Hey, sorry for the long delay...this has been a week from hell.
I am currently writing from China...Fuzhou to be precise. I have been elected to come back to the factory(SYS) and oversee 4 vulcanized shoes we are looking to do in the next few months. Luckily the shoes are all on the same tooling(bottom), so its a matter of doing good uppers(the tops of the shoe..the pattern).
I am actually looking forward to the challenge, but at least i will have the time to do them, unlike the one day i had to fix two projects before Xmas. I was in this factory from 7 am to 4pm...and then i had to go home...it was a jam packed day i can tell you, as i was rebuilding from scratch the flagship product.
Fuzhou is a cool place...or should i simply say interesting. there are no rules whern you are driving here...be it bicycle or moped or 18 wheeler....they are all CRAZY! i think we almost killed 10 people on the way over here, and then Rey(the head developer here at the factory) said alot of people actually go out of their way to get "hit" so they can get cash from the driver....i guess courts are not involved...cash in the street is the career of choice here. :)
So i have to say, i feel pretty lousey physically....my head is killing me, and for some reason(lack of any sleep and staring at my computer screen for a week straight doing Illustrator files has caused my lft eye to hemorage...literaly. there is a huge broken blood vessel in my eye, and it hurts like a bitch. It made me nervous at first, but my mom said it was most likely stress induced..she gets the same thing from time to time....i guess the apple does not fall far from the tree.
One a cooler note, we met with Hommyo and got great feedback on the projects weare working on, and now i feel that we are working closer to the market and finally starting to get somewhere in terms of making good product for Japan. its only taken the better part of a year to do so.. lol
FINE BOYS magazine wants to do an articale on the RDST and me on Feb 24th. i am looking forward to that, as its less an industry magazine, and more shallow fashion hype...woo hoo, i get to be a fine boy for a day..."dont believe the hype".......
So, i am sitting here, just finishing work, watching a kickboxing match and wondering if my eye will fall out by friday....
perhaps its time to go to bed ....yes i beleive it is.
goodnight.J10
posted by Joshua Fraser 6:52 AM
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
well its my dad's birthday. 58 this time around. i am a little sad i wont be there, but then again i missed my moms birthday as well.
So i will be going to the SYS factory in china monday until thursday. then i get back here for 10 days to 2 weeks, and on march 10th i am in the states for 2 weeks until the 24th.obviously i am very happy at the prospect of seeing my girlfreind and my family. My girlfreind has been a saint maintaining this relationship this long while i am away. i am amazed at how cool she is alot of the time. even though i am a freaky art boy with a head full of muddled thoughts. :)
So i have 4 shoes to finish at the factory, and i need to do alot of prep work before i get there. ahhhhh, i cant wait until this schedule is over with....working all hours of the night really blows sometimes.
anyway i gots to go, people are comming over for a meeting soon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
j10
posted by Joshua Fraser 3:12 AM
Saturday, February 08, 2003
the fumes of new materials and toxins subsided, and now i am watching the new furniture come into the studio. I have to admit the designer did a great job updating this place. simple changes....carpet, lighting and furniture...did alot to save this place from its former position as Ron Jerem'y summer house.The workers all wear cool dusty spearmint jumpsuits, and look as if they could outdrink us all quite easily. the quietness and polite nature is a refreshing , if not unsettling contrast to the gregarious nature of most"western" construction workers.
i am sure they are wondering who the hell are these strange looking young kids living in this "estate". i wonder myself sometimes.Anyway i cant wait until things are done, as its sunday and i have lots to do before monday rolls around. I am working on various projects all in different stages of completeness, and 4 of these i have to finalize asap at the factory in China. I will be there from the 17th to the 19th or 21st, depending on how long it will take . I have to admit, years ago, i would have not be too thrilled to frequent the factories, but now, as i am literally doing my own development as well as design, i find it to be the most effective way to work. it cuts out the middlemen and really quickens the process. we work on projects generally on a 12-18 month cycle, but here we have managed to(or at least attempt to) cut that time to 5 months from concept to market arrival. as quick as any small fashion house.
Its a great way to stay competitive in a market that changes daily. lets hope it works. :)to totally change gears here....i was reworking on the mix cd i am making for T. its funny, i guess maybe i am working on it too hard, and like a painting, you have to know hen to stop...but maybe its also that i dont have the raw material i need....mainly more cds at my disposal.
a few months ago, while visiting home, i had my car broken into at the Braintree "T" station. among the few nicknack stolen...such as my sterio system, were the 500 or so cds in the cd books in my trunk...which i had put there to bring back with me to japan, as i have to have my music to work. my collection was a sountrack for my daily existance...and it was heartbreaking to find its accumilation now a memory in an empty trunk.
what bothered me most was it contained stuff i will have difficulty replacing....Live and rare Swans recordings.(one digital recording of their last show in Boston in 97 on a DAT player that was phenominal)..my complete collection of Einsturzende neubauten, ultra rare Depeche Mode tracks, my live collection of Janes Addiction bootlegs, and personally recorded Henry Rollins spoken word albums...among the many others that took me years to accumilate.....not to mention all the Massive Attack albums which i depended upon daily. :)
a mix tape to me is an extension of yourself. You give it to another person to let them into your world...or at the very least the songs that represent it. i know it sounds rather heavy handed and dorky, but when you lose that soundtrack, its almost as if you are starting over.somehow..the new albums i have bought in the past couple of months just does not have the depth or punch of the former collection....
maybe its time to break out the credit card .........arg.well, thats all for now..
see you later..
J
posted by Joshua Fraser 5:00 PM
Thursday, February 06, 2003
The smell of high powered glue fills my nose, and i am having flashbacks to the freshman year at RISD. the renovation at the RDST started two days ago, and last night, the fumes from the new carpet encased us in a room filled with trails...Hopefully the work will do mostly done by tonight. at the moment we are in the Kawasaki office.in a single room..three designers...all on their G4's....its a cramped space.... good thing we all get along.
Talked to the girl this morning, and caught up on recent events. makes me happy to hear her voice every so often....being 7k miles away from the familiar, makes you appreciate it when it is there...or not there ..
4 months and counting....its not that i dont love the experience or the oppertunity or the city and its people...but there comes a time when the distance from your family and freinds is just overwheming.
anyway enough sappiness...i got work to do, as usual.
see you all later,
Je.
posted by Joshua Fraser 10:56 PM
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
This mix tape is taking way too long to make.... :)I wanted to make a cool mix cd for my girl, who deserves a nice kicking sountrack for her immense creativity this past week.
The logo she did is going over quite well, and the art was sent to a sign place to consruct a plaque outside the RDST.
.......
back to the mixing.... digital technology makes it easier, yet harder to finish a compilation. you have the ability to change the sequence over and over on the laptop in I-tunes, but that also lets you get carried away and have a brilliant plan to make the "perfect bacground theme for your love"..lol.....and you go to the HMV in Harajuku and spend a 100 bucks on cd's.
of course, here in japan, 100 bucks is 4 cd's.... sighi am listening to it now, and trying to make my final decision if its good enough for my T-
anyway, the contractor who is comming over to renovate the place will be here at 11am. We just finished packing the entire place into boxes, and now await the destruction and removal of the ugly wall to wall blue carpet. We live in a really nice place, but it is a Porno mansion. Ron Jeremy's house looked like this i know for sure in the back of my mind.
ah well, time to get back to work....plenty more trendy shoes to finish...blah.
see you later
J10
RDST
posted by Joshua Fraser 6:07 AM
Monday, February 03, 2003
there is a very large crow outside my window.
i live literaly next to a park in daikanyama. my window, thin and barely protecting against the cold, serves as a glass megaphone to the exterior wildlife and or people and cars....at this moment, one of these many, loud black birds, sits on the fence and yells at me to wake up.its 5:30 and i have yet to fall asleep.
Ray was really ill today. the flu is about, and i hope i manage to hold off from getting sick myself, though i image staying up until 5:30 am does not help my cause.
perhaps i will try again..
goodnight/good morning
J10
posted by Joshua Fraser 12:30 PM
So, today i received the final designs from T- for the RDST logo. The design looks great, and i sent the design to the factory, and also to the President of Reebok Japan, explaining the reasons for the new concept.I am hoping all will go smoothly...its always tough to design a new corperate logo, especially with a multi billion dollar company...there needs to be a consitancy in the public identitiy, while not looking boring...its a delicate balance, and i think Tamara did an awesome job.
anyway, other than that i printed out some pictures for some painting concepts, and then found out a friend of mine published a writing of mine on her site.... i was flattered , as i had no idea it was there until i opened the front page of the site.
This is someone i admire artistically since i was young, so her quoting me was really a good feeling.
its times like this, that i realize i cannot live without creating something every day. even if its medicore poetry.. :)see you guys later
J10
RDST
posted by Joshua Fraser 5:03 AM
Saturday, February 01, 2003
once again i find myself awake at 4:20 in the morning. My boss just left the design studio. We have been talking about project timelines and concepts since 6pm........ yes i am really tired, but i thought i would stay up longer and bitch about it to you guys.... :)i went downstairs and looked in the bathroom mirror, and saw that i have developed fine lines (the very beginings of crows feet) around my eyes.....perhaps its lack of sleep or i dont drink enough water...but i think its just the start of old age...sigh.
Ray is sitting at his computer Iming someone...very excited and totaly awake. he is psyched about the projects we discussed with our director, and i am amused at the contrast of moods between us after this all day and night event.
he is happy, and i am grumpy, sleepy and moody......wait ..moody is the same as grumpy huh??? anyway..
We met with Yo, from T6M ,GRUV,and Kickstyle about the projects...he is going to do a 6 page spread and cover shot of my new SW001 project. (i will explain later this concept after it comes out)
Its really a very cool opertunity , as Kickstyle is the premeire sneaker magazine here in Tokyo.
And i found out the article on RDST and JPE(japan premeire edition) projects and concepts will be out in Cool Trans magazine in March..I will be traveling back to China to the factories to get started on 4 of the 9 projects i am doing right now. the trip will be in the 3rd week of Feb. i have to say i am looking forward to it, as i really enjoy the grass roots hands on approach to design, and its good to actually be at the manufacturing plants to oversee development. plus the food in the area is damn good. :)
well, i think its time for bed....thanks for reading my rant, and i will see you all again soon.
best
j10
RDST
posted by Joshua Fraser 11:34 AM