January 2012
4 posts
December 2011
10 posts
July 2010
2 posts
April 2010
1 post
February 2010
1 post
WatchI always wonder where they come from and where they’re going, but never bothered to follow them…
January 2010
1 post
Cambodia Holiday
Great holiday :-) Click for more photos.
December 2009
1 post
See you next year!
Illustration by Nerdski Although a little too late for a Merry Christmas note, I do want to wish everyone Happy Holidays! I’m taking a break and changing some stuff at the moment. Said goodbye to my apartment that was driven me nuts. Moved to a great new place, a little room in a lane house which I’m polishing up. Cancelled Chinese class which was eating up too much time. Stopped...
November 2009
1 post
Do you shrug your shoulders for a Chinese...
This post first appeared in Dutch on Marketing Tribune. Planning to translate my monthly column to English and post it on my blog. Mainly to have content for this blog which is becoming quiet lately (planning to change that, of course). Enjoy! ‘Mei banfa’, two magical words I stumble upon often recently. In English simply meaning ‘nothing to do about’, but in Chinese...
October 2009
2 posts
Bamboo weekend in Anji
Currently it’s the National Day Golden Week in China. Meaning that about 1 on 5 people in the world has holidays. Resulting in millions of people leaving the major cities to go back to their hometown. Instead of going back to my hometown, I’ve spend the past weekend in Anji. Together with some Chinese, French and Turkish people I left Shanghai to spend the weekend in a region known for...
Trip to Hong Kong
A week ago I paid a quick visit to Hong Kong. I had to change my tourist visa to a work visa, requiring me to leave China and re-enter with the newly acquired visa. I had never been to Hong Kong before and had high expectations picturing the iconic skyline. While the city wasn’t what I expected (more British, more tropical, less Chinese) it’s a cool place and the skyline is truly...
September 2009
3 posts
Column on Marketing Tribune
Yesterday I wrote my first column for Dutch marketing magazine Marketing Tribune. I will continue doing so once every month. Writing a column is quite a challenge, as I experienced past few weeks. While it’s only a short piece, no more than 500 words, a mental struggle proceeds the first words on paper. It’s one of those things that is cool to do, but is also easy to procrastinate...
Office snaps
As I promised earlier, I would keep you up-to-date about the progress of the new Energize office. It’s about a month ago I received the keys, in the meantime refurbishment and furnishing has finished. I think that having a good place to work is very important to being productive and enjoying your time in the office. After all, it’s where I and future employees will spend most of our...
Popcorn vendor and other street interviews
Last weekend I did some street interviews for D4D, the initiative to design for the other 90%. Together with a Chinese friend we set out to interview street vendors, constructions workers and garbage collectors. Asking them about their daily life, what bothers them and - most importantly - how it can be improved. Despite the fact that most of the people asked did not want to be interviewed (not...
August 2009
3 posts
The other 90%
Yesterday I attended the launch event of D4D, Design for the Disadvantaged. The mission of D4D is to leverage design and innovation talent via a user-centered approach to improve the quality of life, productivity and self-improvement of disadvantaged groups in China, states their website. In other words, to design for the other 90%. I think that the impressive team of founders have created a great...
Refurbishment well on its way
A week ago I posted about receiving the keys to the new office. Thinking about the amount of stuff that has been done in this past week in terms of setting up the agency, it rather feels like a month ago. Things are moving extremely fast. Since refurbishment will be done by tomorrow, I expect to enter the office in a couple of days when all furniture will be in place. For now, some photos of the...
Open Sesame
I just received the keys of the brand new Shanghai office of Energize! I’ve been looking through the windows on a daily basis for two weeks, so it’s extremely exciting that I’m now able to enter the place! While opening the door for the first time the magic words ‘Open Sesame’ came to mind, but that must be since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is next door. Anyway,...
July 2009
2 posts
New home
Just found myself a new place to call home. After going through ridiculous little effort - it was the first apartment I looked at - I felt like the luckiest person around. The apartment is located in French Concession, is shared with 2 graphic designers (a French girl and a Chinese guy), is only ¥2600 (about €260) per month, and has a stunning view from the balcony. What else could I wish for? So...
Catching up in Beijing
I don’t plan to make this website a travel blog of any sort. Anything but. I rather share some fascinating stuff that I come across while living in Shanghai. But to start off this first post contradicting my plans for this blog, this is a quick picture round-up of past week in Beijing. Besides more serious meetings, this great week was mainly about catching up with some old friends :-)
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