Ernest Hemingway sitting alone at a café in Paris in 1920, he wrote this down on his notebook, “You belong to me, the whole Paris belongs to me, but I belong to the pencil I’m holding and the notebook.” That notebook Hemingway referred to was Moleskine. Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen’-a) originally meant ‘mole’s skin’ in French was a legendary notebook in the 20th century, notable for being owned by European artists and intellectuals. Famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh had used 7 Moleskine notebooks to draw and sketch numerous drafts and is now collection of Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This

The Power of Repetition G!VOICE Recommend   「＂If you only do things in the heat of the moment, you would fail; but if you do it persistently for a long time, you would succeed.＂We often think that repetition is boring and lacks sense of achievement, but professional personnel enjoys repeating and they are persistent in whatever they do. This book mentions that if you want to be a professional on one subject, you need to invest about 10,000 hours on it. The more times you repeat, the stronger the momentum, the closer you get to your goal. If you

For game developers in Taiwan, there is something unique about Taipei this June! Since 1988, Game Developer Conference (GDC) has been considered the biggest game technology exchange event in game industry. After 26 years, this year, the much anticipated first ever GDC Taipei Summit was held in Taipei. The event was joined by around 600 professional game developers from 12 countries including the U.S, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao and China and 20 invited guest speakers from Taiwan and overseas. In the past, Gamania had participated GDC as an attendee, this year however, we were honored to

As a business in the 21st century, it doesn’t matter which field you’re in, I think most people would agree the conviction of ‘Customer First’. But do you know that even though we both recognize the importance of service quality, the ‘standard’ of service may change according to different industry and company positions. Everyone must have visited the hospital at some point in their lives. The image of a hospital conceptualized in your mind may be something of cold and serious. However, not all medical related services make you ‘feel’ the same. Health Check Center actually provides a whole

Sanuk is a renowned handmade shoe brand in California, U.S. The word is originally Thai, meaning ‘pleasant and wonderful’. This brand won the grand prize of shoe design in 2007 in the U.S. This year, they launched a new series, ‘Streaker’, hoping to bring everyone the joy and comfort of streaking. When you hear the name, ‘Streaker’, it is not hard imagine how light-footed this shoe would be!  To welcome the blazing summer, Sanuk promotes the urban surfing and casual leisure style and adopted the bright orange as color to reflect the ‘madness’ of Streaker. The shoe model is

I believe Gamanians have heard of such thing: Core Blaze, the new heavy-weight action MMO game developed and produced by Gamania’s R&D team, made its appearance in the invitation-only VIP event in Los Angeles, U.S on June 7th. The date coincided with the annual E3 2012, so game media from around the globe were gathered in the VIP demo for exclusive experience and Gamania received many positive feedbacks! So, what was so exciting about this event that you should definitely not miss out? Let’s read on… Core Blaze’s debut tester session was released in GGS last year and was

If someone ask you out of the blue: which 8 countries formed Eight-National Alliance intervened in China? How many could you still recount after so many years since graduation? Even though we’ve been long parted from our student era, I believe many people could still answer it correctly in an lightening speed: Russia, Germany, France, U.S, Japan, Austria, Italy and U.K. And we have our great history teacher to thank, for he/she ‘reorganize information’ for us using ‘verbal association’.   Let’s try the following order to review Eight-National Alliance   Russia, Germany, France, U.S, Japan, Austria, Italy, U.K If

Directed and portrayed by Italian cinematic maestro—Roberto Benigni G!VOICE Recommend:  “In life, it doesn’t matter what obstacle you run into, be optimistic, and make it a crazy game! Only the ones who believe life is beautiful becomes the winner in the end. If you’re fed up with the ‘emptiness’ of Hollywood, then you should prepare a spare evening to enjoy this movie. The deep thoughts brewing in the air after you finish watching the movie… and that each time you re-watch it, the magic is still there…  In this film, Roberto Benigni adopted black humor to map out the

Work is an important place in business professionals’ lives, therefore the setting of the office more or less affects their lives. Magic mirror on the wall, which office is the coolest in the world? Inc magazine says that the coolest office belongs to the 2nd largest group purchase website, LivingSocial in the U.S. What so cool about it isn’t the advanced work facilities, but the young online company infuses with the old architecture, creating a vigorous and vibrant office with a unique bearing that pays tribute to the history. LivingSocial is located in Washington and was built by OTJ

“What would a TV commercial from 40 years ago be, when it’s being re-interpreted through modern technology and the internet?” Are you curious about the answer? Let Google answer it.   Google carried out a project, Google Project Re:Brief where it selected classic American commercials from the 60s and 70s, including Coca Cola, Volvo, Avis Car Rental and Alka-Seltzer, and destructured these commercials.    Concept-wise, Google wants these classics to transcend beyond the one way communication as mere TV commercials or 2-dimensional advertisements but to add the interactive feature of modern technology, such as social media, mobile phones, internet,

G!VOICE Recommend: “This is a memoir of the renowned recorder, Geoff Emerick’s years with the greatest band, the Beatles in EMI’s studio on 3 Abbey Road. From the Beatles mania to they each went their ways. Geoff witnessed it all and documented honestly in the book on the Beatles’ private sides: their conflicts, arguments, their adorable and capricious side. In addition, he also documented the behind the scene stories and process of creating the greatest rock n’ roll album in studio 3. It’s definitely a book worth reading! ”   Introduction 3 Abbey road, the address of EMI recording

With the popularization of mobile devices, you see people toying with their smartphones or tablets during meetings, lunch, watching TV, on the MRT. No matter if you are playing games, reading the news or just surfing the net, these things have already become a crucial part of living. Hence the implosion of apps in the current market. There are so many of them, some realistic, and others simplistic. A design that blossoms out of such context, that apparently adapts best to the clean-cut, fast-paced logic of mobile apps, is Flat Design.   What is Flat Design? In simple word,

Commercial videos come from creativity. Creativity is an intangible form: when you think about something that no one has thought of while taking a dump or riding a scooter. That is pure orgasmic for creative personnel! That light bulb of idea flashes and you instantly write down your thoughts. The next day you describe it to your client in shining armor, indulging yourself in clients and colleagues’ applause and admiration (imagining successful proposal in my mind…)   So to talk about the ‘logic’ or ‘meaning’ behind creativity is a contradiction in itself. Can something that flashes into your mind

Apple, the brand that I cannot get through a single day without. I believe there are a lot of people out there that, like me, fill their day between iPhones, iPads and Macbooks. As if they really are that busy. Seriously, is it that “We own machines? Or do the machines own us?” This kind of talk will forever be an on-going debate, yet just very recently, I figured out what purpose each of these serve in my daily life, and I’m back in control once again!   Its starts from iPhone 3G People might think that I was

Can a simple bottle be an instrument too? Although all we learn from physics class tell us otherwise, nothing is impossible in the minds of creative designers. Tama Art University student Fujiwara Jun came up with a design known as “Re:  Sound Bottle”, a system that collects sounds into a glass jar containing complex wires. This device records any sound automatically and converts it into beatbox music by popping the lid. The sounds are a bit disjointed, but you can’t stop bobbing your head to it!  Sounds you encounter on a daily basis, such as: Clapping, chatting, or snapping

G-Voice Recommends: Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation By Tim Brown This is not a book just for designers, but rather, it is a how-to manual about thinking and living with a creative mindset. It introduces design thinking seamlessly into life, organizations, products and service, and serves as a breath of fresh air for social outlook and corporate strategies.   Sit back as the CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown, takes readers on a journey to explore the world of design thinking. Design not only concerns visual appeal and polishing surroundings. It is more about

G! VOICE Introduces: Everyone has heard about “design thinking”, but what is this idea really about? How does one “think creatively”? Can “design thinking” really solve problems? Four inspiring Taiwan youths visited the most successful innovative companies in the US (IDEO, Coca Cola, Autodesk, Stanford... etc) to make a documentary on how people come up with “design thinking”. This film objectively illustrates how different industries come up unique ways to tackle human need, behavior and way of thinking. Their solutions apply to corporations as well as social problems. This following video would allow gamanians to “design and think” from

Quit smoking, no drinking and driving, clean elections, child welfare, domestic violence preventions, gender equality. . . . . . When an advertisement is from social institutions, charity foundations or child care services, the product usually is a marginalized group or taboo subject. In the advertising industry, controversial topics are always a challenge, and need to be dealt with care and consideration. It’s having to stride into the office when you are aware everyone knows you are late. That is, this kind of thing must be “bold, yet sensitive”.  The client, YWCA New Zealand, requested a survey about “women