When coming up with design ideas, you never know where your next inspiration will come from.

Hong Kong pop culture is heavily influenced by Japanese and Korean pop culture.  That’s why when we started to notice people in Hong Kong with Superdry shirts everywhere, we didn’t think too much of it.  The quality of their fabrics is great, the dying is expert, and the designs riffing off of vintage Japanese cool coupled with their great choices in colors are all reasons why people love the brand.

If you are curious like me however, I’ve always wondered what the Japanese writing said – initially I just assumed that it was “Superdry” in Japanese.  It was only after discussing with a friend that I learned that the Japanese writing in their signature design has no meaning!  Not only that, Superdry isn’t even a Japanese brand!  It’s from the UK!

I couldn’t believe it!  A British brand that had created an identity leveraging Asian cool with vintage Japanese design and aesthetic.

And the Japanese didn’t even make sense!

As a side note, as a child growing up in the US, it always confused me every time I came back to Asia and saw the English sayings on clothes and in the stationary stores etc.  It was often just a bunch of made up gibberish that made no sense.

Why?!?!

At the very least it should make sense!

That’s when the thought of doing a “super” design hit me.  We often use the word “super” to emphasize what we are saying.

“That was super cute.  ”

“He is super tall. ”

“Her hair is super long.”

It’s a message with a positive tone and something that we could really play around with.  We could combine English and Chinese and also incorporate some cute character graphics.  It would be perfect!  If not perfect, at least it would make sense.

We began to brainstorm different design ideas and came up some really good ones.  We had a lot of fun coming up with different sayings.  We decided to go ahead with a neutral design and a more girly one and ended up settling on Superstar and Supercute because we loved the message.

Before deciding  to go ahead with Superstar though, there were some great ones that we unfortunately discarded.  High among them was this:

Hehehe.  What do you think?  Would you buy a bodysuit with this for your child?

Shopping for kids clothes can be fun and adventurous. There are so many great brands that are making high quality clothes with whimsical designs using fun themes, cute characters and adorably saying.

When our first child was born and we began shopping for clothes for our baby girl however, it quickly became apparent that the selection of high quality baby clothes came primarily from western brands.

Why is that?!?!

That’s when the idea for Ganas Kids first came to us.

As a baby apparel and kids clothing brand that celebrates Asian cultures, we knew that we wanted to incorporate Chinese wording and characters into our designs.  We thought a lot about how to develop this concept in a playful manner.

Our Hou Duckie design is an attempt to infuse Chinese character influence into our graphic designs.  It is a play on words from “hou duc yi” which is “cute” in Cantonese.  You can often hear people commenting “hou duc yi” when they see newborn babies which is why it is a perfect saying for us to develop into our designs.

That Duck is a homonym for the word “duc” worked out fabulously in the design.  It doesn’t hurt that rubber ducks are an iconic childhood (bath) toy….

… and that Hong Kong people love them.

In our initial design, we decided to use the silhouette of the duck body to make sure that there was no confusion about the design of the character.   We played around with the color of the rubber duck but decided to stick with a more traditional bold yellow color which was a strong contrast from the character design.

For the Chinese characters, we decided on a somewhat traditional font to give the graphic a classic feel.

The final design was something that we fell in love with right away.  After placing an initial order for short sleeve bodysuits and tees, we decided to extend the design and include long sleeve items as well.

This design will always hold a special place for us because I think it was the first one that we developed where we saw a real emotional reaction from our customers and they really responded to our designs and our design concept.

What do you think?

Let us know by reaching out to us on FB or via email at nihao@ganaskids.com

One of the great joys of building a budding babies and kidswear brand is hearing from our customers.

We love seeing happy customers and their babies and toddlers.  We love that we can be a small part of your family story.

With this in mind, we have been working on a special treat that we are excited to share!

We have partnered with our friends at Venture Studios, a leading photography studio with roots in the UK, to offer COMPLIMENTARY family photo shoots for select customers.

Venture Studios is a professional photography studio with almost 20 years history including over 10 years in Hong Kong.  They specialize in family portraits that will give you and your family a lifetime of memories.  As you can see, the pictures really are fabulous.

So how do I qualify for the Free Photo Shoot Package?

Simply purchase over HKD 500 in a single order with us, and you will be entitled to a complimentary Venture Photo Experience with Venture Studioes valued at HKD 2,500.

What’s included in the package?

Complimentary packages with total value of HKD 2,500 includes:

1 hour photo session & 1 hour photo review

Professional photo editing experience

One photograph fully framed in a solid wood frame (handmade in UK) 7’’x 5”

Great!  How do I sign up?

For purchases over HKD 500, during checkout in the Order Summary just prior to payment, simply check the box saying “Yes!  I am interested in a complimentary family photo shoot from Venture Studios!”

Be sure that you have registered on our website and that your contact information in your order is correct.  A representative from Venture Studios will contact you within 7 days to schedule an appointment.

We hope you enjoy this amazing offer.  And we would love to see the pictures!  Please send them across!

Happy Shopping!

About Venture Photography

Venture Photography is a world leading contemporary photography company, capturing the stories of families through eye-catching personal art for over 10 years in Hong Kong.  Venture believes photography is not only about the stunning visuals, but the story and idea behind the image. All Ventures’ photographers are BIPP certificated and this makes Venture unique. Venture Studio located in Central & Tsim Sha Tsui.

Note: Ganas Kids and Venture Studios reserve the right to terminate or suspend the promotion or a user’s ability to participate in the promotion at any time for any reason.

Struggling with Christmas gift inspiration?  We hear you!

The holidays are a special time of year filled with family, love, joy and warmth.  It’s an opportunity to reflect and give thanks to the people that matter most in your life.  Gifting is a big part of the holiday tradition.

If you are looking for great gift ideas to help you sift through the clutter this season, there are tons of gift guides available online to help you find fabulous gifts for everyone on your list (we list some for your convenience at the end of this blog).  And while we love shopping, Christmas shopping can sometimes be an unwelcome source of stress.

First there’s the list… 

You’ve got to make sure that everyone one is there and hope that you haven’t forgotten any names.  Hopefully there aren’t a lot of “maybe’s” on there – you know, those people that either you think you should get something for even though you don’t really want to, or those that you think may get you something so you probably should get them something too (although you’re not sure…)

…then there’s the obligatory names  

You know, the people you know you should get something for but either you really don’t know the person that well or you don’t really care for them that much so you don’t know what to get for them.  Maybe just a generic gift?  Or maybe re-gift?  (I didn’t just say that!)

Those aren’t even the difficult ones. 

The difficult ones are the ones that you really care about – the few people for whom you spend hours hunting for the elusive “perfect Christmas gift.”  If you are lucky, you eventually find “it.”  Hopefully “it” is not already sold out.

A-ha!

Only on the rarest occasions do you have an “A-ha!” moment and come across something that calls to you and you think to yourself “this is perfect for [Fill-in name/ relation]!”  It may be big, or it may be small.  It’s most likely a bit unexpected – perhaps you were searching for a gift for someone else at the time.  Perhaps the person who comes to mind wasn’t even on your original list to begin with.

While we can’t help you with the rest of your Christmas shopping, this holiday season, we’d like to offer up one small suggestion.  If on the off chance you do have this “A-ha!” moment while out Christmas shopping, and if you are hesitating because either the gift is a bit more than you were planning to spend, or perhaps the person you are thinking of wasn’t originally on your list, or some other reason… just go ahead.  Buy it.  Even, and maybe especially if it is for someone that you originally weren’t planning on sending a gift to.

Because the holidays are all about the spirit of giving.  And often times giving when it is the least expected is when it is the most meaningful and memorable.

And for those of you who are interested, here are some Christmas shopping guides:

Little Steps Holiday Gift Guide

The HK Hub – The Ultimate Hong Kong Christmas Gift Guide for 2017