Fiona Wilson

2 weeks ago | monocle.com | Fiona Wilson

Spare a thought for Hayao Miyazaki, the 84-year-old Japanese anime director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, which has produced such hits as My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away. After decades spent honing his craft and meticulously making his hand-drawn films, frame by frame, Miyazaki discovered that his distinctive style was suddenly reproducible via a new image generator that OpenAI released as an update to ChatGPT last month.

3 weeks ago | monocle.com | Fiona Wilson

Digital printing has stripped the craft from Japanese manga. Meet the typesetters staging a print revolution. You might not have noticed the revolution that's occurred in the world of Japanese manga in the past 15 years - unless you were looking closely. The comic-book art form that traces its roots back to the witty, whimsical images of the great Ukiyo-e woodblock print artists, has moved squarely into the digital world.

2 months ago | monocle.com | Fiona Wilson |Gregory Scruggs |Cyrus Panganiban |Jake Naughton

LBoom towns and bright spots across the world are bucking the trends that others are seeing in the global economy, with undaunted property companies seizing the moment to launch game-changing projects. We speak to some key industry players whose firms are reshaping the future. 1. THE INTREPID CEO Meean DyManila, PhilippinesPark Villas in Metro Manila is on course to become one of the Philippines’ most prestigious addresses.

Nov 21, 2024 | monocle.com | Fiona Wilson |Kohei Take |Andrea Pugiotto

LNot long ago, many were questioning the need to have offices at all – but there’s a growing awareness that proximity to production can help to keep standards high. We visit firms in Japan, Morocco and Italy to see how HQs with in-built factories or labs are keeping staff engaged and improving the products on offer. Big clothing, furniture and design firms today tend to make their products in locations far from where they are conceived.

Nov 30, 2023 | monocle.com | Natalie Theodosi |Claudia Jacobs |Fiona Wilson

LDespite the convenience of online shopping, a new generation of designers, buyers and entrepreneurs are reaffirming the irreplaceable charms of in-person retail. Here are five new outlets that we admire. The joys of going shopping are undisputed: nothing beats the experience of walking into a physical space, taking in its interiors and signature scent, and making a fresh discovery or striking up conversations with fellow customers and staff.