My Feet Need to Breathe: Design Observation YUCK!

“Shucks, and liit ng paa mo,” my friends and relatives exclaim when they notice my very small pair of feet! It’s not even size 5, it’s almost size 5. 4 and ¾ to be exact. Some of my high school friends teased it might be our Chinese blood, a descendant probably with bound feet. My feet are small and narrow, but not flat. Looking at it sideways, it forms a curvy S, with a deep fissure smack at the center.

With my size, it hasn’t been easy looking for footwear. I remember buying school shoes with a pair of corks just to make it fit, and believe me, corks are hardly comfortable.

Shopping for sandals or open footwear is altogether a different story, especially with girly sandals. I have a hard time shopping for sandals, especially the strappy ones. Nothing ever seems to fit!

After college however, I began to gain weight (credit it to a healthy appetite and love life and a stressful working environment, hehe!). My work in Production entailed me to move around a lot. Since I didn’t work in a corporate environment, we were free to wear jeans, shirts and even slippers! Because my small feet can no longer carry my weight, it was an absolute must to look for comfortable slippers, something that was easy to slip on since I was always rushing to go work, something I can use to walk around locations and studios.

My search for the most comfortable pair of slippers thus began.

What’s the Fuzz?

Four years ago, I noticed this long line inside a mall. The store was a distributor of the Brazilian flip flops brand Havaianas. Turns out they were on sale, and girls were going crazy and buying dozens.



At work, I noticed all my office mates wearing the same brand. It wasn’t much to look at – these Havaianas. They were like ordinary slippers, but they do have colorful designs.

Suddenly, everyone’s wearing one! That made me consider buying one as well.

One day, my best friend and I went out to do some shopping and she bought two pairs of Havaianas for P2, 600 bucks! What’s the fuzz with these Havaianas? Is it like a fad or hype that overcomes everyone, then suddenly dies down? Like pearl shakes and shawarma? Staring at the slippers, I was puzzled why it was so expensive. It doesn’t look expensive! They’re just slippers.

So one time a factory outlet had a 50 % off sale and I decided to buy and try a pair. I chose a silver plain flip-flops. I was happy to find that they had my size and that it fit. I started to feel that it was a promising and wise purchase.

But my pair turned out to be such a disappointment. Barely an hour in a shoot, my feet had cramps. Then when I got home, the skin under the thongs was itching. My feet had marks from the thongs!

I thought perhaps because it’s new, but I wore the slippers day in and day out, until my feet too tired and strained.

The Brand

The brand Havaianas claims to be the best rubber flip-flops in the world. It is marketed and manufactured by a Brazilian company Sao Paulo Alpargatas.

Havaianas were first created in the 1960’s with a Japanese sandal (called the Zori) as inspiration for the design. The designers were so fascinated by the relaxed island culture of Hawaii that they named the flip-flops Havaianas (pronounced as ah-vai-yah-nas), which is Portuguese for Hawaiians.

I like the branding of Havaianas though, with their colorful posters and feel-good campaigns. One of my favorite was their “I’m a Happy Sole” campaign, where they launched a video-making contest, with the theme, “What would you do to make the world happy?” I also admired their “Make your own Havaianas” event last 2008.

I like Havaianas for its free-spirited, adventurous branding, and I can relate to that. Havaianas has succeeded to flip-flops from just a beach accessory to a wardrobe essential.



Still, what will I do with a funky, colorful pair of slippers when they're not comfortable? I dislike it because it didn’t consider the fact that people have different feet types.

Not Human- Centered

Did the makers of Havaianas conduct research on different types of feet? Did they ask why people want to wear open shoes or slippers instead of closed shoes? What was the extent to which they defined “comfortable?”

Too Expensive

Havaianas are over-priced, there’s no doubt about that. There are other brands like Banana Peel that sell the same products with same quality at more affordable prices.

Form

People who are flat-footed will easily like Havaianas. But people who have curvy and small feet like me needs something of the same shape, and something that can support my weight. That’s why I really like Crocs because the makers of the slippers clearly understood the need for curvy slippers. The result was it was relaxing, therapeutic and comfortable.



People are Different

I guess that’s one of the things that some brands, like clothing apparel, disregard.

People are different, they have different shapes and sizes. So they must be sensitive on that.

That’s why I admire Forme, Golden ABC’s fashion apparel line for women. Perhaps overpriced Havaianas can learn something from them.

Forme recognizes that every woman has a different body shape. This inspired Forme to offer clothes tailored to suit women of different body shapes. They identified four shapes:

Triangle - wide hips and narrow shoulders

Inverted triangle - wide shoulders and tapered bottom

Rectangle - straight from top to bottom

Hourglass - proportioned shoulders and hips with well-defined waist

Forme succeeded in offering something unique. The brand understand the various needs of women and in doing so, customers trust them and buy their clothes.

I want that kind of sensitivity from brands, especially clothing and footwear.

What's Cookin'? Just Mind Mappin'!

BRAAIIINS!

Reflection Entry # 3:

Cognitive Fitness
By Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts


I haven’t really given much thought about my brain. I wake up in the morning, brush my teeth, take a bath, walk, rush to work, put my things on my desk, write, shoot, edit and a whole other things or activities take place. In my free time, I think about what I’m going to do after work, or the chores I forgot to do at home, my friend’s love problem, a lousy movie I watched, an effect in Watchmen opening credits I’d like to copy, the novel I bought at a bargain price, what time it is, wondering how many Jollibee branches there are in the Philippines, etc, etc.

It’s funny how I’ve never given much thought about it, even though I use it every second of my conscious (and subconscious) life.

I guess between heart and brain, the brain takes the back seat in conversations. But today is the day for my brain. It’s BRAAAAAAIN DAY! (imagine it being said by a hungry zombie in Plants vs. Zombies)



I’m wondering now what my brain looks like. I don’t think there’s something very remarkable about it. I can imagine it looks something like this.



I don’t consider myself an intelligent person – there are a lot more people smarter than me. I think my brain’s right hemisphere probably has more fissures than my left. I write, I voice act, I direct, I video edit, I do graphics, I write short stories and make short films – these are instinctive activities to me. Does that make sense? What I mean is, they are second nature to me. So yeah, I guess my right’s functioning more than my left is.

I think this was something the Management (of a former company) saw in me – that I was fast, resourceful and I had leadership (whatever that meant) – so they decided to promote me only after a year as rank and file to Executive Producer. I was to head a huge department of 10 Producers, 2 Production Assistants, 8 Video Editors and 3 Graphic Artists.

I was young and I was stupid and I knew of nothing else but the fact that promotion is good. So naturally, I said yes.

And I remember thinking now, while looking through the readings, had I known these things or had I been given leadership training before my first day on the job, I would have survived.


WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE AN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER WITHOUT ANY EXPERIENCE:

I learned these the hard way.

I was heading two sub-departments and overseeing a total of 8 channels that I became A LIVING DEAD, A WALKING ROBOT. I ate lunch while working, I worked at home, I worked in restaurants, cafes, I worked in the FX on my way to work, I worked in my dreams, I almost never took a break to manage the department.

I looked like WORK. I wonder what I looked like. Maybe like this:



You know why? Because I forgot HOW TO PLAY. I forgot its value.

So rule number 1: DON’T FORGET TO RELAX AND TO PLAY.

As what Gilky and Klints said, play improves one’s ability to understand the world.

This is the same as what Jack Torrance wrote in the movie The Shining (of the same novel written by Stephen King) , although in a scary kind of way, “All work and no play makes Jack a very dully boy”, a sentence he wrote over and over again on pieces of paper his wife supposedly thought was a draft of his novel. Of course, he never finished his novel because he became crazy and was possessed by a ghost. This was his crazy picture.



Then, I thought I had no time to relax. I wanted to go home at 8 or 9 pm every day so I thought working straight would make things easier for me. But it wasn’t. The bad effect was that not only was I stressed, I also wasn’t able TO THINK CLEARLY.

So whenever there was a problem, I got more stressed out and I didn’t know what to do.

So rule number 2: Always have an open and clear mind to search for patterns.

Patterns. The Big Picture. Plan A, B and C. The cup is half full, not half empty. To become a leader is to look at a problem and be challenged by it, and see how it can be solved in the simplest way. This is the same as saying, “…the power of pattern recognition….is to simplify without being simplistic.”

This is a left-hemispheric brain activity so that means I need to also develop this part of my brain to strike a balance with my right. That is, if I envision myself becoming a leader again. And of course, yes, some day, when I AM READY.

Rule # 3: Try something new once in a while

I also do remember a part of my career as EP when I improved my performance. That was the time when I enrolled in a voice-acting/voice-over workshop.

My brain was too full of job orders and products and clients and evaluation forms that studying voice-acting was so refreshing.



I became more open to my subordinates and I found a new zest in my work. I guess this is why some overworked people I know find new hobbies like hiking, photography or cooking and it actually helps them. An acquaintance of mine who works for Citibank was able to keep from resigning by running and joining marathons. She still works there and is very happy.

The more new things you learn, the better you become at learning. The brain is trained to become flexible and open to new things.

However, I resigned last August 2009 when I realized I wasn’t ready yet for that kind of position. But everything I learned I charged it to experience.

Rule number 4: Understand how experience makes the brain grow.

Rule number 4 happened just before I left. I believe MY BRAIN grew a lot from my experiences as EP. I learned a lot from the Producers, the clients and my superiors.

I guess I can consider this my “walkabout” in network management and I have never regretted accepting the promotion.

I grew and became wiser from that experience, something I bring with me now when I work, study, meet and interact with people.

Learning just never stops.

And I intend to go on and be better.

To my brain, both left and right, hi, hello, we are in this together. ☺

Which object are you?

I took this test in PBS.org Objectified Site. Click on this link if you want to try it out. It's actually fun, though I refuse to agree it's accurate, hehe.

So what object am I?

The test says...

You are a coca cola bottle.



You enjoy your creature comforts and familiarity and you are loyal to a fault. You sometimes pine for a simpler time and a slower pace. While you don’t take an inordinate amount of risks, or try a lot of new things (other than the one in 1980s when you took up break-dancing), that’s what makes you lovable. You are the type of person other people have as their emergency contact- you're that reliable.

WOW Design Observation # 1

I’m not a very vain person. I’m definitely not fashionista and kikay, but I do like dressing up, looking and feeling good. I use basic beauty products like lotion, moisturizer, cleanser and make-up.

And one of the things I need to REALLY COVER UP every day of my life are my HUGE, ATTENTION-GRABBING eye bags. Don’t ask me how they got big. They just ARE. I’m going to go defensive and tell you, no, I do not have sleeping problems. But ONE DAY, during my teenage years, MY EYE BAGS decided to take the center stage.



Name it, I’ve tried it! Those juicy cucumber slices never landed on the salad plate. My eyes devoured them like a hungry cannibal night after night. And when my mom gave me a hearty scolding for stealing them from the vegetable compartment, I resorted to refrigerating spoons and pressing them on my eye bags, holding on for dear life.

Until my mom brought home this really curious little green thing.

I didn’t know what to make of it. A fashionable flash light? My mom was pointing the thing in front of my face but there was no light. A toy? But I was already far beyond my teens! It was slender and yellow-green and in a few moments, it became the answer to my prayers, errr…let’s not be overly dramatic. And in a few moments, it was going to roll my eye insecurity away.



Garnier Light Brightening Eye Roll-On

It was love at first (eye bag) sight!

Not only was it free (my mom’s French friend gave it to her; Garnier is from France), it was the first time I’ve ever encountered such a product! I don’t remember the exact year, but I got to use the Garnier Roll-on long before KC Concepcion’s Garnier ad and before the roll-on was available in the Philippines.

So when I was holding the roll-on, I really felt like I was one of its few first customers. And really, it was such a unique product. Before Garnier roll-on, I haven’t heard of eye-brightening products (of course there were already pricey eye bag removal creams back in 2004, but they cost a fortune).

It felt like an innovation, combining the cucumber method and cold spoons in one thing. But upon inspection of the box (it’s always fun to look at the catchy descriptions), here’s what it said:

New Garnier Eye Roll-on enriched with caffeine
Our first-ever roll-on to hydrate, cool & refresh tired-looking eyes.

Enriched with Caffeine, the roll-on is a handbag must-have, great for on-the-go women. The cooling moisturiser contains Caffeine and Pro-vitamin B5 for a bright eyed look!

Caffeine? Why not? Okay, I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t contain any cucumber essence or extract. After all, it was yellow green.

Eye Deodorant?

Who’s ever heard of a beauty product that was a roll-on like a deodorant? I thought it was really cute.

If you haven’t tried the roll-on, it’s a metal thing that you roll on your eye bags. It’s cooling and soothing. I also read from the beauty product manual that the roll-on massages the eye bags, hydrating them to get rid of the puffy, tired look.



Whether it worked or not, I just liked the roll-on for simply refreshing my eyes. After using my laptop or reading a book before I go to bed, using Garnier roll-on relieved that tight, stretched and stressed feeling in my eyes that I always get. I wore glasses since forever until I got an eye operation last year. So, yeah, my eyes were always strained, and Garnier roll-on was the perfect friend to soothe the aches away.

A Trendy, Little Thing

If the product was like a drab tube or a spray or a typical circular container, I don’t think I would have continued using and buying the product until now.

I just like how the roll-on looks. It’s slender and curvy and looks like a gadget. It’s shiny yellow-green with a metallic circle on top and its edge. It’s modern and trendy, something you can display on your night table and still manage to look like a decor of some sort, or it could fit in one of the pockets of your designer bag, and let it poke out a little bit – it would look good anyway. You can sit inside an MRT train and use the roll-on without feeling embarrassed. The other passengers would notice, but hell yeah, it would look good! Let them watch and be curious.


The Garnier roll-on is two things: it’s a beauty product and an accessory at the same time. What girl wouldn’t want one?

In the age of simple, slim minimalist I-pods and Mac Books, Garnier roll-on is just about perfect.

The product is not only a thing, not only a product. It’s a statement. It’s saying something to the potential buyer, to the consumer and to the onlooker. Unlike other beauty products you’d throw away after the bottle or tube is empty, Garnier roll-on is something you would want to stay.

Underneath the Roll

Garnier is actually the mass marketing product line of L’Oreal. This means Garnier is relatively and significantly cheaper than L’Oreal main products.

Garnier was created after L’Oreal faced accusations and widespread rumors of animal-testing their products. Garnier was then marketed as an all-natural brand, using green tea and citrus essences. And instead of banking on hard-sell, beauty product-altering, going-under-the-knife beauty, they emphasized natural beauty. From the website, here’s Garnier’s Beauty philosophy:

Our Vision of Beauty

For Garnier, beauty is within us all. Everyone possesses its own natural beauty and everyone has the power to make that beauty shine through. Garnier appeals to that type of woman who is self confident and yet seeks to improve her appearance. By taking care of herself, she reveals her inner beauty and other people are drawn to her. For Garnier, the aim of beauty is happiness and feeling at ease with others.

It’s about taking care.

Garnier is L’Oreal's environmental, socially responsible brand, with emphasis on TAKING CARE OF: 1.) others (community), 2.) environment (hence, the green color of their products) and 3.) most importantly, yourself.

Garnier is L’Oreal done right.


Their celebrity endorsers are wise choices, like Sarah Jessica-Parker, who is both Actress and Producer, Zhang ZiYi, an award-winning actress from China, known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and locally, our KC Concepcion, an actress, singer and U.N. ambassador, who is otherwise known as the Megastar’s beloved daughter.

These are all celebrities who have got both natural beauty and brains.

Every Object Tells a Story

Why do I like Garnier Light Eye-Brightening Roll-on? Here are the factors that make sense to me.

1. Ingenuity

It’s new, unique, innovative, creative -- it’s never been done before. It threw out those home remedies and instead, came out hip, fresh and modern. No chopping, no refrigerating anymore. It’s all here – in one slim, shiny thing.



It’s both ingenuous and valuable since it solved one of the problems that’s never been addressed before. And in this day and age of internet, eyes are often stressed and tired. Why not brighten everyone’s eyes? Women’s eyes for that matter.

2. Form

I remember what my Film Professor said. What’s a good storyline and plot without good form? He was saying a good story wouldn’t work if the storytelling through the imagery and direction wasn’t the perfect fit. The same goes for a beauty product.

It has to be slim, like those girls in magazines. It has to be hip and trendy to keep up with the modern times. It’s beautiful, yet smart. No pink flowers and glitters. Just a shape, a color, a small logo - all a product needs to be unforgettable. The simpler, the better. The less shown, the more said. Just like the Nike brand.

3. Statement

It should not only do something for the user (which is to soothe the eyes), but also has to SAY SOMETHING about the user.

For a Garnier consumer, it’s being confident, but being concerned about one’s appearance. She’s not too shallow or frivolous, but just the right kind of girl who balances being smart, beautiful and being trendy.

And people who see this girl in the MRT using the roll-on on her eye bags would turn curious and say, “What is that?”, “I’ve got to have one of those.” Or “I’ve got to be like her.” And so the mass production goes…

(this is Garnier's latest online campaign via Facebook, a reality contest where they partnered with GMA 7)

Garnier Roll-on is not trying-hard, hungry for attention. It’s such a simple thing. It’s compact, small and green. No other beauty product has dared to come up with GREEN. Garnier did, reiterating its stand about natural beauty and environmental awareness.

4. Extra Value

People like something with extra value. It makes them feel like their purchase is worth it, that they got something for free, even though they didn’t. An i-pod does not only have music, but also has games. A pair of jeans or a jacket is reversible. A dress can either be a tube dress or a skirt.

For Garnier roll-on, it’s both a beauty product and a décor/accessory.



As what Henry Ford said, every object tells a story. Often times, we don’t know it does. We just buy and use an object and feel it’s quite obvious and normal to be buying and using this.

We are not aware of how a product communicates to the user. As in the case of my love at first (eye bag) sight, I now know why I have never stopped using it since the day my mother brought it home. What attracted me to the product and vice versa. And I’m pretty sure, time will pass, a new product will arrive and I’ll probably throw all my six roll-ons for A THING that hasn’t been thought of and created yet.