Art in a book

My brother Zaid designs and I write. It was a just a matter of time that one day, we would work on the same project. That time came in 2003 when Kathy Tan, who was then Executive Director of the Federation of Malaysian Unit Trust Managers (FMUTM), now known as the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia, called me up to talk about producing a coffee-table book to commemorate FMUTM's tenth anniversary. The brief was to design, write and produce the book to a specific theme.

Noting that the unit trust industry was still growing, Zaid and I came up with a theme based on nature. FMUTM liked our proposal to trace its development through art by commissioning six original art-pieces as the creative base to illustrate the concept of growth and potential. These art-pieces served as the book cover and chapter division pages, and during the tenth anniversary gala dinner, they were framed and presented as gifts to VIP guests.

As explained in the book, "the cover art-piece, portraying the abundance and vitality one finds in nature, is reflective of the opportunities available in the unit trust industry. Motifs depicting various stages of growth in plant-life are brought together to illustrate the development cycle. The imaginative use of colours and patterns convey a sense of energy and innovation, elements that are essential for the further development of the industry." The chapter titles carried on with the theme - Chapter 1: Planting the Seed; Chapter 2: Growing the Industry; Chapter 3: Nurturing with Care; Chapter 4: Reaching Beyond; and Chapter 5: Developing Organically.

The book cover

The story of FMUTM's beginnings is conveyed through the juxtaposition of panels of seeds.

The idea of growth is reflected in the dominant use of plant roots in this art-piece.

The arrangement of images and patterns intimate at FMUTM's relative youth.

Flowers and leaves depict the blossoming of FMUTM regionally and internationally.

In the final art-piece, trees are arrayed in a line to depict the counting of FMUTM's achievements. The colour blue comes vividly in the picture to indicate the commitment required to bring the Federation beyond the horizon.

As in the corporate history book project of the Commerce Asset Group, working on FMUTM's tenth anniversary coffee-table book was a pleasure. Zaid and I worked with a small team headed by Kathy Tan, touching base occasionally with then President of FMUTM, Dato' Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi. Approvals were quick and the team was receptive to our ideas. Zaid and I, and more importantly FMUTM, were happy with the end result (by the way, the colours of the pages above are more vibrant in the actual book). One thing about the book that could have been better was the quality of the archival photos, which were not taken by professional photographers but understandably by staff members present at the various events. 

Art in the family

I believe there's an underlying creative streak in my family (in the wider sense of the word) that breaks out more overtly for some while for others, it remains something to dabble with. My late father loved to draw and his younger brother, my uncle Ibrahim Abdul Hamid, is adept with the drawing pencil and has a way with words as well. My cousin Kamaruddin Abdullah not only is great at drawing but he plays the piano by ear and was a member of The Grim Preachers in the 1970s.

My younger sister Zakiah Omar, or Noni as we call her at home, is an amazing example. She did her undergraduate studies in quantity surveying in Sydney, Australia (because she was a whizz at maths in school), but chucked that to become a journalist when she returned home. In 1990, she went to Berlin, Germany, on a Goethe Institute cultural exchange programme, little knowing that she would meet her future husband Hanno Baethe, a professor in videography, there. Together, they forged a partnership in producing interactive media. Noni's success in her field led her to be offered a professorship at Konrad Wolf, Germany's film and television university, where she lectured in German.

Zaid Omar, my youngest brother, knew from the start that he was going to be a graphic designer. So after university, a short stint in Berlin and some time with Freeform Design, he set up his own design firm, Milk Design, with his old-time friend, Wei Shein. Their design work is excellent and they are continually busy. On top of that, the two are behind techno group byaduoorgroup and have produced a CD.

In 2002, Zaid designed a very striking poster, Misconception, for an international exhibition overseas.

Sister Zawiyah Omar (Oyah), who opted for early retirement, got her hands into decorative painting, examples of which are now found around her home. She even painted a screen for our mum's new house. By the way, I think she takes orders.

Yours truly did spend some time painting away as well but, sad to say, my paints are somewhere in my store-room at the moment.

I have no doubt that my brother Zaidan (Idan), who lives in Kuching, and my half-siblings, Zaihan (who's in the architectural field) and Zurina, have a creative streak in them too. 

Beautiful books

I have posted earlier that I love books. I also appreciate books that are beautifully designed and well produced. For beautiful books, one of the best places to get them is The Folio Society. Their goal, since their first books in 1947, is "to furnish readers with beautiful and authoritative editions of great literary works. The Folio Society brings together a worldwide community of book-lovers who appreciate the quality and craftsmanship of fine editions."


I had been a collector of their books and, much as I'd like to continue doing so, I've had to refrain from adding more to my bookshelves, now that I'm eking out a living as a writer. From time to time, I lovingly touch, bring out and read books in the sets that I have. For details on the authors, please click on their names below the pictures.

John Steinbeck

William Faulkner

Henry James

E M Forster

Graham Greene

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Jane Austen

The pictures of the books speak for themselves, don't they? One blogger wrote that The Folio Society's "editorial standards are the envy of a great many other publishers. And its commitment to the tradition of finely illustrated fiction is without peer amongst most modern trade publishers."

"There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It's like falling in love."

- Christopher Morley, author and journalist (1890-1957)

I Am a Cat

I like Japanese writing - it's sparse, sparing and stylish. When I was browsing through a bookshop one day in 2006, I came across a book I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume. Being a cat-lover, the title intrigued me. As I hadn't read any of Soseki's books, I flipped to the first page (I'd mentioned in an earlier post that, when deciding to buy a book or not, I'd read the first paragraph to see if I like the style).

This particular book began, "I am a cat. As yet I have no name. I've no idea where I was born. All I remember is that I was miaowing in a dampish dark place when, for the first time, I saw a human being." The book went home with me that day - a 638-page book of three volumes in one.

I Am a Cat is a satire of middle-class Japanese society. The wearisome and worrisome ways of humans are related through the eyes of a cat who has no name but who moves freely around and about his human family and the neighbourhood. He observes of the master of the house, "I hear he is a schoolteacher. As soon as he comes home from school, he shuts himself up in the study for the rest of the day; and he seldom emerges. The others in the house think that he is terribly hard-working. He himself pretends to be hard-working. But actually he works less hard than any of them think." He doesn't like the children of the family much, which is not surprising - "When the fancy takes them, they hang me upside-down, they stuff my face into a paper-bag, they fling me about, they ram me into the kitchen range." 

The book, written in 1905-1906, mocks the aping of Western culture and pretentiousness of Japanese during the Meiji period, a time when the country was going through modernisation and an industrial revolution. It started out as a short story, which grew to become the first chapter of a long tale. 

Soseki (1867-1916) was a teacher himself, teaching English after graduating from Tokyo University in 1893. He also wrote and gained early success with his novels, prompting him to leave his teaching work, which he was dissatisfied with, to become literary editor of the Asahi Shimbun in 1907.   

The book requires a high degree of concentration to go through. As such, it won't appeal to those who prefer light reading. But it's witty and humourous and does make you think about how foolish human beings must appear to other creatures. I wonder what our two cats must think about us...

Chomel

Belang

The story of a bank

I received a call from Joe Fernandez late this afternoon. I haven't seen him for ages and he called because he would like to buy a copy of Hajj - The Humbling Journey. God willing, we'll meet up next week. Who, you might ask, is Joe Fernandez? Well, without him, I wouldn't have written Of People and Principles - The Commerce Asset Story.

In the book, published in 2003, I acknowledged Joe as "my partner in this endeavour,... a conscientious researcher and effective project coordinator." Joe, who had worked at Commerce Asset and knew it intimately, was asked by its management to spearhead the publication of the Group's corporate history. He needed a writer and, through people he knew, principally Dato' Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi, he found me.

The book took about two years to see the light of day, during which time Joe and I worked closely together in conceptualising the book, interviewing key people, going over archival documents and photographs, revising and redrafting chapters. I truly enjoyed working on the book - the management was committed to it and went out of its way to ensure that resources and people were made available to us. But the best part of it was that a small team of three top management staff was assigned to approve various aspects of the project as we went along. There was no red tape, it was smooth going, and I could write the story as I saw it.

It was fantastic the way everyone whom I interviewed opened up, providing me with never-before-heard anecdotes, sharing private conversations, and giving behind-the-scene insights into how decisions were made in the boardroom and executive office. 

The result is a story that began with Bian Chiang Bank, a one-branch, family-owned bank in Kuching, Sarawak, which metamorphosed in 1978 into Bank of Commerce after its purchase by the Fleet Group. The book then traced the Bank's growth through the economic recession of the 1980s, the Asian financial crisis of the late-1990s and its merger with United Asian Bank in 1991 and then Bank Bumiputra Malaysia in 1999, to become Bumiputra-Commerce Bank. There is also a chapter on how Commerce Asset was able to fend off being a takeover target in 1998. A parallel story in the book is that of Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB).

The Commerce Asset Group and Bumiputra-Commerce Bank are now no more. In their place is the CIMB Group, a regional universal bank. How that has come about would make another riveting story.