The other day, I stumbled upon this coat by someone by the name of Dominique Rouzier. It would probably look very nice on Kaitlyn, but I’m just not one of those loaded people who can easily barf out $200 for a children jacket, or think it’s worth it—since kids outgrow clothes so fast.

So I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if I know how to sew something like this?

May be someday?

I once had a discussion with my dad about starting a graphic design shop here in New York someday, designing for the Chinese market.

I now realize that if I want to stick with the Chinese market, it will probably have to be another city — just not New York.

Let’s be honest. Most local Chinese-language printed materials (sales fliers, newspaper ads, business cards, product packaging, restaurant menus, etc.) here in New York are beyond ugly. They are unappetizing and hard to read. And let’s leave those horribly scripted and absolutely corny TV & radio ads for another day.

Having spent half of my life in Hong Kong, I know for a fact that Chinese know what good design is. From the look of things, I thought there may be a niche here, an opportunity wide open.

But then I realized that there isn’t a shortage of good Chinese designers here in New York. So why do businesses continue to waste their money on the nasty stuff?

The answer is that the Chinese community here has been “spoiled” by illegal immigrants. If restaurants have to start paying minimum wage to the cooks and the deliverymen, and that the workers can choose to work less hours or even elsewhere, there’s no way you can get any thing for under $5.

Here, illegal Chinese workers literally go begging for a “6 days a week, 12 hours a day, $5/hour”, non-stop, labor-intensive job.

Having gotten use to this kind of labor deal, Chinese business owners in New York naturally want everything the same way: fast and cheap. They make money anyway because of the low labor cost, so when it comes to things related to company’s image, advertising and promotion, they just don’t see the investment value in it.

Since there’s no demand for good design, local print shops hire people who know the software and have them “design” in-house by simply cramming every bit of information in a 5″ x 3″ ad space, slapping a photo on it, and then put it all on a yellow background to make it look “designed.”

In contrast, some overseas Chinese communities were started by educated, financially-established immigrants looking to maintain, grow, or invest. Thus, the “fast & cheap” culture was never really established. They understood the value of good design, good image. They value good investment.

So, until the culture here changes, I doubt the possibility of me seriously contributing, design-wise, to the Chinese community here in New York.

There’s always someday.

…Christmas of 2010, that is.

If you haven’t heard, Apple just came out with a new all-in-one cellphone, the iPhone. It really makes the Blackberry or Q look like 1920 typewriters (“capable” but ugly) & the RAZR look like a Barbie doll (“pretty” but incapable).

The iPhone is a 3-in-one device: phone, widescreen iPod, internet. It not only looks great, it does ALMOST everything (phone calls, visual voicemail, text messaging, photos, video, music, calendar, notes, Google map, full-featured web browsing, rich text push email the Blackberry way), equipped with ALMOST everything (3.5-inch screen, quad-band GSM, EDGE, camera, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, multi-touch touchscreen, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor), and cost ALMOST everything ($499 for 4 gig or $599 for 8 gig).

OK, so it’s not really that ridiculously expensive. It’s actually a decent price considering all the features included, PLUS all the innovative user interface design that Apple has introduced to the cellphone, taken from the Mac. It takes all the complication & frustration out of using a cellphone (if you’ve seen your parents learning to use their cellphones, you’ll know what I mean). It’s really going to change the way people use & expect from their cellphones.

That’s why I’m predicting that in 3 years, the iPhone & Apple’s marketing department will be so good that, I should no longer be able to resist the urge to get one myself or ask someone to buy me one.

At the rate that they are innovating, by 2010, the phone would be so capable that I can probably use it to watch live TV, track my kids’ whereabouts, start my car, warm my hands, heat up my food, do DNA analysis, beam me up, etc.

You see?

That’s right! For 2007, we got a facelift.

No, I’m not talking about me or Mel. I’m talking about our web site, silly!

One thing hasn’t changed is the clean, somewhat minimalistic look. The biggest change, however, is the header image on the top. It displays our photos & it changes every time the page is loaded & reloaded!

It’s not quite finished yet. I’m still toying w/ the color scheme, font style, and other bells & whistles. But overall, I think it’s where I wanted it to be.