but why oh why?

i had only 3 hours of sleep, yet again, last night (for 3 nights in a row now), and am still in the midst of completing some new projects (i'm on a workaholic productive high though, very excited!!) but i've so much to comment about on a piece of news i just read about in today's papers while having my lunch, and also coupled with some events and conversations that transpired last week, that i just can't help myself...

the following does not pertain to the "world" in general, but only within the walls of singapore, since i'm singaporean and this is what i'm most familiar with....

why do we not value the worth of local designers?
why do we not value the worth of the local arts?
why do we not see the worth of the costs of setting up a website or web portal?
for whoever here who speak of supporting local designs/designers/artists, in the real sense (supporting in words, actions, and beliefs), they are all really just bullshitting. superficial empty talk. all amounting to nothing.
i, for one, fucking hate the word, local, for what it has become, or made to become.
which is why i avoid as much as possible to be grouped as being local.
fuck local. stop telling me to embrace being "local". you can go ahead and be local yourself. thank you very much.
we are designers/artists/brands/labels in general, together with everyone else in this entire world.
it is because of "local", that no one here with the $$, gives a real hoot at all.
it is because of "local", that these 'chi-chi atas" people (high-class rich snobbery asses who go all out to label themselves as such) can ooh and aah at a local design, when told the price, nod their heads in approval (nothing ever costs too much for them), BUT when told it's a local label/designer, goes "what?? so expensive?? wow, it's too expensive for a local brand!" well, i've a whole string of wonderful cuss words to use here, but i should refrain myself... why do you say that the prices of some local brands are inflated? are they really? so only foreigners can inflate the prices of their brands, and local ones can't? i say, all prices of whatever labels from wherever in this world are all inflated only if they are poorly designed, cheaply made, mass-factory-produced and unorignal.

people here generally don't know, or simply don't, appreciate art. if they tell you they do, take their words with a huge bottle of salt. they're just saying that because they don't want to look bad, and want to create an impression that they belong to the educated upper-class. when people buy art here, it has to be value for money. who cares whether it's some same old ugly shit or some good art (i'm not defining it since it's subjectve). my point is, they don't care, it just has to have good investment value. "So is this artist famous?" "How old is this painter?" (why not just ask if he's dying soon or if he has contracted some terminal disease). "How's the investment value like for this sculpture?" "i'm not going to spend SG$15000 on a painting if the value is not going to increase you know"

just shoot me.

and recently, with the atas museum make-over, it's not helping at all. have any of these people even seen the kids in fine arts class in la-salle or nafa etc? i know even the gothic/punk/rocker looking arty-farty peeps in europe and america visit their musuems. that's because their society has long already graduated beyond that level, which we are still in now, and their museum has substance (i'm not saying ours have none, what i'm saying is, it's not at that level yet, and is a "different" type of museum i guess) . do you think our gothic/punk/rocker arty kids here in singapore, with their current societal mindset, are going to hang out at our museum?

and how is it that it's the year 2007, almost towards the end, and with all the big hoo-haa of the online phenonmenon throughout the developed world, that most local business people here can still turn their noses away from paying decent $ for a decently designed website?? just last week, my friend was bitching to me about how a former client of his, who hired him to design AND develop his web portal, thinks that SG$1000 has contracted him to his services for life, till the day he dies. what fucking nonsense is this?? SG$1000 for both design and development services and that was already all completed 3 gawd damn years ago, and he's still being such a typical stingy thick-skinned bastard, persistently bugging my poor friend to update this and that and whatever else for him! and have the bloody cheek to actually comment "I paid you so much, i think it was too much, so you've to do all these for me". my friend wouldn't have even done it for SG$10000 now, it was then when he just graduated and in need of some moolah.

if any local business had a website, it is 90 % for sure, BADLY DESIGNED and put up (unless it is a design/ad firm or offering services in the creative line). gif logo images with jagged edges, terrible font use, non-functioning links, un-updated information... it's a long list...

which is why you'll notice that they aren't many nicely designed, fancy local web portals, like say.... flickr or etsy (i cite these 2 examples from the top of my head), or any, if at all. from the top of my head, the closest web community i can only think of that is not too unprofessionally done is emall.som.sg, maybe trustsg. but toooo corporate looking. everything in singapore is too gawd damn corporate looking. fuck corporate! ahhh!! during a meeting some months back (i belong to a local fashion organization), whilst waiting for the meeting to commence, everyone was passing casual comments about going online, having a website, and so on. And as usual, the local brands who already enjoy an annual turnover in the few millions, tsk-tsk about the trouble having a website and email brings for them. "more trouble than worth the money" is what i hear so much, that i've actually stopped rolling my eyes now when i hear it. can't they see that their participation in this aspect will help to pave the way or help push up the younger ones??

you can just google singapore labels/ singapore fashion/ or even the designer's name, you'll get shit. nada. nothing. how am i (if i am) as a foreigner, going to find out more about singapore labels then?

and now, you've decided to work with ebay???? to list your designs online???? dear gawd. they're so out of tune with the online culture that i almost got sick reading the headlines "local designs on ebay".
how's that for upping your local stature. dear local designers, you can't poo-poo at cheapo crap anymore, because your online presence url now shares the same word as them.

someone, pleassseee get your "rich" resources, invest in tastefully doing up a web portal, a community, a well-designed website exclusively for all these good local designers/labels to be listed and even sold online! i know some labels (i love) like hansel already boosts a fantastic website, but i'm not talking about an individual brand's website, i'm talking about a web portal, an online community thingie. it would soooo benefit our brands here as a whole, not only locally, but also internationally! i think it is a must-must for fashion labels ' web portals to be superbly designed in a designery-manner, not the mass-commercial template look, if you get what i mean... ebay???! dear gawd. you are willing to spend more than SG$10k on your montly rental, but not able to fork out $$ just to do up a fantastic website? to this one particular designer i had the pleasure to speak to, your montly rental might be able to convert into more $$, and you think your own designs can command such a high price (in local standards), but you don't think a web designer/developer should be paid equally as much? that's a very very sad and narrow minded view. (all i told her was that i felt really sad she thought that way) both of you are essentially in the creative line, and offering creative services, you beautify people, they beautify the www. and investing in a website will bring more than just $$....but you all just can't see it...

okay, i agree that you can definitely benefit from ebay's expertise, but to have "ebay" inside your url.... le sigh. it's so sad! need i say more?? i love ebay, and i shop on ebay. but i do not think that using ebay to gain online community presence for our good singapore fashion labels and sell at the same time (i say good, because you are good, and i think so too) is thinking out of the box, or will serve its purpose.... so please don't spoil your brand rep.... you can go on and deceive yourself by saying "who says ebay means not good?" well... maybe they won't say it in your face. they will think it in their minds. and sometimes that's all it takes.

it took me an hour to type this out. way beyond my usual 15 mins. ciao for now, back to work on my exciting new stuff!!