NOMADIC DESIGN: 莊卉家的設計漫游: 2012

12/31/12

live your life and happy 2013

illustrated by Christoph Niemann

Hi all, I'm back and get ready for the New Year.

I think you might enjoy watching this video posted by New York Times if you're a fan of Maurice Sendak.

9/26/12

an opening party of the perfume exhibit at bund 18 shanghai

The ingredients for the opening party at Bond 18 Shanghai on Oct. 11th:
The organizer   OK! Magazine China
The curator   Della Chuang
The artist    Eloise Carr Danch
The perfumer    Christophe Raynaud
The perfume muse   Ni Ni (Chinese actress 倪妮)
The sponsor Firmenich Paris
The exclusive media collaboration Sina China
300 VIP celebrities

8/29/12

curating a perfume exhibit in shanghai this october

Like flowers in bloom, wow, what a dream come true.

I'll tell you more about the exhibit later...

7/28/12

when i'm not in new york

I miss bagels, alternative movies, and especially the New Yorker. I'm very fond of the artist Roz Chast, whose cartoons in the pages of the New Yorker have been making me chuckle since 90s.

See her theory and drawing about blog here. Just hilarious.

7/6/12

about mendy aftel, the naturalist of scent

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

In contrast to the artificial ingredients that dominate the scent and flavor industries,
Perfumer Mendy Aftel has something natural, something creative to offer.
Please enjoy reading Perfumes to Sip as well as Sniff, a New York Times article,
that leads you to Mendy's interesting world of smell and taste. Cheers!

6/19/12

the first lady's sillage 第一夫人的餘韻

Typo on English title. It should be The First Lady's Sillage

題目: 第一夫人的餘韻

主角: 卡拉 • 布吕尼

香水: 嬌蘭不眠之夜香水

提剛: 儘管剛剛卸任法國第一夫人的職稱，作為“文藝女青”的卡拉•布呂尼，對智慧和藝術的追求卻從來沒有停止過。她有句名言：“哪怕是在時裝秀的後台，我一有時間就會找本《ELLE》或者《Vogue》雜誌當做擋箭牌，然後再悄悄地在裡頭夾一本陀思妥耶夫斯基的小說來閱讀。”

在布呂尼的世界裡，鄰家女孩的可愛嚴重缺貨。這裡不崇尚暴發戶的奢麗，這裡威武陽剛的男性不受歡迎，這裡Versace 的人工性感不宜，這裡充滿粉味的櫻桃紅唇不宜……可以這麽說，有關布呂尼的一切都被覆蓋了一層「文藝」的中性氣息，讓她看起來不特別嬌嫩，但性格鮮明；帶有一種 “haute couture”的氣勢，風格簡潔但思想前衛。

本文將著墨於布呂尼與「文藝女青」、「第一夫人」、「蛇蠍美人」的感官聯想。

TITLE: The Sillage of the First Lady

CHARACTER: Carla Bruni

PERFUME: Guerlain Vol de Nuit Extrait de Parfum

SYNOPSIS: This article is focused on Carla Bruni, First Lady, femme fatale and intellectual.

6/13/12

yummy illustrations 美味的插畫

While I was doing some research for one of my clients, I stumbled upon some beautiful illustrations.
These yummy illustrations are done by Javier Mariscal, a talented Spanish designer.

在替客戶做一些研究時，偶然發現了這些漂亮的插圖。線條美味的插圖
是才華橫溢的西班牙設計師哈維爾·馬里斯卡爾的作品。。

6/3/12

a bite of china 舌尖上的中國

A great documentary about the flavors of China. A Bite of China, the seven-episode documentary, brought the Chinese back to their culinary roots, most of which has been forgotten in the urban rush.

It's a pity that there is no English subtitle for now.

5/29/12

Girl with a bowknot headband 戴蝴蝶結的女孩

Wearing a bowknot headband and a perfume at the same time, she smells like a veil of powdery pink. The smell is close to a pure form of aesthetics shrouded in the qualities of romance, feminine, and cuteness.

This article focused on the visual inspiration of Natalie Portman in the advertisement of Miss Dior Cherie, and how her playful style evoked a creative connection between "cuteness", "bowknot", and "pink smell".

戴蝴蝶結搽香水，聞出來的味道會有一層粉紅的透明感。那是一種純造形的審美主義，有著接近可愛的浪漫、淘氣、裝飾性，及溫和的氣質。在世故、憂雅、女人味、可信賴、樂觀種種加諸於女性的形容詞上，最可愛的特質應該還是“可愛”。渾然天成的可愛是不可多得的，就像好來塢女演員娜塔麗·波特曼一樣，從《殺手不太冷》的小女孩，到《星戰前傳》的高貴女王，再到《黑天鴯》的芭蕾舞演員，及至變身為迪奧香水的繆斯，其舉手投足之中都帶著一點聰慧的可愛………。
本文將著墨於波特曼與「可愛」、「蝴蝶結」，「粉紅」的感官聯想。

5/8/12

fragrance is OK!

The First Issue at OK! 創刊號

May 1st was the date of a happy festival dedicated to Flora, the goddess of flowers and of spring. It also marked the very first issue of my new fragrance column at OK!, a celebrity and lifestyle magazine in China.

For each issue I will choose a fragrance to express the creative connection between fragrance and style, each time focused a different celebrity who would reflect a particular aesthetic value and inspiration for the fragrance. With a bit of educational flair added, I hope to share with the reader the knowledge to select the right fragrance for their own personalities and occasions.

I apologize for not updating my blog on a more regular basis, but at least I can refer my Chinese readers to my fragrance column every other week...

在歐洲，5月1日是一個獻給春天與花卉女神 Flora 的快樂節日。它同時也標誌著我在中國名人時尚雜誌 OK! 書寫香水專欄的開始！

每一期刊，我會聚焦在一位名人所反映的獨特審美觀，再因應其個人風格給與我的靈感來挑選一款香水。專欄中，名人與香水的美學風格相對呼應，隱隱然地讓讀者進一步了解香水與風格品味的創意聯想；輕輕鬆鬆地帶出一些香水美學教育，與讀者分享如何正確選擇適合自己的個性和社交場合的香水知識。

很抱歉沒有勤快地更新我的博客，但至少我的中文讀者們，可以開始每隔一周閱讀我的香水專欄...

3/14/12

“香水記事”的背後花絮 (四) the story of a perfume: scene 4

perfume sampling

the interior

perfume sampling

感知空間: 花絮 (四)

此次展覽的陳設以自然和冥想為主: 一點烏托邦, 一點侘寂, 再一點童趣。它交織著訪客個人的記憶、混和著他們不設框限的的知覺想像力, 感知空間的經驗於焉成形。

perceptual space: scene 4

The setting of the exhibition is all about nature and escapism: a bit of utopia, a bit of wabi sabi, and a bit of childlikeness. It interweaves the visitor’s own memories and allows them to push the boundary and blend their sensory imagination to feel the perceptual space.

––– the end –––

2/21/12

“香水記事”的背後花絮 (三) the story of a perfume: scene 3

® Della Chuang Creativess

® Della Chuang Creatives

不好意思，過去的幾個星期一直在忙著幾個緊迫的設計和寫作案子呢。現在，就讓我們回去之前的香水故事......

設計: 花絮 (三)

在此次展覽中，我展示了五個吻合亞洲女孩 FiFi 的個性與『白色精靈』香水的設計草圖，並邀請觀眾票選自己最喜歡的香水瓶設計。除了意圖與觀眾來一場面對面的知覺溝通之外，這樣的作法還有一個額外的好處，那就是讓觀眾理解香水瓶的設計是如何融入“視覺”、“香味”、“音樂”之間的創意聯想。

令我高興的是觀眾對票選活動的積極肯定。在展覽結束後，總共有 3，257 名觀眾參與投票。不過那一個香水瓶設計是贏家呢？請允許我吊一下你好奇的胃口直到這款香水正式上市。

Design: scene 3

Sorry. I had been sidetracked with a few urgent design and writing projects for the past few weeks. Now let's go back to the perfume story from before....

In this exhibition, I presented five bottle design sketches and invited the audience to choose their favorite design that matched the character of the Asian girl Fifi and the "White Fairy" perfume. Besides intending to create an engaged communication with the audience, doing this has an added benefit of allowing the audience to experience the creative connections between the themes of "visual", "scent", and "music", and how they fuse into a set of perfume bottle sketches.

Much to my delight, by the end of the exhibition, 3, 257 visitors voted and the response was overwhelmingly positive. So which design is the winner? Please allow me to make you curious until I launch this project.