Joining the Community…………………………………..

So we attended the annual Shenzhen Industrial Design Fair and I have to say it was a bigger success than we first thought it would be.  We met some interesting new prospective clients that I am hoping will turn in to real projects in markets outside of what we have normally worked in.  This should keep the team happy and interested working on new problems.

I got interviewed for the show’s internal media and for local television which was fun. 

We saw an interesting way to get people to your stand by having a naked girl being body painted which is very novel in a family exhibition!!!!

I got to meet the head of the IF Design awards, and the President of ICSID who are both very funny men.

We met some of the local competition and found that Shenzhen has a real growing design community which I hope we can now grow to be part of.  It seems the approach is very different from what I am used as all the local design agencies seemed to know each and even worked together.  Not the competitive nature I am used to in the UK.  It seems even the staff move between companies back and forward, but I guess that is a problem with a small industry.

So they all know who we are now so let’s see what these new friendships lead as the design industry is here to stay in Shenzhen and its only going to get bigger. 

The only let down was one of the companies had re-designed the Apple watch…………….to look like the Apple Watch and another’s company logo looks remarkably like  American Airlines logo which is maybe a bit of an oversight on the organiser’s to not get them removed as possibly not ideal in a show about Design and Innovation. 

 

 

 

Recomendations from the studio 5.

1. Music - Adele - 25 - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/25/id1051394208

2. Film - Objectified - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectified

3. Film - http://v.qq.com/cover/8/8h31emg0mne8pva.html?vid=e0172m8qjqh&pgv_ref=aio2015&ptlang=2052

 4. Music - Newton Faulkner - Human Love - http://www.newtonfaulkner.com/

5. Product -  Glow Forge 3D Printer - https://glowforge.com/

6. Website - https://www.hellobonsai.com/rates - Design Rates

7. Film - Spectre - http://www.007.com/bond-returns-in-spectre/

8. Car - Aston Martin DB10 -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_DB10

Happy Halloween!!!!!!

We hope you all have a Happy Halloween 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our good friend at AquaBabes / Orby has released her Kickstarter campaign to take over the swimming aids market. Have a look at her innovative idea that we at Hachi Design helped realize. Good luck with this Lee-Anne!!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orbygirl/orby

The Dying Art of Sketching………………………….

Sketching to me is one of the most enjoyable aspects of how I work on a design. It enables me to get the ideas and thoughts that are in my head down on paper so I can communicate them with others.  I can quickly explore form and function in a very efficient way, from a quick thumbnail sketch during a discussion with an engineer or supplier, to a more detailed sketch for a presentation to get a client on board with a direction. It is in effect my most valuable tool.

The fact I enjoy drawing and always have means it is something I have practiced since I was a child so I have a confidence in it, and am not too bad at it. I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy sometimes the looks on peoples face when they look at my sketches or when I am doing it and appreciate the skill involved.  The same way I wish I could play an instrument when I watch some who is an accomplished musician, or kick a ball like anyone on my favourite football team.  One of my biggest regrets is I have no co-ordination when it comes to sports, but never mind can’t be good at everything right.  So I do understand that not every designer has the same passion for sketching as I and to be honest a good designer doesn’t need too.  For example Mr Dyson is well known to be one designer who does not really produce fine art drawings when he developed his ideas, instead he made models…………….lots of models. It’s what worked for him but he did still sketch very basic ideas first, and he is not the only one.  Many of today’s top designers are more than happy just sketching out very rough sketches because they understand the basic principle that it is a tool to communicate.  If it shows what they are thinking to another person and that person can understand it then it’s a great sketch. Even better because it’s done quickly and efficiently which is important, as they say time is money, especially when working in consultancy as costs are based on time spent. Great works of art are rarely ever needed to convey an idea and if that’s what you want to do be an artist not a designer.  Besides in the design world of today if you really need that final visual that has all the bells and whistles and makes a final design sing then it’s easier and more efficient to do in a computer and render it out where changing colours and finishes is just a couple of clicks.

So getting back to the title of this post, something I have watched over the last decade of working in design is the decline in designers who are comfortable sketching and even an increase in those who don’t use it at all.  Now I am not saying it’s not being practiced, it’s just that I see less and less evidence in portfolios that show sketches in the development of projects. I get a brief and then final computer renderings.  I actually have to write to the applicant and say can you please send me some sketch work so I can understand how your idea developed and get told often oh I didn’t do any???? When I was a graduate I always had my whole sketch book with me for an interview and always included key sketches in my portfolio to show my ideas did not appear out of thin air by magic.   Now I have employed many young designers and it is one of the key things I look for because I need a member of staff to be able to communicate.  Now many of those who I have employed would much rather draw something in Illustrator or model it up in CAD but its time consuming, even when they tell me they can do it quickly.  Now a thumbnail sketch on a piece of paper can take 30 seconds, my laptop won’t even turn on that quick, now I am sure that may have something to do with certain websites I visit but you get my point.  There are some who say what about sketching on a tablet which is fine for presentation sketches when again you have a bit more time, but do you really need to wheel in expensive bits of kit every time you want to have a quick development meeting when really a pad and pen go anywhere easily.  

When I take somebody on even if they don’t want too I make them sketch and try to develop their confidence with sentences like “Don’t worry it’s not to go on the wall, it’s just for us to understand your thinking”.  Some I have even had to remember the exercises I was taught at University and pass them on.  Now I have asked many young design graduates and been astounded that there are many centers of design education that do not teach this most basic skill (tool) which I find incredible.  They have sat through hours and hours of lessons on computer rendering which is used very rarely and always at the end but not sketching, the most basic design communication tool there is which has been used since people painted on cave walls to express ideas!!!!  So design schools the world over are churning out more and more designers that in my humble opinion are not equipped to do the job in the best way.

This is of course just my opinion and would love to hear from others who agree or if you think different please get in touch because I have to be honest it makes me a little sad and maybe your experience or thoughts can change that.

Recomendations from the studio 4.

1. Music - Rudimental - We The Generation - http://rudimental.co.uk/

2. Red Dot Design Awards 2015 - http://www.shejipi.com/63114.html - http://en.red-dot.org/

3. IF Design Awards 2015 - http://news.91.com/it/1503/21800426.html - http://www.ifdesign.de/index_e

4. Funny videos from construction workers - https://www.facebook.com/onthetools

5. Film - Samsara - https://vimeo.com/40974947 (trailer)

6. Exhibition - http://bigbangdata.cccb.org/en/ - New Media.

7. Music - https://soundcloud.com/owenroyal/new-deep-house-mix

8. Website - http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5MDMwODg2MA==&mid=224226293&idx=1&sn=ecf3d1d25f7fa855b4b1584c057c0a2c&scene=22&srcid=1009ksI1G3lw00AM4qv3V9Av#rd

Interesting Furniture.

9. Music - https://soundcloud.com/ninja-tune/solid-steel-radio-show-8-11

10. Product - http://immaker.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=8897 - Garden Shelter

This week I have asked Ivan, a member of our design team from Barcelona to write a little about his experiences as an intern here.  Ivan came and worked for us at Hachi Design for the three years previous to us offering him a position permanently.

An internship in China

I first came to china on 2011.

I had just started studying product design in Barcelona and got offered a chance to travel to China to do a summer internship in a recently started design company.

 This article is about what I got from that internship and what my personal experience living in China was.

One of the first things I learned was that the language barrier is massive in China if you don’t speak their language. Few people can speak English, so it’s really difficult to know what is going on most of the time.

I was at the design studio for 2 months.

The design studio had just started, and I spent that time working on real projects with the rest of the team, so I could learn from them that way. What tools they used, which skills they needed, and how they organised themselves to work on the projects. I learned about the design process.

I saw the design process from start to end.

From sketching Ideas, to arranging suppliers to manufacture your product.

Design processes are probably different for everyone. Some work a lot using prototypes, some other need sketching their Ideas, and some other modelling them on Cad software or on some solid support.

For most of us, the objective is to see it being manufactured and getting to as much people as possible to make their life better.

This is the one thing designing in China is awesome for. You are one hour away from any manufacturing technique.

I went to all the factories I could during my internship. I saw many big factories which were in charge of manufacturing and assembling a whole product once all the parts were ready.

There was a great diversity among these factories. Some clean, some not so much. Some extremely organized, some driven by chaos.

I also discovered that smaller workshops are also part of mass production. Some of them were no more than nine square meters basements that had a tube bending machine and welding equipment and their task was to manufacture only a fraction of the product.

Even prototype houses were sometimes used for manufacturing parts which required a really limited number of units.

Sometimes only one factory was involved in the manufacturing, sometimes four were.

Designing with the constraints of what a factory is able to make saves you a great deal of time and effort, but is not always the right thing to do as it can endanger the aim of the design.

These are only some of the things I learned, but for those who just skipped to the end, this is what I got from my internship in China.

I got to see how things are really made in China.

I discovered what I wanted to do next, and had people guiding me.

It was fun.

I also got to travel to the other side of the globe, try different food, live amongst people with a different culture, and see some of the worst drivers in the world, but I’ll leave this for the next post.

 

Ivan came to China and really took the experience for everything he could and had a great attitude that we kept inviting him back and even offered him a job in the end, so as a company it was a great experience.

 

So if your studying Product Design, Graphic Design, Mechanical Engineering and you think you could benefit from an Internship in China and have something you think you can offer us please get in contact, we would like to hear from you.

Send your information to ian@hachi-asia.com and let us know why you?

 

 

 

Nice to Hear.........................

We work with lots of different clients from lots of different countries and try to give the best service we can.  We after all a service company, we want to make our clients comfortable and make sure we reach their individual expectations.  I think we do a good job and certainly have not had any major complaints, but I am obviously biased, so it was nice to hear from someone else.

We don't expect great shows of gratitude but it is nice to get a thank you.  When we received this from a client the other day the team and I all glowed with a bit of pride in a job well done.

I have copied it as it was sent to us.


"I was recruited on a business accelerator programme in Belfast Northern Ireland in February 2015.  Having run a very successful business in the services sector and spotting a gap in the market I had a great idea on a product to provide to my customers.  So there I was with customers and a great business idea with no clue on how to develop the product into reality.  This is when Hachi Design came into my business life! Ian Hadlow and his team came highly recommended by a business colleague here in Ireland and from his introduction I made contact.  With a list of pre-conditions and tight deadlines to meet I had very high expectations from this design team.  

From the outset communications lines were established through Skype meetings and emails, deadlines were set and development of my prototype began.  Drawings and patterns of product were excellent – allowing me choice! From here I understood the professionalism and attention to detail taken by this company and in all honesty really enjoyed the process of seeing my dream product come to fruition.  Marta was a very pleasant and extremely talented designer and had a clear view of what I wanted in my product.  As a novice to the process of designing and product manufacturing Hachi Design have held my hand throughout the journey and I would not be in the position in which I find myself – ready to launch a truly innovative product with established manufacturing supply chain throughout the UK.  Exciting times ahead with more idea’s that I need developed in the near future. I have no doubt that I will use Hachi Design again and again! Thank you to all the team, who work extremely hard to meet all of their clients needs – no matter how crazy they may seem at the time!"

 

 

Lee-Anne Daly

CEO and Founder of Orby Ltd & AquababesNI Ltd.

The Team and I would like to also thank Lee-anne for being a great client, who took on board our suggestions and allowed us to do what she needed, with always a positive attitude which was infectious.

 

We wish you luck with the New Product.  Hopefully in the not too distant future we can tell everyone more about the product.

 

In the meantime please head over to Aquababes Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/groups/297012032330/ to see what she is doing.

 

 

Help with developing ideas………….

I wanted to write an article and maybe start a discussion about a trend we at Hachi Design have noticed and are wondering if it’s the same for others. 

When I first started on my career as a designer, the first two companies I worked for had fully staffed in-house model shops.  Both employed a model maker who had studied model making at university and then gone on to work in film and design model making.  As a designer it made a great difference as model making helped us to develop ideas and then help to prove the design to the client and helped to inform the design team of any potential problems.  The model makers helped input from a practical and assembly point of view into the design.

The model shops were fully equipped with CNC milling, vacuum casting, machine tools and paint booth, and thus we could re-produce any of our ideas within reason. So great resources to have at your disposal but highly expensive to run and maintain. 

When I joined my third company they had a different model that was starting to emerge which was getting rapid prototyping done by the factory in China who was going to supply the final goods. This way seemed to make sense, you are getting real world input from the manufacturer and they can really help shape the final design to reduce the production costs and stop the traditional designer issue of getting what’s in your head made in a sensible cost effective way for mass production.  This model of working also helped our clients as the cost of the development work could be amortized across the products production run and built into the final unit price.  The supplier also would help with the tooling cost upfront in a similar way.  Great for small companies who have the idea but just don’t have the big money needed to develop and get the product made.

This was about six years ago when I first started working in China, and it was really easy to find suppliers eager to help.  They were more than happy to get involved as soon as we had something sketched, but I personally think this attitude has changed, and again I would like to say this is obviously a statement based on my own experiences and is not a broad stroke comment.  Of course we have still suppliers who want to be a development partner, but we are finding that attitude harder to find.

I think this is for several reasons, first I think some of the suppliers here have had a bad experience with designers and the process they use.  They may have been blown away by an idea, invested fortunes only for them to end up with something that does not work very well or even sell very well so they struggle to get the return on their investment, so why would you take the risk now?

I think some factories just find the whole innovation route too unpredictable, too much trouble with all the problems that have to be solved along the way.  They just want to manufacture and get the profits from that, why have all the problems in the beginning, that’s the designer’s job.

Some suppliers have decided to concentrate on their own domestic market and the reverse engineering route as it’s just as profitable for them without having to put up with the people with crazy ideas. 

So now when we get a new project unless we have a good existing relationship with a required supplier it is a challenge getting the advice and help that the factories used to give.  That’s if you can get them to even look at it.  Sometimes we used to ask for quotations for parts and tooling at a basic block model stage to gauge if we could get what we wanted product wise, at the costs that are commercially acceptable.  This is becoming almost impossible as the suppliers don’t want to waste time on writing quotations on something that is most likely going to change, which I can understand on a pure commercial level, put you never know what it might become.

We are finding now that suppliers will only talk to you once you have a complete set of drawings preferably with a working prototype, which they can then use to really understand the design and know exactly what it will cost.  Basically the final as you want it made design without them having to really think about it.  Meaning they also don’t need a large engineering team of their own so saving money for them.

The other side of it is though that now they don’t really want to help develop other people’s products they do want to do their own, so they have now moved from being partners to the client.

So for me it has come full circle, we are now again looking to use the growing number of rapid prototype / model making companies that have started to open in China and handling everything in-house getting the client to sign off the design, and then go find somebody to make it.

 

Recomendations from the studio 3.

1.  Music - The Stanton Warriors Podcast - http://stantonwarriors.com/podcast/

2. Website - http://designtaxi.com/news/378505/For-Designers-This-Website-Helps-You-Identify-The-Color-Palettes-Of-Pok-mon/ - for those of you who grew up trying to catch them all!

3. Website - http://makerbook.net/ - Great free resource book for creatives.

4. Film - http://designtaxi.com/news/377022/Watch-Gordon-Ramsay-Shows-How-To-Cook-The-Perfect-Steak/ - Love him or hate him, he can cook a steak without saying "pukka" like the other one.

5. Music - https://soundcloud.com/djnumark/nu-crack-city - cool mix recommended by Mr. Pick.

6. Magazine / Website - http://www.autodesignmagazine.com/

7. Website - http://www.fashiontrendsetter.com/content/color_trends.html - great for colour trend information.

8. Design - http://www.autoconception.com/volvo-designers-reveal-new-child-seat-concept/

9. Recipe - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread - Helped make a good kebab!!!

10. Website - http://all-silhouettes.com/ - Downloadable Vector Graphics.

Tea………….Very Civilized.

So one of the things I wanted to do with the blog is tell people about some of the delicacies of doing business here in China, the differences to other areas of the world I have worked in and my thoughts and opinions (and please remember that they are just that) on them.

So one of if not the biggest thing I noticed when I first started out here is how important Tea is, not just in business but in general.  Now I knew the Chinese loved tea, and this is not new to me, I am an English man and we have a cup of tea every five minutes, to think about things, to celebrate things, to commiserate things and well just because a cup of tea solves most things. But it is almost informal in England (unless it’s with the posh china when your mum was trying to impress somebody), normally in chipped mis-matched mugs, with no real ceremony in the making apart from the question of milk and sugar!!  It doesn’t really matter what tea it is everyone loves it, we are not generally connoisseurs and normally it’s served stewed to death, “proper builder’s tea” as my father called it.

Now in China it’s different, Tea is treated with a reverence and respect I would expect with fine wines, there are shops and boutiques dedicated to it and costs range from sensible to eye-watering depending on where it’s grown etc.  It’s given as gifts and I have even been to a tea drinking club with a client and friend that was like a cross between a private gentleman’s club and educational center for tea.

Now this comes into almost every business meeting I have here in China. It may be at the beginning before we talk work as is traditional or after the meeting but at some point in the meeting we will sit round and all drink tea.  Now it has a very formal process that all seem to observe where everything is cleaned and then the tea is brewed and served in little saucers, where it is slurped to enjoy the taste, the addition of air to improve the taste.  All very similar to wine tasting except the spitting.  Now it’s not as formal as what I imagine the Japanese tea ceremony but still everything has an order that all seem to adhere to. 

When you enter most main offices there will  be a tea table or service.  They come in all sizes from a small tray to half a tree, ornately carved into a beautiful work of art and everything in between.

 

Over tea it seems bad form to talk about work but is an opportunity to discuss everything else.  Often it’s about the tea itself, as there are many types, Green, Black and even White.  I have had Kung Fu tea that is supposed to make you strong, to tea with Jasmine, ginseng and even Ginger.  I have been asked about my family, my opinions on world affairs, what football team is likely to win the Premiership, even my politics, I was once asked how as an Englishman I felt about our best and strongest leader being a woman………………….I did not have much of an answer but it was fun teaching them the song “Margaret Thatcher – Milk Snatcher”. 

The whole thing about having tea before the meeting I have been told is traditionally to find out if the two parties can get on as friends first before they talk business.  This fits in with a general rule here. In China traditionally business is done between friends, there has to be a trust and a getting to know each other period before any work will commence.  I have had some projects where it has taken three meetings (all with Tea and dinner) before a contract was signed so they could get to know the person they are dealing with. 

 In Europe I have witnessed several different drink cultures within an office setting, from shared coffee time in Germany to the Friday lunchtime beer in the UK, they are all more internal company things designed to build team spirit, we don’t really do anything for the customer other than to offer them a drink before the start of meeting, maybe it is a lost opportunity to get to know your client first.

 I know it’s something we are very conscious of now and make sure the beginning of any new meeting is special and effort is made so our customers know they are as important to us as the work.

 

Do you have any special little ceremonies you use because the area where you work has that tradition, or because you find it works well?

 

Recomendations from the studio 2.

1.  Music - The Nextmen Podcast - http://thenextmen.com/podcast

2. Trailer - Deadpool - http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2015/08/04/the-official-deadpool-movie-trailer-hd-is-finally-here-video/

3. Film Clip - https://vimeo.com/135218475 - DC SHOES: ROBBIE MADDISON'S "PIPE DREAM"

4. Website - http://www.instructables.com/ - A webpage to share what you make

5. Book - David Thorne - "Look Evelyn Duck Dynasty Wiper Blades, We Should Get Them"

6. Website - David Thorne's website, very funny -  http://27bslash6.com/index.html

7. Recipe - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9801/cheese-and-potato-pie

8. Music - The Roots - "And Then You Shoot Your Cousin"

9. Holiday Destination - http://www.ghmhotels.com/en/nam-hai/ - Beautiful Hotel

10. Golf - Night Golf at Mission Hills - http://missionhillschina.com/en-US/

How to create a soundwave picture..................

So Marta in our office created some nice picture for my wife and I of our names as a soundwave.  We liked it so we asked her to write how she did it , so we could share with you.

First of all you need to record the name, sentence or whatever you want to print with a recording device.  For this picture we used our phones, and quality was good enough, just need some post production to make it look nice.

Now is time to download the proper software to transform our audio file into a wave shape vector and modify it in Illustrator. The best software I’ve found so far is praat, it allows exporting the wave into an EPS file and it is free.
First, go Open > Read from file; and choose the file you want to illustrate. Now in the object menu we have loaded our sound Casalina.

 

Now placing the mouse in the upper left corner of the Praat picture menu we press and drag to make the pink square bigger. Next select your sound from the object menu and select DRAW, it will pop up a menu, just select ok and our wave will appear in the picture menu within the pink square.

Now, from the picture menu go File > Save it as an EPS.
Done!

Now is time to modify it in Illustrator to make it look better.

First we need to delete the axis and numbers that we don’t want and “clean” the wave.
To remove the aggressive corners there is two options.
One is changing the corner shape from miter to round in the stroke menu

The other option is simplifying the path, but you might get some funny shape depending on your original wave.  Object > path >simplify. And play with the percentage of  the curve precision.

In this case we used the first option.
Now change the stroke weight to 0,25 pt. to get a more defined shape.  If you have CS6 or CC version you can apply a gradient to the stroke.
Go to the Gradient menu and set up three markers located in the 0%,50% and 100% using a darker colour in 0 and 100% and a lighter one in 50 %

The wave now is too thin and not so clear. To make it more visible we will apply the same gradient to the fill of the wave.

The wave is more visual but it looks discontinuous. To make our wave more continuous we select our wave: Right click and Reflect > horizontal, Instead of OK we select copy. Now we have our wave mirrored. We place the new mirrored wave aligned with the original, Right click and Scale > Vertical  and scale it to 40%. In that way we fill the gaps in our wave, but we don’t affect the general outline of our wave.

Finally, we choose a nice font and write the name or sentence we have drawn. Here we used Montserrat in capitals and added some dashes as a final touch.
Tará!

 

 

I don’t remember walking under any ladders………………

Have you ever had one of those trips where you wonder if Karma has decided you’re out of balance, god, if you believe in him or her, thinks you need a period of frustration, bad luck and a good kick in the guts to boot.

No……………you should try it, I can recommend a route to really find out if you are a patient person if you are into that sort of thing or are a masochist.

We have just completed our annual trip to Shanghai, to visit the big nursery industry show they hold there. Now its normally hard work, trying to get round to see lots of stands, some with prospective clients, some with current clients and old industry friends but fun, well as long as you don’t mind walking. 

For us it’s one of our main opportunities to try and un-earth new leads or introduce ourselves to someone who did not know us before. 

We get to see a lot of the clients that we have live projects with and are showing prototypes, so we can get a lot of work done in a short space of time.

We also look at what’s in the nursery market and see what new ideas are around and what trends are current.

So although I know it’s going to be hard work as we condense everything into two days, I look forward to it.

I have been going for the last four years and went a time before that so a veteran.  Now I have flown to Shanghai a few times from Shenzhen and am now convinced it’s the flight of the damned.

I think in maybe twenty return flights it has only been on time once across a range of carriers, into both Shanghai’s airports. The problem is the weather it disrupts the flight schedule almost every day. You grow to expect it and I guess even accept it, it’s just the way it is. Besides sometimes the turbulence can be good fun, I always loved roller coasters.

So getting into the car for the airport at 6am for an 8.10am flight, we should be in Shanghai by 10.30, at the show by 11, so in reality I am guessing we will be missing lunch and be there going through the gates of the show at 2pm. I feel I have been fair giving it a three hour window, I can be patient and understanding………………..

So the plane takes off two hours late with us having to sit in our seats trying not to lose faith that we could still get up there in our window.

We get to Shanghai but then get diverted to another airport where we land and spend a further four hours on the plane before we finally take off and land in Shanghai at 6pm, completely losing the show day, trying my patients and frustrating a whole plane load of people.

I guess I’m not so patient and understanding as I thought I was, still I have invented some new expletives for airlines, airports, the weather and people who snore in planes.

We got to the hotel hoping tomorrow would be better.

Ok so waking up full of optimism for the day ahead we went to a Starbucks near the show to have breakfast and redefine the master plan and then start the show.

(The Purflo Stand we designed and below: meeting with clients.)

 

Now the morning goes well and we start getting things done but by lunchtime we notice that all the exhibitors are starting to break down their stands, sell their samples, pack their bags and go home early. So before we can get really round to see everything the show dissolves in front of us.  At this point I was a little upset as a show should stay open to the time advertised but hey its Friday and I imagine everyone wants to get home or to a bar.  The show we go to in Germany is the exact opposite and strict funnily enough.  There if you start trying to pack up some big guy comes over and shouts at you for trying to escape!!! 

Now I am not really a believer in luck or other forces but I think we all felt a little like the world was against us, still not much we could do, we missed the best time for the show, always next year.

So now time for the return trip………………All I will say is it contained a lost phone in a taxi (that was luckily returned an hour later), a five hour delay and an argument because the hot water machine ran out of water as a disgruntled passenger tried to fill his free (because we are five hours late) complimentary pot noodle.

I finally got into bed at 4.30am trying to remember if I had seen a black cat, walked on a crack in the pavement, broken a mirror or opened an umbrella in doors.

So I have decided until I can get a train direct to Shanghai I am not sure I really want to go again.

Recomendations from the studio 1.

So this starts a regular idea we hope of recommendations, which could be anything and everything that someone in the studio has recommended to the others, we thought we would share them.

1.  Music - "Racing With The Sun" - Chinese Man (French Trip-Hop Collective)

2.  Website - http://www.icax.org - Chinese CAD Design

3.  Film - Infini - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3327624/?ref_=nv_sr_2

4.  Film - Monster Hunt - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3781476/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

5.  TV - True Detective (Season 2) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356777/?ref_=nv_sr_1

6.  Restaurant / Bar - The Patio Live, Mission Hills Country Club

7.  Website - http://www.themethodcase.com/ - Ideas and the process behind them

8.  Film - Forever Young http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104291/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

9.  Book - "The Shadow Of The Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/

10. Music - "Zeitgeist" - Camo and Krooked - Good to sketch by Drum and Bass

Shanghai Bound............

So today the Children Baby Maternity Expo show starts in Shanghai. The worlds biggest sourcing event for anything connected to children, babies, or being pregnant.  It is one of two shows we go to each year to keep up with one of the main markets we work in. 

We go tomorrow a little mob handed, to meet old friends, meet new ones, talk work, look for new work and see what is happening within the industry!

It should be good, I am looking forward to the energy of it all, even though by the end of the two days my feet will be ready to drop off, the show is huge!!!!

So if your interested http://www.cbmexpo.com/?l=en

Maybe we will see you there.

Our stress relief......................

So we are very lucky here to have a good balanced team.  we have a good mixture of different nationalities, ages and an equal number of both male and female points of view.

Having the right team is essential in not only getting the work done but being able to live in the same space for eight hours a day, five days a week.

We try to organise "team building" experiences to help us build the right atmosphere, go on courses about it, all of which can be really expensive especially to a freshly started company.

So here is our secret.............I would like to introduce the other un-official member of our team.  Now although you won't find her mentioned in our team page, she is just as important as the other members of our team.

Now she cant use CAD, she does not do much in the way of sketching but she is important for all our stress levels. I defy anyone to stay angry or stressed when she is in the office. 

She is also great for customer relations as everyone loves her (with or without the tie).  I am beginning to think certain clients only come to see her!

Now I know this might not work for everyone but for us she helps unite as a team, eases the day to day frustrations and gives everyone a laugh chasing delivery men out the office.

I would be interested to hear what other unusual ways people have used to help build their team?

So please if you come here don't forget to say hello to Duffy..............she will be saying hello to you.

Well its a start.................

So finally after being in business for 4 years we have finally got round to start writing a blog.  The idea behind started as a simple one, we want more people to know about what we do, how we do it and who we are as we go about it.

The blog will have contributions from the whole team and so will hopefully make interesting reading.

We are hoping to give a view into living and working in the design industry in Shenzhen, with all the trials and tribulations that come with it.

If there is something as a reader you might like to know about please feel free to send us an email and perhaps we can show you (ian@hachi-asia.com). So here goes....................