Heima and the Art of Happiness
I was in Heima – the brainchild of ubercool couple, culturati Bong Rojales and designer Rossy Yabut – for their Love2010 event last weekend.
Heima is a lifestyle & home designs store in the center of the creative universe, Cubao X – which by no accident is also home to Rags2Riches.
Love2010 – an art exhibit with corresponding candles, cupcakes, and cotton candy machine – was celebrated in true Heima fashion, which is to say that it was a hyper-real kitsch-kicking experience :
Love2010 instructions for the night
the Art Exhibit
the centerpiece Cotton Candy machine; photo credit www.arlenesy.com
No odd wheel here – (4) couples Lex Reyes & Marielle Nadal, Birdie Salva & Arlene Sy, Heima’s Bong Rojales & Rossy Yabut, Moi with Reese
Now, the reason I can’t help but talk about Heima is that everytime I go inside the place, I just feel an inexplicable sense of joy; Almost as if some unknown happiness buttons were pushed and lights would go up inside my head.
And it really has everything to do with the overall experience and feel of being there – as Reese and I have had the pleasure of being so innumerable times already :
You see, one has to go inside Heima in order to fully appreciate it.
The place is literally a canvass of Rossy’s playful designs coupled with – intended pun on its way – the couple’s eclectic taste. It’s as if every turn, glance, movement you make reveals new eye candy that makes you say ‘oooohhhh nice!!!’
Whether it be Rossy’s happy couch, intriguingly beautiful art & decor, Bong’s lomo collection, Counting Sheep’s wall stickers, etc etc etc - it’s curated happiness-delivery to design enthusiasts at its most unapologetic; a veritable assault on one’s aesthetic sensibilities.
This rumination on Heima and their Art of Happiness actually reminded me of Don Norman – a leading global design thinker who wrote landmark books The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design – and his talk in TED.
Fittingly enough, his presentation is entitled “The 3 Ways that Good Design Makes Me Happy”, and it pretty much elucidates what i’ve been waxing about in this blog post :
