Peter in Hong Kong - Day 5

Wednesday, Day off! Promised myself an early start but you know how it is, jet lag and lazy bones conspired to keep me in my bed till 11 am.
Once up the first shorts of the year were worn and off I went walking from the Hotel in Kowloon down to Victoria Harbour with views south across to the Hong Kong Island. Soon I reached the iconic Star Ferry terminal and for the fantastically low price of £0.25p you can cross probably one of the most famous of pieces of water in the World. The fleet of 12 ferries that operate routes across the harbour carry over 70,000 passengers a day, or 26 million a year. In fact crossing the Harbour on a Spring morning with the impressive architecture of the Island looming ahead must be one of the top experiences of my life. Just got to be done.

Having taken the cable tram up to the Island Summit last time I avoided the holiday makers and headed instead back to Kowloon and up to an area known as 'Mothers market', home to 'You want copy watch'. This market area consists of rows upon rows of stales selling every conceivable useless gifts known to man and in amongst all the tat can be found these incredibly realistic copy watches. For $HK 250, about £25, you can have a Rolex or a Chanel bag that your friends would need to be told is a fake. This time I resisted and came away empty handed.

My flight home was that night. All flights to London leave around midnight and arrive early morning making them very popular with the ex PAT British bankers who want to pop back home for the weekend.

Peter in Hong Kong - Day 4

Tuesday, Much like yesterday but no talking just listening to the other speakers.

Peter in Hong Kong - Day 3

Monday: I was out in Hong Kong to deliver two talks at the Hong Kong Development Council. The HKDC is a cross between our DTI and the Design Council, helping HK Chinese companies learn how to build business and export around the World. It's a recipe for success, the place was a buzz with workshops, seminars and information overload. The group of 20 or more I was presenting my 'Masterclass' (their words not mine) was made up of engineers, designers, marketing and academia but all came from SDA (small domestic appliances) manufacturers in Hong Kong and China.

In the morning session after presenting myself and Rodd Design I spoke about the premise that Good design is all about good communication, ie how clear channels of communication within businesses go along way to improve the design process and hence better design. It was enlightening to hear from the delegates that many of the problems that stifle design in the West is just as prevalent in the East, the main difference is their capacity to over come them and just crack on. Making stuff is in their blood.

My afternoon session was the recently completed Rodd case study of the Kenwood Strategy project. I am biased of course but the work we did for Kenwood is of the highest order and reasonably complex to get you head around it, even for a English speaking designer who has a understanding of user group profiling and matching brand and product values, let alone a Catonese speaking Chinese engineer. I need not of worried, the notion of designing products for people's lifestyle is very much part of Eastern thinking, whether they can truly understand Western culture is another thing.

Peter in Hong Kong - Day 2

Sunday 9th. Arrive to an equally cracking airport Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok. Opened in 1998 it is now the 2nd busiest airport in the World piped to the title by the one I left yesterday. Like Heathrow Chek Lap Kok deals with passengers in the most efficient way and within 40 mins I'm through customs and on my Hotel bus.

I've visited Hong Kong in October where the temperature is hot and the sky's clear. I arrived this time to a temperature of 29 deg C, which was nice to warm the bones of a cold Englishman but the grey, overcast weather that went with it prevented the city showing itself off in all its glory.

Peter in Hong Kong - Day 1

Saturday 8th. Flight to Hong Kong. Arrive at T5, our newest and shiniest Cathedral to the Skies. The place is vast, brilliantly designed and a joy to travel through. Every attempt to upgrade myself with BA from the cheap seats at the back to at least the middle was thwarted so I had to sulk past the revised Business Class beds to my place of rest for the next 12 hours. However I did watch 'Nowhere Boy' a highly entertaining film about the early life of a certain John Lennon.

Lights come on when the Sun goes down.

Solar-powered lights are rarely as beautiful as 'Morning Glory', by Wendy Legro. A graduating student at The Netherland's Design Academy of Eindhoven, Legro designed the project for her graduate thesis.

Her idea was that in the modern world, we've lost the pleasure of watching things grow and change--and inside our homes, artificial light is always competing with natural light. Morning Glory attempts to counteract that.




Intended to be hung near a window, the light is composed of a delicate structure that flowers, depending on lighting conditions. When it's bright outside, the lamp shrinks up, allowing sunlight to stream past. When it grows dark, the lamp eventually blooms in a snowflake pattern, revealing the LED's inside.