The Font Story behind Orchard Road Logos

Have you ever wondered what is the font used in some of the logos you see? Well, that thought occurred to me one day while I was passing by Orchard.

From what I know, most of the fonts we see everyday commercially, on the web or while reading can be divided in Serifs (Times New Roman), San Serif (Arial, Helvetica, Futura, Verdana) and Script (those cursive looking letters).

(http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/classifications.html)

I've guessed some of them and I'm pretty sure I'm wrong for most of them. However, I've intended this post as more of a reference when you are designing your own logo, posters, presentations and titles.

By choosing a good font, you might be able to convey a certain image (like the overly expensive luxury brands here =) ).

Serif

Armani - Bodoni

GAP - Spire Regular

Prada - Engravers' SB

Sans Serif
BCBG - Looks a bit like Avant Garde, Engraver's Gothic

Bread & Butter - Frutiger, Univers, Gill Sans

Chanel - Avenir, Akzidenz Grotesk, Engraver's Gothic

Louis Vutton - Futura Medium

Takashimaya - Looks a bit like Rockwell

Isetan - Meta, Futura

ALDO - Looks similar to the font used for BCBG, maybe Engraver's Gothic

Marc Jacobs - Sackers Gothic Medium, or something similar to the BCBG, ALDO

Ngee Ann City - Arial? (Personally, it looks a bit dated..)

Script & Misc

ION Orchard - Comic Sans? VAG Rounded

Salvatore Ferragamo - Some custom script

For Fun

References
Basics of Typography
http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-rules-for-creating-effective-typography

If you have Illustrator, you can design some pretty nice text
http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/an-in-depth-guide-to-working-with-typography-in-illustrator

This is a pretty good introduction to some classic fonts: http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/25-classic-fonts-that-will-last-a-whole-design-career

(Did this while waiting to install COMSOL.. 8 more GB to go.. =p )

AAAAR - Why do people "screw up" and projects fail in organizations?

I screw up all the time, so I try to not repeat my mistakes as much as possible for the sanity of my friends.

Some of the ideas I've read about project management have percolated in my mind recently.

It seems to me that success of a project depends on the level of

• Authority
• Accountability
• Autonomy
• Ability
• Responsibility

among the people in the team.

Imagine that you are responsible for the outcome of a project, but you are given insufficient authority, are not held accountable, do not possess the required ability and do not enjoy sufficient autonomy. Sounds like a recipe for failure..

Inappropriate levels of any of the five parameters will increase the chances of the project failing.

7 gifts

A fairy godmother blessed her child with the following 7 gifts:
To have a smile as warm as the sun
To have thoughts as pure as a mountain stream
To have wisdom as deep as the ocean
To have principles as strong as a mountain
To have regrets as heavy as the wind
To have a mind as open as the sky
To live a life passing on these gifts to the people around you.

The kid decided to dedicate a day of each week to cultivating each gift, with Sunday being a day of reflection.

Just watched "Precious"

Just watched "Precious" with Jia Mein . It's funny that the film feels contrived in the moments when it tries to be "Hollywood"-like inspirational and the cheesy fantasy scenes. For people who disliked it, I guess people nowadays watch films to enter a fantasy. If a film is too realistic, it cuts too close to home to be comfortableThe darkness in the film is just a contrast to the strength of the characters.

Ze Passion Talk

I guess after the passion talk (in retrospect, it was really funny to have the 3 of us talk over Skype to a chat window representing HP.. should have taken a photo!), all of us really want to do 3 things.

Solve real problems for businesses and the world.

Build, deploy and improve systems involving technology, engineering and people.

Create an sustainable empire and retire at 30~35 years old.

In other words, we have a Genghis Khan, 2 hackers and 1 Stoicist dreamer =)

My tuition experience today - irritation and joy

I feel like starting by introducing this article (http://www.readingrockets.org/article/199).

It's called "Reaching Rommel" by Tyler Currie. She describes how she used the power of individual attention to teach Rommel, an illiterate kid, how to read. It will take you around 10 minutes to read it, but it's a nice story for people who are interested in teaching and communicating with people.

I deviously employed this method (headfake!) in tuition today to my new student (replace "student" with "guinea pig").

The lesson started ominously. I felt irritation when my new tuition kid described the blase way that her teacher went through a block test question. He simply said that the question was similar to the one in the notes, and that the class could refer to it in order to understand how to solve it. Well, my tuition kid did not know how to do the question, along with the similarly stumped majority of the class (gnashing of teeth..).

Oh well, we selected a different topic and started. I tried to explain the basics (definitions and formulae) slowly and clearly using the simplest words I could find. I drew some graphs and used some analogies from everyday life. I explained some techniques for solving problems.

We then went through a previously unsolvable block test question for 40 mins. Next, we chose a difficult "three smiley face" question from the notes (I kind of like how the school chooses 3 smiley faces to represent difficult questions..) (Obviously, I'm influenced by a certain prof =) ).

5 minutes passed.

I see her scribbling, making mistakes and correcting them, solving the unknowns. In fact, I was a bit lost following her working (students nowadays use graphic calculators.. ).

"Ey.. is it like this?"

The "ah-ha" moment is doubly "shiok" when you make someone go "ah-ha".

I have not given much tuition over the years, but I am slowly observing some common behavioral trends among supposedly weak students.

They place their handphones beside them during tuition and sometimes check their sms-es (but they don't reply my sms-es within a day when I ask them to tell me how's their studying progress.. ). Immediately after tuition, they inadvertently plonk themselves next to their computer. In case you get your hopes high, they are not doing research on Wikipedia... (I know Wikipedia is only good as a convenient reference.)

They also do not have much basics. They don't remember the definitions, formulae and examples in the notes. I'm not certain whether this is due to the teacher not covering it enough, or whether this is an aftereffect of having goldfish memory from the current technology trends. I term this the "flush after test" syndrome (I'm guilty too!).

They also don't practise enough, or at least, until they are able to solve them without referring too much to the notes.

They are also rather smart (in fact, probably much smarter than me, regardless of the school they are in). Often, they can solve questions in the second hour of the session, without much help, by themselves. I'm probably one of the most horrible people at explaining stuff. I don't think I did anything special. All I did was to to explain the curriculum again.

The funny thing is, they will probably be smarter without their television, computers and handphones.

Hmm.. Suddenly, I find tuition quite fun (besides the additional $$) =) They are experiment subjects! (Sorry, kids!)

Just started reading Robin Sharma - Who will cry when you die?

Just started reading Robin Sharma's book titled "Who will cry when you die?", and I am slowly savouring and reflecting on it.

Even the title is enough to start me thinking..

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Worry breaks

Robin's father observed that the Sanskrit character for the funeral pyre is very similar to the character for "worry".

Robin remarked:"I'm surprised."

Robin's father replied:"You shouldn't be, son. One burns the dead, while the other burns the living."

(I thought this was a beautiful description..)

If you worry too much, Robin suggests scheduling daily worry breaks. Haha..

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Robin's quote from "Walden":"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it's because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

----

Honor your past

Every second you dwell on the past, you steal from the future.

Every minute you spend focusing on your problems, you take away from finding your solutions.

And thinking about all those things that you wish never happened to you is actually blocking all the things you want to happen from entering your life. Given the timeless truth that holds that you become what you think about all day long, it makes no sense to worry about past events or mistakes unless you want to experience them for a second time. Instead, use the lessons you have learned from your past to rise to a whole new level of awareness and enlightenment.

Questions

What makes you happy?

What makes people happy?

Why does making people happy make you happy?

How far can we equate financial discipline with discipline of time?

How does the understanding that money does not equate to wealth, and that money is normally exchanged for time, change your life?

If you realize that a difference in mindset is the one important difference and possibly the only significant one between successful people and mediocre people, what would you do to change your life?

If we understand that thoughts give rise to actions, can we learn to control our thoughts?

What is wealth? How do we arrive at a good definition of it? How do we measure it? Do we include relationships? How important is money? Can we measure it by the impact we have caused?

How do we measure beauty?

Kang Shi Fu - Insights into Chinese consumer psychology, competitive strategy

Over the last 2 days, I had the good fortune to attend the FutureChina 2010 Summit organised by Business China. It was extremely packed with well-regarded speakers, businessmen and leaders who have extensive experience in China.

Mr Wei Ying Chiao is Chairman of Ting Hsin International Group. They have a few well-established food-related brands in China, chief among them is a brand called Kang Shi Fu "康师傅". Their performance has been astonishing, being the market leader in the bottled tea category, instant noodles and bottled fruit juice categories (over 50 percent each).

Mr Wei Ying Chiao explained that their dominance can be attributed to successful branding, superior execution, competitive strategy and focus.

When one first hears the brand Kang Shi Fu, one immediately assumes that the founders' family surname is "Kang". However, there are more interesting twists which demonstrates a very in-depth understanding of Chinese consumer psychology. "Shi Fu" in China is a common term used to refer to skilled workers such as drivers, repairmen and chefs. It carries the connotations of possessing mastery and of being shown respect. This term also grew in popularity in the late 1980s to replace the previous term of "同志" (comrade), which was around the time Ting Hsin started to make investments in China's packaged foods industry.

"Kang", being part of the words 健康 (health), also represent the founders' desire to bring healthy quality food to the Chinese masses. In addition, Kang Shi Fu has proven catchy among consumers.

Mr Wei also explained how they developed their strategy against large foreign competitors such as Coca-Cola. They started out with bottled teas, as these were very familiar to Chinese consumers' tastes and preferences. Only after establishing their position in the bottled teas market, they then extended the brand to other foodstuffs. They have only recently expanded to include product ranges such as carbonated soft drinks, as they now have the capital and resources to battle with Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This also explains why they chose to focus on instant noodles, a common pre-packaged food common to the Asian market. Their product is so successful that Kang Shi Fu instant noodles can be found in the convenience stores in some Western countries.

If the market for bottled drinks is spilt into a high end market and low end market, Mr Wei revealed that Ting Hsin actually has more than 70 percent of the high end market. This shows the strength of their branding strategy in promoting Kang Shi Fu as a sign of quality.

However, Mr Wei also revealed some problems with business expansion. The threat posed by foreign competitors like Coca-Cola is fierce. Finding talent is also a problem, as increasingly, the battle is not over costs of manufacturing, but over the depth of talent. Mr Wei revealed that Ting Hsin is a family-owned business, with the 4 brothers sharing equal equity.

Mr Wei was also asked about whether he had ever considered bringing the brand "Kang Shi Fu" overseas. He revealed that with annual growth of 35 percent in China alone, he was already too busy managing that growth. He also used this to illustrate the point that the Chinese market is big enough.

"Kang Shi Fu" was a very good example of a well-executed branding and business strategy by a team who understood the local nuances of Chinese consumers well. I heartily agree with Mr Wei's bold prediction that they will continue to do well against Coca-Cola.

The X-Men around us

Img source: http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3900000/X-Men-x-men-3978092-1024-768.jpg

It suddenly occurred to me that the reason why we sometimes find ourselves exasperated or angry at the people around is because there are not enough X-Men around. There is a lack of people possessing superpowers in the world!

We want them to have the superpowers of infinite patience, understanding, kindness, wisdom and intelligence. We would like them to anticipate our every need, request, want and desire. We want them to be telepathic and empathetic. We want them to defy the law of gravity and place us at the centre of the universe. They should have an inexhaustible supply of good humour when we are down, radiate energy like the sun when we are tired and possess colossal strength to carry our burdens for us.

Yet, we use our words and actions to diminish the power of these X-Men around us everyday, whether unconsciously or consciously. Soon, they lose their super-magnetic attractiveness to us, and we use our own power of magnification to focus laser-beam like on every imperfection.

Let us add to the power of the X-Men around us. At the same time, let's all try to slowly mutate into someone's X-Men in our daily life =)