the nightmare before christmas

Always, every year, I am compounded by one big nightmare and problem... designing our family Christmas card! If it's with clients, it will take me a breeze to think of a campaign or a design, whip up a shoot and voila! We have a strong pitch...

But family photos and cards are a different story.

One, it's quite a feat to handle the logistics... my wife's schedule is erratic (as well as mine!), it's a major effort (ala Mega Structures from National Geographic) thinking and doing our costumes for the shoot, and Freedom is such a tornado to be kept still for a click or two. Chocky, our labrador is also a formidable force to handle during shoots! That leaves me with only Nannie (my wife's aunt) to keep my sanity intact.


Our first christmas greeting shoot in 2005 was inspired by the turn-of-the-century sensibilities of Cambodia and it took us around the French colonial enclaves of Siem Reap - from the Raffles Gardens to the grounds of Victoria Angkor. Since I didn't have a car and a tripod at that time, our tuktuk driver was our photographer!


2006 was a rather easy shoot because we wanted everyone to be comfortable and casual... but since the temperatures here dropped as low as 9 degrees for a couple of weeks, comfortable means layering, sweaters and thick winter scarves! It was a perfect time to be playful and cool...


"The Golden Age of Travel" was our defining theme for last year's shoot... that meant rewinding ourselves back into the roaring decades of the 1930's. We bought some nice vintage leather luggage from Bali for this shoot while our clothes are an amalgam of vintage finds from around. We got Freedom's outfit from Chatuchak Market in Bangkok and I designed my wife's hat. I got my vintage bomber leather jacket from Hwang Yu - a second hand clothes shop in Makati and Faith's mink fur trim is from Don.



We did a second card last year for our clients. Our red square couch was the modern twist to this shoot... sort of an "advertisement" as well for my furniture design and interior design work! lol. Our outfits were mainly from Jasmine Boutique at the Aman shop.

Now this really gives me a headache thinking about this year's theme. To make matters worse, our friends are now expecting our greetings to be more and more elaborate year after year! I have been thinking from one end of the spectrum to another - from The Incredibles (us in superhero costumes! Too halloween, perhaps?) to full royal Khmer regalia or Filipino traditional outfits (too June 12?) or even something as crazy as an organically-themed, green shoot (too Inconvenient Truth?)... aaarrrggghhh! I'm losing my head already!

Any suggestions?

Help!

bracing for beijing

I got so used to travelling already that usually, I'd pack my stuff a couple of hours before my trip. But I couldn't believe how excited I can be to be in China on Monday for the olympic art exhibition at the Beijing Capital Library where I was invited to exhibit. I couldn't contain it that I am already packed and ready to go since last night (passport and toothbrush and all in tow)!

Adding to that excitement is a planned two-day trip to Tibet which I hope and pray will go on without a glitch... I need a separate visa for Tibet which I can only get in mainland China so nothing yet is written in stone.

Geesh, I am totally swamped with work as I'll be making up for the two weeks I'll be gone, but this excitement's really cracking my schedule up! I am so lagging behind my deadlines for crying out loud! I need to finish a 2009 calendar design, an art gallery interior, a boutique hotel marketing stuff, a flash movie, a handful of menu designs, redo the Khmer Ramayana and a handful of other projects for different clients. So I don't expect to get my hands to blogger.com until perhaps I am in China.

Two of my high school buddies - Karl from New Zealand and Elaine from the Philippines will be joining me in China as well so it'll be a cool class reunion too. Karl has promised to bring the most exotic cheeses from Auckland and hopefully, Elaine can bring me a big wicked bag of Boy Bawang.

I am also spending a couple of days in Hongkong but would rather stay longer in Beijing or Tibet. But then, if I get bored in Hongkong, Macau is an hour away... darn rats, now i can't sleep thinking about it!



the Beijing Capital Library where my exhibit is going to be...
(photo from www.cityweekend.com.cn)