Masayuki Kurokawa Partners with LKK Design

On February 2012, the world-renowned Japanese design master, Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa, formally signed the contract with Shangshang Brand in LKK's Beijing headquarters. Thus, LKK'S internationalization process has forwarded significantly. Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa is a "godfather" figure in Japan's architecture and industrial design who has a deep research on Eastern and Western cultures. He succeeded in putting the aesthetic philosophy of the East and the West together to form an elegant art style. Through the cooperation with Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa, LKK is the first industrial design company in China that partners with international famous designers.

Shang Shang is a fully-owned brand of LKK Design that was created by Mr. David Jia. David hopes to build a product brand that can fully develop and show the talents of LKK designers. By partnering with Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa, LKK wants to enrich the Shangshang Brand. David said, in future, LKK will invite more and more international design masters to join in Shangshang Brand.

When it comes to the cooperation with the Shangshang brand, Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa was very excited and passionate. He said that he has a lot of esonance on the design concept with David Jia and he hopes to have more opportunities to communicate with David about creation. Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa also said, "I clearly remember that when I first met with David Jia, it was after my lecture at The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). And David sincerely invite me to join in LKK Design".

In October of last year, Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa paid a visit LKK Design and was greatly impressed by LKK's product design work. Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa said, "David takes the design very seriously and works very hard on it, which is the same as me".

After joining in LKK, Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa has created four design works, including incense series, tea ceremony series, lamp series, and furniture series. David Jia said, "I am greatly touched by the work of Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa, especially his rigorous attitude on work. He brought us not just an idea, but also the feasibility, including his understanding of the production process and materials. We will further carry out these ideas. Mr. Kurokawa hope to get a lot of his own ideas into real products, in order to allow more people to use, which in fact is the expectation of every product designer.

Escaping London

London is an awesome city, and nobody can deny her of that. It's a vibrant city, it's crowded, it's congested, things are always moving (apart from the traffic). Noise, people, colors, flashing lights... all those wonderful and not so wonderful things that make it the city it is. It's really a love and hate relationship for people living and working in London. At least for me it is. Some people embrace the whole living in London thing because there's always entertainment at your doorstep. But some people just get in and get out right after work. I am the latter.

I live out in the suburbs, it's quite a trek from the office but it gives me the balance I need from the busy city. On the weekends I usually don't go back into the smoke, unless I need to go to the vintage markets, see a show, exhibit, or if I really really need a proper Chinese food fix (I do get homesick occasionally). I find that I almost avoid the city if it wasn't for work. If I tell people that I live out in the burbs, they get quite surprised, especially people my age. They say they can't do it, first of all, is not that much cheaper, if you add up your transportation fees. Second of all, aren't you a bit bored? Sometimes I do get bored, but that's when you take the tube to go into the city. But most of the time, I find that the burbs have a lot to offer, there is almost so much to explore that I don't think I can see it all, and if you pay real close attention to your surroundings in these old towns, like the inscriptions on walls and churches, you will be astounded by the amount of history around you.

Anyway, one of my favourite spots in the suburbs is Amersham old town. Amersham is probably one of the last stops on the Metropolitan line way out in the North West. While visiting the old town I caught sight of a plague on the side of the market hall landmark. On it, it says "Amersham was documented in the Domesday Book as Elmodesham... and was granted a market and fair status by King John in the year 1200...". I was standing in a town that is more than 1000 years old and standing at the same market hall which people had traded since 1682. Little has changed in the town regarding street layouts and the architecture. People always say, this is what it looks in the old days or this is what is like a couple hundred years ago, well at Amersham, you can see it for your own eyes.

Not far from the car park in old town is where St Mary's Church still stands. The church is a Grade 1 listed building. The church itself dates back to 1140AD and stands on a holy site where Roman Roads crosses the River Misbourne. It is the place where 1000 years ago, Baptist monks of St Augustine and Bishops Baptist their converts. Sometimes if you look at the tombstones on some of the graves around the church, you wonder what life was like for the person that's buried underneath a couple hundred years ago. You wonder if their family is still around, or the grave just lies their forgotten.

Amersham old town also has lots of quality cafes, serving up good quality traditional English breakfasts and coffee. The Broadway is also home to many quaint shops selling home accessories. Even high end brands like Phase Eight,suddenly becomes more quaint than usual being housed amongst a row of Elizabethan and Tudor coaching inn buildings.

If Central London becomes unbearable, and you fancy a quiet morning somewhere out in the country. Consider a visit to these little towns, and savour every bit of history they have to offer.

Plague on the side of Market Hall, Amersham.

LKK Valentine's Day Luncheon

This year's Valentine's Day happens to be on a weekday so since half of our Valentine's Day is going to be spent in the office, why not celebrate with our colleagues with a great meal and some bubblies.

For an hour or so, the office was transformed into a restaurant. A table was set up, food from everyone was spread out across the table, making it a decent "Feast", and champagne bottle was popped open to commence the meal.

Whitney Houston's old classics were being played, as the day before Valentine's Day also marks the tragic death of one of the best voices to ever grace the Earth. Looks like everyone had a Whitney song moment, as we recall which song was our favorite, or when we heard it. Although some of us were too young to remember the great classics of the 80s, but it's amazing how we all knew the songs. It just proves how classic her songs are, and how music can transcend through time.

It was a good catching up with fellow colleagues, as 2 of our colleagues, Frank and Xiaoyue has just came back from China after the spring festivals holidays. And Alison has just come back to the office after being ill. Jokes and stories were shared amongst glasses of champagne. It was a great lunch hour, then it was straight back to work again.

Today, as a people-centered product design company, LKK Design provides its employees with Sweet Dessert and wishes everyone: "Happy Valentine's Day!!".

May each year be sweeter than the last.

Yuanxiao - The Lantern Festival

Yuanxiao - The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Lunar New Year Festival which is also known as the Chinese New Year. The Lantern Festival occurs on every 15th day of the 1st Lunar month. The Lantern Festival is widely celebrated in the Chinese culture. It celebrates the first full moon in the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day.

What does the name of the festival mean:
"Yuan" in ancient China is the first month of the Lunar New Year. "Xiao" means night.

How and where did the festival originate:
There are many legends as to how the festival came about. One of the legends has it that the festival was meant to be a day of worship for the god Taiyi who ruled the heavens and can cause calamities on Earth. Since then , the first emperor of China has ordered the day to be splendidly celebrated by his people so Taiyi will bring them luck and prosperity in the year.

How is the festival celebrated:
Since Tang dynasty, the festival has been celebrating the first full moon in the Lunar New Year by decking out streets and plazas with colorful lanterns. Riddles and puzzles are put onto the Lanterns for passersby to solve. Under the moonlight and the decoration of the colorful lanterns, it is often thought to be a romantic scene, where strangers can meet and solve riddles on the lanterns together and evolve into a couple. Many poems in the Tang dynasty were inspired by the romance and beauty of the festival.

The festive food for the festival is called Yuanxiao or Tangyuan which gets its name from the festival and has the meaning of togetherness. These festive foods are little dumpling balls made with glutinous rice flour with salty or sweet fillings within. The Chinese believe it is good luck to have the festive food with family, and loved ones bringing many more years of "togetherness".

The Littlest Things

It was hard coming up with a name for a company blog. After going through numerous design articles and even our own case studies, I find that in design, is often the little things in life which inspires us to greatness. For example the apple that prompted Newton to propose the idea of gravity. The little design tweaks that makes a big difference, like our Delixi circuit breaker, just by painting the buttons in glow in the dark paint makes it easier for us to spot it, because the only time we need a circuit breaker is, when the house is pitch black and we can't see a thing. In the modern world of technology, it seems that everyone is trying to slim down every device there is, making it as "little" as possible. It is these "little" devices with big ideas that make a huge impact on our lives, the most obvious example being Apple products.

This is an informal blog written by people in LKK. We write about anything that has to do with our daily work, our culture – Chinese and British, great cities – China and UK, and most of all, the hottest in design. Or just basically anything that catches our eye. We hope this blog will become a platform for people who are interested in LKK or the topics to exchange views and opinions. We let you into our world; we hope you will do the same.

Therefore, we hope that through this blog, we can be inspired to explore our world and our daily lives through paying attention to the “Littlest” things that makes this World a whole lot more interesting.