Nine Days of Sun and Dancing

I was back in London and Ibiza for this year's summer holiday. Needless to say, it was fantastic.
Bellow is the compilation of footage that I've taken with video function of Instagram app:

As you can see from the video, the holiday was filled with sunshine and music: just how I wanted.

I've been fooling around to quest for a simple and easy way of recording and archiving videos (like this and this) but I think I'm sticking to this Instagram method as it is probably the easiest of all. Just merging all the footage in a chronological order makes it a great travel archive. No brain needed, and plus, it just makes sense to have all the Instagram videos in a sequence for the convenience of easy viewing.

Today I had my mid-year assessment at my office. There, my boss mentioned how much of a sudden improvement in design quality I achieved since I came back from this holiday. I had vaguely felt it myself, but it is reassuring to hear it from a third person. See, holidays are good for your soul and for your work. Well, at least they can be as proven by me in this case.


７月末に、９日間ほど、ロンドンとイビサ（スペイン）に行ってきました（かっこよく言うと「戻っていました」）。
「フェスやクラブで、すごく遊ぶ」と「ビーチや友達と、すごくリラックスする」を交互に繰り返した休暇だったということが、Instagramで撮った動画を時列に繋げた上の動画を観ると実感します。

音楽の話はまたの機会にするとして、この休暇を経て、日本に帰ってきてから調子がとてもいい・・・ということを、今日の上司の方との話の中で改めて気付かされました。
タイトなスケジュールで行ったにも関わらず、帰ってきてからの方が、身体の調子がいいし、仕事も上手くいっているし、それになにより帰ってきてから仕事が楽しい（前から楽しかったけどね）。

「旅行に行ったら元気になる」とまで短絡的に言い切るつもりはないです。でも、逆説的に聞こえるかもしれないけれど、自分を消耗させることで逆に元気になることってあるかもしれないと思いました。または、本気出して遊んできたことで、「本気で何かに打ち込む」ということを思い出したのか。なににせよ結局のところ、「何も得られなかった旅」なんてないから、やっぱり旅はするべきなのかも。
見返りばかりを期待する旅はしたくはないけれど。

Spring in Tokyo

I compiled a 24 seconds clip using some footages from my iPhone movies taken between May to June. Life in Tokyo is über colorful.

iPhoneの中で眠っていた、５月末から６月にかけてのビデオを２４秒にまとめてみました。iPhoneでビデオって撮っても、まったく観返さない。そういえば、写真もオンラインにあげたものしか観返さないかも。動画もこうやって定期的にオンライン上にあげていけば、観返したくなるのでしょうか。



I am not a video person and I've always preferred audio or still images as methods of obtaining information or recording memories. Though, after I made this film from my London trip, I began to record moments by video more often and above is the result of it. Not much thoughts involved, it is a simple cut and paste compilation of my five weeks or so.
Now that Instagram got a video feature, I would like to make compilations of those Instagram videos when I get enough clips to do so.

ながらで観れないので、動画は観るのに身構えてしまう感じがあり、ながらで聞けるポッドキャストが好きで、TED talkなどもオーディオで聴く派でした。でも、最近盛り上がっているVineやInstagramの「すごく短くて凝縮された動画スタイル」だったら、敷居低く観れるので、ついつい観てしまっています。簡素に切り貼りしたとはいえ、上記のような動画を作るのはそれなりに手間なので、Instagramにアップする動画が溜まってきたら、それらを繋げてコンピレーション動画も作りたいです（そういうアプリがほしい）。

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The first and last bit of the clip was shot using Time Lapse Camera HD iPhone app and Veho MUVI X-Lapse. I again got it from MobileFun which sells mobile phone accessories online and it looks like this:

It literally works like the cooking timer:
(images found from Google Image Search)

The upper part rotates in steady motion and hence you can take a full 360 view time lapse films. You can't however change the speed; it is pretty an analogue product.
What bother me the most is that it makes a steady noise throughout. It even makes a loud cooking-timer-like-noise at the end. I was hoping to shoot the urban landscape of Tokyo from a high-rised building but its constant noise make it impossible for me to shoot from a posh cafe while sipping a cup of coffee.
Having said that, it's fun to think about what to shoot with this product and broadens the expression of iPhone movie.

上の動画の最初と最後のタイムラプスは、Veho MUVI X-Lapseというものを用いて撮っています。携帯アクセサリーのオンラインショップMobileFunより。
本当はこれで、高層ビルから東京の町並みとか撮りたかったのですが、クッキングタイマー原理で動いているので、意外とジリジリうるさい。なので、これでお洒落な高層ビルのカフェでコーヒー飲みながらこっそり撮る・・・みたいなのは厳しそう。

Bittersweet LDN in Film

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.


動画には作りにはあまり興味がないのですが、旅行を「まとめる」のにすごく適しているメディアかなと思い立ちつくってみました。iPhone 5で撮った動画の面白そうなところだけを切ってつなげるだけで「旅の記憶」がひとつにまとまる。（あら簡単！）

コツは出来るだけ短くすること。長いと楽しかった旅の記録でさえ、見返す気が失せるのは、私だけではないはず。

作品ではなく、自己満足的ツールです。でも創ってしまえば、47秒で楽しかった1週間が、いつでも思い出せるというのはオイシイ。手ぶれもご愛嬌。そんなお手軽動画作り、お勧めです。

Introducing SE7EN COLORS

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.

コンセントに新卒として入社して、4週間。
飛び抜けて優秀な同期と、「自分たちを知ってもらうための動画とウェブサイト」を作成しました。まさか、コンセントに入社して最初に触るアプリケーションがAfter Effectsになるとは。そして、ウェブのプロフェッショナルを前に、サイトをコーディングすることになるとは。
ただ、自分たちの個性だけじゃなく、デザイン的なレベルを知ってもらう上でも、やることが出来て良かった。考えてみれば、自分たちも内定式の日に１回会っただけで、お互いのことをあまり知らなかったわけで、この一連のプロジェクトをやったことで、他の６人との間に信頼関係が築けたことは、すごく重要だった。

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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。

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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.

そして、コンセント新入社員スペシャルサイトはこちら（http://sustoco.concentinc.jp/se7en/）
サストコ from Editorsの森部が書いてくれたこちらの記事で、コンセプトについて説明してくれています。

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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.

新卒は７人とも個性が見事にバラバラで、「デザインについて真剣に考えてきた」というくらいしか共通点が見いだせない。それなのにも関わらず、みんな「コンセントっぽい」。「会社」という共同体って上手く出来ていますね。
せっかく「デザインについて真剣に考えてきた」７人が、「デザインについて真剣に考えている」人たちの会社に入るということで、デザインについて真剣に話している動画もサイトに載せています。

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会社の方々から、ポジティブな感想をいただけたプロジェクトでしたが、先輩のひとりが、「企画編集、コンテンツつくり、デザイン、エンジニアリング、グループワーク、コンセプトメイキング、プロジェクトマネージメント、サービスデザイン的視点、、コンセントのすべてがつまってる」と言ってくださったのが一番嬉しかったかな。受け入れらた気がして。

Megan on VARSITY London

VARSITY London's editor Megan Wray Schertler talks about concepts behind the magazine.
This lovely short film is by Ian Giles.

Of course you can still read the issue on VARSITY website.
As well as read my last blog post here.