good ol’ snail-mail

It occurred to me that a letter can bring so much joy.

And by letter I mean a physical letter. the kind that travels through the air and finds it way into your letterbox. the kind that has someone’s whole life story written out in slightly illegible hand, that it takes a few readings to make out the words. It is usually of a substantial length because so much has happened in the time of the last letter and you want to say everything in one shot (since it takes so long to travel, it makes it worth the while too.) Also, this is the kind of letter you can send all sorts of strange half-done projects, flyers, postcards lying around your table, just as long as it can be squeezed into an envelope. lovely isn’t it?

 

This occurred to me whenever I received letters from my pen pal in US which always comes chock full of little treasures… like a single jigsaw piece (definitely a treasure for a person trying to complete the puzzle!) In those little snippets, I get a glimpse into life miles away from here…

you can’t get these through email! in some ways, technology has made us treasure the analog way of life a bit more.

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its been a week plus since I got back from Tokyo where i went for the Tokyo Designers Week, first time selling abroad! it was a great experience! Frankly, sales were not fantastic but looking at all the rest of the interesting design and exhibits was! Plus, we were next to parks, green lungs, ginko trees and I enjoyed just sitting by the road of ginko trees to enjoy my lunch/dinner which I usually tao-bao from the convenient shops which you can find everywhere in Japan. going into a convenient stall in Japan is an experience in itself!

Plus I got to meet some really fun designers and a long-time designer-friend, Mina from Rabito in Korea! nice reunion, even though communication did prove a little difficult. Those days there made me really wish I could speak or in the very least, understand Japanese language, just so I can listen (and ahem, eavesdrop) on what people were saying about our products! All i could understand was ‘Kawaii” and they said this A LOT. haha!

and of course, the craft shopping! so much to see, too little space to bring back! for the first time, my luggage exceeded 17kg (i am not a heavy-weight traveller, usually i go to a place with only 12kg luggage) because of our products, the display items and all the fabrics, yarns, supplies we bought to bring back!

 

and to end…

here is a designer i got to meet, with really happy designs! I bought Real Boy push-pins from him and did a swap for his Nessie pins. Duncan Shotton, image credits to his site. he also runs this FB page with his girlfriend to sniff out cool designs, check it out here.

Pin-occhio. get it?

here is one designer also part of the designboom mart but i didn’t get to see (different session! :(( ) Chen Lu-Wei from Taiwan designed these cute erasers where you can customise the characters’ hairstyles as you use the product.

seeing products like these makes me want to become a stationery designer!

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