J A N U A R Y 0 5
Okaysamurai.com launches with their red/black/grey 2005 redesign. Eugene comments on the current state of popular music. Mike lambasts Ashlee Simpson and claims to be an expert on Pop Tarts. Dave is mentioned in Step Inside Design magazine and begins his internship at Iconologic. Ex-roommate Tammer writes in response to an editorial cartoon Dave drew for Environmental Defense.
"How can I have some more if I haven't had anything yet?" "You're killin' me, Smalls!"
Sorry to contradict you, Dave, but you're insulting the all-time best Pop Tart flavor ever: S'mores. You have to eat the sides first, so what's left is mostly marshmallow, with a little bit of chocolate in the middle. But if you haven't tried it, you should - declaring a Pop Tart "best flavor ever" without tasting S'mores is like a Wutang Killer Bees concert without the ODB...
Monday, January 31 at 7:35 PM
Three Things That Rock
1) Cinnamon Roll Pop Tarts. The best Pop Tarts flavor ever? You bet (sorry Apple Cinnamon, you have been dethroned).
2) Feng Zhu. Check his site out. One of the best concept artists out there. I wish I could draw half as well as this guy.
3) Green Day's American Idiot. This is probably the best album I've heard in the past five years. Yes, even better than Yo-Yo Ma.
at 2:16 PM
Iconologic
Today I accepted an internship offer at Iconologic, an excellent Atlanta-based brand design firm (their work includes cool, high-profile stuff like the branding of the Torino 2006 Olympic Games). It's an insanely exciting opportunity and will undoubtedly be an invaluable learning experience. Juliet D'Ambrosio, one of the creative directors there, was an instructor of mine two quarters ago. There's a bit of a quick turnaround - work begins on Tuesday! So I will be transitioning out of Imagine Design in the next few weeks, which has been a fantastic job and given me one of my best friends down here in Lisa Reynolds. I feel fortunate and blessed to be exposed to such incredible opportunities...and I owe it all to Portfolio Center. Man I love this place.
Friday, January 28 at 2:45 PM
I Went For A Walk On A Winter's Day
Well well, things have been exciting lately. Hank scheduled his class to meet three times this week, which has left little room for much of anything else. During class today, we discussed what the most cliche annual report concept would be: the metaphor of a tree with an accompanying message about the "Leaves of Change." After mentioning that "all the leaves are brown", our class spontaneously began to belt out an early morning a-cappella rendition of California Dreamin' that was not to be missed.
Here's a short movie (Quicktime, 10.7 MB, 2:26) of a few recent PC parties thrown by Katie and Anne Marie.
Wednesday, January 26 at 2:23 PM
Narrowcasting
Hank sent out an interesting link this afternoon: "The Persuaders" is an episode of the PBS show Frontline dedicated to the ever-changing realm of branding and advertising. Click here to watch the 90-minute program (in six segments). It's exceptionally well done...anyone remotely interested in advertising or consumer culture should check it out.
Thursday, January 20 at 10:33 PM
Music, Superman, and Peter Griffin.
I totally forgot how to make posts on this site, but I just sent out an email to the guys that I wanted to post and dave remembered my username for me. Thanks Dave, Yo-Yo Ma is my hero and you do good impressions of Ben Park.
Anyways, I wanted to vent here on the current music scene, so here's an updated and revised edition on my analysis of Music 2005 - Starting the Year without a Bang!
I just had a revelation about the recent age of music that is 2005, while listening to the radio (R.I.P. 99.1 Whfs). If you can all agree, it sucks more than falling over in a public outhouse. I swear, don't you guys think that there's nothing really out there anymore. Bands are just recycling the same old crap over and over again. I feel like artists are just getting lazy or using someone else's stuff to gain fame (ahem, Yes, I'm talking to you Miss Ashley Simpson). Yes, we are downloading their music, but we only do it cause the whole album sucks more than spaghetti day in elementary school (I swear, one time I puked it up during 3rd grade lunch and covered it with a napkin, and I was none the wiser)! If you can right some more decent songs per cd, I know I'd buy it. But I realized something as I heard some songs on the radio. There's always a certain trend where a band thinks a word is so cool they have to use it in a song. Actually I think I just got annoyed cause I heard 2 bands who have songs that not only sound the same but have the same word in the title, don't ya just hate that...
Here is my Analysis:
1. The word, "Cold." Breaking Benjamin - the song: "So Cold," and Crossfade - the song: "Cold."
I mean, C'mon! granted, yes, they may have come up with this on their own and it just so happened that they both came up with songs about people being cold, but c'mon! Write about something else or use different words. I mean, the songs aren't half bad, but it just made me hate them cause they sound the same.
2. Songs about "Superman." There are about a handful of songs that bands have made about this American Iconic Super Hero. Here are the ones I have come up with: Spin Doctors - Pocket full of Kryptonite, Our Lady Peace - Superman's Dead, 3 Doors Down - Kryptonite, Five for Fighting - Superman (it's not easy).
What is it about superman that makes people want to write songs about him. I mean, if it's been done, it's been done. I know as current and former artists, we always try to write songs about original stuff. I mean c'mon, no one's ever written another song about farm animal puppets and that's the way it should remain.
There's probably a very good explanation for all this, but I'm just venting about the music industry to you guys for 2 reasons: 1. I know you guys are the only ones that would understand and I had to just tell someone, it was killing me to keep it in, and 2. I would have put this on the okaysamurai site, but I forgot how, which is no longer true, cause I just did, so please void reason #2.
But the good thing is that: FAMILY GUY WILL BE RETURNING TO NETWORK TELELVISION!! Dude you don't know how excited I am about this. And afterwards, the premiere of AMERICAN DAD will follow, also from the creators of FAMILY GUY. May 1st, 9:00 on Fox, the folks that brought you the critically acclaimed "Who's Your Daddy" (which was by far the worst reality show idea ever). So, mark your calendars.
at 8:13 AM
Share Your Stories
Studies show that 75% of average/healthy weight women think they are overweight, and that women account for 90% of all eating disorders. Contemporary life tells us that a "beautiful" woman must be slender, well-proportioned, and wear tight-fitting and revealing clothes.
I'm developing a book about female self-image. The hope is that by collecting a diverse group of stories, a realistic/non-filtered picture of the pressures to look and feel "beautiful" will be created, showing just how much of an impact this has on everyday life.
The book will only be as strong as the content provided. I'm asking women of all ages, body types and ethnicities to please share your individual stories anonymously on this website:
http://okaysamurai.com/image.html
The stories will remain anonymous and be used solely for print and interactive versions of the book. Feel free to pass the site onto family and friends.
Thank you for your time and help.
Tuesday, January 18 at 10:46 PM
Popular Science With Professor Farid
I should have known that my old Baltimore roommate and Teach For America partner-in-crime Tammer Farid would have something to say about last Friday's editorial cartoon and accompanying article about nine auto makers suing the state of California. After all, this is the guy who called me outside one day to see how well he had parallel parked. But in the interest of fairness, Tammer brings up some interesting counterpoints to the article. With his permission, I'm posting the email he sent to me. If you read the Environmental Defense article and Tammer's response, you'll be able to formulate your own educated opinion and impress all of your friends. So I guess this counts as a letter to the editor? Sha-weet! Keep them coming!
Hi Dave - In response to the editorial listed on your website regarding California clean-air laws and the automakers fighting them, I'd like to offer a few thoughts.
First off, contrary to the reactionary author of the column, the automakers in question are not opposed to clean air. No one is, except perhaps the oil lobby. However, there is a serious problem with the most recent round of CARB regulations (the California Air Resources Board). Basically, it's a matter of politicos undertaking a bunch of hand-waving and fear-mongering, and the regulations are uninformed by basic chemistry and physics principles. Let's take a look.
We must remember that automotive pollution consists of a few major players, of which only a couple are considered greenhouse gases. They are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxides (NO, NO2), water vapor, hydrocarbons [CxH(2x+2)]. With the exception of CO2 and water, these are all byproducts of combustion resulting from incomplete or inefficient combustion. Since the best internal combustion engines are around 40% efficient--meaning 40% of the chemical energy in gasoline is converted to mechanical motion, and the rest generates heat--there is clearly a pollution problem. The catalytic converter was invented to reduce hydrocarbon and NOx emissions, which it does by processing any fuel that gets through the engine unburnt. It is a marvelous piece of equipment that works quite well, easily proven by comparing one new 1975 car with one new 2005 car ... in 30 years, NOx emissions have dropped to about 0.1% of their pre-catalytic converter levels. CO levels have dropped commensurately due to emissions technology currently in widespread use.
However, CARB now wants to limit CO2 production. The basic combustion process is this:
O2 + fuel* --> CO2 + H2O
*Fuel refers, in this case, to a hydrocarbon of some kind, whether it's glucose in the body or gasoline in your car's motor. As you can see, the amount of CO2 produced is directly proportional to the amount of work you want your car to do. All animals produce CO2, as do power plants and every type of machinery that isn't nuclear-powered. An exception is a machine powered by hydrogen fuel:
O2 + H2 --> H2O ; therefore the only emission is water. This is the reason for all of the hype about hydrogen combustion (BMW) or hydrogen fuel cells (GM, Ford, Honda) ... the only tailpipe emission is a little harmless steam. So why aren't we driving hydrogen cars?
It's about getting hydrogen in the first place. It doesn't exist appreciably in nature in its molecular (H2) form. Hydrogen is a little molecular ho, and it likes to copulate with all sorts of stuff. Hydrocarbons, water, ammonia and urea, silicates (a component of many minerals) ... you name it, it's probably got some hydrogen bound to it. These pairings are energetically favorable, which means to break them and isolate hydrogen in gas or liquid H2 form, you have to add energy. That energy comes from (you guessed it!) burning coal or natural gas to produce electricity, which is used to separate hydrogen from its oxygen neighbors in water, or its carbon neighbors in gasoline. So you burn hydrocarbons to isolate hydrogen, which you pump into a motor and burn to produce water. Turns out that this two-step process is LESS efficient, in terms of pollution/mile, then just burning the hydrocarbons in the motor in the first place. So for the short term, that's not a viable option. In a moment I'll discuss a new area of research that I was involved with this past semester that could be the way of the future for hydrogen fuels.
CARB wants to limit CO2 emissions, which can only be accomplished by burning less fuel. This is a new twist on an old dance, and one that failed quite miserably. In the early 90's, CARB hailed the arrival of ZEVs (Zero Emissions Vehicles, i.e. electric cars). The name is, as most political names are, a misnomer. Electricity is mostly generated by the combustion of fuels. So the ZEV is really a SEEV--Somewhere-Else Emissions Vehicle. To comply with the outrageous CARB requirements that a percentage of all vehicle sales in SoCal be ZEV, GM built the EV-1. They couldn't sell them, even below cost with heavy government subsidies and tax benefits to purchasers. After the EV-1 and, later, an electric RAV-4 from Toyota limped off showroom floors for several years, CARB realized it had created an unattainable goal and backed down. Turns out consumers won't give up convenience and performance for the environment--a theme that, we will see, recurs frequently. The latest and best EVs only traveled about 90 miles on a charge, 70 miles if you went above 55 mph or so. They need to be recharged nearly daily, and with Cali's imported electricity costing above the national average, this becomes an expensive proposition.
Besides, no one thought of the other environmental impacts, one that is still an issue with today's hybrid cars. Batteries pose three problems: 1) They are heavy, which makes the cars that use lots of them heavy, thereby increasing their energy requirements. 2) They contain hazardous materials such as heavy metals and strong acids. 3) They have a finite lifespan. What will we do when hybrid cars become the norm, and in 10 years there are millions of tons of nickel-metal-hydride batteries building up in landfills? Who will work (safely) to repair cars whose electric motors generate 800 volts? The car will become disposable, introducing yet another set of environmental bugaboos.
But back to CARB and CO2. It is asinine to force automakers to comply with laws that the most modern technology can't yet achieve. The automotive market is a major pillar supporting the economy's ceiling; forcing a significant number of large companies into unprofitability is not a recipe for long-term health. Improvements can be made, but legislation should be incremental in nature and these sorts of draconian measures should be avoided. Automobiles have been crippled three times in the last 30 years, and the cost to consumers have been huge. In the 70s, the concept of emission controls was introduced--a good thing. However, it took a few years for technology to catch up and in the interim, consumers had horribly unreliable cars with overheating emissions equipment causing cracked heads and extremely high repair costs. In the '80s, OBD-I (On-Board Diagnostics, the advent of the "check engine" light) increased electronic complexity of cars, but not to a huge degree. But then 1996 saw the advent of OBD-II, the building of myriad emissions-testing centers, and another round of required equipment that is difficult or impossible to repair, adds hundreds of pounds of wiring and electronics to cars, and is used as an excuse to fine drivers even more for being "out of compliance."
So, what do I propose? There are several simpler, cheaper, and drastically more effective ways to reduce pollution, and they won't cripple the automotive industry and the thousands of small supplier companies that live and breathe by maintaining automotive contracts.
1) Don't go after carmakers for CO2.
CO, NOx, and O3 (ozone) are the major problems, not CO2. And carmakers have done an excellent job of reducing emissions of these gases to mere thousandths of what they once were. Instead of bearing down more on them, let's get other sources. First, powerplants in many states can purchase pollution "credits" from cleaner powerplants, which allow them to spew greater than the legal limit of pollutants. This needs to end. Next, instead of punishing carmakers for building cars that burn a lot of gas--which they build because they sell, ever count the SUVs on your commute?--give a tax break to consumers who purchase clean cars. This happens to a small extent with hybrids and natural gas fleet vehicles, but why ignore 40-mpg Civics and 50-mpg Jetta TDi? Perhaps encourage lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles by crediting cars that weigh less than 3,000 lbs and have an engine displacement of less than 2 liters. With modern engine technology, such a car would make greater than 45-50 mpg--better than the hybrids in real-world driving, and cheaper in terms of technology.
2) Get rid of the tax breaks for SUVs.
Long ago, the government initiated a tax break for purchasers of trucks for business. This was to make it possible for farmers and construction crews to buy necessary equipment. The credit applies to any vehicle with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating over 6,000 lbs. It's no coincidence that the Porsche Cayenne has a GVWR of 6,006 lbs ... many "savvy" folks are using that credit to purchase luxury SUVs for personal use. Yep, that's your tax dollars paying for a yuppie lawyer's Range Rover. Get all of those yuppies in a Saab 9-2X (dollars to GM for the flag-wavers) where they belong, and you'd see an instant doubling in their fuel efficiency.
3) Invest money in real, functional mass transit systems in urban areas.
Simply reducing gridlock would allow the cars in existence to operate at peak efficiency, greatly reducing emissions. HOV lanes are a good workaround for this, in the short-term. However, the image-driven California consumer eschews "proletariat" modes of transport, such as trains. It is little-known that LA has a subway. Its efficacy is totally hamstrung because Beverly Hills refuses to allow the rails to pass through its borders. Again, when push comes to shove, image comes before environment. Everyone wants "someone else" to make the sacrifice.
4) Use the best technology for the job.
Roadside tailpipe "sniffers" exist which can sense pollution from passing cars, then snap a pic of the license plate and send a summons to the offending driver/owner. This would target only the gross polluters, and save the cost and time needed to test every car annually. What was California's response to the onset of this technology a few years ago? ... Yep, they banned it. Less money in the government coffers that way. Why sniff and target polluters when you can charge each person $50/year for a smog test? Environmental soundness be damned--you'll find that most laws regarding the automobile serve the "greater" purpose of filling government pockets. Likewise, the highly efficient Smart cars are illegal in the US, and our diesel fuel is too high in sulfur to take advantage of the newest, cleanest diesel technology in Europe. Who wouldn't want to drive a new BMW 330d with 280 hp ... and get 45 mpg on the highway? Some laws here counteract progress in a big way.
5) Make efficiency sexy.
Kudos to Toyota, Honda, and VW for advertising greenness and making mpg cool. (Toyota with the Scion, Honda with the Accord Hybrid, and VW with its diesels.) Now, we just have to get ballers and hip-hoppers into a Prius ... Ed Begley isn't reaching the kids at home. Financial incentives are always sexy, though--see above. Educating buyers about the long-term effects would help, too.
Does this let the automaker off the hook? No way--if the consumer sees a real, immediate benefit in trading in that Suburban for an efficient sedan, they'll vote with their dollars. And automakers want those dollars. In short, we should focus on creating a market that demands fuel efficiency and cleanliness, and then let competition do the rest. You can be damn sure that millions of former-SUV buyers clamoring for fuel-efficient, lightweight cars would force automakers into developing them--and fast. We all want cleaner air, but we must consider the true cost/benefit scenarios before enacting laws that cripple industry for little real-world effect.
If you're still reading, congratulations--it was long. As a brief reward, I'll give a bit of info on that research I mentioned way back at the top. A grant has been submitted to the Department of Energy seeking funds to research a solar-powered, bacteria-based source of hydrogen gas. I can't say more here, but I was proud to work on a project that, in a few years, could have very real benefits--production of hydrogen without the use of electricity or fossil fuels.
Thanks for taking a look, and enjoy that next bus ride.
-tammer farid, certifiable gearhead who walks to school every day
'87 BMW 535is (27 mpg highway, not bad for 18-years-old and 240,000 miles)
'85 VW GTI (2400 lbs, 100 hp, still fun to drive)
'80 pair of legs that get me most places, most of the time--even car nuts can be environmentalists!
Sunday, January 16 at 10:13 PM
Not For Fans of Carbon Monoxide
Click here to check out the editorial cartoon I just drew for Environmental Defense. It was a fun project for a worthy cause...make sure to sign the letter at the bottom if you agree with the points raised by the article.
I'm hooked on Bravo's Project Runway. My predictions are that Austin's days are numbered after that teal wedding dress disaster; that Kevin, Jay and Kara Saun will be the final three; and that Heidi Klum and her accent will remain hot.
Friday, January 14 at 10:33 PM
Yo-Yo, Why Do You Rock So Hardcore?
Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is an amazing album. Lately I've gone on a symphonic music kick because I'm working on a soundtrack for Cadence, which I hope will quickly add a more professional and epic atmosphere to the story. Morricone is a famous Italian film composer, and Yo-Yo Ma is of course the best cello player since Eugene Jung's "Raining In LA" performance on Okay Samurai's first album. It's two masters of their respective crafts working together to produce something unique and entertaining.
Take track 12, "Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. As the only piece of Morricone's I had heard before this album, it has been forever emulated and commercialized as a stereotypical western theme. Yet this new arrangement with Yo-Yo Ma playing counterpoint is fresh, exciting and accessible. No movement lasts more than five minutes, although usually several are intertwined into suites (such as the "Brian DePalma Suite" with the main theme from Casualties of War and the death theme from The Untouchables). The music is deep and complex enough that I'm still surprised by it after about two dozen listens.
Often movie soundtracks divide purists. Many will argue that the John Williams of the world are selling out, focusing on bold themes without much innovation or development. To me, soundtracks are the spiritual successors to Wagner's operas; music that tells a story to compliment visuals, but can be just as strong independently as well. Movies may confine emotions to a specific timeline, yet it's an interesting challenge for composers...I think Hans Zimmer's work on The Last Samurai fits the themes of that movie perfectly.
So yeah, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is an exceptional album. It's certainly not for everyone; for the most part it's slow and subtle. There are no blaring trumpets or booming timpani. But cheesy it's not. The treatment and progression of the underlying themes are well worth multiple listens. (Okay Samurai Grade: A)
Quick notes: Thanks to Nick, Jeff and Tammer for hooking me up with Akshay151...much appreciated. I just finished an editorial cartoon for Environmental Defense that should be online by early next week...I'll let you know when it's up. I'm meeting with John Verhine tomorrow, a friend from the Creative Circus (another creative school here in Atlanta), to help a little with an incredible Flash website he's working on.
Thursday, January 13 at 3:57 PM
I Lip-Synched This Entire Post
Classes are good in quarter six of eight. I already mentioned Hank's annual reports class last week, where I'm designing a print and online annual report for the Brinker Family Restaurants (they own Chili's, Maggiano's and the Macaroni Grill among other places). Thank God it meets at 7:30 AM and not 5:30 AM like his last class. Today I had a myseterious-sounding class named "Smart Glue", which is not about intelligent adhesives at all but rather making projects for things we know nothing about and don't particularly care for...sounds like an interesting challenge. Interpretive Design has yet to meet, but it sounds like another fairly open-ended class. Finally, I'll be making a cheese slicer and coffee maker in Product Design, which should be a cool, different facet of design.
We watched a video last week in class on two British designers who had to redesign a toilet. When you think about it, the toilet really hasn't changed too much since its Victorian era roots. Unfortunately, the stodgy London-based client wanted something boring and traditional and didn't like the team's innovative ideas like splashproof seats, rimless bowls, back support, male/female-friendly seats, and non-corrosive coating. The designers travelled to Japan, where innovation and technology is truly infused in the culture. There they saw truly awesome ideas in action like heated seats, massagers, and noise generators that block out any unpleasant sounds. The Japanese were solving consumer problems while the English were content with something that simply looked elegant.
I'm sad that I won't be able to play Resident Evil 4 or Timesplitters 3 until after the quarter is over...there's just not enough free time to devote to that sort of fun stuff anymore! RE4 just came out and has been getting near-perfect reviews, and TS3 is slated for an early February release.
Hey, does anyone have a copy of Akshay151, trane91 or Abandoned Mine Cart buried in their computers? The old IUMA site is toast and I'd love to include those songs in the Okay Samurai archives if possible.
Monday, January 10 at 7:05 PM
Page Thirty-Four
Portfolio Center was recently featured in Step Inside Design magazine, and I was lucky to be one of four students profiled in the article. The piece was written by Tania Rochelle, one of my former instructors at PC. Here's a snapshot of the article, and here's what it says:
Dave Werner graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in music and English. Idealistic and hungry for a challenge, he joined Teach For America and taught language arts to middle school students in inner-city Baltimore. The job turned out to be downright dangerous, though, and he quit after he was physically assaulted. Sympathetic friends suggested Portfolio Center, telling him it was a "Dave type of grad school." Werner says of his experience there, "The school refuses to accept 'impossible' as an excuse. Where else could I have made a 200-pound metal chair while simultaneously creating a television commercial and a museum exhibit?"
Werner's project began in Richardson's infamous, predawn History of Design class, where, this time, students were challenged to create an experimental book. The hyper-condensed version of his concept: Drawing on Modernism's applications and his research regarding everyday design, Werner took his own experiences as an avid video game player in the 80s and 90s and his childhood love of Choose Your Own Adventure books and created Cadence of Seasons. According to Werner, "The tale deals with animals in the tradition of Watership Down or Brian Jacques' Redwall series. The interactive event fits the definition of multimedia well, combining elements of movies, books, video games, and music into a single entertaining story."
Picture caption: The interactive element of Dave Werner's experimental book , Cadence of Seasons, keeps readers involved throughout the story. Secrets and puzzles abound, allowing for new discoveries and plot twists that inspire multiple readings.
Saturday, January 8 at 6:56 PM
Revenge of the College Marching Bands!!!
So, I am responding to Dave's request to write more posts. I was going to write this post on 1/4/05, the date of the Orange Bowl (for those of you non-sports nuts, the NCAA college football championship game), but I saw Dave's post and that the site would be redesigned, so I didn't want to mess up the process. Anyway, the Orange Bowl, excuse me, I don't want to be sued, the FEDEX Orange Bowl, has shown the completely crass and disgusting effect all this money has had on college athletics, what with it's Nokia halftime report, Sun Microsystems Timeouts, and Microsoft helmet padding (some of these are made up, but you get the point). The worst part of all though, was the halftime show. It was a superbowl-style piece of garbage and fireworks that wrecks the field for the second half and makes halftime almost an hour long. Considering that USC has one of the great all-time college marching bands, it was a travesty to see some professional singers usurping the college kids' chance to shine at the biggest football game of the year. Leading the onslaught of overrated hacks was Jessica Simpson's no-talent, coattail-riding sister: the incorrectly spelled Ashlee Simpson. She was atrocious. She was way off key, completely off tempo, and as far as I could tell, either parts of her song were supposed to be hummed, or she forgot the words to her own song! I was so ticked off by the end of the show that I was about to turn off the game and watch something less painful, like Battlefield Earth, in Spanish. But then, just before I turned to the worst movie ever, I heard the sweetest sound. Yes, you guessed it, 70,000 people booing Ashlee Simpson. Finally, America has recognized a factory-made, no-talent celebrity for what she is, nothing to spend two minutes watching, worrying, or reading about. Finally, America might be coming to its senses after all the manufactured "stars" (see: Tristan and Ryan). Yes, perhaps there will soon be an end to the degeneration of American pop culture. Perhaps "Who's your daddy?", "The Will," and especially, "The Ashlee Simpson Show" will be the lowest level of hell of reality TV. We can only hope...
In other sports news and notes, the Red Sox open the season on April 4th (that's less than 4 months!) at Yankee Stadium. Can't wait...
For your reading pleasure, and especially Dave's, this is an article about some of the recent goings ons at his old middle school in Baltimore:
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/education/4045452/detail.html
OK, I'm out like the Wutang Killer Bees on sleeping pills...
Thursday, January 6 at 8:48 PM
Bigger, Badder, and Redder-Blacker-Grayer
Do you like what we did with the place? Today marks the launch of our 2005 redesign, which is a big improvement on the previous versions. The typography and layout are cleaner for better readability, using CSS and XHTML instead of HTML tables. Everything old like Shoot and Second Nature can be found in the Cardboard Box, but the music section has been expanded into a full-blown band archive. There's a little random Flash and After Effects animation thrown in for good measure. I wanted to redesign the site for a while since I'll eventually direct potential employers over this way.
There are some exciting updates coming up on the horizon. I've got Hank again for an annual reports class, which should infuse some excitement into a seemingly dry subject matter. Imagine Design is about to launch and maintain a Christian website that I created with Lisa. I should finish plugging in the finishing touches to Miyamoto soon, and finally turn my full spare-time attention towards Cadence of Seasons. Cadence was recently mentioned in Step Inside Design magazine in an article about Portfolio Center, which I'll scan in and post here once the computer labs are back up and running (PC is currently going under renovations).
In a strange and interesting way, playing Metroid Prime 2 over the holidays has influenced Cadence big time; I knew I had to beat it before school started or I wouldn't get any work done. MP2 and its predecessor are two of the best video games of all time, no kidding. I was constantly impressed and inspired by the sense of exploration in a foreign world. The environments are so rich, organic and detailed that just the experience of walking through them is breathtaking, and shooting up creatively-designed alien creatures is just the icing on that cake. Even more impressive are the concept art galleries that you can unlock during the course of the game, which show the incredible amount of thought put into these worlds and creatures. So I sat back down the other night and began to re-imagine the world and characters of Cadence, and I think the end product will be much better as a result. Before, I think I was falling into a tried-and-true Flash cartoony style, with simple outlined vector shapes that are easy to animate. Now I've reverted back to my hand-illustrated style, which is still cartoonish but it feels distinct, unique, and less computer-generated. We'll see what happens. I hope to keep writing updates and posting artwork along the production process since you guys seem to like that sort of crap.
If anything, I hope this redesign gets me (and maybe the rest of the samurai?) to write a little more often. It was entertaining reading through the older entries when I was reformatting the journal archives. A lot has happened in just the past few years...it's scary to think that I'll be back in corporate America by this time next year.
Enjoy the new site. Now.
at 7:17 PM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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Lars Amhoff: Kinkyform Design
Colin Anawaty: Cubed Companies
Chuck Anderson: NoPattern
Haik Avanian: HaikAvanian.com
James Bailey: The Kingdom of Sad Machines
Ben Barry: CarbonFour / Forced Connections
Dimitry Bentsionov: Arthero
Joshua Blankenship: JoshuaBlankenship.com
Casey Britt: CaseyBritt.com
Duncan Brook: Superfreaky Memories
Matthew Burtner: Burtner.net
Jeff Chin: JeffChin.com
Mary Campbell: Mary Campbell Design
Sarah Coffman: Minus Five
John Contino: drawings&co
Angie Cosimano: Angie Unit
Chris and Linda Doherty: Citizen Studio
Anne Elser: Annepages
Neil Epstein: Mediafactured
Bjorn Fagerholm: 3jorn
Dave Foster: Dave the Designer
Justin Genovese: JustinGenovese.com
J Grossen: Sugarcoma Labs
Audrey Gould: Aud's Blog
Greg Hackett: GregHackett.com
Sam Harrison: Zingzone
Todd Hammell: Solid Colors
Leon Henderson: LHJ Photo
Howard Hill: Fascination Streak
Peter Hobbs: Peter Hobbs Photography
Matt Ipcar: Ipcar Design
Michael Johnson: Michael J Rox
Melissa Jun: MelissaJun.com
Jiae Kim: Theme magazine
Zack Klein: ZackKlein.com
Katie Kosma: Flying Conundrum
Peter Lada: Proxima Labs
Josh Levin: Nothing Learned
Larry Luk: Epidemik Coalition
Mike Mates: Urban Influence
Alison Matheny: Life of a Harpy
Turi McKinley: Turi Travels
Alaa-Eddine Mendili: Furax
John Nack: John Nack on Adobe
Allen Orr: Anthem In
Scott Paterson: sgp7
Joe Peng: MacConcierge
Paavo Perkele: Astudios
Brian Perozo: Ephekto
Jason Puckett: Everyday Puck
Kate Ranson-Walsh: Thinkradical
Tania Rochelle: Stone's Colossal Dream
Angela Sailo: Peanut Butter Toast
Mohit SantRam: Santram.net
Dan Savage: Something Savage
Kevin Scarbrough: Thin Black Glasses
Scott Schiller: Schillmania
Jason Severs: JasonSevers.com
Anthony Sheret: Work By Lunch
Nick Skyles: Boats and Stars
Sujay Thomas: iSujay
Joe Tobens: JospehTobens.com
David Ulevitch: Substantiated.info
John Verhine: Verhine.com
Armin Vit: Under Consideration
Ian Wharton: IanWharton.com
Roger Wong: One Great Monkey
Clay Yount: Rob and Elliot Comics
Jack Zerby: Jack Zerby Music