Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Trends

  • Marks & Sparks

    Marks & Spencer comes to Taiwan!

    I was surprised to see the advertising panels covering what used to be Armani Exchange on Zhongxiao East Rd. They are moving in between Diesel, Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, so they are clearly targeting a premium market in clothing, though sadly I do not expect any of the sandwiches or ready meals this time round.

    I am really interested to see how they do, not least because buying ‘normal’ clothes here is such a pain. It’s all either night market rags or Louis Vuitton riches, with not a whole lot in between. Those times you just need a nice shirt, or some trousers.. forget it.


    Marks & Sparks

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Last.fm

    I am playing with quite a few Web 2.0 thingies at the moment. Last.fm is a British-based community audio site. It automatically uploads your tracks, decides your listening habits and makes recommendations based on that data. It is still early days, but I keep finding myself skipping tracks I don’t want people to ‘hear’!

    You can find my profile here: Jonathan Biddle’s Last.fm profile


    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Twitter

    The new new hot new hot thing is Twitter. Not quite sure what it does yet, or if it is important, but all I know it is the hottest site on the internet and I have to have it set up before anyone else I know!

    Jonathan Biddle’s Twitter Page

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Wikimapia

    Geoblogging really getting much easier … just stumbled across Wikimapia which is an amalgamation of Googlemaps and Wikipedia … exceptionally easy to add GIS information to your web page.


    I live here

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Simple Life

    This weekend I went to ‘Simple Life’ – an urban music festival at my new top location, The HuaShan Arts District. Somebody is clearly doing their job exceedingly well, as I have written about that place several times of late.

    The term ‘Simple Life’ applied to this festival is perhaps pushing it a bit. Sponsored jointly by Muji and 7-11, well over half of the site was filled with a craft market, a Muji museum, food stalls, mini 7-11s and clothes shops. It really hit the sweet spot in that Birkenstock-clad, excessively worthy yet cute style that is such the rage here. Why brave the elements when you can do what you love best – buying cute crap.


    Cute crap mart at the Muji stand

    Strangely, there was also a reading room. An entire hall of the exhibition was taken up with the real Camper warriors all nodding in agreement at the speakers extolling the virtues of ‘sustainable’ lifestyles, all while munching on their 7-11 boiled snacks.

    But I did get to see my favourite Taiwan rockers, 1976, bring the house down, even though everyone behind me (several hundred people) could not see over my shoulders. They’ll learn.


    1976 – notice all the blinky camera and phone screens as people record the concert … when do they expect to watch this again?

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Urban Underground

    Some pics from the weekend…


    A walk in the park – Rich and I have a beer in Sun Yat Sen


    A pretty cool street art exhibition in Shilin Night Market – very nice to see, since the guys here have a shop, exhibition space and dance studio over three levels. I have been waiting for an underground movement to begin to claim these places as their own … and it is a theme that continues.


    Rich, Nick and I rocking it up at Luxy – our first night out together in ages, since we have all been jet setting off around Asia for the last couple of months.


    Campo – this is really developing as a very nice design / art / music conglomeration. I was delighted to see they were using the HuaShan arts district – Taipei’s old cigarettes and alcohol factory. The design style is very Taiwanese and over-cute, but it is developing … but the most pleasing thing to see is the way they are renovating the buildings, but without completely polishing it.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Grafitti in Taipei

    For me, Grafitti is not simply defacement of public property, but an intrisic part of urban culture – a reflection of the city, and a barometer for its political climate, sense of humour, tolerance and a thousand other things that people feel the need to express when paint hits wall.

    One of the things that I miss in Taipei is having this barometer. The kids simply do not seem to want to express themselves in the ways I am used to. However, it seems the times they are a-changing, and quality artwork is appearing on the streets. Moreover, it seems to have a style not completely borrowed from New York, London, Berlin or Melbourne – and is developing in a subtly Asian way.

    The highest quality work has been, without a doubt, the stencil work. Though not up to the standards of Banksy, it is pleasant, and infinitely preferable to visual pollution in the form of adverts, neon and the further commercial hijacking of our environment.


    Tree frogs appearing to brighten up the concrete


    Rather nice flowers – definitely asian style.

    Also, one of the things I really love, is the municipal stencil work – I just spent a few minutes looking for some photos – but these will have to wait for next time.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Campo

    Taipei is fast discovering a hot grass roots design scene, and it is great to be involved in it. One of the things that I have been looking for of late is ‘Campo’ – a fashion and accessories market run by the young things, with live music and a party atmosphere. I went today – and discovered some rather nice gems.

    Link to Campo


    Hot Dog!


    The area – before the rain arrived


    I found some shoe repair people here – each ‘booth’ is seperated by a wall of laces, which is rather nice I think.

    Later on, I helped Rich n Nick at Keep move their store from the Breeze II centre back to their place. They are both in NZ at the moment, and really I should be there with them!


    The aftermath


    Keep Moving

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Design Speed Dating

    I just returned from a great evening meeting many creative types at a series of speeches as part of a “Pecha Kucha” – Japanese for Chit Chat. You get 20 seconds per slide, and 20 slides and it is really strict. We had speakers from fields as diverse as architecture (Shanghai is full of ‘em) design, photography and fashion and it made for a really stimulating evening. At long last, it felt like a gallery opening in London surrounded by people faintly cooler than you. But still, everyone maintains there is no scene here, and the nearest beach is three hours away. By aeroplane.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Japanese Cigarettes

    Bumped into a friend in PS today and he had just come back from Japan. I’m not a smoker, but I could be persuaded with a packet as cool as this.

    The pack slides open sideways, and the main information is ‘H’ for heavy, along with the associated red colour. Apparently, the other packs feature different letters and colours for lights, menthols and so on.


    Alphabet Cigarettes – ‘H’


    In my frequent visits to PS: Cafe I am always taken by the fascination with all their glowing screens. Cell phones, notebook computers, portable games machines, PDAs, disctionaries, iPods … anything that sparkles, glows and allows them attachment to other people – even to the detriment of the people sitting next to them. Interestingly, I saw a pair of guys watching a TV show together off an iPod ‘with’ Video. Rather interesting.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…