John Jay on creativity
May 21, 2011On my desk: Inventory, Apartamento and Monocle Magazine
May 12, 2011
Last Friday, I made it a mission to have all three of these magazines before the end of the week. Success.
May 12, 2011
I’ll be working with this guy for the next couple of weeks. I don’t really document much about WK12 projects here — but I think I’m going to integrate a bit more of what I can with this next brief to give you a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes here at WK12. Stay tuned.
The Girls Vivian in Portland, OR
May 11, 2011
On my desk: Muji Book signed by Kenya Hara and a patch saying that I’m an Oregon Swimming Champion
May 7, 2011
Having Kenya Hara sign my MUJI book pretty much made my week. On top of that, Alex gets me a patch that says, “Oregon Swimming Champion”. Now how awesome is that? Be sure to follow him on Tumblr.
Beach Fossils at Berbati’s. Portland, OR
May 7, 2011
MUJI’s Kenya Hara speaks on “Emptiness” at Wieden+Kennedy Portland
May 7, 2011
Last Wednesday, John Jay invited Kenya Hara to speak to Wieden+Kennedy about the concept of Emptiness. For those unfamiliar with his work, Hara is one of the leading figures behind the Japan’s brand with no brand, MUJI. With about 70 agency members in attendance, Hara used the comparison between Japanese and western cooking knives to make the distinctions between the notions of “Emptiness” and “Simplicity”.
Hara explained that upon first appearance, the Japanese knife (top) may seem less courteous to the user, but in fact, it is the emptiness that this knife retains that gives the user an endless amount of possibilities of being held. Yes, the knife on the bottom is simple, but it is not empty. Its form tells you how you should use it.
This was just one of the examples that Hara used to elaborate on the idea of Emptiness. As Alexander Barrett put it, “It was a heavy afternoon. In a good way”.
On the image above, “Earth and Human Being. There is nothing, yet everything”.
“Emptiness holds the possibility of being filled”.
“To create is not just to create an object or a phenomenon. Coming up with a question is also creation. In fact, a question that has huge receptive capacity doesn’t even need a definitive answer. Questioning is emptiness”.
Recommusings: 061
May 4, 2011
A Risk-Taker’s Debut ~ NYTimes
Salone del Mobile in Milan ~ Monocle
A Platform for Living ~ Dwell
Osama Bin Laden for Time ~ Tim O’Brien
Fifteen Years of Flying United ~ Pentagram
Austin Radcliffe of Things Organized Neatly ~ Printmag
Over the Weekend. In Photo
May 2, 2011
And Sunday.
