Lifestyle vs Culture

If Mac Donald and KFC can represent the American lifestyle, then it has successfully converted the Mainland Chinese, in particular their younger generation. And in Hong Kong, the newest American lifestyle inroad is Starbucks. A few years ago Starbucks was the IN-thing for the trendy, now it has become THE lifestyle place of Hong Kong young-at-hearts, it is always the younger generation who first takes on a new lifestyle product or concept. Now, we have Starbucks, together with its competitor Pacific Coffee, shops in University campuses, private and public hospitals, and mass-market shopping districts like Mongkok where the famous Ladies' Market is situated.

Caffè latte is the most popular drink in Starbucks, and it is always the same coffee blend, like the recipe of KFC, always the same recipe, and like the same old burger beef in a Mac Donald. Actually KFC and Mac Donald offer some variation geographically, they serve local meat, that incidentally makes KFC taste better in Mainland China than in Hong Kong, due to the fact that Mainland China has a stronger culture in raising and doing chickens. With culture, a person develops a more discerning taste (with the meaning of taste not restricted to our taste buds). On the other hand, lifestyle is a fixation, a fixation to a certain way of living, to a certain symbol, to a certain identity. It is a cola War between Coke and Pepsi. And it is a friendly contest, sometimes in a fair blind tasting situation, for a connoisseur's taste buds for a culinary culture.

If one can say Starbucks represent a coffee lifestyle, Nespresso shall represent a (branded) coffee culture. Last Saturday, Paul and I went to the Elements Shopping Arcade. We visited the Nespresso shop there. They just launched their set of new seasonal flavours: Macadamia, Hazel nut and Coconut. The shop was busy with people eagerly tasting the new flavours, selecting the one(s) that they like and replenishing some old all-time favourites. Paul and I were among the passionate crowd.

If Cartier's Love Ring represents a Lifestyle in fine jewelry, my Love Tree Ring will humbly represent a niche culture in fine jewelry. And if lifestyle represents big business and a symbol of identity, culture will represent niche business and a signature of passion.

Which one do you like? Lifestyle or culture? or Both?

Classic Nespresso Machine

The beauty of negative space in arts and design

What is negative space? Essentially it means something that is not there. It is often used in graphic designs, and in logos design in particular. Recently I came across a blog called Bored Panda (by the way, an interesting "designed" name) featuring 30 Clever Examples of Negative Space Logos. It contains some interesting logos worth checking up. Yet, the most talked about "re-designed" logo is the Steve Job Apple logo by Hong Kong design student Jonathan Mak Long (see below). Mak, second year design student doing the Job-Apple for fun, was landed with a logo design job of Coke through Coke's advertising agency Ogilvy China (full story).

Yet, the beauty of negative space doesn't lie in the above.

Negative space is the clue to learn the creative activity of drawing, and to learn it fast! We all know how to draw, kids know how to draw and love to draw. But as adults, most of us stop the creative, and enjoyable, activity of drawing. "I can't draw!", meaning, "What I draw doesn't look like what I see out there!". To make matter worse, in today's art-schools, the skill of drawing is NOT always compulsory for an art student! Fair enough, an art student is supposed to be creative, art for art's sake, and drawing, for the most part, is technical in nature. And the professors are right, which leads us to an unavoidable conclusion: artistic talent is not essential to making good drawing, or better yet: Everyone can learn how to draw!

The secret of all secrets in drawing is Draw Negative space. Simply put, to draw an object, any object, for example, a cup sitting right next to you, you have to draw the negative space, instead of the object itself. Now take a piece of paper, any paper, like an ordinary A4 paper from your copier tray. Then take a pencil (any pencil, not 2B, not charcoal, just an ordinary HB pencil). To draw the cup, forget it is a cup, forget it means anything to you, just track the outline of the cup as if you are drawing the empty space. Don't look at the cup, look at the empty space instead. Draw the empty space as if it is a solid object. Turn the corner as you trace the outline, and go on until our line meets itself (and Don't look at the cup!). After you have finished it, look at the final picture. You have drawn the negative space of the cup, and you have drawn a cup having the shape of the real cup.  And you can fill in the rest of the drawing. Why not try it now?

Job-Apple Logo

The design of Chinese Classical Gardens

The city of SuZhou 蘇州 is a must visit to any visitor who intends to stay for a few days in Shanghai. The last time I traveled to Shanghai, I did day-trips to Suzhou, strolling around its numerous Chinese Classical Gardens, mostly built from the Sung to Ming Dynasty, and the one I like most was the cozy Humble Administrator's Garden 拙政園.

The nine famous Gardens in SuZhou has been included in the World Heritage List of Unesco, and acclaimed as "masterpieces of Chinese landscape garden design in which art, nature, and ideas are integrated perfectly to create ensembles of great beauty and peaceful harmony". An interesting question is: how does a Chinese Classical Garden's design differ from other architectural structures, and in particular, how does its aesthetics differ from its western counter-parts?

The Humble Administrator's Garden had been the site of the residence of Suzhou notables since the 2nd century AD. It was built in Ming Dynasty by a Royal Inspector (御史) Mr. Wang (王献臣) who spent 16 years to build the Garden under the supervision of the famous painter and artist Mr. Man (文征明). The office of the Royal Inspectors was like today HK's ICAC (independent Commission Against Corruption), having a direct line of command from the Emperor. Apparently Wang couldn't win trust from his Emperor, and he therefore retired early to the South, bought the site, built a Garden there, and named himself the Human Administrator.

The Garden's central section is a recreation of the scenery of the Lower Yangtze. Rising from the lake are the tree covered east and West Hills, each crowned by a pavilion. The variety of plant species is spectacular, and the main reason that it is named one of the Four Great Classical Gardens 四大名園 in China. Suzhou got two out of four (the other one is Lingering Garden 留園).

The most prominent design feature of a Chinese Classical Garden is that it refuses to show you everything at one time. A visitor has to explore the interior like a maze. There are walls to block your view, with an entrance, often round, to lead you further in. From time to time there will be different shapes of openings, oftentimes with built in patterned decorative grids, that allow you to have a glimpse of what lies ahead, like a life painting hanging on the wall. The paths are winding, aiming at aiding you to view the interior, be it a pond or a pagoda, from different angles.

Just when you feel tired, there will be a resting place in the form of a pavilion (舘), with wooden grids on the windows to artistically frame your view to the outside. On the way, the path will lead to to walk closer to a pond, where there will always be the sound of running water, with fish and sometimes tortoise too, glistening on a cloudless day. Meticulously manicured plants as miniature banyans or their like will be scattering here and there. And just when you feel too constrained by its winding path, there, on the next turn, will appear a miniature high-mount, which you can climb with a few steps, sometimes there will be a pagoda on top too, and you will have a panoramic view, not of the whole garden, but of the section that you have just visited, and you can trace with your eyes your various points of perspectives.

In the west, architectures were built to impress, and sometimes to intimidate, people. And we say Wow! In Chinese Classic Gardens, we don't have a big Wow, but we have lots of little Wows, as planned by the designer of the garden as he managed the view of every step that we are going to take.

The layout plan of Humble Administrator's Garden

IM Pei's conservation project: Miho Museum

Recently there has been an on-going debate in Hong Kong surrounding the Government's decision to build a man-made beach on the remote Lun Mei rocky beach in Tai Po, the New Territories. Some environmentalists claimed that they found sea-horse, an endangered species, there, and urged the Government to scrap their plan. The Government's senior marine conservation officer said a three-day drill to relocate species from Lung Mei to the nearby Ting Kok east coast in July had been successful, with 20 marine animals being moved, and the department was confident the main exercise would go smoothly when beach construction began. But the environmentalists are adamant on their demand.

While the debate goes on, the remote beach became better known. It attracted some families for an weekend outing there, with some adults and kids acting less than friendly to the marine-lives found on the beach, turning stones, throwing them away from their natural habitat, catching them and even killing them, for a free-meal or just for the fun of doing it. The environmentalists were alarmed and have organized a 50-member "ecological guard" to monitor the site after they found remains of starfish and sea urchins littering the area.

That reminds me of a documentary that I saw many years ago featuring IM Pei's conservation effort when in the 1900s he designed the Miho Museum for Shumei, an Shinto organization founded by Mihoko Koyama, one of the wealthiest Japanese women and the lady who founded the religious group. The stunning thing about the documentary was that a whole mountain was moved piece by piece to an interim location, with its plants, soils and everything; until the museum was completed underground when all would be transported back to be reconstructed exactly as before. I believe only the Japanese can support and execute this grand conservation project with such vision and precision!

When IM Pei first saw the mountains, he exclaimed, "This is Shangri-La". And madam Mihoko (Miho being the name of the museum) agreed and spared no fund in supporting Pei's grand design to conserve one of Japan's many Shangri-Las. As its says on Miho's official website:

80% of the museum's structure is beneath the earth so as to preserve its natural environment and to assimilate it into the surrounding scenery. This unique design clearly demonstrates the intention of its architect, I. M. Pei, to create a paradise on earth. When he first visited the site, he was moved to declare, "This is Shangri-La."

Look at your loved one the Picasso way

How did Picasso look at his loved ones? A clue perhaps can be found in Antibes, a city in the South of France.

People visiting the French Riviera often take as one of their destinations a visit to Nice, a nice popular resort town for the rich and the not so rich. The view of the beach is breathtaking and the scent of the gentle sea breeze is refreshing, unlike Hong Kong's more humid weather, the South of France is the place to sunbath and to cultivate a better skill on people watching. Those who prefer avoiding the tour groups can choose to visit a nearby small town called Antibes. And the artistic treasure here is the cozy Musee Picasso housed within the stone walls of the Grimaldi Castle, itself an impressive sight, overlooking the waterfront.

In 1946, Picasso left Paris for the south of France and spent several months working in what was once the guards' hall of the castle. His materials were what could be found locally during the period of postwar austerity - asbestos cement instead of canvas, boat paint procured from the quayside and household paintbrushes. What delighted me most were the large number of sculptural exhibits, giving visitors a renewed insight into understanding Picasso's paintings which were displaying side by side with the sculptures. Some exhibits were generous donations by Picasso's muse and second wife, the late Jacqueline Roque.

The world around us becomes meaningful to us through our visual perception. We look at things through a single point of view. With a pair of predator's eyes, the vision of homo sapients is frontal and hence can almost be faithfully captured and transposed onto a two dimensional painting canvas. Most of us find no problem towards this way of perceiving the world, after all, we can move about and enrich our singular images. And we are justified in our complacency.

Prominent modern painters, like Picasso, did not like to be constrained by this perceptual rendering on their creation. Different painters used different creative techniques trying to break through this constraint. Moving a bit ahead of my explanation, I find it interesting to see that after a great artist (or a group of great artists of similar orientation) created a new perceptual technique, we can all learn to see the world this way. And for all truthful creativity, it ends up touching our hearts, and we exclaim, "Isn't it the same way of seeing that I have been using in my daily life without my realizing it?"

To look at a person or an article we are passionate about, we observe and study it in minute details, from all angles, amidst all moods and in every situation. Looking at one feature attentively, such as a silhouette of a nose, we forget about everything, and even forget about the eyes, the hair, and the mouth. We are consumed by a singular beauty, not only psychological, but, if we think about it carefully, also constrained by the law of physics, the law of selective perception, whose effect will blur our perception of the surrounding. And it is the sum total of these individual perceptions, which are not of the same scale and which cannot be connected together logically in our imagery or memory, that form our total perception of the person or article that we are passionate about. And the stronger our passion, the more images we have and treasure, and the more difficult we can communicate their totality to an unconcerned outsider. Like for a cat lover, every cat is different; but for some (hopefully not too many), a cat is just another cat!

Picasso also did sculptures. As you can see from the exhibits in the Antibes Musee Picasso below, Picasso used the same rendering mentality in paintings and sculptures. And you can see his paintings in this regard were richer in meaning than his sculptures. And you can also appreciate his chosen way of artistic creation and communication determined his primary choice of medium - painting.

Now that you understand how Picasso looked at his loved ones, do you remember when was the last time you looked at your loved one, the Picasso way?

Musee Picasso in Antibes

The concept of minimalism in jewelry design

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts. Minimalism is any design or style in which the simplest and fewest elements are used to create the maximum effect (definition in Wikipedia).

I design some of my jewelries using the minimalist concept where all non-essential features are eliminated. And with the simplest elements behind, they have to work harder and work smarter, so that maximum effect can be felt by my customers. In everyday life, when we meet someone for the first time, we usually speak more slowly in a more articulate manner. We use simpler words and phrases. We try to express ourselves with more complete sentences. We employ less technical words or phrases belonging to our respective sub-cultures or idiosyncrasies. In short, we won't act as minimalists. In being limiting to the absolutely essentials, the power of communicability drops below a certain threshold.

Minimalist jewelry is however not the same as simple jewelry like a simple (may be very expensive) brilliant cut diamond set with four simple prongs. No extra message is being communicated by a piece of simple jewelry, except the core message "I'm wearing a diamond ring". Minimalism has to create the maximum effect, a special impact, to someone with a shared culture or at least a shared aesthetics, however simple it is being defined.

Germany has a strong culture of minimalist jewelry with strong lines, angles and curves signifying a personality in love with precision, rationality and tradition. And it goes beyond jewelry design to German stone cutting of faceted colored stones, their skills still remain world number one, but too expensive to be worked only on the most exquisite stones. Women who do not share this culture find it difficult to appreciate German minimalist jewelries.

The minimalism of my jewelries share the same aesthetics with discerning ladies who love the beauty of details, who love the softness of curves rather than the geometric precision of sharp turns and angels, and who love their passion to be expressed maximally in a most subtle way.

My minimalism is expressed in my Love Tree ring (click HERE for a previous post for details), and my minimalism is likewise expressed in the diamond ring below with four sets of signature petite double prongs, from my "Because of You" collection.

Sabina Lee - Because of You

The Pantone 2013 Spring Color Report in Jewelry

Most of my designs are about flora and fauna, and the former in particular. Flora is a word of Latin origin referring to Flora, the goddess of flowers, and I am inspired by her. Nature is abandoned with colors, be those of flora or those of gem stones. As a jewelry designer, I have to select the colors of gem stones to deliver the richness of flowers in nature. In order that my jewelries can touch the heart of my clients, they have to touch me first, in other words I have to be an expert in colors first!

Colors are usually analyzed by three parameters: its hue, its saturation and its brightness. There are infinite numbers of hue. Take the primary hue of red and yellow for example, there is whole spectrum of hues between them and they are different oranges. It is the same between any two primary hues of the six (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue and magenta). For gem-stones, saturation is an important criteria, high saturation, in easily understandable terms, is the pureness of a color, like the color of a piece of new fabric. On the other hand, lower saturation is the condition of less pure, like the color of a piece of washed-out fabric. And finally, when you add black to a color, you decrease its brightness.

In choosing the color of my gem-stones, I have to match its hue, its saturation and its brightness with my project on hand. An important consideration for jewelry design is the budget or the projected price of the piece, not always the most expensive being the best, nor that another cheapest stone that can deliver similar results will be chosen (like cheaper amethyst instead of more expensive sapphires), in particular for fine jewelry where a lady may be choosing a piece for its lasting and heritable value rather than its initial monetary outlay.

Last but not least, a jewelry designer must be sensitive to the fashion trends in color and be able to spot the more lasting yet fashionable colors for her gem-stones. Pantone just published their 2013 Spring Fashion Color Report, and JCK (the organizer of the world number one jewelry show) selected my Endless Love ring set with purple sapphires (see below) to represent their Pantone 2013 Spring Color Report in Jewelry. African Violet (Pantone 16-3520), one of the ten selected Pantone colors for next Spring's fashion.

Sabina Lee - Endless Love ring

Sculpural designs

Many years ago when I first visited the city of Barcelona in Spain, I was astonished by Antonio Gaudi's Casa Battlo. Casa means house in Spanish, and it was a building still inhabited by local residents. Gaudi didn't build the casa from scratch, he re-created it through re-building its outer facade in the early 1900s. With a face-lift, the building was transformed into a dream-like fantasy land in the heart of a middle-class residential area populated by mundane buildings. Gaudi's Casa used numerous shapely curvatures to signify an organic form, a living icon among concrete structures, and a pioneer of modern day sculptural architecture, serving the same aesthetic function among modern high-rises.

Modern sculptural buildings usually not only create an organic outlook, like the Casa did, but they would incorporate an organic element in its total design-concept, that serves an integral part of the building's functional and experiential objectives. The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright, built in 1950s, is such an example. The exterior focal point of the museum is its signature spiral center. This center is an integral part of the personality of the museum in that it serves as the main curved exhibition wall spiraling up at the core of the museum. A visitor upon entering the museum will be standing at the bottom of the central void, inside the spiral and enjoy its magnificence from the perspective of an upward browse, right from its heart. The spiral also serves functionally as a ramp for visitors going up the floors (there are lifts too for those who do not choose to walk all the way up), and at the same time allowing them the special experience of leisurely walking up a similar ramp in most modern car parks, without fear of the impending danger of a sport car racing down (or alternatively enjoying the thrill of such imagination). In short, it is signified with different layers of meaning, in addition to its impressive organic outlook.

My Dancing Roses were designed with a modernistic sculptural concept in mind. The structural base is as much aesthetically appealing as being functional. It serves to conceal the gadgets responsible in making the roses dance. Design-wise, it is therefore more Wright than Gaudi, though it looks as colorful as the Casa!

The special meaning of my Dancing Roses was discussed in my previous post Dancing to Jazz, interested reader can click on the linkage to access the article.

Sabina Lee - Dancing Roses

Designers inter-flow

Designers by temperament are not social animals, but they are expected to communicate to their clients and be able to deliver what their clients want, be it an approval of a prototype for mass production, or a piece of bespoke design for a private customer. But it is a rare opportunity for a group of professional designers from different fields coming together to present their views to an audience and to share their experience with one another in an open forum. Last year's Hong Kong Design Week Detour 2011 organized by PMQ, I was invited to participate in such an event.

Most speakers were Hong Kong's first generation designers, and many, like me, ran their own design houses. I was the only fine jewelry designer being invited. The gentleman sitting next to me was the well-known product designer Alan Yip. Alan was famous for his sushi calculator, a rollable pocket electronic calculator Flexical, and his newest designs include popular accessories for Apple. He set up his own product design company after a short but impressive career in several international companies.

I presented my signature floral designs, with my design philosophy and some credits that most seasoned designers have the pleasure to pocket during their career. Some product categories, like my jewelry and Alan's Flexical, are meant to be lasting designs, which means they are going to be saleable for a long period of time. Some are not, like a fellow presenter, Jason Siu, a famous action figure designer running his own company, told us that he had to wait anxiously to see the response to his new baby, every season. We empathized with Jason's anxiety, but we can also appreciate, and perhaps envy, his overwhelming joy when one of his new babies shoot the roof!

We all share the same view that Hong Kong clients are becoming more and more discerning, sophisticated and cosmopolitan in outlook. On the other hand, many Hong Kong designers got initial international recognitions from overseas professional bodies or critics, which is understandable because our design industry and her supports in Hong Kong is still young. We enjoyed the day, enriched by the exchanges with our fellow designers from different fields, and the venue with Cantonese Opera set is just stunning!

Last but not least we vowed to educate the public on subjects related to arts and design, each in our own way. The launching of this blog last month, though a bit belated, was one of my humble contributions in this area.

Hong Kong Design Week: Detour 2011

Making an old tradition alive

Good pieces of jade have always been collector items for many Chinese, in particular members of the wealthy families. Jade is also considered to be a symbol of blessing, good luck, health and longevity, the names of goodies for all Chinese, and for as long as the history of their culture.

Hong Kong has been a prominent centre of jade trading for many years, centering around the district of Jordan, near the then Jordan cross-harbour Ferry terminal, where some traders, mostly Chinese, from South East Asian countries eagerly made their bids and takes using ritualized hand signals hidden by the palm of their counterparts. Today the Government run Jade Market is still a major tourist attraction, where you will probably not be able to get the best bargain nor the best pieces, but certainly some good souvenirs at the right price.

During recent years, the jade business has been booming in Mainland China because of the prospering economy there, driving up, in particular, the prices of the more expensive pieces. And with it comes the demand for jade jewelries with good designs. A few months ago, I was invited by a national banking corporation to give talks in Hangzhou on jade appreciation and jade design. Being rooted in Chinese culture and a jade lover since childhood, I got the benefit of having become an expert in appreciating the special greenish tones that Chinese value for the stone, as well as creating jewelries that respect and enhance the traditional jade culture for my customers.

Sometimes my work, like the jade pendant below, will develop from a cultural theme that touches the heart of Chinese. And in all cases, I will put the piece of jade as the focal point, with my design enhancing the value of the stone, as well as giving it a modern look grounded in rich cultural soil. The value of the materials added (precious metals, like 18K gold, and precious gem-stones, usually point-size diamonds) will also need to match the value of the jade piece itself, so as not to overshadow or undercut the value of the centre piece. Only by respecting culture, can a designer truly make an old tradition alive.

Blessings 五福臨門 by Sabina Lee