clearly make out the pigeon feet, liver, stinky tofu (a Taiwanese delicacy served with goose blood), snails, neck of some creature, and a handful of other body parts I wouldn’t even ever think of preparing on a grill, let alone eat! Every once in a while the street went into a panic as panhandlers and stands rolled their carts as fast as possible into side streets, hiding themselves behind dumpsters and other shops– which we later learned meant police were close. The experience was really something else, the stench of cooking meat, body odor, and truck loads of fresh vinyl fake Gucci handbags was strong enough to make you wheezy. If you have a chance to check out any of the night markets in Taipei, check them out– just make sure to scrub clean after. It was like a maze, a 10 ring circus, we could have walked around for hours and barely scratched the surface. Some more pictures of food and such from the street after the jump. I think the last picture is forever ingrained in my memory.
READ MORE…
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Only having one day (really 26 hours) in Taipei was a big ol’ tease, luckily I’ll be spending another day there on the way back home. I did manage to check a few pretty nice shops I found walking around last night– one of them was a place called Patchwork– a small-modern designer toy shop. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tiny Kubricks and Bearbricks in one place. They were all lined up along the walls with numbers and prices, pretty neat. The shop called it self ‘where apparel, toys and design collide’. Well, whatever back street I ended up on was an absolute blast at night. A few doors down from Patchwork there was a sneaker shop called Magnetic– it reminded me of the Alife Rivington Club in NYC, hardwood floors, shoes behind glass, the works. Unfortunately they were totally over-protective and wouldn’t let me take any pictures for a write up, so they just won’t get one.
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Suck UK, the English design team of Sam and Jude, produce furniture, lighting, interior products and accessories with glamour and pure industrial form. Their Union Jack Coffee Table has been featured in numerous publications including Esquire and Icon Magazine, but it is the new Time Flies Clocks that have won me over. The three clocks, New York, London, and Hong Kong, are shaped like their respective country and measure about 180 mm in length. The clocks are constructed of metal with smooth white faces and contrasting red hands that feature a small airplane on the end of the minute hand. Each clock has its own mechanism allowing you to keep track of time in 3 different time zones simultaneously with style and a bit of international flare.
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 I’ve seen a handful of these photos before, but until know I didn’t know the artist behind them– let alone the process, or that he is indeed quite famous. After browsing his photos, I’ve decided Li Wei is the unofficial stunt photo master. He’s based in Bejing but has exhibited around the world. If this photo interests you, check out the photo gallery with dozens of great pictures. Freedegree over 25th story, Liewei Falls to the Car and Green Guy Flag are some of my favorites.
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If you haven’t caught any of the media footage showing superstar skate dare-devil Danny Way, watch these videos. Your jaw will drop. On Saturday, Danny jumped a portion oof the famed Geat Wall of China. I heard rumors, saw a bit of press, but until now never saw good footage. There are 5 jump clips available online now on his site “Danny Does China“, and they’re absolutely nuts. Unbelievably huge air—note in clip five he even pulls a 360 over the wall!
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