Thailand was already an independent nation even before the World War II, unlike its neighbors which all became independent after the war. Thailand is the only South East Asian country that was not colonized. It must've been pretty tough getting caught in between British empire in its west (Burma, Malaysia, Singapore) and French colonies in its east (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos). In other parts of Asia I've traveled (Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau), 19th Century European influences could be felt but Thailand was an exception for that historic reason.
Thailand has a monarchy, and it is meant to be ceremonial hence it shouldn't have any power to the politics. Though in reality, Thai monarchy intervene with their politics, and the law bans any criticism towards the royal family. Such law exists in other countries too but those laws are usually never put in practice. That, however, is not the case in Thailand–you will be penalized. So be cautious when you talk about Thai royal family...
Creating movies is a good way of recording your lives, I just realized.
I was back in snowy London last March for about a week. Above is a 47 seconds movie that I compiled from the clips I took during the trip.
I will warn you that it is not meant to be anything artistic nor creative. It is just a holiday movie afterall and you probably won't find it too exciting. It does capture emotion and mood of my week, so it is still a valuable record of the trip for me personally.
It's basically just a movie collage, cutting and compiling short clips together–the technique you see everywhere on YouTube. Nothing complicated. In fact I shot all my footage using my iPhone 5. The trick is though, to edit the film down to a short length. This was always the problem I had with the movies I take; they were lengthy and I never opened my movie files after taking them and they weren't so fun to watch. Be selective, make it short, and films are great way to summarize your lovely memory.
Five full weeks have passed since I officially joined a design firm Concent Inc. in the very heart of Tokyo.
In Japan, it's common to employ graduates all at the same time, once a year. This type of employment system has several advantages for both employers and new employees. For instance we get to do training together before cracking on with the professional day to day work. The seminars we attended range from conceptual “what is design” types to business manner classes at an external venue. I found both conceptual and practical seminars very helpful and that definitely was an advantage of getting employed here in Japan as I doubt design studios in London offer that kind of training weeks.
There are seven, including myself, who joined the firm as recent graduates. Those six, with various design backgrounds, are all exceptionally talented. I am extremely fortunate to have such valiant peers, whom I can trust and respect.
We created a short movie and accompanying website that introduce seven of us to the rest of the people in the company.
こちら、社員総会用の動画。
We also created a website （http://sustoco.concentinc.jp/se7en/）.
Unfortunately (or rather understandably) everything is in Japanese. The main concept of the site is to describe seven of us through key words (tags) rather than from reading individual profiles. We figured people wouldn't really care who Shiho is, but if you happen like the magazine Monocle, you might be interested in talking to Shiho, when you know she also loves that magazine. The site aims to provide a topic of conversation, and is intentionally left vague. It invites the people at the office to ask us questions in the later opportunities to come.
Seven of us have completely different characters and interests. The only mutual thing that connects all of us is that we take design very seriously. That goes true for the rest of the peple at the office. That led to the short films where we talk rather seriously about the subject of design.
Coming from Central Saint Martins, where the importance of verbal expression in design was valued highly, I thought I was trained well in speaking about design. Though after hearing myself speak, I sound rather abstract and vague. I sound like I am saying something good but they are rather superficial and anyone with intellectuality can spot the shallowness of my speech. Even with flaws, I'm glad I had the opportunity to record my thoughts at the very beginning of my professional design career. Speaking about it, as well as listening myself speaking it, make me want to think even more about my design philosophy. Listening to other six of them was also inspiring. I admit I was jealous of fluency of how others spoke about design with solid logic and clarity.
