Writing
The white space between the work.
These pages hold years of writing, gathered across Seoul, Chicago, and the road in between. Some of it is about design and innovation. A great deal of it is about my children, my family, and the relationships that surround our lives…because that is where the rest of it comes from. I have never been able to separate the two. The way I advise a CEO and the way I begged my kids’ way into a Korean little-league team are, to me, the same instinct: reach out, and more often than not, you find open arms reaching back. The white space between the work is where I do my real thinking. Read it however you like…follow the design essays, wander through Seoul with my family, or take the whole thing in order.
95 pieces
A World Separated
Each day, I grow and learn. Some days, I grow more than others. Often, what I learn is not applicable at the moment, but I add it to my palette for the future.…
“Yes, And…” Improv @ Second City Chicago
For the past year, Lyra and I have been happily struggling through improv classes at the renowned Second City Improv Training Center in Chicago. It has been gre…
Innovating Disaster Relief: Sharon Fe Pfleider
I am always inspired by the humanity I find in people...especially, their selflessness for others who are in great need. This archetypal role model was ingraine…
Go Austin! Go!
I have always struggled to give my kids the best opportunities in life. Often, I am severely constrained by time, money and location. As a result, I will take b…
“Remember Me to All...” A Memorial Day Tribute to Peter Maxwell
My great-great grandfather, Peter Maxwell, enlisted into Company F of the 20th Michigan Infantry in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was one of the oldes…
Here’s to Looking at You from the Middle East
Recently, I was perusing through hundreds of photos from our journey through the Middle East that through Jordan to Syria and finally Turkey. I realized that we…
Creativity Never Fades
Lyra and I recently had a chance to visit our good friends Jane Gittings Robert and François Robert in Tucson, Arizona. They are true rock stars of design who n…
Creativity Wants Boundaries
Boundaries! It is teenagers and college students who seem to be most apt to challenge rules and push social boundaries, especially those we consider to be crea…
“Life is extraordinary. Embrace it...”
Holi from Variable on Vimeo. Produced by: Variable - WeAreVariable.com Post Production/Editorial: The Mill - TheMill.com Directors/Cinematographers: Jonathan B…
Korrugami: The Art of Box Making
Korea has a great baseball tradition and with it, goes a tradition of making great baseball gloves. Really, Koreans make some of the best baseball gloves in the…
VAUMM: Cardboard box store front for Deskontalia
Spanish architects VAUMM designed a cardboard-inspired store for the discount coupon website Deskontalia. Customers visit the physical store to pick up their in…
Exercising Creative Muscle
I was recently asked to write a post for my company’s innovation blog. At first, I struggled and worried about what to write. I did not want to cover the same…
The Power of Networks
I thought I would share this wonderful stop motion movie from director Mikey Please. It is a brilliant animation, but what I want to highlight is not so much th…
Preserving Chicago, One Photo at a Time
Fire has been a catalyst for Chicago; spawning invention, innovation and industry. Cowles Fire Escape Works was established in 1875, four years after The Great…
IIT Architecture Student Project: Mending Fences
One of the interesting student projects was a cedar community fence that pairs of students had to execute and “stitch together” each pair came up with their own…
Great Work, Amanda!
What amazing talent at IIT’s Architecture Student Open House! We were all winners...not just Amanda...who won the Peterhans Visual Training Project Prize! Nice…
IIT’s Annual Architecture Student Work Open House Friday, May 4, 2012
Amanda is still on the move! She has just completed her 1st of 5 years of architectural studies at Illinois Institute of Technology. She has put in a tremendous…
Creative Momentum: Viral Creativity
Now that I am back in the English speaking world, I have been desperately trying to catch up with the latest flows of western Pop Culture. The other day, I hear…
Creative Momentum: New Traditions for Easter
You know, I really don’t know why we dye eggs for Easter. I suppose I could Google it, but I did not want to waste the time and energy. When I start Googling so…
A Taste of Syria
A little while back, I had the privilege to travel to Syria as one leg of an overland journey from Jordan...before I set foot in Syria, my expectations were ver…
Happy Father’s Day
Sunday...I woke up and French toast is waiting for me...nice...I wonder why everyone is being so nice... I leisurely enjoyed the French toast and the we starte…
On her way...
The Story... Well...pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. So, let me enter this post from a position of gratitude. ;-) As a parent, I would like to give thanks…
Sustaining Creative Momentum
Well...I just got the kids’ grades...Amanda is setting the bar a bit high. Even though she is graduating and has a full ride scholarship to IIT’s Architecture p…
Across Oceans of Time...Reunited at Last...
Above...My mother at her 1958 high school prom...in Japanese yukata (clothes) Recently, I pieced together the reason for my mother’s international attitudes...…
Glass Blowing with Grandpa! Happy 70th Birthday!
I wanted to get my dad something different for his birthday. Something he would remember and everyone could participate in. A family trip would be a disaster an…
Walking on the Tiger’s Back
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to go hiking with a couple of my colleagues. However, when they said hiking, they were not talking about a casual stroll th…
The Greatest Italian Architects in Korea!
This summer is an inspirational one...Inspiration on a Ducati! Amanda has been interning at THE GREATEST Italian architectural firm in Korea...MotoElastico. Ru…
One in a Billion...
Amanda is aspiring to be an architect and is diligently preparing for college admission. She has been getting awesome grades...3.9 average...and putting togethe…
Sebi is One!
The other day we had a chance to go to the first birthday party for Sebi Kim. She is my friend Peter’s daughter. Yes, Sebi is a cutie! This was our first time a…
High Tech Campfire
Have you ever gone camping and found yourself just sitting around the campfire with your friends and/or family, staring at the flames and embers for hours? If y…
Iceland: Eyjafjallajökull
by Sean Stiegemeier This is simply stunning... It is impossible to match the beauty of nature. I thought I would share it for everyone’s enjoyment. A nice way t…
Korean Analog GPS
Korea is one of the most wired, high tech countries in the world. It is a hyper-competitive society where everyone clamors to own the latest and greatest high-t…
Emotional Design IV: Life Tokens
I don’t know if you had a chance to read my lengthy post back in January: From Civil War Letters to Email. If not, I was lamenting the loss of our emotional con…
Permission
For many people, trying to find their creative voice can be so elusive. Some people spend their whole life looking for it. However, I suspect, we all found it w…
A Noble Pair...
Meet Mrs. Yang... She is the matriarch of the Yun Family. The other day, Mrs. Yang, a very warm person, was gracious enough to invite us and our dinner guests o…
Sibling Rivalry
Alex Skyped me excitedly this morning. As you may know, I have tried to encourage my kids to follow creative and non-academic endeavors. I have exposed them to…
Forbidden Fruit
Since everyone has been writing about Apple and their new iPad, I thought I would write about a different fruit, but one no less popular. Maybe even more popula…
Sustainable Pest Control: Herman Miller’s Bees
I was helping Adam do a school project. He had to find all the “stuff” made in Michigan and create a brochure about it. I wanted to show him HermanMiller and ex…
Tango...Korean Style
You know, what ever Koreans set out to do, they do it with an intensity that inspires me. Whether it is baseball, figure skating, hiking...or business. So, I h…
Freedom and Graphic Design
First Amendment: Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition Recently, I took a trip to Myanmar (Burma). I will have more about Burma in later po…
Burmese Days...Part I
Earlier this year (2010) I had a chance to visit an enchanted land...Burma. It is one of the poorest and, yet, richest country in the world. Burma, or Myanmar a…
Burmese Days...Part II
Well, eventually the bus commander realized that holding the windshield in place was futile. That is, after 6 hours of two men frantically pushing at the plate…
Burmese Days...Part III
We eventually made it to Mandalay thanks to our good Samaritans. They really saved our #$%^&. What we did not realize until the end of the 16 hour bus ride, was…
Creative Momentum
Earlier this month I got a Skype call from my daughter, Alexandria. She began by telling me about her felting project where she was making mittens for her high…
Emotional Design III: From Civil War Letters to Email
Why an antique postcard? Well, lately, I have been thinking about mail and the ways people preserve their connection to one another. For the longest time, peopl…
Korean Scrabble...
I have to say that the greatest design and production team I know are my parents, Doug and Mary Wills. Deciding to come to Korea was a big step for me and my f…
Eclectic Entertainment
New Year’s Eve was nice. I got to spend quality time with the Wills kids in Kalamazoo. The city has a great tradition of patronizing the arts. Every New Year’s…
Best Wishes for the New Year
I can’t help but to think how fortunate I am to be able to see and experience such epic beauty in the world. I am grateful to everyone who have made those exper…
American Icon: Club Lago
I think one of the things I miss most about Chicago is Club Lago. Club Lago is this great Italian restaurant/bar that has been passed down three generations to…
Korean War Correspondent
The other day I had the chance to meet an extraordinary person. His name is Chinwa Kim. Mr. Kim speaks several languages including Arabic, German, French and Hu…
Dharma Talk from Zen Master Dae Bong Sunim
Well, I got a chance to hear Dae Bong Sunim give a Dharma talk the other day. It was a on a Korean Army base in Seoul. I was told the facility was like the Kore…
Mobile Commerce
I was wandering around Jongro 3 Street. This area has a plethora of connecting shops, markets, service centers, printers, restaurants, you name it. Everyday, ar…
Stepping back...
Sometimes you need to step back and dream about what the possibilities are. I know you have heard it before. I am not going to cite all the research on taking t…
Emotional Design II: Milk, Masks and Swine Flu
OK...milk is a bit expensive in Korea. To say the least... It works out to be about $6.50 a gallon as opposed to $3.50 in the US. But it is soooo tasty! It see…
Curators of Culture: Platoon Kunsthalle
I came to Seoul just after the iPhone launched in 2007. Many competitors were caught off guard and have since taken great strides to copy Apple’s device. Howeve…
Words just get in the way...
The emotion in this man’s face became apparent as he pushed his cart of persimmons past me. Not just a lowly street vendor, but a man with a story. At first, I…
Emotional Design
Today, a colleague of mine, Christopher at ?WhatIf! asked me to check out five by fifty, an Asian consumer intelligence firm... On their site was a trend about…
Where I come from...
Every once in a while I think back to the Washington Square neighborhood in Kalamazoo when I was a small boy. I remember a quiet peaceful place. A tree lined st…
Talent and Expression
Yesterday, I was privileged to meet a talented French conductor, Paul Meyer. In addition to his conducting, Paul happens to be one of the world’s foremost clari…
신호탄 (Pyrotechnics) Exhibition
It was here, about a month ago, at the Kimusa Exhibition opening, that I saw Emil for the last time. Emil held his last exhibit here. Ever since that day, I ha…
Cairo: Egypt’s Future
It’s been over a year since I had the privilege to visit Cairo. The past week’s events have prompted me to share. I have to say that I barely scratched the surf…
A Season...Emil Goh
I have been remiss in sharing my experiences for the last week. Mainly, because I have been missing my loved ones and mourning the departure of my children. How…
Give me a few...
Ok...I have been having a hard time...for the last week I have been dreading the departure of the kids...because of that I have been having writers’ block and h…
Stay tuned...
Well, we are off to Sokcho for the last baseball tournament of the summer. I have lots of stories to post, but they will have to wait. I will have limited acces…
Zen Master
Do you ever wonder why we are here? I don’t. I always wonder why ‘you’ are here... I always wonder why ‘you’ are in my life. All the people that I meet and kn…
How will Adam remember baseball?
I wish I were this funny, but this is what I remember of baseball when I was a kid: Adam and Austin think this video is hilarious...I wonder what they will say…
It comes from within...
Today I have to get a few things accomplished...so I can not post much...but I thought I would pass on another person’s story...I know you have heard it before.…
Awe Soo Teen!!! 오스틴!!!
Before getting to the stadium, I was fantasizing how my next blog entry would be that of nail biting suspense and the sweet smell of victory. That was before I…
Never give up...
So the day starts out as usual... I get Adam and Austin up for the new day at 6:45 am. We have to be at the stadium for the semi-final game by 8:20am. The game…
Adam Attack!!!
So today was quite a day! I figured it would be an easy day. There are no baseball games today. Amanda and Alex are going to camp today. Of course, I will post…
Stars are born
Amanda and Alexandria have been taking a ceramics class for the past month. They are learning first hand about technique and craftsmanship. What is great is th…
Baseball Today! 야구 오늘! UPDATE
So we advance to the next game. Dongbu won today 7 to 0. Austin lined-out to center again, struck out and walked. Nothing spectacular to report, but a win is a…
Parkbench Acupuncture
Oriental medicine is very well respected in Korea. On my way to the baseball game, I happened across these two women. At first, I just noticed two women sitting…
Baseball Today! 야구 오늘!
Today is the second day of the Asiana Airlines baseball tournament in Seoul. So, I will post the results on my next posting... Dongbu (our team) did well and wo…
Solar Eclipse: look down to see it!
Normally, I pull Amanda out of bed each morning and drag her up the mountain for...well... “a little” exercise and alone time to talk. However, this morning Ale…
Amanda’s 16th Birthday
So, I have fretted over what to do for Amanda’s 16th birthday for several years now. In the back of my mind I thought I would throw a huge party or maybe get he…
Rock Star Designer: Emil Goh
My friend, Emil Goh, is working on all sorts of design projects in and around Seoul. The other day he gave me a cool present... I got the first of only 500 T-M…
Eating the crabs from mud beach!
Did I mention that we caught lots of crabs at the beach? Little bite sized crabs. Yum yum... And yes, kids, you are going to eat them! Even the ones who are tr…
Mud beaches are the best!
We had this great idea to go to the beach. So, our neighbors, the Lees, decided to take us up on the idea and drive us to Gangwha Island near Incheon Airport. A…
Leroy Quills the African Pygmy Hedgehog
One day, the girls and I were walking around Seoul...going from market to market...and in Seoul, there is a market for everything you might want. And...yes...a…
A truly creative education
It’s is not true that all Korean kids go to “factory-like” schools that stifle creativity. My neighbor took me to visit his kids school. His kids attend Presbyt…
Pottery Classes
Since I have Adam and Austin immersed in baseball, my first thought was art class for Amanda and Alexandria. However, I wanted to give them something more than…
Climbing Bukansan: #1
Bukan San (san means mountain) is about a 30 minute train ride from Samcheong-dong where we live. It is a huge park with lots of trails, streams, temples, shops…
After the climb...
On our way back from Bukansan mountain, we encountered a group of soldiers. I can only imagine what it is like to march through the mountains on a hot summer da…
Cheonggyecheon
What to do on a warm summer day? Amanda and Alex were planning on going to Dongdaemun to purchase an African pygmy porcupine. Well...along the way, they got sid…
Lunch Habit
Each day we steal away from the hustle of Seoul and enjoy box lunches on the porch of the guest house of former Korean President Yun Bo-seon. My kids never kno…
Masks
Every where you go in Korea you will find masks: Masks for tourists, foriegners, co-workers, bosses, friends, etc. Yes, there are masks that you buy at the tour…
Talent
Adam never ceases to confound and amaze me. I let him use play with the camera and he quickly became obsessed with composing a shot. I did not pay much attentio…
Dress-up
I always feel safe letting my kids travel around Seoul, especially when they go out as a group. This day... I had Amanda and Alex go to Lotte Mart to pick-up so…
Hand Games
We have been adopted by a prominent local family in Samcheong-dong where we are living this summer. My kids are at the family’s restaurant just after they arriv…
Beautiful Setting
Though I am still struggling to find work. I have managed to find ways to keep have the kids nested in a beautiful setting. However, there is a downside... “Yo…
Spraying mosquitos!
I was tortured by mosquitoes last summer...this summer is no different! Seems like the Koreans hate them too. Its ironic that I was doing work for a mosquito ab…
Start of Baseball
This will be year two for Adam and Austin to play baseball in Korea. Last year was spectacular. Thought it was not easy going, the boys grew tremendously. Austi…
Back in Seoul
I am back Seoul, Korea. I spent over a year and a half working here as an innovation design consultant. I never expected to stay more than 4 months, but somehow…
Why White Space? 여 백
By sharing my experiences here in Korea, I hope to inspire others to follow their passions and trust their instincts; whether it’s raising children or writing p…