Field Notes
Each of us is like a branch on a tree, growing this way and that. Just as there isn’t one right way to grow and be, there isn’t a fixed way to wander in this space. The initials “y” and “y” are turned into branches, mirroring the unique paths we each take to find our own way of being.
Y-shaped branches are everywhere once you start noticing them. No two are the same. They split when they need to, bend around obstacles, and then just keep going. Not because they planned it that way, but because conditions changed. Growth in nature is mostly about responding.
Origin story
In 2016, John C Jay, Global President of Creative at Uniqlo, sent me to meet the head of marketing for their Singapore office. No agenda. No context. Just, “go meet her.” That was it.
The office was in a nondescript building. There wasn’t a reception, just a Fast Retailing logo and a glass door with a keypad.. I buzzed and said, “Hi, this is Felix. I’m here to see Yunying (YY).”
A few minutes later, a smiling face appeared and buzzed me in. She walked me into a tiny meeting cubicle. “Let’s wait for my colleague,” she said. In walked Takada-san, head of Southeast Asia planning.
They handed me an NDA and walked me through what they were about to do. Launch the first Global Flagship Store in Southeast Asia, in Singapore. The directive came straight from Yanai-san, the founder of the brand, and John. I was asked to work with Chris Riley on research and insights, and to serve as creative director for the launch.
The meeting lasted maybe fifteen minutes.
Out of habit, I pulled out my laptop and asked if they’d like to see our portfolio. YY waved it off. “Oh no need, no need. You’re already pre-approved by John and Global HQ.”
I’d been running Anonymous for ten years by then. I was used to the dog-and-pony routine. Still never quite understood it. If you’ve invited someone in, surely you’ve done your homework. But oh well. Part of the game.
YY and I went on to work together on several projects. The Global Flagship launch, its first anniversary, and Uniqlo Wherever, the brand’s first regional campaign. When we started on the Manila flagship, she was involved early again, shaping the brief based on what we’d learned in Singapore.
She left Uniqlo in 2019.
Today, she is a headhunter for brands and agencies, a human design analyst, a mother of two, and somehow still finds time to start a space for people to wander. A place to explore human design charts, tarot readings, or simply sit with the question of what this thing called life is all about.
After she left Uniqlo, I was still working on projects for the brand in Manila and Vietnam. Then the pandemic hit. Usually when life pulls people in different directions, they drift apart. Somehow, we didn’t.
We stayed in touch by sharing books we read, talking about the projects we were working on, and trying to figure out what was next. More than anything, we shared a curiosity about people, and how we adapt and grow, with or in spite of our environment.
She became a collaborator on several of our projects. She worked with us and Yvonne Xu on the Shui and Mu books, and suggested expanding the first into a series around the five elements. When a branding brief comes in at Anonymous, she’s still the first person I think of for a marketer’s bird’s-eye view.
No fixed path
One thing I’ve learned the slow way is that most people come and go. Friends, neighbours, schoolmates, colleagues.
Staying in touch isn’t always easy. People are busy with their own lives, growing in different directions. Common interests you once shared evolve and change, and that’s neither good nor bad. It just is.
Like branches from the same tree, you start close, then reach for different light. Some stay within reach. Others stretch away. Some veer off early. Some take a hard left and disappear.
It’s just growth. Doing what it’s meant to do.
Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous