I, Amsterdam

Although I go back to Amsterdam at least every once a year, my last visit to Amsterdam taught me in particular about the origin of my visual preferences. It's always a great discovery to be able to make sense of yourself. It became clearer than ever that things I do are heavily influenced by the design-scape (graphic, architecture, typography, product) of Holland. Such influences are not so much of a conceptual one, but rather stylistically. I see design in Amsterdam, and they resembled myself.

I think I can be, and I also tend to be, quite critical of Japan and London, but being critical towards Amsterdam or Holland is a harder task for me. It's quite interesting to think why that's actually the case.

Blog Makeover

So, as you can see my blog got a new look! Whatcha think? One column layout grid inspired heavily by amazing Shini Park's Park & Cube blog.
One column may be a little controversial as you need to scroll all the way down to reach to the navigation bit, but I really wanted the emphasis to go on the visuals. I've reduced the number of posts per page, and I hope that helps a bit.
This layout is made to work well on iPads, and also I've started using different layout for mobile devices.

With interfaces and such, I like keeping things minimal and stay with monotones to go with any color that images in my posts may have. Though, orange is definitely trending inside me lately and I thought it may be nice for a change. What can I say, my inner Dutchman is calling.  I've also realized afterwards that the use of orange works with Blogger logo and Blogger interface (which only I would really see but it's still nice).
Plus, apparently Pantone 17-1463 Tangerine Tango is the color of 2012.

I seemed to be shopping for orange lately too. Expect me to wear that Peter Jensen orange sweater everywhere.

I am dying to re-design my website and also I would like to have a place where I can keep the photos that I take. I am very much liking Facehunter Yvan Rodic's Visual Diary site for an inspiration of that.

Holland, Horizon, Perpendicularity and Me

This is where I grew up:

This was the scenery behind my house in Amstelveen. It looks like middle of nowhere but it really wasn't. The whole of Holland pretty much looks like this.

Holland is flat. My mom says when she moved to Holland for the first time, she couldn't bare that boring flat scenery that seem to keep on repeating itself. But that's where I grew up. The surprise I got when I first moved to London was that there're actually hills and slopes. I found slopes to be nuisance. They make you tired.

Holland is about horizon and perpendicularity. Hence De Stijl:

Photo from Dwell

If I look at the photos I take, a lot are horizontal and perpendicular to the edges of the frame. I secretly believe my love for horizon and perpendicularity is because of the Dutch flat scenery.


海や、砂漠や、ビーチや、草原や、水平線や、地平線が大好き。自然の風景は「何もない」に近いものが好き。それは育ったオランダの影響だと思う。オランダはどこまで行っても、平地。だからか、山とか丘とか滝のような豊かな自然に興味はない。ロンドンに引っ越して来た当時は、「坂って邪魔だなあ」と本気で思っていた。

私の撮る写真は、水平で垂直なものが本当に多い。これもきっと、育ったオランダの影響。水平で垂直の写真というのは、悪く言えば動きがなくてつまらないけれど、良く言えばシンプルでスッキリしている。

自分のデザインも、本当に水平と垂直だらけ。真っすぐな線と平らな面ばかりで、グリッド的。ファッションにしろ、建築にしろ、フォーム自体は出来る限りシンプルで、その分色や質感で遊んでいるものを好きになる傾向があるような。

オランダのあの水平さは、アーティストよりもデザイナーを生む景色かも。