Garr’s posterous

Actually, I had been waiting for this opening for quite some time as the place is the creation of our buddy Doug Schafer and company. I often work in a certain "other cafe" in Japan, but have grown tired of it a bit (and their new "no using our electric outlets" policy was the last straw). This new Cafe called Shakers is amazing and has a great location in Namba station (across from Namba Parks). http://www.shakers.jp/ I am sure to become a regular.

Doug is very much into design and it shows in every little detail in the cafe. Here are a few iPhone snaps from brunch (yes, the sign below says branch...close enough).

     

Click here to download:

Shakers_Cafe._Found_a_new_cool.zip (2136 KB)

Just the 2nd day open and it is packed (with no advertising). Very nice, 100% smoke free, open atmosphere with free WI-FI and even a few outlets for those who want to work on their next book, etc. It has an open kitchen which means they have less storage space and therefore a smaller menu. Those constrains are all part of it and by choice. Limitations are a good thing, and the open atmosphere of the kitchen is wonderful. Their menu is actually not so limited really, and what they do have is great. The coffee was fantastic too.

   

Click here to download:

0Shakers_Cafe._Found_a_new_cool.zip (1604 KB)

Repetition. A fundamental design principle is repetition of some key element(s). In Shakers' case they have teamed up with SOZ ( http://snipurl.com/skhda ), a creative company in Osaka that has become famous for its Carpenter Blocks. The "+" mark serves a function in the blocks, of course, and have become a symbol for the SOZ company. The relationship is expressed on the menu with the "+" mark which has double meaning. The "+" mark (which has a positive feeling to it, obviously) is repeated in furniture, partitions, and in some of the cookies, etc.

I had the salmon, spinach, cream cheese omelette. Their own creation. Fantastic! Here you notice we moved to the more comfortable seats (thanks to the kindness of the owner; but no seats are bad). A very nice ambiance indeed.

Had to get some M&M cookies for the road :-) If you are in Namba station, checkout the new Shakers Cafe. I'm sure I'll be going back with my MacBook next time to enjoy the coffee and get some writing done as well.

Checkout the company's videocasts as well: http://tastylife.toyobeverage.com/

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DK presenting on packaging last night.

Sent from my iPhone

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Snapped from the Shinkansen at about 300km (which is why foreground is distorted). I've yet to climb it (few Japanese I know have climbed it, though most gaijin I know have been to the top).

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Graph.

Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Drop by Apple Store if you are in town! pic of screen.
Sent from my iPhone

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In Osaka, Japan.

Sent from my iPhone

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Inspirational idea. Maybe someone in the US could try this. The obesity rate in Sweden is about 1/3 that of US -- seems folks in the US are the ones who need to take the stairs more.

I like the idea of leveraging fun to change behavior. Concerning fitness/health, I never understood why people suffer through diet after diet. Dieting ain't fun -- no way, no how. It's miserable. No surprise that compliance rates with dieting are so low, especially in the long-term. Humans love fun (duh!). Much better it seems to me to change lifestyle in a way that is healthy *enjoyable* and *fun*. I am not sure if kids still play outside back in the US, but I hardly was in the house as a kid -- and that's in rainy Oregon! We never asked our parents if we could go outside "to exercise,"  we asked if we could "go play!"  Why did we stop? Anyway, I like the fun theory and appreciate this video.

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The Gestalt principle of Continuation (Continuance) says there is an innate tendency to perceive a line as continuing its established direction. An arrow is the most obvious perhaps. Within a composition we'll tend to follow a strong line through in the direction it is going -- fat arrows are hard to resist. The line of the arrow stops of course, but in a sense it doesn't as it leads our eye off the sign to the burger shop below (and to the left). If there was a white dot in the lower left (and the sign said "look at this dot") then our eye would have stopped there. This is a small thing but I love these moments of "sign clarity." I was not looking for McDonald's, but if I was, how can you miss it? Without the sign and the arrow, you may have. (In Umeda in Osaka, Japan snapped on iPhone.)

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