Onitsuka Tiger

Ohh yeah, this is what i call an ad.

the lengthy version

I read too, ya kno'

My fascination with serial killers started after the movie Seven, starred Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. There's a twist towards the end of the movie that questions morality and duty of upholding the law or personal vengeance. Its one of those movies where the bad guy wins at the end, in a way. If its confusing, you might want to rent the movie and watch it. 

Better still buy it, because it worth to just collect for detective/investigation movie buffs. Other than that, you can try watching Dexter, a TV comedy-drama based on a book by Jeff Lindsay and Criminal Minds about a bunch of really good looking FBI profilers kicking asses and taking names.

After the movie I started researching the net for similar movies. Then I started buying books that research on serial killers mentality. FYI, I don't sneak out in the middle of the night to dismember cats or decapitate unsuspecting joggers at the park but I do have immense interest in why they do the things they do. They are like us, but why is killing a necessity to them? I'd like to delve into their minds and understand what exactly is up with them. Just to satisfy the investigator in me.

You might want to check out the book, Mind Hunter written by former FBI agent, John Douglas one of the pioneers in profiling criminal behavior. The book explains serial killer behavior on a case-by-case basis. Along with Douglas, Robert K. Ressler is also a good read, Whoever Fights Monsters which you can't find in Kinokuniya or Borders. Your best bet should be amazon books. Douglas's approach to serial killers is the good guy versus the bad guy with his book peppered with moral integrity wherelse Ressler's book is the more humane approach to serial killers understanding that it is a need they cannot control. For anyone who has slight interest in serial killers, they should start with Hunting Humans, written by Elliot Leyton, his perspective of serial killers are based on research and his oh-so-coincidental bump into 2 serial killers, which inadvertently fueled his passion to write a book about serial killers. The book is a good start for people who in interested because the author writes the book also as someone who is new to the subject.

They covered cases like the ever-suave Ted Bundy, Dahmer, Ed Kemper and the rest of the most prolific serial killers in American history. But westerners being westerners they failed to cover asians killers. C'mon, are we that unimportant to match the ranks of American killers? You want cannibals? Yeah we have cannibals, go to China and you can see them eating whatever that moves. Which reminds me, its not until recently that Japan had one of their own quirky still-living cannibal, Issei Sagawa, who murdered and ate his dutch woman-friend during his time studying in France. He scored one for the Asians by describing in detail why he did it and allowing interviews with magazines all over Japan to promote himself. I mean, the psycho earns more than me and you by churning out books after books on cannibalism and food recipes (I shit you not!), propelling himself to a somewhat mini celebrity in Japan. Here is an interview in English. Or maybe our very own Mona Fandey a local shaman, whose case generate such publicity that movies were made (and banned) here in Malaysia.

Anyways, do check out the books i recommended for any detective buffs out there. You might be surprise that the killers themselves may not be so different from you and me.

the lengthy version

Designer rant #1

I wouldn't know how the design industry is in other countries but for Malaysia, clients/your boss are your Creative Directors. They always have the old-fashioned notion that whoever pays, they fuckin own you. Here, everybody is a fuckin designer.

"Oh, have you been to Ikea lately? I saw this sofa, I like how the colors mesh together to give an impression of space", says housewife A.
"Really? I thought it was garish and out-of-place, I prefer the one near the entrance, the size and contour is just right for your condo", says housewife B
"Are you sure? They don't have it in red! It fits perfectly to my light orange walls", fishmonger butts in.
"Its a shame, cos' it will liven up the atmosphere by the time, Chinese New Year comes by", interrupts pork seller.

In short, everybody thinks that with minimal color coordination skills, they are fuckin designers. I know everybody is entitled to their opinions, but the designers in Ikea are designers for a reason. Just like how every designer in publishing/advertising/interior/architecture/whatever are. In publishing, there are text and there are layouts. Usually, design is something visual and also subjective. When we layout the text and page, we coordinate between the two to come up with a layout thats easy to read. As with writers, for text you have grammar changes, or maybe changes to style of writing to suite the identity of the mag. But if you are a lowly DTP designer, its easier to give criticism on your layout. It has to go through to editor (to check text), to Art Director then to Creative Director. Before the layout goes to print, 7 changes had already been made to the layout. People always assumed that if you are an Art Director, then you have the best design skills or the best design sense. That's not necessarily the case as I've had my fair share of shite-for-brains Art Directors. Throughout my 9 year stint in publishing, the only Art Director that really taught me was in KLue magazine. He didnt emphasis on design. He emphasis on how designers should think, why it is important to love music and culture, why you should have a spliff once in awhile. He understands that as a designer, you need to grow, and growth as a designer doesn't happen overnight. It is nurtured by the fact that designers shouldn't stop learning. He wasn't your regular Art Director. The rest of the ADs are complete shite. That explains why I was often accused of being difficult and arrogant. They tend to stick to what works. But not how you can push the magazine further by doing what everybody else is not doing. I can never say I'm a good designer because if you're already that damn good, the learning stops.

Which brings me back to why design is such a difficult issue here. Trust is important between bosses/clients and designers. If you can't even trust your designer, you might as well learn photoshop yourself. They need to understand that no designers want their work to look like shit. We actually position the text and images for optimum readability only to have the clients/bosses change it because........ the green is "not nice". That's the thing, you want quality design for the lowest possible price and on top of that with a gazillion changes done to it. And most of the time, the brief from the client is always, "I don't know la, you just design to make it more luxurious la, errr..... no copy wor, but you figure out the copy on your own la.. I don't know la.. its all up to u la..you are the creative person here". I understand the client cannot really visualize the artwork unless he sees the first draft. Would it be easier if you just let the designer know the specifics, so all the dilly dallying can be eliminated. I need red, i need blue, i need patterns, i need it in illustration. The finished artwork resembles the clients handiwork but its just the designer thats tapping the mouse. Might as well hire my nephew to tap on the keyboard.
We shouldn't complain really. End of the day, we still get the cash, but would you wanna put it up at your portfolio? This trend encourages designers to be lazy. Hey, doesn't really matter if the money comes in eh? Oh no, you can fight for your design, tell the client what you really think. Explain to him, I'm sure he/she would understand. Its fine if your client is willing to listen but does it occur to you that its super-rare to bump into clients who is willing to reason here? What they need from a freelance designer is fast, super nice design, and cheap. I had come across clients who overlaps changes after changes on several different jobs. Working solo. And the dateline is supposed to be yesterday. It too confusing to even explain the design which had already gone through 20 changes. With tight datelines and enormous quantity, we need to adapt to the clients demands. There's always a compromise when you need the design to be awesome for minimum wage, we need time to conceptualize and brainstorm. But an award-winning design with yesterdays dateline and over 7 different jobs that needs to be amended while working solo, near impossible. You can't argue that you give them a rm800 design when they pay that amount, because you agreed to it. If you don't want to do the job, the client can easily call up any designer who can offer them a better price with faster turnaround time. We are dispensable.

Everybody thinks that designers are not as important as sales people or marketing people. Haiyah, for magazine its just template design. You just position the text and images only wat. I beg to differ. If it doesn't require actual brainwork, I would like to be there to work. Everybody plays an important in publishing.

My point being in the whole rant, is that I feel designers are under-appreciated here. Your role is to design what I tell you to design cos' I pay your salary/creative fee. Why there are more creative and brilliant design out there overseas is because society is open to new, fresh ideas. And designers do not confine themselves to designing what works, but pushing fresh risky ideas out. It helps that clients there are broad-minded about design as well. All we need is for clients/bosses to trust us designer and let us explore creative like we are supposed to.


the lengthy version

Nike Spread 02

Nike was impressed with the first shoot that I did. Then they decided to do another one for the ACG line just for Newman magazine. I went to sneakerfreaker.com to search for any info regarding the line. It was very comprehensive cos' they also cover the interviews from the makers, its origins and how you can utilize your kicks.
So for whatever info you need regarding sneakers, they're your hookup. Initially I was told the ACG line was designed solely for water use. I remembered seeing some optical illusion way back when I was working for AirAsia but was unable to implement the idea. They weren't that keen on exploring and pushing design ideas for the magazine. It needs to be safe, as long as the text is readable and design is so-so. Blehh.. This is the image that I planned to use for the idea. The digital artist from the studio and I spent hours discussing and drawing the pattern to experiment how to slip this inside the fashion spread.

• To make it transparent in the background cannot work cos' its not obvious enough.
• To use the pattern and alter the objects to leaves would require too much time and work. Not favorable to magazine dateline
• To switch the patterns to fishes would require us to shoot fishes separately in different angles.In the end, 2 factors stopped us from executing it, the rights for the wave pattern, which is from this japanese professor. His website is here, with more optical illusion to zone out to. And also the ACG line is not solely for water use. I was quite persistent to use the water effect. So I came up with another idea to shoot the models underwater just to get the lighting that forms only when you are underwater. We have Azwin Andy, good-looking muthafucker and all-time undisputed state swimmer from the band called Estranged, Raoul from One Buck Short, Arafah a.k.a Arabyrd and also Zher Peen, NTV7 host. It doesn't help that this spread is rushed out from the start, the studio doesn't have the camera housing, we have a budget to adhere to so we can't rent scuba equipment and also the apparels came in later than expected. So the dateline for this shoot is pulled all the way back to end of month. In the end, we rent the entire Bukit Jalil olympic size pool stadium from 7pm to 7am. And even that we had to negotiate the timing and the availability in order not to compromise the olympic swimmers training. Fucktards. We start shooting with Andy, pure logic and common sense, since the guy is a state swimmer. He was very versatile as expected, doing poses that we set for him. But it is Arafah that really surprised me with her agile and flexible poses underwater. Its fuckin America's Next Top Model shit in freakin Bukit Jalil! I think she did over 100+ poses. We knew how difficult it is to pose and breathe underwater but she managed to pull it off beautifully, between intervals of course. We had 3 assistant underwater on standby just incase shit happens. Its 18 feet deep by the way. The photographer and I stood by a small plastic window that is built underwater so we can shoot without being in the pool. Yeah, its damn easy for you, chillax-ing in the dry cubicle so the rest have to work their asses of underwater. Fuckin wrong wei. I had to run up and down, to the pool and below the pool just to direct the models to pose. Imagine there's 4 models doing over 300+ poses, how many times do i need to run up and down the stairs to tell them how to pose? They not exactly trained models. Just ambassadors for Nike's ACG line that are going the whole nine yards just to get the shoot done. Kudos to them, I say. After the shit I put them through, he he he he...... We finish the shoot by 4am. Even the client were there for support all the way. The beer gut that I had? All gone and toned by the end of the night.

We insist they put on goggles to see where they're heading or the directions they have to swim to, for the lighting above to cover them. The second day was done with the same clothes and poses that we initially chose. Just this time we superimposed the faces with the body shots in the pool. We had the makeup artist to imitate sea life patterns on their faces. We will apply fish scales on them in Photoshop. All thats left is the digital imaging. IFL studios, known for their superb skill in Digital Imaging, had only 3 days to pull of the fastest D.I for 4 shots with background in the history of Photoshop. Usually for fashion spread, heavy D.I is a big no-no. But in my case, I had to rely on D.I to pull off the entire spread.
I wasn't very happy with the final outcome of the spread given the tight schedule before the magazine goes to print. We tried our best, even not sleeping to finish the spread. The one image that I wasn't happy about was the end page, in front of Shibuya. When applying digital imaging, one needs to think logically on where the light falls, or is the depth of field correct? You can see models are flying all over the place, but models that is way back, the least to be seen, needs to be abit blurry to show depth of field. You can't be far away and still look sharp and clear. It doesn't gel with the background either, with the background being blurry and the model super-clear. Plus the D.I looks fake, even cartoonish on the last shot. Well, whatever's done, is done. We just learn and move on.









the lengthy version

Survival Style 5+

Another movie to assault the senses after the one i reviewed before is also a product from Japan, land of extremes. But this is supposed to be a design blog, you say. Well, I take whatever that inspires me and i jot it down here.

Throughout my movie reviews in the near future, I might be reviewing movies that might not be necessarily award-winning, nail-bitingly awesome. But there are certain parts in that movie which deserves creative mention. I'm not gonna ditch the movie just because the storyline suck ass. There are also certain aesthetic values which makes the movie appealing, the stage setup of the movie, the color filters that they use, the styling of characters, etc etc...

In this case, this movie is insanely good, in terms of visuals and storyline. You know there are some movies that is insanely funny, like snatch, and that it only gets better if you accompany the movie with a group of stoner friends and a couple of joints?

Yeah, thats what I'm talking about. This is one of those movies.
Its a set of 5 stories intertwined with each other to produce an intoxicating blend of insanity and wackiness. The movie doesn't make sense and it doesn't expect you to do so but sit yo ass and go along with the ride. It starts of with Aman (Tadanobu Asano), shovelling dirt to bury his wife (Reika Hashimoto). When he goes home, his wife is very much alive and waiting for him. Its the calm before the storm when the wife unleash all fury as she proceeds to annihilate her husband with all sorts of kitchen utensils within reach accompanied with blaring rock track by Rob Laufer entitled "Go, Go, Go". The movie then breaks of with the opening credits with bold use of fonts and colors, striking red juxtaposed with bright yellow in true MTV style. Such is the boldness of the movie that sets the tone for the rest of it.I really like how they set the house that Asano lives in with his wife, very garish but it also works at the same time. Clashing colors with wacky ornaments all over the house. It must have been a damn pain to collect all the props and re-do the damn house for this movie. But I guess one can find anything in Tokyo to cater to their tastes, be it horrendous or classy. I realised the effort into creating such a set and how it needs to compliment the direction/insanity of the movie. Also small little things like the internal decoration of the minivan in story number 4, very retro and colorful. In one of the more laidback story, the use of soft pastel tones throughout the entire setting can be seen with everything is perfect order, shelves tuck nicely objects lined up neatly, while the more atrocious stories get the in-your-face, bold-as-hell colour treatment with props slammed all over the place.

The movie is supported by heavyweights like the ever-flexible, oddball, Johnny Depp of the east –Tadanobu Asano, Hiroshi Abe, Ittoku Kishibe and Vinnie Jones, yeah, psycho Vinnie... all 5 stories come together finally to form a satisfying end. I'm not gonna spoil everything for you. This visual feast of a movie satisfies your love for oddball cinema. Go ahead. Purchase it, light one up and enjoy the ride.

the lengthy version