Charlene’s explorations of a big, beautiful world

traveler: wait, you’re where?!? the faq

July 1st, 2008

wait, you’re where?!?
I’m in Umeå, a university town about 400 miles north of Stockholm, Sweden. Rob is finishing his second year of his master’s degree here.

I thought you were in Munich?
We were in Munich for the summer, where Rob had an internship with IDEO. IDEO is a great design consultancy for product innovation and design, so I’m very excited for him!

wait, why did he have an internship? weren’t you guys working in New York?
We were both in school last year. I got my associate degree in surface/textile design from FIT in New York in June 2008. Rob’s been getting his master’s degree in interaction design — in Sweden, of all places. We were doing the long-distance thing for the past school year. Thank goodness for email, Skype, and airplanes!

what’s surface/textile design? what’s interaction design? why Sweden?
surface/textile design - Imagine all the products in your everyday life that have a pattern, design or other embellishment on them: clothing, tissue boxes, stationery, dishes, bags. Someone designs all that — a surface/textile designer! (It can be fashion-oriented, but that’s not what I’m interested in.)

interaction design - Basically, this is design for all the things that humans interact with, so it’s a very interdisciplinary field. That would include computers and mobile phone interfaces (screen design), products (industrial design), signage (graphic design), even systems or organizations. (Note: this is *not* the same as interactive design!) And Sweden, because there’s no tuition!

And yes, our plan is to design together. And basically take over the world and make it both more beautiful and functional. Or something like that — the manifesto is in the works.

what about 39L, your apartment in NYC?
We’ve been fighting eviction from my childhood/family apartment for the last 4 years. With our move to Europe and for various legal and financial reasons, we decided it’s time to let it go. It’s been a gift to live there as an adult, to share it with Rob, and to rediscover Chinatown. I’ll miss it (and its kickass view) a lot, but I’m looking forward to moving on. Our street address in Munich is a “39″ too, so there’s some nice symmetry for ya.

what about 39elle, the company you had in SF?
Well, 39elle was fun, but it pretty much got put on hold after we moved to New York, faced eviction proceedings, and tried to figure things out there. So I’m transitioning away from 39elle. [er, confession: I even forgot to renew the domain name this last month, so the 39elle site is currently down, and my email there isn’t working.] Does anyone need any t-shirts or onesies?

I definitely want to have my own design studio again, but with a new brand, since my skill set and style have changed so much. What do you think of the name “someday someday”?

what were you doing in Munich?
Eating sausage. Taking photos and trying to get them published. Writing. Developing a travel site. Exploring. Making things. Designing. You, know, things!

what will you doing in Sweden?
Eating meatballs. Taking photos and trying to get them published. Writing. Working on my travel site. Exploring. Making things. Designing. You, know, things!

what’s after Sweden?
We don’t know! We’d like to stay in Europe for a couple of years, but who knows? I’d love to live in Asia, too, say Hong Kong or Tokyo. We’d also like to start a family. And work together. And travel more. Don’t worry, NYC will always be home base, so we’ll be back for Christmas and such.

jeez, why don’t you ever tell me these things?
:::sigh::: Because I’m terrible at keeping in touch. I actually think of everyone a lot, but as is often the case, I have trouble getting the thoughts out of my head and into reality. I’ve composed many a letter, only it never actually hits paper or keyboard. I resolve to be better and hope this blog will help.

how do I contact you?
email me at charclam (at) gmail (dot) com
I’m also on Facebook as Charlene C. Lam

originally posted July 1, 2008. updated October 9, 2008.

Entry Filed under: Traveler, Munich