Completed Portfolio

So I was in Toronto the past weekend visiting friends and getting away from my tiny hometown... back to some civilization. While in toronto one of my main goals was to finally finish off the working copy of my portfolio. I needed to get a new cover printed and three sides of the portfolio cut down. 

Once I installed the new cover and cropped the document, I have the finished result.

The new portfolio is terrific i think. I am quite happy with the outcome of the style and form of the portfolio. The only issue I had was the sticky notes I used to mark out the areas to crop from the document, ended up embedding themselves into the cover... I tried to peel the sticky notes off, but they ended up leaving a residue. Oh well, this is only my test portfolio and the next couple prints will be sent off to firms in perfect condition.

I feel this is the end of my portfolio for now. The next iteration will only come after I have enough new work to warrant a new design. However a full redesign will probably be unlikely. I like the formate and feel it should last for some time.  Some minor colour changes and tweets will be needed. 

Digital Portfolio

Now I have uploaded online my digital portfolio. Its been a long process to get my portfolio to this stage... definitely something that could not be rushed. However I have a problem... the digital online version lacks the intimacy of the physical version I created.

Open publication - Free publishing - More architect

This brings to me to the whole 'tablets will kill the book' argument. I agree that tablets will likely take over certain reading markets, but I disagree that it will take over the entire market. I find my portfolio online looks too sharp and crisp, lacking the softness that paper instills. Right now its difficult to duplicate that softness through a screen. Yes we have the 'Epaper' replacement for a lot of eReaders, but its not yet here for the standard computer screen. Epaper will have the image quality I achieved with a physical portfolio, but unless the screen is in the format of the paper, it will still be missing the feel I am trying to achieve.

Now I could format my entire portfolio to mimic the formats found on tablets, but which tablet do I choose. The popular Apple format? The dozens of other formats that range from 7" to 12" screens... OR do I just go for the phone app market...

This is why the portfolio as a physical object will and must continue on. The physical portfolio provides my own definition and not an imposed definition by technology. Taking experience from Japan I've developed a physical portfolio that lacks a centre groove, a key feature taking my portfolio from two demarcated pages to a single wide format.

Next week I'll be producing my portfolio in a physical format and will document the process of creating a grooveless book.

Mini Portfolio

Currently I am developing my new portfolio... Version 3.0...

The differences between v2.0 and v3.0 is staggering... as though my portfolio went from someone who couldn't design to someone who had half a sense of composition.

Not tooting my own horn, but I am far more pleased with the rough cut result of my portfolio design than any of my previous portfolio iterations. My last portfolio was a creation on a time limit. I was afraid the job industry was tanking in 2010 and I wanted to get something out to employers fast... in the end I don't think my portfolio did much for my job prospect, but at least I had something.

My new portfolio is developed more as a book/digest of my projects and career. I am attempting to achieve a level of simplicity without creating a dull document. Text is reduced in scale to be less apparent and white voids are embraced readily. My v1 and v2 portfolios were maximized with content that appeared more as technical manuals and not an artists representation.

I've also embraced more full page images... if I could I would just have a portfolio of full scale images... its much more appealing and I always figure no one reads the text. However my new portfolio has increased text 5 fold to achieve the 'book' feeling I desire.

Today I finally printed off a test portfolio... Printing was half the work, cutting and assembling took its time too. Presently my portfolio is 1/2 format and is very appealing to me. While too small to be a realistic portfolio, it definitely opens the doors for creating other documents at a similar scale.. 

This is my first blog in probably over a month... I hope to ramp up the blogging over the next while at get back to my random thoughts...

Digesting Japan

I have now been back to Canada for 2 and half weeks and I have been able to digest a little of my experiences in Japan. Reflecting back on Japan has been much different than it was when I looked back on things when I returned from China.

When I left China I was stressed and tired of the the conditions that I was living in and the work I was doing, not to count that I was attempting to prepare for a thesis more than 7000km away from school. However, I left Japan grudgingly. I did not want to leave Japan and did a lot to try to remain in the country.

I applied to more than 20 firms in Tokyo and the surrounding area in the hopes that I could land a decent job. A few firms replied to my applications with mostly the same answer, they had no positions at the time. One firm wanted to hirer me immediately, but could not pay me anything. One would think that due to the events in the north of Japan that there would be a boom for construction, it was not the case. While construction was taking place, Japanese complicated system of corporations took the majority of the work. This left smaller firms out of luck. Unable to get the architectural job I was looking for and having an expiring entry permit, it was time for me to leave Japan.

I miss Tokyo. It has been hard to process things in Japan while I reside in my hometown. The juxtaposition of the dense urban environment of Tokyo and the familiarity of my rural hometown has left me feeling lost. I was only gone for exactly 3 months and while everything in Japan was new to me, return home in that short time to see a world I left the exact same. What felt like many months of living in Tokyo was only a short period of time felt back home. Many times my family and friends would not see me for periods of time longer than 3 months with school, work and living hundreds of kilometers from home.

I miss Japan. Anyone who have traveled to Japan for any extended period of time always feel a longing to return. Its a world completely opposite to ours, but opposite in a wonderful way. Its a world that many of us could replicate on some scale social, politically, and architecturally way. The density of Tokyo provided me an almost comforting claustrophobia. You were never far from many amenities and if you had a distance to travel, it was easily reachable. Now living in my rural hometown, vast distances and open space feel frightening.

I miss structure. I have been swimming in the Ottawa river near my hometown and I see it in a totally different perspective. My time in Japan has altered my perception of the space around me. I appreciate the openness I have here, but miss the proximity that I had with people and places. I was altering my lifestyle in Tokyo and was starting to enjoy the living style I could have there. To be back I have longed to continue that lifestyle, but have been having a hard time pushing myself back into it. I fear that I may slump back in to the routine I had before I left.

I miss my friends in Japan. I met many people in Japan, many more than I did when I was in China. My friends in Japan folded me into their groups where I was able to meet many more friends. Not counting my friends in Canada, but the friends I made in Japan was far easier to make than here in Canada. I found that I could make friends with vastly different types of people in Japan while in Canada I find that people lump themselves into tight social groups. The social structures in Japan seem to be a bit more fluid, where the work social structures could be abandoned for a different social structure. But what I miss most of all about my friends was the eagerness to remain friends. Many of my newly made friends would continuously follow up with me when I hadn't communicated for a couple days and others would urge me to come join them for parties and events.

I miss the unknown. Tokyo presented me with an almost continuously changing landscape to explore. I would never be able to see all of Tokyo, and even if I could the turn over of spaces in Tokyo would render my previous explorations useless. Tokyo is a massive organism that is continuously changing, rebuilding, collapsing and modifying itself. My fondest memory of Tokyo is my train rides to work where I would stair across the never ending urban landscape. The city went on forever and so could my explorations.

I will be back to Japan. I has changed me to the core and I must get back to Japan.

JIYUGAOKA

Jiyugaoka.... the Forest Hill of Tokyo.

Jiyugaoka is a small community in the Meguro-ku district of Tokyo. Its an upper class neighbourhood with large homes, lots of parks and high end shops. The food looks good, but is out of my price range. This area is not an area to go out an have a good time at night in. Its an area where you have a nice meal and retire home after, or if you are up for it, travel into the core of Tokyo and continue the partying.

My Easter Treat to myself :)

I live here. Its a nice place to live. Its quiet and relaxing. At night it is absolutely quiet, so quiet that I would say my Parkdale neighbourhood in Toronto was louder. But its also a boring area. There is really no cheap fun places and people retire to their homes at 9pm. However there is a massive former Olympic park to the north of my place that is great to run around.

Jiyugaoka is a great place to bring a girlfriend too, so much so that its known to be a place for that reason. There are dozens of pastry shops, chocolatiers, French & Italian restaurants and small boutique girls shops. 

South of Jiyugaoka station is the relatively more trendy part of the area with cafe's and more mainstream retailers. The south is a wonderful area to spend outside reading in or holding hands with someone... however I have done neither, but it looks good when I see it.

I am under a lot of pressure lately at work, but I hope to show you's soon some of my projects that I am working on there. Currently I am helping to construct a massive scaled model of an urban project we are working on. Hopefully I will get my cellphone soon so I can start multitasking my blog entries on the subway... for now, enjoy some more photos.

Cigarettes, Beer, and Music

It has been awhile since I have written my last blog entry...

So I had my official first work of work, and I have to say things are pretty good there. The office is really laid back and things are not taken overly seriously. Something that I guess is fairly uncommon in Japan. Unfortunately, I have started at the office in a lull period, not a lot of projects going on. We are waiting for a big one in China to start up and maybe a competition invitation.


So last night everyone in the office went out to an Izakaya (Japanese style bar) for lots of drinks and food. The food was amazing... and it just kept coming all night. Drank copious amounts of beer and sake. Little tid-bit about the Izakaya, it was the same place that they filled Kill Bills fight scene with Lucy Liu. Though, when they exit the bar in the movie, it was definitely not the same... the real izakaya is located in the heart of Roppongi... the business/club district of Tokyo.. and conveniently near where I work.


When we were done at the Izakaya the night was not over. Oh no, when you go out with Japanese, you better be prepared to go out all night. We then made our way over to a darts bar for a few more drinks and a some rounds of darks. I did pretty well for not having played in years. Saved my team a couple times from loosing. Though, honestly it was mostly all luck on my part.


After the darts bar we moved to our next location, Karaoke! Half the staff took off, but we were still a strong group that soldiered on. I sang a couple times and realize I am completely tone deff... nothing, I cannot string a tune together if I tried... and tried I did! We sang and drank until the wee hours of the morning. Suprising for a 24hr city the metro shuts down at around midnight, so you are either left paying a small fortune for a cab, or holding up in a Karaoke bar until 5am when the metro opens. And at 5am there are hundreds of people waiting half intoxicated or half passed out at the stations platforms. We all slumped into the subway and made our ways home that night. I slept until noon.


Today... its warm here... breezy thankfully... I am dreading when the heat finally comes. One of the metros I took to work had no air moving in it. I began to sweat to death! So today I am going to scout out a place to get my hair cut... I desperately need it trimmed. So I'll let you know how that experience goes. I am not terribly worried, I had gotten my hair cut in China many times without a disaster.. so I expect it should be the same here...

Anyways, I hope to get back into routinely writing and having more to say!