Steve Funk's Glass Sculpture

Steve Funk

The gorgeous piece of glass in the picture at left was designed by Steve Funk. He and I met at one of my store appearances in Florida several months ago. Can you believe he designed this piece using the colors in my business card as inspiration? Wow! It never occurred to me that some day, my designs would inspire this type of artwork. Thanks, Steve for sending me this gift. Your talent inspires me!

Here is what the back of my business card looks like. You can really see the link between Steve’s sculpture and my design!

Jhane's Business Card (reverse side)

Check back soon – we will be posting a longer article about Steve and his design process.

A sample of my new Rhedux eyewear

The first is Rhedux. Like my menswear Rhedux collection, this line is environmentally responsible—a perfect match for customers who want to reduce their impact on the earth without sacrificing look and quality.

Rhedux has three new styles. Each uses 30% recycled acetate for the temples, and has an inlay of recycled wood pulp (used in the paper industry).

Who knew wood pulp could look so elegant?

The “demo” lenses (the ones in the frames when you try them on in the store) are made using polylactic acid—a biodegradable plastic from renewable resources such as corn. These lenses break down into carbon and water when incinerated (Whole Foods makes their juice cartons and containers out of the same material). I’m pleased that Kenmark has begun using these lenses in nearly all of their new styles, because millions of those demo lenses are discarded every year, and up to now, they have been made from indestructible plastic (and most still are).

The second new line is called Interchange. Each frame comes with three temples that can be switched out for a different look. There are currently five shapes available, with more in development. These are my new favorites because my doggies always chew on the temples! Now I have spares – and can even color coordinate with my clothes.

Selection of Interchange temples

Each front shape comes in one front color and five different lens shapes (the optician can put any of the five different shaped lenses in the front piece).  Each frame comes with three color coordinated temples that can be switched out for a different look: a translucent color, one of my pattern designs, and one patterned acetate temple that is thinner in profile than the other two.

Patented Interchange hinge

The interchange system uses a patented endpiece/ spring hinge system with a release mechanism that makes it extremely easy to switch out the temples. To see more about my new Rhedux and Interchange line of eyewear, visit my section of the Kenmark Optical website at: jhanebarnes.com/kenmark

Pulse Pen by Livescribe

Recently, I was telling Yamashita, a friend of my husband’s (and the largest supplier of Japanese noodles in the U.S.) about all the notes I took at a recent Tony Robbins business seminar. I said my hand hurt from all the note-taking! He told me I needed a “smart pen.” He went into his bag, pulled his out, and gave it to me! He said it was the best thing ever and just what I needed (that he would get another for himself).

I’ve had it for about a month now and he is right! It’s just like my iPhone – I don’t know how I ever managed without it.

It records audio, but small audio recorders have been around for a long time, so that alone isn’t anything new. What makes this insanely different and great is that as you take notes, the pen links your notes with the audio it recorded as you jotted, so your notes are connected with the audio recording. Later, as you review your notes, the pen will play back the audio that’s tied to each of your notes. In other words, it’s a structured recording that you don’t have to fast forward through, or search! You just point the pen at your notes, and you get the audio snippet that goes with that particular note.

The pen uses special paper that comes in a spiral notebook (that doesn’t cost any more than regular paper). Functions are printed on the bottom of each page: record, pause, and stop. Each page also has a calculator and records the date and time notes were taken. In a meeting, I just hit the record button and start taking notes. Those notes can just be an outline because the pen will sync what its recording with what I’m writing down. When the topic changes, I just write down another heading. After the meeting is over, I just touch the pen tip to any of the headings and the audio that was happening at that time starts playing!

I’ve used it to record important meetings: sales training, line introductions, sensitive license negotiations, and more. You know how you get into a great meeting with a lot of enthusiastic people talking at once and you can’t keep track of all the conversations or possibly write it all down? Well, the great thing about the Pulse Pen is that it can record it all. I plug the ear phones into the pen while I’m on the train going home and replay the meeting and hear all that I missed! As I listen, I’m reminded about all the things that I promised to do – I can pause the recording and take action on the spot.

Of course, it’s not always convenient to take notes. Recently, at a lunch meeting, I was negotiating a very important contract. Taking notes would have been distracting. But, I was talking about percentages and royalty payments – things I needed to document. The room was so noisy, I could barely hear the person who was talking so I was worried about what I might have missed. After the meeting, I plugged the ear phones into the pen, and I heard the conversation even more clearly than when i was there in person! While I was listening to the playback, I jotted down a few notes – and the pen synced the existing audio to the new notes I was taking…hmmmm…how did it do THAT!

The microphone that is built into the pen is great! It works for regular meetings, and even phone conversations! Recently, when discussing those contract negotiations on the phone with my husband, I had my iPhone on speaker. I wanted to make sure I captured all of his thoughts, so I held the pen up close to the phone. When I listened to the playback (and took notes), the sound quality (through the 3D earphones) was even better than the original phone conversation! The 3D earphones work for large conferences.

This incredible pen connects to my computer and loads all the notes and audio into a very simple software application. The notes that have accompanying audio appear in green and the notes with no audio are in black. I can send exported audio to friends and co-workers. I can search electronically through all my pages of notes. The software on my computer keeps every page separate and numbered just like in the real notebook.

I recently had an important strategy meeting for the launch of my Spring 2010 collection. Some of my staff could not attend the meeting. I now have that audio and my notes that I can send to them instead of having to repeat everything that took place at the meeting. They get to hear who said what and EXACTLY in what context – and they can access my notes to get my thoughts.

Did I mention I don’t know how I ever managed without it?

You can learn more about Pulse Pen from their website: http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen

Jhane and Makoto

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I’m taking advantage of some downtime to strategize for the future. I’m looking through designs I’ve created over the last few years that never made it into production. And I’m reflecting on why they dropped by the wayside.  A lot of them are ones that guys would look great in.  So what happened?

My fashions are mostly sold in stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Saks, and smaller specialty stores.  These stores have their own ideas about what will sell, and those ideas influence what they buy from me.  What happens is that my customers only see what stores buy.  I actually design two or three times as many things as make it to market.  So the stores are a huge filter between me and my customers.

Over the years, the stores and the fashion industry have also defined me as someone who makes crazy, mathematically inspired, wildly patterned shirts.  For this reason, stores tend to buy my most special and unique pieces, the ones that stand out for being exciting and different.

I’m not complaining!  It’s fun do design these pieces. I’m never bored!

But I fear that I may have let down the “regular guy” dressing for the “regular day.”

That is, I think there are a lot of guys who like the style and quality of my shirts (and pants, sweaters, socks, and jackets!), but might find some of my more artistic designs too bold for everyday wear.

I like my “special” stuff and would not dream of creating a line without shirts like “Dentrite,” or my new line of digital prints.

I also like the challenge of making that “deceptively simple” shirt.  The one that, at first glance, looks like just a regular shirt – but as you look at it more closely, you see the complex weave or interesting texture or subtle mixing of colors.  I like designs that slowly pull you in.

I promise to never be the designer who puts an emblem on a polo shirt and calls it a day!  But I will certainly make interesting shirts that are both easy to wear and fascinating at the same time.

So, that’s my weekend!  I am literally being a critic of my own work, analyzing how I can create a line of menswear that has a more rounded selection, appealing to a wider group of guys. I always want to design for that artistic guy who likes to be on the fringe, *and* that sophisticated guy who appreciates good design that is more subtle, while still being very special.

I was supposed to appear at the Saks store today in Palm Beach Gardens to meet clients who wear my clothes!… but my flight was cancelled and no flights on ANY airline were available! There were thunder storms in NY yesterday, I heard. I missed the last day of the seminar too!