Kob Kun Thailand

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...


第二次世界大戦前、ほとんどのアジア諸国が植民地化ないしは従属下に置かれていたのに対し、タイは、第二次世界大戦前から独立を果たしていた。そして、東南アジアで唯一、植民地支配されなかった国（ちなみに第二次世界大戦中は日本の同盟国）。
わたしが旅した他のアジア諸国（インドネシア、香港、マカオ）では「19世紀ヨーロッパ」の影響が街のところどころで顔を出したのに対し、そういった歴史的理由でタイではヨーロッパの影響はほとんど感じられない。グローバリゼーションはもちろん感じられるけれど。

Typography on Streets of Thailand

I found pretty much everything written in Thai appealing. I suppose it's partly because I cannot read them at all and thus they appear exotic, but still, the curly-ness and small circles that come at the end of each Thai characters definitely adds cute factor.
You can also see that a decent amount of design you see on the streets are purely typographic, i.e. no use of images, which I massively approve. Yes I am comparing it to Japan, where they believe so much of so many things need cute-faced characters. Blimey.

タイは、タイポグラフィがイケてる国でした。
こう見ると日本は、街中に「可愛いキャラクター」やら「イラスト」やら「写真」が多すぎる。もっと文字のみで勝負すればいいのにね。

Thai characters often but not always end with little circles and I wondered whether or not those circles have some sort of serif-like functionality. I tried to decipher it by reading Wikipedia page on Thai alphabet and on the Japanese page said that apart from letters ก and ธ, there are always small circles (dots). That being said, depending on typefaces, those circle are simplified. Also some typefaces mimics forms of latin alphabets.
Interesting.

タイ文字は可愛かった！「読めない」からこそ、かっこよく映るというのもあるとは思うのですが、ヒンデゥー語やアラビア語っぽくはあるものの、タイ語の方が丸っこくて可愛い。ちなみに、話言語も柔らかくて可愛い。

そんなタイ文字によく付いている小さな丸の意味を調べてみたところ、

ほとんどの文字（子音では「ก」と「ธ」を除く）に小さい丸があるのが特徴的であるが、字体によっては丸が省略されたり、ラテン文字に似せたデザインもある。44の子音字からなり、大文字・小文字の区別はない。

（Wikipediaより）
だそうです。ふーん。


It seems though when it is handwritten, those circles are omitted:
ちなみに、手書き文字になると、丸は書かないみたい。ふーん。セリフに近い感覚ですな。

I even found vehicle registration plates appealing. I mean, so many shapes and styles! The way numbers and letters are embossed are so cool. Some people even framed their plates, for decorative purpose I suppose, so clearly Thai people also think that registration plate is a cool aspect of the vehicle too, right?
ナンバープレートもかっこよさげ。

I don't know if it's a traditional Thai thing or a Chinese influence but there were frequent usage of color red and that certainly brightened up already sunny streets of Thailand. Everything Royal Family related seemed to have decorative gold too. Colorful and fun all the way.

It does make me feel that such rawness seen everywhere in Thailand is so strong and appealing, what the hell am I doing as a designer. When we think we are sophisticating things, are we at the same time making things boring? Designers tend to believe that we are solving external problem, but it is also true to say that at the end of the day, design is always a product of designers' egoism.

華僑の影響か、赤の使用が多い点も、赤を見ると牛のように興奮するわたしとしては好感でした。

タイのこういうラフな感じこそがカッコいいというのは、デザイナーとしては、結構考えさせられる点でもあります。常にそうだとは思いませんが、洗練していく過程で、世界をつまらなくしていることは多いと思います。デザインは「人のため」なんていいつつも、結局のところデザインなんぞ、デザイナーのエゴの産物であるという自覚は必要なのかもしれません。なんてことを、ぼんやりと考えてみたり。


Lastly, this is a cool balcony we found in Phi Phi Don:

Thai Trip 2013

I went on holiday to Thailand for about 12 days. I've been to few places around Asia (Japan, S.Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Macau) but I might go as far as saying that this Thai trip was the best one out of all the Asian trips I've done. It's not a secret that I had an amazing travel partner but also it was probably the only place I felt that I'd like to be back and was felt most livable.

I arrived in Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur (using Air Asia) and from Bangkok, we went around Thailand clockwise on the map; Surat Thani, Krabi, Phi Phi island, Phuket and back to Bangkok. That roundtrip was not initially intended. To be precise, we couldn't get direct flight tickets to Phuket in the busy weekend, so it was a consequential thing but it was definitely worth seeing different parts of Thailand.

So what's the appeal? Why did I like it so much? Everywhere we went, we were greeted by laid-back people (of many were very friendly), amazing food, great weather, crazy night life, safe atmosphere and breathtaking beaches. It sounds like a perfect holiday right? It certainly was. When we thought things could possibly go wrong, for instance when we ran out of gasoline in middle of nowhere, people helped us and it was no hustle. Even in local areas, we had no problem communicating; that is we always had no problem getting the food we wanted.

We especially liked Phi Phi Island (Phi Phi Don) and stayed there for four nights. It was a place to relax. Drinking Piña Colada by the emerald green ocean was such a luxury.
At the same time, the craziness and chaos of Bangkok and Phuket were also inspiring. That energy, problem, stimulation, culture and collision of them all was definitely interesting to observe. When Seoul and Hong Kong felt just like Tokyo, Bangkok and Phuket seemed unique to my eyes. I love it in Tokyo, but after coming back from Thailand, the life and Tokyo did seem less colorful I must admit.


オーストラリアの前に、１１泊１２日（機内泊を入れると１２泊１３日）で、タイへ旅行に行ってきました。
今まで行ったアジア（日本、韓国、インドネシア、香港、マカオ）の中では、ぶっちぎりで一番良かったです。今までに行ったアジア（韓国、インドネシア、香港、マカオ）は現地の友達の家に泊まって、通訳＆ガイドも友達がしてくれたディーブなアジア旅行だったのに対し、今回のタイ旅行は、適当にふらふらしただけの上辺な旅行だったにも関わらず、相当楽しんできました。

バンコクにクアラルンプール経由（Air Asia）で入り、バンコクから時計回りで、飛行機でスラタニ、バスでクラビ、船でピピ島、船でプーケット、と周り、飛行機でバンコクに戻り、クアラルンプール経由で羽田に戻ってきました。そして、羽田着の４０時間後には、ケインズ経由でゴールドコーストに行くため、成田へ。１５日ほどの間に飛行機に８回乗るという、ジェットセッターな経験をしました。感想は、「意外と余裕」。

こんなにタイ各所を回る予定は一切なく、予定を立てずに行ったら、偶然こういう展開になってしまっただけなのですが、いろいろなタイの土地を見れて、逆に正解でした。ピピ島は特に気に入り、４泊しました。

ビーチも綺麗で、物価も安く、食べ物も美味しく、気候も良く、夜の街はクレイジー。でも、治安も良かったです。大抵のご飯を屋台で食べてましたが、お腹は一切壊しませんでした。ビーチもヨーロッパの方が、こそ泥が多く、常に気が抜けない雰囲気。タイの人は、多くの人が適当で、「だらだらやる気ない派」か「愛想がよく親切派」の２派があるものの、英語もよく通じて、過ごしやすかったです。

All photos above were taken by my iPhone5 camera.
I've edited them because I despise the width and height ratio of the default iPhone photo dimension. In any case, looking at them, I don't think I'll ever buy or carry compact digital camera ever again.

上の写真はすべてiPhone5のカメラで撮ったもの。
今後コンパクトデジタルカメラを買う、あるいは持ち歩くことはもう二度とないだろうなー。

Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist – The Conversation Series 4

This book consists of conversations between a Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (founder of an architecture firm OMA) and a Swiss curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist.

After 11 years of living in the Western culture, I'm now focusing my attention to Asia, and I cannot deny Koolhaas' influence in this mind set. I'm interested in changes, forward-looking-ness, and chaos of Asia. There are many architects or designers that work for Asia or Middle East, but Koolhaas probably shares his experiences and studies about the culture more than others, and reading these simply fascinates me just like that was the case for this book. Koolhaas insights are poignant and that makes it not surprising that he was a journalist and filmmaker before becoming an architect.

Some memorable quotes from the book (all by Rem Koolhaas):

I don't think we've met anyone in the context of this project who is older than 45. There seem to be a generation of people between 35 and 45 who are responsible for everything at the moment. It's very interesting because when those people were very young, they experienced the cultural revolution; when they were 12, it was over and they were able to return to school, and when they were 18, they were able to go abroad. (…) What's more, I think this generation is not so obsessed with getting rich. I think that's a kind of propaganda expressed by journalists, always with the latent suggestion of imminent collapse. There's a suggestion of that "materialism, abuse of human rights, desire to get rich" mentality.

Propaganda is usually defined by sound bites or by simplifying issues. The beauty of Europe is that you cannot simplify it, as it is an infinitely complex process.

After World War II, for the first time, it became possible to define a European narrative objective and to integrate the entire story without lying, but nevertheless negotiating the paradoxes that characterized Europe: that one nation's villain is another nation's hero.

I have realized that we are living in a completely paradoxical moment of modernization where all modernization is driven by nostalgia, on every level. Yet, we are absolutely disinterested in the past, in history. Auschwitz, for example, has become nostalgia, and there are more and more instruments of memory and less and less actual remembrance. That's quite a perverse thing. Nostalgia means living permanently in a form of denial, and what is particularly sinister about it is that it is driving the left as much as the right, intellectuals as much as the general population.

The book uses quite distinctive and unique typefaces but they sit rather comfortably and the book is really easy to read in terms of readability. It was designed by French design studio M/M Paris.

わたしが自分の視点を欧米からアジアに移すきっかけとなったのは、オランダ人建築家レム・コールハースの影響。彼は、9.11WTC跡地のコンペに参加せず、中国の国営テレビ局CCTVに向かった人。「メモリアル」など後ろ向きなアメリカではなく、前を向く中国を選択して、揉まれながらも、時代の流れに乗っている印象。コールハースは、「現状をありのままに認める」人で、建築や街における「資本主義」や「ショッピングという行為」「セックスやドラッグ」「開発のスピード」といった一種の悪とされるものも観察していてる。オランダ人らしからぬワーカホリックでもってすごくストレートで真面目。彼を見てると、世の中、混沌な方が面白いとさえ思えてくる。

そんなコールハースと、世界一のインタビュー好きスイス人キュレーターHans Ulrich Obristとの対談。

「CCTVのプロジェクトに携わった人で４５歳以上の人はいなかったと思う」「中国の３５歳から４５歳の世代は、あまりお金に執着はないと思う」（インタビュー年不明）「ジャーナリストは中国のイメージを物質主義、人権問題、お金にどん欲、というので安易にまとめるけれど、それはプロパガンダ的なものだ」と言っていたのが印象的。ロンドンに住む中国人で、中国人全般は語れないとは思うけれど、わたしの知っている中国人も、お金に対してあまりギスギスした印象はない。
というよりまず、「国営テレビの象徴的ビルの建設」に携わる人々が４５歳以下というのは、年功序列の日本人からしたらショックですよね。日本の大手テレビ局（国営テレビだとNHK）のビルの建設となったとき、日本だったら逆に、「４５歳以下は一体何人いるか」というレベルですよね、きっと。中国の経済成長を、人口、資源や国土面積を理由に挙げることも出来るけれど、ちゃんと若手が力を発揮出来るようなダイナシズムも育っているのかな、とコールハースの話を読んでいて思いました。

ちなみにこの本のデザインはフランスのデザイン事務所M/M Parisが手がけていて、癖のあるタイポグラフィーが特徴的ですが、それでいてとても美しいです。


★★★☆☆