Creative Career Night at ACCD | July 30th

I will be speaking at Art Center College of Design on Wednesday evening (July 30th) about Creative Career. The event is all about how Art Center alumni have used the design skills to craft unique career in creative fields. 

I have finished tweaking my visuals last night and have been practicing my presentation. Even though my line of work at Baum-kuchen is all about sharing... I am not a big public speaking figure. So... naturally... I am having a healthy dose of nervous bugs right now. I am channeling my thoughts to share inspiration, dreams and hopes instead of thinking about "giving presentation". 

Here is a list of speakers:
Bryce Shawcross [Graphic Designer, Tesla Motors] 
Demetrius May [Founder, Run For Cover]  
Wakako Takagi [Co-Founder, Baum-Kuchen]

If you are interested in attending the event, you can get details from the below flier and can RSVP through this link. The event organizer told us that there are quite bit of interests in the event and they have moved the event to the biggest auditorium they have on campus. 

Wish me luck:) 

The very first step to the road of Ikebana / Lisa Kawai

Hi Baum-kuchen friends!  I hope you're enjoying a beautiful month of June wherever you are in the world.  I'm writing to you from Tokyo, Japan, where the wild hydrangeas are in full bloom at every corner of the street here (making a "not-so-great-rainy-season" not too bad).  And once again, I am happy to be able to take part in contributing to the lovely newsletter of Baum-kuchen this month!

- Lisa

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step / Angie Park

Hello! I am excited to be part of Baum-Kuchen’s ongoing story. Especially during the summer when our thoughts are ripe with planning trips, getting away, relaxing, and having adventures.  Today, I’d like to share a story of my trip to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, or perhaps, more appropriately, a journey.

To prepare for this post, I thought a lot about what makes a journey so different from a trip. The 'Internet' tells me that a journey is having a greater sense of the unknown. A journey is an adventure. A journey is a long timeframe. A journey implies difficulty or unpleasantness.  Indeed, it may be all these things, but I think, the crux of a journey, is transformation. Not the kind of transformation that alters a fleeting mood, but a transformation that moves your inner gut and fiercely changes the way you see things.  I am reminded of the wonderful Max in Where the Wild Things Are, the anthropomorphized Buck from Call of the Wild, Pi Patel adrift in the Pacific Ocean in Life of Pi and also the old mythical Beowolf and Odysseus whose epic journeys yielded a window into a brand new world.

I liken that many journeys, like good stories, have a narrative structure.  There’s an introduction, a rising action, a climax and a resolution. Hope you enjoy the story of my walk.

-Angie 

Happy Sunday!

Frido and I had a few hours this afternoon to spend some grown-up time in LA downtown. We wondered around, had cocktails at ACE hotel, hang out at Angel City Brewery and took some pictures along the way. Here are some of my favorites;)

I hope you had a lovely weekend!
xoxo
-w

Little changes... making BK better everyday.

We had a very productive week after Satchi and I came back from Michigan last weekend. I always get little bit overwhelmed by the rush of reality post travel... Does it happen to you?

On Monday I was preparing packages to fulfill for customers... and I must have been little bit disoriented from my travel. I made a classic mistake and placed an wrong item in one of my customer's envelope. (So sorry Eunice!!!) I found out that I made the mistake when my customer reached out to me on Wednesday with a picture of the item she received and "what should we do" question.

I shipped a new package with a correct item as soon as possible and shared a sincere apology with her. I am hoping that she would have her item in her hands... by now.

The mistake and feeling so terrible made me question "what can Baum-kuchen do to make less mistakes like this?". Especially now that we have both me and Nerine working behind the scene to prepare the packages... and I came across a great idea when I was reading SWITCH, which is all about making small and big changes.

One of the case studies they mentioned was to "create a checklist" to prevent avoidable simple mistakes... So simple... but so true. A checklist can bring awareness to our small actions. So I created a quick prototype of an invoice incorporating a set of checklists. It's a small change but I am hoping that a continuous changes and improvements like this will make Baum-kuchen a better place to interact for customers... and for us to work in.

I heart you... travel...

I hope you had a lovely 4th of July weekend... and your start of the brand new week is going well...

Satchi and I have been on the road since last Thursday. We are visiting our friends Susan (aka. the (other) Kennedy Compound and her family here in Michigan.... mostly at her family cottage on the lake. We had a few lovely days with Susan, Kent and their sweetest friends... Their friends went home yesterday and now it's just a few of us... at a very quiet cottage.

Since we arrived to Michigan, I am so blown away from all the new things I have seen, experienced... and learned.

firefly flickering in the backyard...
fireworks over the lake...
watching the flashes of lightening fill the whole sky above the lake... in the dark room... listening to the music
seeing the lake sparkle with the moon light... it's like there are million golden fishes swimming all around me...

This travel has become such a big reminder how much I still have in life to learn and grow... There is so much to to see in the world with our eyes... and with our heart...

I will be sharing more pictures once I catch some moments to download the pics from my camera... but if you are interested, I am posting our moments on my Instagram feed!

p.s. If you have placed an order in last few days... thank you so much for understanding our situation of online shipping/fulfillment process while we travel. Even though our friend Nerine is holding the Baum-kuchen fort in LA this week...  our fulfillment capacity is definitely bit more limited than normal and shipment is taking little longer than our usual turnaround.