Supreme (Healing and Enjoying in the Realm of the Heart)

Author: Shi Lei, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: About the Book's Logo "Bulb": While searching for stores, we took a break at a coffee shop. We noticed the lanterns on the ceiling and burst into laughter—these stores were truly shining brightly to be found! We immediately got to work and enlisted the help of art director Nie Teacher to create the book's logo: a face made of a light bulb—smiling, squinting, frowning, struggling, and content. About the "Grammar" of This Book: The best way to read this book is to take it shopping. After a shopping spree, come home and flip through it—the "Small Shops, Big Ideas" theme concepts are placed before each chapter, filled with spiritual elements amidst the trends. Our store-hunting emphasizes the humanistic depth in design. Without humanity and humanity, even if the design reaches a certain height, there isn't much to boast about. This is the "grammar" of our store-hunting. The over 200 images in this book are truly eye-catching, and the text leaves a lingering aftertaste. [Preface] Our book, Only Me—Ultra-Personal Art Stores, is not for artists but for those like us who are obsessed with objects. However, we have a bold wish that our respected artists might accidentally stumble upon it. A super shop-buyer told us professionally, "I really admire some artists and designers—they design things so uniquely, even a watch and a lamp are different. Look at how foreigners design things." In the same Asian region, Tokyo is not far from Shanghai but is easily reachable. When shopping there, you'll find fashion landmarks arranged in blocks, including familiar districts like Harajuku, Shibuya, and Omotesando, as well as distinct places like South, Daikanyama, Roppongi, and Nishisawa. The highly mature commercial communities showcase diverse design tastes and the accumulation of consumer culture. In Tokyo's art and design, people's identity recognition often surprises you. Some artists, like the printmaker Takashi Murakami, who led LV into youth, openly admitted in an interview at his Roppongi Museum that to him, art is business. In Shibuya's conceptual gallery stores, you'll find home decor designed by Murakami, which young people desire, as well as large, metal-textured watches designed by photographer Daido Moriyama. In a small museum shop in Shinagawa, you can purchase avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama's striped coffee sets. The yellow stripes are her signature color in printmaking. A few months ago, Nayuki Nishiyama also designed for BMW Japan. On TV, the Cannes Grand Prize winner Takeshi Kitano is still a seasoned host of comedy shows. In bookstores, the serious Art Talk: Murakami vs. Kitano features the personal charisma of both artists, making it just as thrilling as a scream. Art, design, and business intersect. More and more people are falling in love with objects, and increasingly with the wisdom and sensibility of designers. In this city, we hunt for the design and sensibility of art pieces that we and you desire. We've found so much love, but we've also discovered that DESIGNINCHINA is not enough. Sometimes, a few flagship stores make us feel incredibly proud, but other times, we can't help feeling deeply unsatisfied. Lying in a cold blanket this year, I thought, if only more of our revered local artists and designers could lower their pride and make a dazzling comeback. What we've found, we call them goods, but we'd rather call them art pieces. We want to say YES and NO at the same time!