Mark Wu Info

Hard Graft - Purveyors of Handmade Felt & Leather Goods - Release the New 3Fold Leather Laptop Bag

2009-10-29T08:25:07+00:00

y favourite leather bag makers are the Austrian and English creative team at Hard Graft who are based in Austria. S'funny, I don't even own any of their leather bags, although I do have a few of their felt and leather technology cases. I've been impatiently waiting for my limited edition 2Unfold leather laptop bag to arrive when lo and behold, they've just released the 3Fold! Hard Graft obviously know when they're onto a good thing. The 3Fold, like the 2Unfold, is also a multi-use laptop bag. The 3Fold however, transforms into three, much more distinct configurations - the Laptop Bag (this time fitting 15" laptops), the massively flat (A2 sized) Portfolio Bag and the puffed up Overnighter....

Living Abroad Increases Creativity

2009-09-15T22:21:39+00:00

ne of the websites I visit recently posted about how living abroad increases creativity. A described experiment revealed how more subjects who had lived abroad were successful in completing a task than those who had never lived abroad. More interestingly for me was a quote from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which reminds me of Moleskine's marketing message about their "legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two century". "Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years dwelling abroad." Aligning travel and creativity has always been a no-brainer for me, since new experiences must undoubtedly form the basis for inspiring some forms of creativity. Actually 'living' somewhere foreign seemingly reveals more in-depth experiences since more time is spent on a day-to-day basis immersed in a different culture. A difference between 'travel' and 'living' can be seen in how accessible a foreign culture has become. I fully appreciate the chance to live in Hong Kong - a bonus since it's also my parent's home country, though still foreign to me....

Designers and their Toys

2009-09-01T22:02:52+00:00

hy is it that so many of my peers collect designer toys? Probably the same reason I would. They look good as they're designed by people like us. They're undergone an exquisite production process and harbour attention to detail. That makes them desirable right? It also makes them expensive. Hell, we're working so we can afford it, and since they're so costly, they become exclusive. Limited edition. Not many of them in the world. However, though I buy the odd figure, I'm not a fanatic. It's nice to surround ourselves with a few things that we like and a designer toy is just like that vase of flowers, or the designer equivalent of your parent's little Lilliput Lane cottage sculpture. But I don't kid myself that any collector's item will turn into an investment, ripe for cashing when mature....

Loud Mobile Phone Users in Hong Kong

2009-08-28T12:23:12+00:00

n occasional annoyance I've endured in my six months in Hong Kong is the bus-riding, loud mobile phone user. The individual often seems oblivious to the volume of their own voice, though I must say that the Cantonese language doesn't seem to lend itself to softly spoken tones anyway (unlike Mandarin). But when forced to ride a sui-ba, one of the sixteen-seat public light minibuses, with a loudly spoken mobile phone user, there's something very grating and annoying about the experience. It's made worse with a headache. It could be the accent (cultural), the tone (aural) or content (intellectual!) but more likely all three and the fact that I'd have to ride out the conversation that in my eyes, turns Hong Kong's loud mobile phone users into society's worst offenders of noise pollution....

A Process for Travel Journaling

2009-08-15T16:42:09+00:00

ollowing my previous post Travel Stationary Geek, my travel journaling is coming along nicely (if a little behind), with my efforts to document our East Asia travel experiences happening both on and offline. In July, Linh and I went to Taipei and Seoul. The trips adds a further two countries to our visited list that includes Vietnam and Japan, as well as Hong Kong (and Macau). So I've bought another two Traveler's Notebooks as I use a 64 page book for each country in which to keep any ephemera....

Earthquake in Taipei, Solar Eclipse in Seoul

2009-07-26T16:35:07+00:00

In July, we visited Taipei and Seoul. Since it was our first time in either city, it was an interesting and fun experience, but natural phenomena also made the visits more memorable. No less than an earthquake and a solar eclipse. Earthquake in Taipei In Taipei, we experienced the earthquake that happened to Taiwan on Tuesday 14th July at 2.05am. With the epicentre off the coast, the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.3, but was only a 3 in Taipei City....

Web Wednesday Social Mixer Networking in Hong Kong

2009-07-02T16:18:23+00:00

One of my interests in spending time in Hong Kong was to get some insight into the design scene. I came across the monthly networking event Web Wednesday, which happens in the Volar Bar & Club, located in Central on Hong Kong Island. Thankfully (and ashamedly) for me, this means it is conducted in English. Time Out Hong Kong cites Web Wednesday as being one of Hong Kong's biggest networking events. Subjects covered appear to be quite diverse covering areas such as Facebook app development and online communities, with founder and host Napolean Biggs interviewing invitees such as the founding developer of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg....

Travel Stationary Geek

2009-06-23T13:12:03+00:00

I've always had a thing about quality stationary brands, ever since the ubiquitous Filofax organisers from the 80's. I still retain a personal and an A5 sized Filofax, filling them with personal papers and using them to keep together important cards and documents. Afterall, their customisable inserts make them practical for any physical essentials in the face of our growing reliance on digital. Practically all my work is digital, but having trained mostly with crafting by hand, I still cling to any vestiges of analogue I can fit in my life....

From Japan to Hong Kong - Confusion

2009-06-01T16:50:23+00:00

Coming back to Hong Kong from Japan initially confused me in a slightly entertaining way. I found myself standing on the left hand side of escalators which they do in Tokyo, but not in Hong Kong. And I would swipe my Hong Kong Octopus card at the MTR barriers whilst thinking of Shinjuku station and Tokyo's equally convenient Suica card. I have also never taken as much notice of the branding on toilet urinals as I do now, ever since visiting the Toto Super Space in West Shinjuku. Every public toilet in Hong Kong seems to be equipped with Toto tech....

Visible Chinese article in the South China Morning Post Magazine

2009-05-31T20:38:12+00:00

It's by coincidence that I'm in Hong Kong when its leading English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, heard about the website I founded, Visible Chinese and contacted me for a short article about it! The article just came out today and is actually in their Sunday Morning Post edition, within the accompanying (Post) magazine. I was interviewed for a regular column called "Long-distance call" which features a Chinese expatriate every week, who explains their work and a little of their life story....