I had designed some furniture a while back for my new home. Today is the day to head out to the factory to check out the progress.  This place is kind of far out, about an hour and a half drive out of Shanghai Puxi area. Located in Pudong. I was told by the factory manager that this is the area where all the woodwork in Shanghai is done. When we got to the factory, it was in an area that was really isolated and only had a small street leading to the entrance. We were greeted by stray dogs and cats. Surrounding the factory were farms. Will definitely get lost if I were to go there on my own again.

The furniture is coming together really well, a little bit of changes and the finishing touches of lacquer will be added on next week. Will post the final look later. Excited!

FACTORY GROUNDS

WORKING AREA

Table Z -  Inspired by the now defunct skate brand. Jimmy’z.

(more…)

This was an idea I had for Vans, basically telling asking people if they have seen “laobai” (old white) China’s oldest skater. We show him in skating in locations around china from the 50s to present on video blogs, then get a fan base around him… Next we get Vans to track him down. Once Vans have tracked him down, they invite people to come to an event to get to know him. Vans unviles him at a launch event, at the event Laobai takes off his beard, and he is none other then Steve Caballero the lengendary Skater. This is a sample mockup test we did in beijing. Funny thing was some people thought he was really old, and he attracted a huge crowd.

China’s oldest skater - LaoBai from dwayne koh on Vimeo.

A cool animation that reminds me of my thought process…Looking Thru the B-Sides is a stop-action trip down the rabbit hole that is Golden Lucky’s collective brain. Just watching this short film feels like a mind-altering experience that’s probably illegal in at least 37 states.

Looking Thru the B-Sides from dwayne koh on Vimeo.

Running out of space for books. Designed and created this single block of wood that is very flexible. If you create multiples of them you can have unlimited configurations and other uses. Other than holding books, I have used it as a stool, a small table for food, a ladder, and a projector stand.. nice. It cost me 50RMB for each piece. The Spec’s are simple : the height is double the width. Depth is as deep as your widest book.

Ok, so sometimes in life you just spend money buying stuff without thinking much of it. It is after moving from Beijing to Shanghai that I realized how much crap I have accumulated. Just started a little project that will follow the items I purchase for 365 days. The point is for me to keep track of what I buy and see after 1 year how much of the purchase made is still of value. The point for you, will be to judge my character, who i am my, likes, dislikes and horoscope. You are what you buy…or so they say, go to flickr to check it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22426181@N00/sets/72157619946554724/

Made a trip to Portugal with friends, was there to attend the offf conference. It was quite an interesting show. Who impressed me at the conference were Digital Kitchen, Neville Brody, Chris Milk, PEZ, James Peterson + Amit Pitaru and Stefan Sagmeister. Portugal itself was interesting, the city was filled with really cool and old architecture. While there, I came to realize that egg tarts from HongKong are actually from Portugal.

The Tony Hawk Ride($TBA) is a skateboard like controller for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It features will use “a combination of accelerometers and motion sensors” and require no other controller. You will control the game by riding on the board. It will be available for the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 for 2009 holiday season. More info, you can check out official game site on June 2 - the first day of the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Fast company just released the 100 most creative people in the world.What is interesting to me is the people from tech companies are at the top.

1)Jonathan Ive Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Apple
2)Melinda Gates Cochair and trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.fastcompany.com/100/mcp.html

It shows how much of our world depends on technology. It also shows what these people have created has touched or changed our life’s in someway, doesn’t matter if we are conscious of it or not.

We had an interesting idea for North Face China.  Instead of building a website to promote their products, we decided to build a tool that would be useful to the community. Through this experience users will be able to excess the range of products too. This tool makes it easier for the community to explore their environment. It will kick start their adventures for exploration.

A stop motion test for Vans “off the wall” campaign

vans off the wall from dwayne koh on Vimeo.