Land on Nuandao: Holiday Pop-up Store Today in Gulou

Nuandao first hit our radar last month, when it drew massive hipster crowds to its creative party of pop-up stores. The bilingual Beijing-based design blog has been quietly operating for about six months, publishing regular content on local brands, designers and events, while racking up quite a loyal fan base (350,000 followers on China’s Tumblr, DianDian, to be exact).

Yesterday, Nuandao announced its official soft launch to the public for the first time. The new-and-improved website also features e-commerce services. According to the press release, we can expect a carefully curated selection of well-designed products, some exclusive to Nuandao and “handpick[ed] for their authenticity, originality and style.”

To celebrate, Nuandao will be hosting a “Christmas Concept Store” at Jam Bar today from 2-6pm. Participating stores and designers include Brand Nu (environmentally-friendly clothing), Mega Mega Vintage (vintage wares), Triple-Major (avant-garde garb), Day by Day (wall clocks), 100s and 1000s (jewelry) and more.

For those unable to attend, the wares will be available on Nuandao.com for Saturday and Sunday only.

We managed to grab one of the founders, Natasia Kawi, for a quick chat on what we can expect from this budding resource for the local design community.

What inspired you and [co-founder] Crystal to establish Nuandao?
We came to China [from the US] to create a nexus between design and tech, a space where both our picky selves and our designer friends would be content using.

What were you doing before Nuandao?
We were working in creative fields, grew up passionate about tech and coincidentally wanted to create this idea. A mutual friend linked us together and we started working together in Beijing this April.

What qualities do you look for in the subjects you choose to feature?
We pick designers and products whose work are fresh, original and of good quality. A lot of the designers we select are through word-of-mouth. We have a lot of friends who are artists and designers that recommend us to other talents. But being digitally savvy ourselves, many times it is through scouring the Internet and various communities in Douban, DianDian and even Weibo.

Nuandao’s site: http://nuandao.com
Nuandao’s blog: http://nuandao.diandian.com/archive

Christmas Concept Store. Dec 10. 2-6pm. Jam Bar. Daily 7pm-2am. 2/F, Bldg C, 206 Gulou Dongdajie (across the street from Mega Mega Vintage), Dongcheng District (6424 8218) 东城区鼓楼东大街206号C座2层 (6424 8218)

Photos: Courtesy of Nuandao