Current
While searching for apartments online in Kurt's living room, Current is becoming my favorite television channel. I hadn't heard of it before NYC. Instead of individual shows, they play pods, which are 3-to-8 minute segments about current events (everything from animal cruelty in China to a snowboarding resort in Tahoe). Single ads are shown between pods. The influence of the internet is obvious: a timeline in the corner shows you how much time is left in a pod, and users can actually submit their own pods to air. The station was started about a year ago, in part by Al Gore (yeah, something he actually invented!). While it certainly has a progressive/liberal lens much of the time, Current is extremely entertaining and informative.
In okaydave news, the site has made it into Joshua Chen's upcoming book "Fingerprint: The Art of Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design." Pretty cool! I'll let you know when it's published. And that "time" illustration from the portfolio is featured in part of an article on Speak Up in the June 2006 issue of HOW Magazine. An extended about page has been added to help archive some of the press the okay sites have recieved. Much to the disappointment of Ken Lobb and Slasher Quan, Nintendo Power and Gamepro were pre-okaysamurai and therefore not included.
Sunday, April 30 at 5:44 PM
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo revealed the name of their upcoming system today, making everyone go crazy. It's called Wii, pronnounced like "we." Those hoping that the codename "Revolution" would stick have been disappointed. And yeah, my gut reaction was wow, they should have stuck with Revolution. But from a branding standpoint, it begins to make a lot of sense. With Wii (due out this holiday season), Nintendo is trying to break down the barriers of what video games can be; what they refer to as their "blue ocean" strategy. That means instead of focusing solely on games for the typical young male demographic, they aim to create experiences as well for the untapped audiences: women, parents, grandparents, and everyone who thinks video games are too complicated or nerdy or whatever. Wii is simple, fun ("wheeee"), and universal...which fits in with Nintendo's brand attributes perfectly. The logo design works well too, with the i's standing for people and the remote-shaped controllers. It's an iconic, unique name that stands apart from the competition, mainly the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (neither awe-inspiring titles themselves). Nice work Nintendo.
Thursday, April 27 at 4:47 PM
The Apartment Hunt
Finding an apartment in New York is a little crazy. The majority of places are shown through brokers, who take a fee comparable to one-two months' rent. That basically means you're adding on at least $100 to your monthly rent for a year. This evening I checked out a couple of places in Cobble Hill and Park Slope, two generally nice areas in Brooklyn...but neither apartment really seemed like the right fit. Tomorrow I'm following some leads in Red Hook and Williamsburg. Red Hook was written up in the Washington Post this weekend; it seems at least worth a look. This search seems to be a constant balance of price, size, noise, subway proximity / commute to work, safety and the surroundings. It would be nice to find something that will allow me a quiet space to work on personal projects like Cadence of Seasons and new OKSMM films. We'll see.
Netvibes has been mentioned here before, but now that I have different computers for work and home, I'm realizing how useful it really is. Having a central place online to check email, read friends' blogs, scan news, store bookmarks and jot down notes is extremely convenient. Make it your homepage, add the Okay Samurai RSS feed, and you're good to go.
Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30 PM
We Are Being Held Momentarily At This Station
Well, one week has passed since moving up to New York and working fulltime. As someone who has been in school for most of the past 20 years, the transition to the real world has been exciting. It's also reassuring to have several friends up here too. Alison is having an apartment-warming party tonight, and Katie and I saw an awesome off-Broadway play yesterday called 33 to Nothing. It took place in a rehearsal studio and followed the final practice and ensuing breakup of a 30-something rock band. So they played through several songs, blamed the drummer for mistakes, and got into drunken arguments. Sitting in the front row with an audience of no more than 50, it was an intimate, entertaining experience...made me miss the Okay Samurai days. And the apartment search continues too. I'm leaning pretty heavily towards Brooklyn. If anyone knows of any good studio apartments in the area, please let me know.
It's been a great first week at Frog as well. When starting to tackle a project at Portfolio Center, I always loved taking a huge piece of newsprint and filling it up with as many sketches and ideas as possible...pouring imagination onto paper; making it real. That conceptual stage was always my favorite part of the design process at PC, and it's been cool to have the opportunity to do the same at Frog, albeit for real clients needing real solutions. I definitely already feel like part of the "pond." Another perk: every day at 4PM is coffee and snacktime. The office manager yells to inform the office what time it is, and everyone flocks to the kitchen to socialize and munch on a variety of snacks. Thursday was Tasti D-Lite ice cream; yesterday was wine and cheese. It's the Frog version of high tea.
When riding the subways, there are times when you pass another train riding on a parallel track in the same direction, and you see people staring back at you through the lit windows. Everything else is black and without any point of reference, so it looks like you're flying through space. Little things like that are fun. Maybe the subway will lose its attraction over time, but right now it's still like I'm riding Space Mountain to work every morning. And the entertainers who come into the cars are sometimes interesting. The best are the dancers, because they use the environment so well. They'll lock arms and somersault around the train, weaving back and forth between poles, or throw/slam each other into the ceiling before landing a flip. It's pretty freakin' impressive. Although the Michael Jackson impersonator at the Times Square station today was pretty good too.
Saturday, April 22 at 12:26 PM
First Day
The first day at Frog went great, and not just because it started off with a chocolate doughnut with multicolored sprinkles from a street vendor. It's extremely innovative, challenging work. The wide diversity of experiences to gain here is apparent already. Very exciting stuff. I'm not sure everything will hit me until I've found a place and have fully moved in, but it's great being back in New York. Crosswalks are for tourists.
Monday, April 17 at 8:15 PM
Kurt's Couch
I'm taking the bus up to NYC this weekend to start work on Monday, once again staying with my Teach For America friend Kurt temporarily while exploring some housing options. I'll let you know how things go after the first day. Although, now I won't be able to talk about my projects so freely like in school. Most of this stuff is protected by non-disclosure agreements. At least, the really cool work always is. So unless otherwise noted, just assume I'm doing some sort of top secret James Bond-style project. Probably using heat-seeking explosives and After Effects.
Thursday, April 13 at 7:35 PM
The Hard Questions
The Favorite Website Awards just posted an okaydave interview, which was a lot of fun. Also, check out the upcoming spring issue of CMYK magazine (10th anniversary issue with the onion on the cover). There's an article in there on the Kanye preview video where some props are given to my Mario Paint roots. Speaking of Nintendo, during recent travels, I ended up in Seattle for a few days. So I found Nintendo Headquarters and drove by their building...something I've been wanting to do for like 15 years. It's surprisingly corporate and bland. Just a big, flat, white building. I was expecting some warp pipes or floating question mark blocks or something. Oh well, at least they had a flagpole.
Monday, April 3 at 7:13 AM
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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