Practically full house at Urbanattic, Capsquare. The free beer didn’t last long, naturally, but I got my share. KLUE was there giving out free mags as well.

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Sunitha Janamohanan, Arts Manager at The British Council and Pecha Kucha ringmaster, introducing the speakers.

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First up: Fauzi Yusoff, creative director of Efozy Design Studio. From my experience, the first speaker at Pecha Kucha is always at a slight disadvantage. It’s as if audience and presenter alike have to adjust to the format of 20 seconds per slide. After that, the lights go on in everybody’s heads. I do remember him talking about how we shouldn’t be blogger assholes by lifting content and not crediting it.

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Norman Teh and Fahmi Fadzil of BLAM (Bright Lights At Midnight) design studio. They’ve designed book covers (Farish Noor’s Di Sebalik Malaysia, New Malaysian Essays 1) and visual identity for Boh Cameronian Arts Awards. Norman operates a cool design blog at http://designcircus.tumblr.com/.

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Makorn Chaovanich from Thailand, Managing Director of Cerebrum Design, and IYDE (International Young Design Entrepreneur) 08 finalist. His talk was entertaining and nicely paced, basically showing his design + life philosophy and how they intertwine. I like what he said: things happen when you don’t think too much. And that is a mighty fine brain down there, looking like a jellyfish blissfully floating off into the blue abyss:

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Bensen Saw, product designer and co-founder of voonwong&bensonsaw. Interesting stuff, although I found it a little cold and restrained (in that intimidating Very Smart Architect sort of way). Well, he did cite American post-minimalist artist Richard Tuttle as an influence. I really admired the ceramic works produced in collaboration with Asianera, a premier manufacturer of bone china in, um, China. It was also great to see installations created outside of the art context.

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Heath Nash from South Africa, designer and founder of Heath Nash cc. (IYDE 08 finalist) One of my favorites from the night. He showed his lighting design – witty, beautiful and crowd-pleasing, particularly a series of lights fashioned from butterflies cut out of used plastic bottles. By the end of his 6 minutes, I wanted to create lights too. Seems to me if your work makes even one person want to do what you do… that’s great.

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The pair from metalsmithing studio Itchy Hands Works, based in Kuala Lumpur. Another favorite. They spoke with down-to-earth, infectious nerd-ism about their studio and the amazing artisanal work that goes on there. Their motto is ‘If you can draw it, we can make it (in metal)’, and ‘If you get fancy, we get pricey!’. Genius. Can’t wait to interview them for ARTERI.

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Nancy Chen from Taiwan, web-designer, creative entrepreneur and MD of ESPStyle. (IYDE 08 finalist) She started out saying: I’m going to talk about how I make a living not really being a designer. Loved the irreverence and how design for her wasn’t limited to graphics or other content, but included systems and processes.

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Plans for Nancy’s new designer collective space in Taipei. Her vision was to give shelter to things that are cute and weak like designers and artists. Then she showed a slide of a new-born baby panda to illustrate. OMG did you know that baby pandas are the cutest things in the world.

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Locksin, art director at KL-based IF Interactive design studio. Guess designers have the same crosses to bear as artists. More reasons why we must be friends. Oh, and their website is amazing.

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Fahmi Reza, independent documentary filmmaker. He’s the man behind 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka and Revolusi 48, films that are a thorough and necessary re-haul of Malaysia’s communist past. 10 Tahun can be streamed or downloaded 14(!) different ways here.

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Yes, Fahmi did sing it for us. Loud and proud.

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One more slide, because ARTERI is so commie-lovin’. Imagine, just 50 years ago, a plaque like this could exist in broad daylight in this country.

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Nathalie Fallaha, graphic designer and creator of Vit-E in Lebanon. (IYDE 08 finalist) She showed typography on the streets of her hometown, Beirut, along with some hilarious translations. The street is the ultimate art gallery.

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Sam Lanyon Jones of Tokyoplastic, a design studio well-known for amazing animation and character design. Their client roster includes Sony, Toyota and Motorola. I particularly liked the penis shaped characters flopping around. Visit their website!

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The famous Tokyoplastic Geisha.

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Networking Tree put up by Creative United Movement (C.U.M) where you leave your name card on different colored pegs.  The ‘art’ industry got an orange one, if you want to know.

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The peeps from Urbanattic and Creative United Movement. Love what they’re doing…

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…not only for the fact that they gave out free beer vouchers via lucky draw.

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Final parting shot. What a great night! Until the next Pecha Kucha.

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Pecha Kucha Vol. 6 was held on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 @ Urbanattic, Capsquare

Related post about the night here.