Just by looking at the promoting tagline on Pop Up Asia 2018's poster, we can tell that it is a very attractive event because it combines breakthrough designers and artists from over 300 brands around Asia (Taipei, Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Chiangmai, Vientiane, Siem Reap, Jakarta, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi and etc.) and more than 200 handcraft workshops. Handmade, design and artsy enthusiasts, please gather around! The creative circus is now opening!

    Pop Up Asia is held for the third time. This year is on November 15-18 in Taipei, Taiwan among the breezy weather with a nice comfortable sweater as a companion. It is also the first time that our happening and friends team discloses our products from Thai artists to the world. When a chance to explore experiences are handed over, we would like to keep the widen eyes up and find you some spontaneous happenings.

    Held at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, one of the biggest creative venues in Taipei, it takes 3 warehouse to establish the whole event in 3 zones: Material / Experiential Zone where workshops and brands are blended, Theme Zone where variety of booths, stages and exhibitions (including ours) are located and Brands Zone where more than 50 mini and fabulous brands from all over the regions are brought.

    If you buy a 220-NT ticket (approximately the same price in Thai baht), we recommend you to wander around the Theme Zone first because it stands as the center of the event. Greeted by the tiny display and video art demonstration, you will meet several interesting booths in the area. International vibes are on air as some kiosks wrap the feel in one place. GO! REP! represents the 5 brands from Siem Reap while CREALIVE DEPT. features the hotblood Taiwan select shops. Living & Art Creative Center and Makers by Ninth Gallery gather the Korean and Malaysian artists respectively. Japan lovers might be familiar with minne by GMO Pepabo, the handmade product hub from Japan who brings award winning products from minne Handmade Awards to be displayed in the exhibition.  

    Happening and friends lives around here too, dancing lightly as Thailand's delegate in regards to brand designs. Toteing selected items: bags, accessories, clothes, fragrances and those from illustrators, to befriend with others here on the table. And they are welcomed by visitors so much that sometimes the traffic is slightly jam around the booth.

    Your time will be consumed a lot just for the first zone because the merch is abundant- ceramics, clothes, design items, leather works or hyperconcept products (We saw the brass spoon and fork at GO! REP!. They look normal except that the materials are made of bullet cartridges from Cambodian riot. Shares of the profits would be donated to the mission of finding disposed bombs in the Vietnam war.). Some pieces are so adorable though; the character, 'Cat fish', or the cat with the fish tail from Taiwan's 5mins acts so cute at the front entrance on the right once we walk inside the warehouse.

    There is also the medium-sized stage in the middle of the room as the communication center. It is used from the very first day when the opening ceremony was held. Discussions and lessons take place here as well as the party on Friday night. Award winners also receive their honor on this stage.

    Walking through the gate to warehouse number 2, there are around 20 booths at the Material / Experiential Zone where art-making materials are gathered (The graffiti artist even samples the spray paint right at the booth.). However, the focus of attention is in the middle where the floor is elevated, acting as a workshop playground from the front to the back of the rooms—8 rooms in total. The workshop schedule is jostled all day long with wood works, cloth works, paper works and variety types of material. The dead-end room where mini tables are located belongs to Makers' Base from Tokyo. They design the alternative workshops which could be completed in few minutes together and the most popular one is customizing individual accessories. Nugget of visitors always have fun here from time to time.

    What grabs our attention is the booth from Osaka, Japan. The 6-month born brand established by 3 designers is called SOGU, the products are crafted exclusively for the designer! Addressing less is more concept, they ultimately launch practical-but-pretty hanger, paper storing box, magnetic pin, umbrella hanger and etc. We believe that minimal fanatics will adore the items.

    After touring the zone, we are sure that makers-gonna-make kind of people will easily spend hours and money on the workshops and they will tag their own customized piece back home.

    We stroll back to the last warehouse where the large numbers of booth are here the most, the Brand Zone.

    The fabric banner in front of the warehouse welcomes us with a slogan, Turn Your Passion Into a Living. We know that design or artsy heads who have just initiated their brands will be lit up by seeing this (happening team is working with passion too, so we think it is a simple yet attacking punchline.). The zone is bundled with more than 50 brands from other countries- ceramics, bags, clothes, leathers, accessories, home decors, postcards and etc.

    There are a flock of Japanese brands who proactively give all in for the settings while the 15 Thai squads team up on the other side. Some brands already feature in our happening shop- Ce'halo, Chana.Pottery.Studio, Pica and Run Ga Run. Earth Republic, Charm-Learn Studio and PaChaNa Studio are also "someone" in our Thai ceramic circle.

    Although the highlight of Pop Up Asia 2018 is weighing towards the deliberation to centralize Asian handmade brands as many as possible, the keyword 'handmade' doesn't frame within traditional weaving styles and handicrafts. It sheds light on contemporary design as the handmadescape too because the process starts from hands, such as drawing, to the manufacture, so it is inevitably in the contemporary handmade terrain.

    As we have mentioned, the annual design and handmade event like Pop Up Asia doesn't only facilitate opportunities for independent brands, but the curator team is trying to educating also. There are the sessions from 4 lecturers who fully take 1 hour to share the knowledge. They are individually proficient in their own gourmet-- Masayuki Abe from minne, Minghui Chen from Taiwan who speaks about Taiwanese craft innovation or Pierre Andre Romano, a social enterprise expert who has worked for handicraft in Cambodia for a long haul. But whom we are going to present here is from Thailand, Piboon Amornjiraporn represents our country and talks about TCDC's craft exhibition for how he had sailed out to seek for the definition of 'craft' from variety of people until the exceptional experiences had bred out.

    Awarding ceremony is also interesting. They divide the awards in 4 categories: Locally Made Awards, Made By Hand Awards, Customization Service Awards and Limited Production Awards, explicitly explaining the vision and Pop Up Asia's in-design perspective. 

    The vibe is delighting in general, Pop Up Asia 2018 has proper feedbacks. The event is run by the private sectors and the government, so the collaboration speaks louder that Taiwan's creativity can be designed throughout. People also give satisfying responses because all 4 days are packed with participators, especially on the first and the last day. Despite of the hissing rain, they are eagerly holding their umbrellas in a queue, from teenagers to elders—solo, duo and company. The organizer provides enough food and beverage booths to support visitors for more than half a day. Happening and friends also meets interesting customers; some of them already know some of the Thai brands while some catch their attention to us because we stand as the collection cupid for Thai artists.

    Apart from commercial scenes, joining the big event like this has more significant point than selling products. It is a matter of opportunity.

    We rally on the mutual international companions. We come back empty-handed as our box of name cards and brochures are given over. As a buyer who operates both the online website and offline shop, we witness several spectrums of product and listen to the brand presentations when they discuss in the Business Matching session. And as a press, we are told about the spontaneous projects from new folks—they even made a negotiation for us to be involved in the next ones.

    A joyful walk to Pop Up Asia 2018 brings us lively memory and effort to be better. It won't be enough if brands-artists who want to join in the event would like us to wrap them all up in recommendations or bullet points.

    Ok, communication ability is very important. Being able to speak English is an obvious advantage, the best goes for speaking Chinese (Taiwanese people speaks Mandarin.). But basically, you have to prepare price tags, description for a brand or items (If you can write in Mandarin, it will be the finest). Researching for the right styles is also crucial. The price range and numbers of your product should be calculated in advance. And please don't starkly aim for profits because experience points, connections and sunniest foreign friends are out there.

    Whether you are a brand founder, customer, lecturer or even organizer, we believe that you are 'Turn Your Passion Into a Living' kind of people. Partaking in the international event draws so much of the passion from artsy heads and it incessantly clicks the 'inspiring file' archive inside our head even more.