Interisland Terminal x Sig Zane Designs "ITO: Interisland Travelwrights" | Piano & Bubbles Event

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to checkout the ITO: Interisland Terminal exhibition/pop-up shop put on by Interisland Terminal and Sig, Nalani, and Kuha`o Zane of famed aloha wear company Sig Zane Designs. Sunday's "Piano & Bubbles" event was an opportunity for people to hear the three each talk about their creative processes and inspirations, first in the exhibition/shop space and then at Nobu where we, as Kuha`o put it, "popped bottles" of champagne, which stimulated more creative discussion ;)

Kuha`o talked about one of his most "magical" projects - designing the cover for Lorna Lim's "Polinahe" album and subsequently winning the Hoku Award for Best Graphics last year. For the graphic designer, these magical projects are ones in which there are such a strong inspiration and chemistry between him and his client or team that the product comes almost instantaneously - a process which he compared to Jay-Z's ability to listen to a track for only a few minutes before getting in the booth and spitting his amazing lyrics.

Sig shared images from his daily life that have inspired his designs, such as the hairy Kamehameha Butterfly and the Kalapana lava flow (which is actually is only two days older than Kuha`o).  He compared his creative process to a hula chant. After performing and repeating the chant for many years, its words soon enough manifest themselves in a new light. For Sig, the same thing can be said of his daily experiences, which eventually take on a new life and interpretation in his prints.

Nalani talked about the migration of the golden manta ray, which inspired her "Kai a Lupe" (Sea of Kites) installation piece, as well as about other meaningful places and family heirlooms that continue to "ground" her. She also had a brief discussion of how we can understand Hawaiian art, which will all display a "power source" in either the piko (navel or center), as in the case of a Hawaiian quilt, or the po`o (head), as in the case of a warrior helmet. If the power source is not a physical form, the artist will give it a name and/or a song. This speaks to the Hawaiian belief that all things, animate or inanimate, possess a spirit.

What I appreciated about this event is that it gave the viewer so much more than his or her own personal interpretation of the art and clothing. We really got to find out what goes behind the work that have made Sig Zane Designs the success that it is, and also got to see the intimate dynamic between the father-mother-son team. Throughout their presentations, Sig would take a jab at Kuha`o over who caught a bigger papi`o and Nalani would ask Sig for the English translation of a particular Hawaiian word and reply, "Thank you, dear." It were those tiny moments that for me were some of the best parts of the evening. 

Nalani mentioned at the end of her talk that it is their team's ability to tap into their "ancestral memory" (which manifests itself as dreams, symbols, or deja vu) that gives Sig Zane Designs its "edge". I think that edge was definitely apparent on Sunday, and I am glad to have been able to witness it live.

The limited-edition print (here in blue/black), designed for the event by Sig, Nalani, and Kuha`o

ITO: Interisland Travelwrights is on display at the Waikiki Parc Hotel from 11 am to 7 pm until Sunday, June 12, and there are a couple more events where you can listen to the Zane `Ohana talk about their work. For more information, visit the Interisland Terminal webpage here.

In4mation Continues To Represent for Hawaii

Local streetwear brand In4mation continues to represent for Hawaii in big ways. They've recently shared on their blog two epic stories...

A few days ago, MTV News aired a clip of an interview with rapper Lil' Wayne talking about his latest single "How To Love". In the interview, Wayne was sporting In4mation's AYA Hi Hat, designed by Creative Director and Mililani-native Rhandy Tambio. You can pickup your own for only $32 at your nearest In4mation shop. (The dreads you'll have to figure out how to get on your own.)


Image Source

In other recent news, In4mation has teamed up with Casio's G-Shock to create the "One Love" watch, which was released in-store and online last Friday. This timepiece is actually the brand's fifth collaboration with Casio.

“In4mation is excited to continue their ongoing relationship with G-Shock by introducing a new collaborative model for Summer 2011,” said Tambio. “For our fifth watch, we introduce a new colorway revolving around the island lifestyle and reggae culture. Reggae is a big influence worldwide especially in Hawaii. It carries a striving positive movement. The colors hold a strong meaning with Red standing for the blood we shed, gold reflecting the richness of the Green land we all live upon, trying to share and spread one common goal of living in harmony, One love. Also the title of a legendary reggae song to unite the people.”

Image Source

For more In4mation information, checkout their website or Facebook page.

CMA Hawaii x FLUX Hawaii Magazine's Talk Story Sessions

Why didn't they teach me this in school??

You know the feeling...after maxing out your credit card...after dating a loser for six months too long...after learning anything the hard way...you sit there and think, why didn't they teach me this in school??

That's the exact thing I thought to myself after attending Talk Story Sessions, put on by CMA Hawaii and FLUX Magazine Hawaii this past Saturday at the Waikiki Edition Hotel. Thankfully though, it was successful local designers, artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs sharing these important life lessons, not the School of Hard Knocks.

The purpose of the event was "to promote arts and music education in Hawai'i with Talk Story Sessions, designed to educate, evolve and inspire the local creative set through interactive dialoguing." Each time slot had two speakers who participants could elect to "talk story" with. I attended the sessions with Nella Media Group, Brandon Reid of The Manifest, and Mari Matsuda of CMA Hawaii.



Nella Media Group is a local media company that specializes in magazine publishing and design, PR, brand management and creative advertising campaigns, and is perhaps best known for publishing the Chinatown newspaper and innov8 magazine. Speaking at the session was Jason Cutinella (the "Nella" behind NMG), Valerie Sanchez (the self-proclaimed "dream crusher"), and Chance Carpenter (the stylish architect turned graphic designer). The trio had a clever way of organizing their Talk Story Session. Jason talked about Vision - his personal vision of NMG and how important it was for him to partner with others that could help him fulfill and elevate that vision. His talk led into Valerie's discussion of Production. As the "dream crusher" and "email nazi" of the team, Valerie's role is to provide structure and to create systems for the company. She stressed the importance of keeping on track with schedules, calendars, and always following up. Chance rounded out the session with a fun and aptly designed power point on Execution. He discussed the designer's role of making his team's or client's vision a tangible reality, through at many times, playing a therapist or mind-reader.

Brandon Reid of The Manifest started his Talk Story Session with asking the crowd (and perhaps himself) "Is this really happening??" The owner of the Chinatown coffee shop/bar/art gallery immediately got the audience on his side with his honest disbelief that his successes have taken him to the point where we would spend our Sunday listening to him speak. He made us feel that he was one of us, just your typical local guy from a public school education and divorced parents...but one who achieved his amazing vision of a place that would serve the Honolulu Chinatown and art communities. He made us feel that if we persevere, we can make our dreams reality too.

This sense of realness remained throughout Brandon's talk. He talked about the death of his father, being duped out of his money, and people who doubted his dream to build The Manifest, among other life tales. Yet through his hardships and despite the nay-sayers, Brandon pushed forward with his goal. "What kind of man would I be if I didn't make things better?", Brandon had thought to himself at a point in his journey. He advised that if your idea will help serve the community, people will want to see it succeed and will put their $1 down to help you see it through.

Mari Matsuda is a professor at the UH Richardson School of Law. She began her Talk Story Session with stating that many people believe that our generation is apathetic towards creating positive social change. She continued with video clips of protests by young people - Arizona high schoolers, University of Rutgers students, rappers from L.A. and London, and finally Kauai natives in protest of the Super Ferry in 2007. 

The proof was there - our generation does care about social causes and wants change. It's just a matter of putting yourself out there as a concerned individual and banding with like-minded people in order to enlist that change. Members of the audience questioned, "But how do we make a difference? How can we protest?" Mari answered simply to start small. Start with a small, obtainable goal and get a handful of friends to support you. In that success, people feel a change within themselves - that they can make a difference and that they actually like that feeling. This "something small" builds the kind of imagination and courage that leads to big social change. I think she drove the point home when she asked the group why did we all come out to the day's event...because there is a feeling our gut and we can envision that things can be better.

I think the over-arching theme throughout all the sessions I attended was to make your life one that's worth living. Jason Cutinella said "At Nella Media Group, we get to create our own lifestyle." Brandon Reid asked the group "Why would we leave the things we want to do in life for someone else to experience?" And Mari Matsuda simply put it, "Just do it." I took away from these three sessions that if you have the courage to follow your gut instinct, you can indeed find that sense of personal fulfillment that we all are longing for. I hope to continually attend these Talk Story Sessions and will definitely be on the lookout for more positivity and inspiration coming out from CMA Hawaii and FLUX Magazine.

In The News: Family Signature

A sneak peak of one of the t-shirt designs for the ITO: Interisland Travelwrights event

In today's Honolulu Star Advertiser, Style Editor Nadine Kam writes about "ITO: Interisland Travelwrights", the Interisland Terminal x Zane Family collaborative installation/pop-up shop happening from June 3 - 12 at the Waikiki Parc Hotel. The event will "highlight the unique and beloved approach that the Zane Family brings to their creative work as cultural practitioners and designers of contemporary aloha attire."

For the article in its entirety, visit the Star Advertiser webpage here, and for more information on the event itself, visit the Interisland Terminal webpage here.


Interisland Terminal’s “ITO: Travelwrights” is about to take off, with Sig Zane, Nalani Kanaka‘ole and their son Kuha‘o Zane in the pilot seat on a journey that touches on Hawaii travel, past, present and future.

Sig Zane is a Hilo-based designer known for his limited-edition prints that mix contemporary graphic elements with ideas rooted in Hawaiian culture and ideals. Kanaka‘ole is a Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner and kumu hula for the Hilo-based Halau O Kekuhi, a duty she shares with her sister Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele. Both are the daughters of renowned hula practitioner Edith Kanaka‘ole, whose name graces the stadium that is home to the annual Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition.

Kuha‘o Zane gained his love of hula through his parents and is recognized for the street style he brought to The Cutlery and now to Sig Zane Designs.

The art and design event, opening June 2 at the Waikiki Parc Hotel and continuing through June 12, brings the Big Island family of visual and performing artists to Oahu in a collaborative pop-up boutique and art exhibition featuring a trio of art unveilings and talk-story sessions with each artist, as well as a “Piano & Bubbles” session that offers insight into the family’s creative dynamic.

It’s not every kid who’s willing to collaborate with Mom and Dad into adulthood, but Sig Zane said they brought Kuha‘o into their creative sessions early “and we’re lucky he still wants to eat dinner with us.”

“‘Piano and bubbles’ is a thing we do all the time. It’s how we come up with ideas,” Zane said. “It really started when Kuha‘o was a child. We’d sit down to eat dinner and we’d recap the things happening to us during the day or the week.

“As he got older, we took that one step further, continuing to meet and talk about creative ideas, hashing out what must be done to keep moving forward.”

Over the years, the family added a backdrop of soft piano music to accompany their discussions, with glasses of champagne that helped ideas flow.

It’s how “ITO: Travelwrights” came to be after the artists were invited by the arts group Interisland Terminal to show on Oahu. Interisland Terminal was founded in January 2009 by art-minded individuals as a way of helping Hawaii reach its creative potential by encouraging creative approaches to civic and social challenges.

Playing off the name and mission of Interisland Terminal, the family adopted the three-alphabet code for the Hilo International Airport, ITO, adding “Travelwrights” as a reference to savvy travelers who are able to move through the world with ease, speed and comfort.

Because their business involves frequent interisland travel, Zane said they care how they travel and what they carry with them.

“This led us to create a line of accessories that we would want to use ourselves,” he said.

This includes a range of comfortable clothing, totes, bags, computer and other cases to manage lives complicated by gadgets.

“Even a simple thing, like something to hold all your computer wires — how do you carry that? We all need these things as technology has evolved,” he said.

Linking each item is a fabric print, available in dozens of colors, featuring the imprint of each of the designers, incorporating elements applied with the ohe kapala, or bamboo stamp, on a triangular grid representing the stars that guided ancient Polynesian travelers. Within the grid are Kanaka‘ole’s stylized mantas, swimming in great numbers that would have been visible to ocean travelers; Sig Zane’s kaula, or canoe lashing; and Kuha‘o Zane’s graphic rendering of the braided rope.

In his own artwork, to be unveiled June 7, Sig Zane contemplated the position of being a “citizen of the window seat.”

“When we fly, everyone always wants that window seat, where they can see what things look like and get another perspective from the air. Taking off and being in the clouds is like being in the cloud of ideas. It gives you that time to be still, clear our minds, meditate and really see what’s out there.”

In The News: Project Runway's Andy South Produces New Line



Photo by Olivier Koning


In this month's issue of Honolulu Magazine, Karin Gallagher writes about local fashion designer Andy Southiphong, better known as Andy South. The article tells of the "lithe, soft spoken and unfailingly polite" 24-year-old designer's Waianae upbringings and his rise to fame during Project Runway last year. More recently, SOUTH by Andy South's Fall 2011 collection debuted in March and will be available for sale at Neiman Marcus at Ala Moana Shopping Center in August.

One particularly interesting part of the article was the mention of South's commitment to human rights in the production of his line. Last year, he made a trip to southern China to personally make sure that the facilities in which his garmets were made were all up to standard. It's that kind of ethic that makes this local boy's popularity even that much more great.

For more about Andy South and his work, read the article in its entirety here.

Project and Process: New Hawaiian Home

The Building Industry Association of Hawaii (BIA), the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), and the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) have teamed up to work on an awesome project to promote green building and living in Hawaii. Called the New Hawaiian Home, this project has gathered some of the leaders in Hawaii's building industry to design and build an energy-, water-, and resource-efficient residential home in Kaimuki, Oahu, all with the intention of educating local contractors and home owners about sustainable building. Amazingly, the home is designed to LEED Platinum and ANSI Silver National Green Building standards, and will also incorporate aquaponics and composting systems, edible/useful landscaping, and solar clothing dryers (aka Hawaiian clothes line).


A) Outdoor Dining, B) Solar Hot Water, C) Solar Photovoltaics, D) Energy Star Appliances, E) Ceiling Fans, F) Whole House Fan, G) Solar Attic Fan, H) Low Flow Water Sense Fixtures, I) Rain Water Harvesting, J) Low Voc Paints, K) Renewable Flooring, L) Low Voc Carpets and Pads, M) FSC Certified Cabinetry, N) Outdoor Covered Lanai, O) Permeable Landscape Swale. Image Source.




Landscape Master Plan | PBR HAWAII & Associates, Inc.

This past Saturday, employees from landscape architecture and land planning firm PBR HAWAII gathered at the home to execute the landscape master plan designed by Native Creatives Stan Duncan, ASLA and Micah McMillen, LEED AP of the firm. The team got down and dirty, installing the sod grass panels, flowers, herbs, and other plants, and stone walkways around the home.

"There was a wonderful spirit of kokua prevalent throughout the collaboration and implementation of the project's landscape," says McMillen. "Several local contractors put the competitive edge aside and worked together to make this happen, along with many of the PBR HAWAII family that came out for a day of fun in the dirt! Their hard work and dedication provides a wonderful opportunity to share with Hawaii's homeowners and future homeowners how their landscape can incorporate many eco-friendly strategies that play a role in creating a more sustainable Hawaii."

Photos by Grant Murakami, PBR HAWAII

The home is scheduled to be completed by June, when it will be ready for open house showings.

Industry Members Open House

Tuesday, June 7,14, 21, and 28

Thursday, June 9, 16, 23, and 30

General Public Open House

Sunday, June 12, July 10, July 17

10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

For more information, contact Karen Nakamura, BIA Executive Vice President at ktn@biahawaii.org, or visit the project's blog here.

In The News: Hale Piihonua

"Team Hawaii" - a group of students, administrators, and faculty from various disciplines at the University of Hawaii, Kapiolani Community College, and Honolulu Community College - has designed a "net-zero" home, one that generates as much energy as it consumes, to compete in the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon this fall. The home is called Hale Piihonua, which means house connected to the land in Hawaiian. Architecture and engineering students came up with the home's design, business students are handling the marketing and fundraising, and culinary students will be preparing a meal from the aquaponics system.

For the full story on Hale Piihonua and Team Hawaii, check out the Star Advertiser article here.

Rendering of Hale Piihonua | Team Hawaii webpage