jkregala

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Tokyo, Electric Blue

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7 beautifully-designed items I want to own (but can’t because I’m poor)

Okay so this list doesn’t come in any particular order. 

1. côte&ciel ISAR ECOYARN black rucksack

I was standing very close to a very cool-looking person in the New York City subway N train when I noticed hanging on his behind this most sublime backpack I’ve ever seen. It was like an architectural artform with its shape and structure. More than an hour of googling later, I found out that it’s from the brand Cote et Ciel and they call it a “rucksack”, not backpack. 

I set out to find it when I got back home to Manila but they don’t sell it here back then. The next time I saw it was on a trip to Jakarta, in a swanky mall and it was on sale for almost 5,000 pesos. Dumbest decision not to use a credit card at that exact moment because 5 years later today I still don’t have the bag. On a recent trip to Tokyo, I saw it on display at a shop in Aoyama (you know where all the cool [but funny] people go) and it retailed for more than 45,000 pesos. Okay, maybe next time?

2. Kenneth Cobonpue Chiquita Stool

"Comfortable” won’t be the first thing that comes to mind when you see the Chiquita stool by acclaimed Filipino furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue. Its protruding rattan poles don’t look too welcoming to one’s underside. But, attending a party at a wealthy colleague’s house changed my mind completely. In their living room stood proudly two of these. Curious enough, I sat on one. The individual rattan poles sank softly, embracing the shape of my bum as it descended upon them. I was gobsmacked. More gobsmacked, in fact when I found out that they cost 40,000 pesos ON SALE at Manila FAME. Not too keen checking out how much they cost when they’re not.

I recently moved to a new job in BGC and our office lobby has about 8 pieces of these chairs. I’m now currently looking for ways to smuggle at least one of them, undetected. (I’m kidding!!!)

3. True Residential 30 Inch Refrigerator Column

Ever since I turned 30, I’ve become more inclined towards owning home appliances rather than gadgets. (I’m turning into a tito!!!) I’ve always loved seeing glass-door refrigerators that displayed all the delicious food you can eat inside. And the best designed one I found is this refrigerator from True. What’s nice about it is that you can mix and match it with their other refrigerators to create your own fridge wall, just like how they do it in Google offices! 

But, tough luck because each unit will set you back 12,000 US dollars, that’s more than 600,000 pesos in our money. And I don’t think they’re sold here in the Philippines so you have to ship them from the United States. And of course before that you need to build a nice home that deserves to have one or two of these first!

4. Jura S8 Coffee Machine

This sleek-looking “coffeemaker” retails for P190,000 pesos. That’s enough money to buy Starbucks everyday for the next 3 and a half years. I, I, can’t. Though I guess this beautiful beast would last way longer than that, eh?

5. Sonos Beam Compact Smart Soundbar

I love objects that blend well into their surroundings yet still appear inconspicuous enough so much that visitors to the house would always say “Wow this looks so nice!” with utmost materialistic admiration when they lay sight on it. That’s exactly what Sonos’ Beam Compact Smart Soundbar is. It can actually be bought online for 49,990 pesos at Mod Audio, exclusive Philippine distributor of Sonos in the Philippines. 

6.  Vipp 18 L / 5 gal Pedal Bin

You know you’ve reached peak mayaman when you can can spend 379 dollars to buy a Scandinavian-designed bin that will hold your trash. It looks really pretty too. I would imagine this would look great right next to where I usually am especially since I hate seeing garbage lie around. Maybe when I get 20,000 pesos to spare I might get one.

Vipp also makes other equally amazing household items and small appliances. They have a showroom at Shangri-la at the Fort which I didn’t bother to enter yet because everyone inside is so intimidating LOL.

7. Qatar Airways Qsuite Business Class 

Saving the best for last because at the core of my being, I love to travel, and I love doing it with my family and/or friends. There’s a deeper sense of joy I feel when I see my mom witness beautiful places for the first time. 

In 2017, Qatar Airways came up with their Qsuite Business Class product. It looks so good they had it patented to make sure no other airline copies it. It features the only double bed available in Business Class for any airline, with privacy panels that stow away, allowing passengers in adjoining seats to create their own private room (this kind of industrial design is what airlines should strive for!). I could just imagine flying 10+ hours to somewhere wonderful with my family in such a configuration (my dad loves to sleep anywhere so he’ll love the bed). It’s just too bad it costs ~190,000 pesos per person on a Singapore-Doha flight. I’ll stick with Cebu Pacific thankyouverymuch.

[jkregala]

Bantayan Island is located northwest of the main island of Cebu in central Philippines. As a designer, I love color. And to be able to witness such magnificent array of colors in their rawest form through the help of none other than this beautiful planet we live in is an experience worth traveling for.

[jkregala]

In love with Functional Animation

It took a while for good animation to creep into our user interfaces. From tacky and kitschy GIF’s to heavy and clunky Flash, tons has changed in just a span of a few years. Modern coding technologies have allowed nearly-limitless support to the imagination of IX and UX designers, and developers are more than happy to deliver.

We have moved beyond static UI’s. Today, it’s all about designing how the user gets from point A to point B with the least effort while maintaining a good dash of sass and style.

Source: Charles Patterson

What is functional animation?

Smashing Magazine defines functional animation as “A subtle animation embedded in the UI design as a part of the functionality of that design. It reinforces the design and has very clear and logical purposes including:

Reduce cognitive load

Prevent change blindness

Establish better recall in spatial relationships

What is there to love about it?

The user should always be at the heart of any interface. It has to be intuitive, responsive, and human-centered. Since animation brings UI’s to life, functional animation helps us in achieving these goals.

The first thing I love about functional animation is how fast and easy it enables the user to receive feedback from the interface after performing a transaction.

Source: Colin Garven

In the example above, the user is briefly greeted with a spinner which immediately indicates that the system has reacted upon the action that the user initiated with the “Submit” button - which is clicking it. Notice how it then switches to a checkmark? This transition indicative of a result makes the user feel like the process is finished successfully. 

Another functional animation that gives immediate feedback which I totally love is when you enter an incorrect passcode on your iPhone. It shakes instantaneously indicating that the system has denied the incorrect passcode.

Source: Web Designer Depot

Nothing frustrates me more than having to figure out the status of whatever I’m doing at present. It takes great patience for me to identify the difference between an initial state and a final state. For instance, isn’t it frustrating not to know how much of a file you have already downloaded?

Which brings me to the next reason why I love functional animation which is knowing system status.

Image credit: xjw

In the example above, you know exactly how long a download is taking and when and if it succeeds or fails. Not knowing the status of anything can be really vexing. But once you make it easy for users to know, there’ll be less friction between them and your application.

Moving along, I love it when visual cues make it easy for me to predict what’s going to happen next. 

Source: Lala Baron

In the example above, a list item produces a very brief animation which indicates that if you slide the entire tab to the right, an action will be performed on the item. I love that this enables users to accurately decide on what action to do on the list item instead of inventing possible gestures which takes a lot of cognitive load. 

Last but not the least, my superficial self wishes to highlight how functional animation makes things feel pretty lol! 

Source: Anastasiia Andriichuk

Now tell me, isn’t the above way more ideal than a very simple slideshow that is boring and lifeless?

How about you? What do you love about functional animation?

[jkregala]

I've been intrigued with Beijing since 5th grade when our teacher made us watch "The Last Emperor" in history class. The sweeping shots of the Forbidden City resonated to me with the idea of an old, historic, and grand imperial city. This visit however, presented to me a very different view as China has for the past decades underwent rapid economic expansion which became evident on every skyscraper and every modern building on every turn.

I was initially hesitant to visit but given the cheap fare (which one cannot resist!), my fascination for history & modern architecture, and the improving Sino-Philippine relations, I went through with this trip. And I'm so glad I did. Liking Beijing was least of my expectations, I couldn't be happier to have been proven wrong spectacularly.

[jkregala]

Japan: where tradition meets modernity

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Where my feet went to in 2014

2014 was certainly one of the most amazing years in my lifetime as of yet as far as travel goes.

I got out of Asia for the first time.

I got onto a long-haul 16-hour flight for the first time.

I got to see New York City for the first time.

So I guess you could say it was a year of many firsts. And I loved it.

I started the year enjoying Macau and Hong Kong with my family. I almost tried to gamble, but everyone thought my sister was 17 years old so nope, no gambling for me. Rode that insaaaaneeee roller coaster in Ocean Park. I swear I could have died!

In Coron, I got to see proof that Palawan is not just about El Nido. I swam and dove to my heart’s delight. And of course, ate the freshest best seafood ever.

Longest land travel record was set when we journeyed into Palaui. Apart from the incredibly good Tuguegarao pancit, only the vivid memories of the magnificent North made me forget the 20-hour butt-numbing bus ride.

Borobudur and Prambanan were especially eye-opening spiritual journeys. I discovered so many new things about myself climbing the mystical Mt. Bromo, all in Indonesia.

AMERICAAAAA. Of course the highlight of my year. I had the best cheesecakes, burgers, hotdogs, milkshakes, pizza, pasta, the works. I got to see Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night! Ah, New York City, such a dream. I’ve never thought I’d cross out a bucket list item so early in my life haha!

Washington D.C. felt like a giant museum, polished, very impersonal but highly educational. Then Los Angeles, Hollywood amigo! Visited my cousins. I’ve never felt so home at a place so far from home. Absolutely loved the weather! And the California sun!

Capped the year binge-eating unlimited Korean barbecue in Seoul, Korea with blazing K-Pop songs in the background. Palaces, modern architecture, bits and pieces of history, high-speed trains, all side-by-side. I’ve never seen a city with more contrasts.

Ah, 2014. You were incredible. 

Life, let’s keep it up. Shall we?

[jkregala]

There are days when you wish Summers were eternal. There is a longing to be in boundless communion with the sun, the sea, and the sand. Such days are best spent in places like Coron in the province of Palawan in the Philippines - where towering limestone cliffs and powdery white beaches immortalize the view above the surface of the ocean, while verdant marine life and awe-inspiring shipwrecks await below.

For more of my travel videos, visit my Vimeo channel at https://vimeo.com/jkregala.

[jkregala]

Falling in love with Flat Design is easy

Trends in design come and go. Some are about as fleeting as something like uhm, childhood, but there are those that stand the test of time.

There is one that is happening right now in interface design and it's a trend I want to fall in the latter.

FLAT DESIGN

To summarize it quickly in three words, flat design is all about simplicity, clarity, and priority. If expounding further, it's basically all about letting go of extra details, embellishments, burloloys, and embracing straightforwardness in applying design.

I personally like to call it the rebellion against skeumorphism, which I totally disliked the day I started designing.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Why I love it

When tech giants like Microsoft, Google & Apple and the creative geniuses behind them rally behind something like this, there simply is no room to disagree.

The contrast of yellow and dark, the clean fonts, the spectacular photographs, the "flattened" NatGeo mobile site is love.

Content is always king

No matter how great a design is, content should always be the priority. And this is where flat design wins. The tendency for it to orient towards the softer, gentler, and cleaner side of aesthetics makes it easy for the user's eye to move from the design to the actual content itself. It's never good to create designs that would only compete with the content for the user's attention.

Take a look at Adam Ruzki's portfolio for example. I am clearly made aware of who he is and what he has accomplished, and I was never distracted by anything to find out:

Adaptability

The frontender in me is screaming for joy for flat design's ability to adapt, especially to responsive development. The shadows, the heavy textures, the maximalist effects of the days of UI design past were so incredibly difficult to adapt for the smaller screen. Flat design's simplicity makes it so remarkably versatile on all viewing platforms.

Flat design looks great from a mobile phone to a big screen monitor. [image source]

Your PageSpeed gets a boost

Simplicity has an immediate effect on any digital asset - it becomes more lightweight. Because of the focus on plain colors for interface elements and less reliance on complex imagery your design becomes lighter and the page load, faster. No more shadows, gradients, heavy stuff to weigh your site down. 

A return to what is usable and functional

Interfaces in the past have sacrificed so much in the name of design. Heavy effects made it harder for people to appreciate and understand interactions with a website or application.

First and foremost, design has to be functional. The user should never be misled. Flat design's minimalist layout & visual style and its reduction of clutter make it easier for users to see what they want & need to see and be able to accomplish what they have to accomplish. 

Wallmob's Dashboard certainly makes it easy for me.

Conclusion

There is no telling how long the trend of flat design is going to last. History would tell us it can only evolve into something else, or be swallowed by something better. Though as far as what I can see on the web these days, for the time being, looks like flat design is here to stay.

[jkregala]

Arigato, Hayao Miyazaki

I grew up watching anime, and I feel like it has played such a huge part on my life as a young person. I have longed to join Tom on his many misadventures, rallied behind Princess Sarah in her struggles against all odds, even swished my fingers in an effort to summon Recca's dragons.

But nothing stirred my imagination and evoked my emotions more than the works of the great Hayao Miyazaki.

The first time I watched a Miyazaki film, I didn't know it was a Miyazaki. A classmate of mine from high school lent me a VCD of "Princess Mononoke". It was breathtaking.

I've stumbled upon "Spirited Away" in one of my usual VCD rummages in my suki vendor of Anime stuff. Saw the cover of the video and I thought it would be "interesting". At the time, I still had no idea it was from Miyazaki because the subtitles provided were only for the film's dialogues (I cannot read Kanji you see).

I still think that "Spiritied Away" is the most beautiful animated movie I have ever watched. An all-time favorite, it tells the story of a young girl's courage, determination, and heart, in a world that was completely alien to her.

In 2003, I finally discovered the person behind two of my most favorite anime movies. I was watching that year's telecast of the Oscars when Cameron Diaz appeared on the stage to announce this:

Goodness gracious the film won a freaking OSCAR!!! And because Cameron had to mention the director's names' I've finally known the man behind it all!

From that point on up to today, I've exhausted all efforts to watch Hayao Miyazaki's movies and have come to appreciate the beauty and artistry that he weaves into each one of them.

The epic majesty of "Nausicaä", the brave innocence of "My Neighbor Totoro", the magic & courageous wonder of "Howl's Moving Castle", and the fascinating exuberance of "Ponyo", I have no one to blame but myself when I say that I still yet to witness 4 more of his movies from the past. 

Miyazaki and his works. [source]

This year, at the age of 72, Hayao Miyazaki has announced his retirement to the heartbreak of many of his fans who have come to love his works with Studio Ghibli, which he founded and has produced & released all of his films so far.

He has one remaining movie that hasn't been fully released though, and I'm pretty psyched and feeling bittersweet at the same time. "The Wind Rises" will be his final curtain call.

Hayao Miyazaki will be an unparalleled genius of his time, whose films has brought joy and amazement to his fans. Though his son Goro seems to be following his footsteps (Goro's debut "From Up On Poppy Hill" is a sweet, sentimental movie about young love), still, there will only be one Hayao.

There remains also, Studio Ghibli, which promised to create more films honoring the legacy of its founder.

So there, thank you, Hayao. Here's to hoping that one day, you will pen and create another film again. We should know, JK Rowling wasn't able to resist the itch.

[jkregala]

Where my feet went to in 2012

If I win the lottery right now, I'd quit my day job, travel around the world, and become a cultural anthropologist or something. Being a common salaryman, I cannot really consider myself a hardcore traveler, at least not yet. Finances and schedule are and will always be an aspiring wanderlust's biggest enemies.

But that doesn't mean I am unable to land my feet anywhere! Thanks to 15 allocated days off, and a few extra bucks here and there, 2012 has been sort of awesome.

I began the year with a trek to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo in Zambales. 1 hour by 4x4 jeep, 2 and a half by foot, and that was just the way up. Didn't matter though, this view greeted the exhausted me:

Hard to believe that 2 decades ago this same geological menace wrought havoc on my home province. It's now a beautiful, pristine and magnificent Sleeping Beauty.

Two weeks later (which infuriated my mom "San ka na naman nagpupupunta?!" haha), I journeyed into what's probably the most gorgeous place I've been to my entire life as of yet: the Islands of the Bacuit Archipelago in Palawan or what many would know as El Nido.

El Nido surprised me a lot. I've always known it was beautiful based on photos, reviews and the like but I had no idea it would be that beautiful. Practically swam, snorkeled and sunbathed my way into sun-soaked bliss during the entire trip.

After this trip I have made it a point to exclaim "EL NIDOOO!!!" whenever someone asked me for suggestions on where they should go next.

Next destination, I went south and traveled to Davao. Just like the last trip I had to this city 9 years ago, I did not even bother to eat the famous durian, and this time moreso because I was preoccupied with getting to see this for the first time:

Endemic to the forests of Mindanao, the endangered Philippine Eagle is truly a sight to behold. I wish the Philippines could be as mighty.

When in Davao, it's only logical to visit the nearby Island Garden City of Samal for its beaches and vibrant marine life. We purchased the day ticket to Pearl Farm because we cannot afford the overnight stay. Suffice to say, it was "bitin".

It was in this island where I realized that I don't think any other country can beat the Philippines in the white sand beaches department. Being a "beach racist", as I pointed out to friends before, I have prejudiced preferences for the white sand-type and I couldn't be happier that they are found practically anywhere in the country!

At the near-latter part of the year I went to my first foreign destination in 7 years: the highly sterilized (read: clean) city-state of Singapore. Coming from a developing country, I was overwhelmed with the orderliness and high-tech-ness of this rich tiny nation. And that feeling lingered for the rest of my visit (read: culture shock).

The city is so tourist-friendly I have a feeling you won't get lost in it even when you're blindfolded. Everything was so smooth from the transportation to the day-to-day transactions. It was so clean I felt like I could lick the pavement. 

And then since Kuala Lumpur was just an hour away by plane, I decided to hop over because I wanted to see the Petronas Twin Towers. I am a skyscraper fanatic and these twins are definitely on my must-see list. 

I just oggled at these two for like an hour. I was very impressed. Made the trip to KL so much more worth it.

The last two trips were done solo, and I couldn't be more pleased. It was scary at first of course, but all that anxiousness went into nothing after the journey because there are virtually limitless ways to discover not only the destination, but oneself as well when traveling alone. Everyone should try it.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

Whoever said those words, along with the year 2012, thank you. You have made me realize that I am doing the right thing: traveling while I'm young (at the cost of not being able to save at all).

I will be 25 this year and it marks my last year as a member of the "youth" segment. So... 2013, bring it on!

[jkregala]

Switzerland and typography

National design consciousness and GDP per capita always go hand in hand. Countries like France, Denmark and Sweden are always in the upper ranks whenever artistic taste is discussed. And yes, there is such a thing as Global Creativity Index (GCI) and unsurprisingly, developed economies have dominated the list.

What's curious though is that when it comes to typography, a sub-category of design, there's one country in the world that is always a cut above the rest: Switzerland.

Switzerland led the world in the 1950's with a design movement called the International Typographic Style, which is now better known as the "Swiss Style". It emphasized cleanliness, readability, and objectivity, qualities which are up to now, used to determine which typographic application is good or bad.

Helvetica, which is in my opinion the most perfect font ever constructed, was developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger. 

Beyond Helvetica, other great Swiss fonts include the following:

Even the Swiss passport is a reflection of the Swiss people's penchance for stylish type. I love their passport, I haven't seen a more sleek cover:

Good typography thrives on the streets of Switzerland. Proof that the appreciation of clean and polished typographic style permeates deep into the levels of Swiss society.

If you are a fan of Swiss type, you should check out http://www.swisstype.net/ for more samples of street typography (the beautiful photos you see above came from this site!). For designers out there, this article from SmashingMag is also a good read.

Now excuse me while I write down "Switzerland" to include it on my travel bucket list.

[jkregala]

The most expensive font?

I don't buy fonts, I never did. I've always felt that Dafont and 1001Fonts had enough free fonts for download. Plus, design blogs like WDL and SmashingMag regularly post wide arrays of well-designed free fonts (always looking forward to those actually). And it doesn't hurt either that file-sharing has made it easier for us to download "bootlegged" fonts these days.

So when I realized how cruel the non-illegal world really is, and that quite a lot of fonts for sale are actually expensive, I tried to sniff around the web to find out some pretty expensive fonts. And I was shocked.

Lexicon - $4,999 = P215,000

DTL Prokyon - $2,170 = P93,000

Geronimo - $2,811 = P121,000

Trinite - $4,685 = P202,000

Benton San - $3,200 = P138,000

Luxury - $1,500 just for 5 freakin users! P65,000

I had to breathe first before absorbing all of that. I had no idea fonts could be so expensive! You know how easy they are to select from a drop-down list when you use them that you actually take them for granted? 

Dear fonts, you have my respect now!

Of course, these are just commercially available fonts. And in the real world, ready-to-purchase items are like, the normal stuff right? I will have to assume that the most expensive fonts in the world can be acquired when you ask an agency or a designer to custom-design one for you or your company. It makes total sense!

This discussion at typophile.com explores the probable cost, and I am in even more shock. One user said that big design agencies may charge more than $100,000 for a custom-designed font. Damn, that's a minimum of P43,000,000 just for a font! Although that's way much cheaper compared to what the London Olympic committee paid for the 2012 Olympics logo from Wolff Olins if you can remember.

Friends, you should never underestimate the cost of art and design. The Royal Family of Qatar did not pay $250,000,000 for a Paul Cezanne masterpiece just for nothing.

[jkregala]

The Ideal Office

Let's face it, creative people need creative workspaces to maximize their creative potential. We need to draw a lot of inspiration from our surroundings. We have to channel our energies to come up with the best designs with inspiration being the catalyst. Sometimes, good music or online examples are not good enough, you only wish you could work in a place where the flow of creative energy is nurtured and amplified.

A place where color, shapes, textures and visuals are maximized to their best extent so you become inspired the moment you step in:

  A place where light flows freely, where you are able to look at what's beyond the building and think outside of the box:

A place where classic meets edgy, rustic meets contemporary, old meets new: so you can come up with stuff that is both timeless and beautiful:

Of course, it won't hurt if the cubicles are just as delicious. Private, comfortable, homey and conducive for design work: 

In a developing economy like the Philippines, having an amazing workplace can be quite a pipe dream. But then again, there is no limit to how much we can dream right? I hope our new office in Ortigas will be close enough to the examples.

[images from here and here]