Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

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Thanks for visiting and please keep in touch? ~ D.T.

Image: Happy 3rd Birthday by Laura-Beth

Wow I almost missed it yet again!

Yesterday, November 09, was Design Sojourn’s 3rd birthday. It has been 3 great years of blogging and to mark this event it I have been thinking about what I should do to celebrate it with you dear reader.

Oh before I forget, I would like to extent a big “Thank You” for all your support, comments, or just sharing this journey of design with me. Recently, I have not had too much time to really keep up with my commenting and keeping in touch with all of your emails, but fear not, I do make sure I read every single one!

Ok back to this celebration!

I had come up with a whole bunch of “hair brained” ideas. From drinks on the house, viral memes, link farming, practical jokes, crazy prize giveaways, and even collecting donations for charity. Many of these ideas, have been done before, and the result was always the same. Some kind of self-glorification short term traffic boost, which seems to me a pointless exercise and something against the spirit of blogging. Done often enough is something I find very annoying as it does not really add to the blogosphere but spam it.

A while ago, I had a discussion with an old design lecturer on the pros and cos of blogging. One of the points we though about was the medium was a chronological one and there was no way to really index or keep track of your work from the past. Blogs will be great education and learning tools if it only had a glossary of some kind!

With that in mind, I think what I will do this Birthday month is to look back at some of Design Sojourn’s best articles, created when the site was just a new seedling with very few readers, update them with new information or data, and republish it for all to enjoy.

So do stay tuned for some hard hitting Industrial Design posts!

With my vacation last week and a shorten week this week, I have been just too exhausted to update my blog.

However, I have not been idle. I have been collecting lots of juicy design tips and thoughts. Not only that, I have been testing out the iPhone as a blogging tool. It’s not too bad, but touch typing is sloooow and good for short posts like this one!

Anyways do stay tuned as there might be something out end of this week.

Today I presented “What is Design?” at the Invent Singapore Conference 2008, Design for Life workshop. I had a really great time as we had a really friendly audience that asked great questions. As promised to my audience, I have uploaded my presentation to Slideshare for reference viewing right here on Design Sojourn.

On a side note, I designed the slide show not as a Design definition exercise. Far from that. In fact designers are still debating on how to define what design really is. This slide show was really more about looking at design on a holistic level and how design like the subject itself is constantly evolving. Not only that, the focus of the presentation was more about creating a design mindset and for inventors to understand what design can do for them. Do enjoy the slide below after the jump!

I also heard the presentation was recorded. So if the slide show did not really make sense to you, do stay tuned for the recorded representation. I’ll post it as soon as I get my grubby hands on it!

I have been invited to conduct a Workshop called “Design for Life” at the Invent Singapore Conference 2008 this Saturday 16 Aug 2008 at 2pm and also at 4pm.

For more information do visit the official Invent Singapore 2008 site.

I have not finalized my presentation as of yet but it will likely be strategically focused with a leaning towards informational content. It will likely cover the following topics broadly:
1) What is Design?
2) The Changing Role of Designers?
3) The Advantages of have Designers In-house vs. Out-house.

If you happen to be in the area please do stop by and say high. If not, do stay tuned as the slides will likely be online or on slideshare. See you there!

Image Source: Showing Respect.

With a sigh, I turn the lights and radio off, and shut my office door for the last time.

After almost 5 1/2 years and 5 international design awards later, I have decided to resign from my position as Head of Industrial Design and Senior Manager at Nakamichi.

Today the 8th August or 08/08/08 was my last day in the office. The decision to leave was a tough one, but I believe it is time for me to move on. I never realized it but this day happens to be a cosmically auspicious day to the Chinese, not to mention the start of the Olympics! “Eight” in Mandarin rhymes with “Fa” which means luck and prosperity.

So while I’m pretty sad leaving behind some great colleagues, it looks to me like a happy ending that is going to lead into a flying start!

I like to wish all fellow Industrial Designers or anyone in the Industrial Design profession a happy World Industrial Design Day!

If you are interested in the events celebrated in the country closest to you, check out the official ICSID calendar of events , otherwise give your favorite designer or product a big hug for me?

Unlike other design blogs out there that only focus on pretty pictures, Design Sojourn gets into the nitty gritty of design by basing our discussions on “How to do good design, Make clever products and Master the business of Design.”

Weekly, my partner and I look to bring you the latest in thinking, that will teach, inspire, or even push you along your own journey in design or any creative profession.

With that in mind, Design Sojourn is looking for like minded individuals to be guest contributors, write articles, or even just provide link submissions. Content such as interviews, sharing your design experiences, or even just your latest thoughts on your design projects are more than welcomed.

If you are interested to be a guest contributor or even be part of the Design Sojourn writing team, please do not hesitate to drop me an email via our online contact form.

I look forward to hearing from all of you soon!

I’m sure you avid readers have noticed a slowdown in blogging the whole of last week, and very likely this week as well. This is because I am actively involved in my usual yearly National Service commitments with the Army. While I am not blogging, do rest assured that I am reading all your comments and emails that you have sent. I will do my best to get back to you when I finish at the end of this week.

Talk soon friends!

Edit: Well friends, I’m alive and kicking after 2 weeks of sub 6am morning risers. Damn tired but happy to be out. However sad as I will have to leave the “band of brothers” behind. Here’s to all the memories!

Anyways, do stay tuned, we will be back to regular programming soon!

Image by sheilaz413

Here is wishing you a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat!

On the side note, I like to let all of you know that my sabbatical in Sydney is more or less over and that I have moved back to Singapore. The last month was a crazy haze of late nights packing and sorting.

Fortunately, we manage to make it back in time for Chinese New Year. So it’s back to the land of fast broad-band, free Wi-Fi, updated mobile phones, and almost 100% humidity. Oh how I miss the local coffee!

Once I’ve settled back in, it will be back to regular programming and hard hitting industrial design action! Talk soon.

What a nice way to end 2007 and roll into 2008 with a flying start!

My team and I have won a Good Design Award 2007 from the The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design for our Dragon Electrostatic Speaker Product Range. This product was also recently featured in Wired Magazine issue 15.03

This win was particularly sweet, as it was a product that we recommended, pushed, and developed as part of our ongoing research into trends, consumer markets and technology. This speaker is also a cumulative milestone example of our evolving design language strategy that I had mapped out for the brand and product category about 3 years ago.

It look like that we are part of a very nice cohort of designers and companies. Also we are 1 of the 6 Good Design Awards that was given out to designers and manufacturers from Singapore. Still along way to go compared to the United States’ 270 awards haul, but I think this is a great start for the Industrial Design Industry in Singapore.

Well our 5 minutes of fame is up, so back to work! Heh-heh.

(Do note: This speaker was recently renamed and repositioned as part of the Nakamichi’s iconic Dragon range.)