Nostalgia
I carry a digital camera around pretty much everywhere. Taking excessive photos and movies during Portfolio Center was one of the best decisions I made...not only because much of that footage ended up in the final portfolio, but more for remembering past people, places, and stories. Today I uploaded just about all the photos I've ever taken with my camera onto Flickr. Although some have appeared in OKSMM movies or blog posts before, there are (literally) hundreds of new ones too. All told, they seem to sum up these past few years pretty well. Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 30 at 11:24 PM
From Russia With Love
Note: Google has now taken this video down.
It's an hour long, but this BBC Documentary on Tetris is worth watching from a video game history and business perspective. I always thought of Tetris as a Nintendo franchise...the main reason people bought Game Boys back in 1989. Yet this story shows how Nintendo barely secured the rights from Atari and an angry Soviet Union, and how creator Alexey Pajitnov was denied credit due to the Communist regime. A pretty remarkable history for the #2 best-selling video game of all time (only the original Super Mario Brothers has sold more copies).
Monday, January 29 at 8:01 PM
Getting Used to the Hills
Thankfully, the San Francisco housing search was not nearly as crazy as the New York one last year: it took two months there, and about two weeks here. I'll most likely be moving into the Cole Valley / Ashbury Heights area soon. It will be nice to start out in the city, and of course it doesn't hurt that Crepes on Cole is within walking distance. It's also be right around the corner from Buena Vista Park, which is a forested hill that can be explored via all sorts of winding paths and stairways. Work at Minor Studios has been going great as well, and there are many exciting things already underway. The first thing I bought out here was an 18x24 pad of newsprint from Utrecht for five bucks. My initial instinct for any creative problem is to sketch out everything and fill pages with notes and questions...getting all the good and (mostly) bad ideas out on paper. It's also great for documentation, presentation (and empty office decoration) purposes.
Saturday, January 27 at 12:09 PM
A Different World
Sunday, January 14 at 12:30 PM
Landed
So far, so good. Looking back at a six hour flight, scenic hillside views from the windows of BART, and a surprisingly delicious cactus-covered pizza, I can happily say that this eventful week has been a fond farewell to New York and great introduction to my new home, San Francisco.
Before leaving New York, April and I were lucky enough to catch the Design Life Now exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (which is completely awesome, and everyone up in NYC should definitely check it out). And just as Kate promised a few weeks ago, turning a corner on the first floor happily revealed a couple of familiar okaydave illustrations displayed on the wall. The drawings will also be in the upcoming book as well. So thanks to Armin and Bryony from Speak Up for the opportunity - it was so cool to see in person!
That's my new office: 50 Fremont Street, 16th floor. A building shared with the Japanese Consulate, among other things. Well, temporarily...we're moving into a new space a couple of blocks away in a few months. Which should be interesting, because I get to help out with fun stuff like picking out furniture and carpet/wall colors; that sort of thing. Everyone I've met over here has been extremely nice in helping me get settled in and feel welcome. More stories from the inside to come soon...
I'm staying temporarily in a room across the bay in Berkeley, through a friend of my old Baltimore roommate Nick. Although I've been getting a ride downtown for the past few days, I took BART the first time in, starting out at the outdoor Rockridge station. Seeing hills across the horizon seems foreign to this east-coaster, but makes for some pretty beautiful scenery. Driving across the Bay Bridge, you pass by the man made Treasure Island, where old aircraft hangars are now used as sound stages for film production. I just like being able to say I have to pass by a place called Treasure Island to get to work.
I was also able to drop by the MacWorld Expo just a few blocks away this week, and genuflect in front of the newly-revealed Apple iPhone in a rotating display case. A nearby representative was also doing a walkthrough demonstration of the product, which highlighted several of the phone's features. Pretty expensive, but pretty freakin' amazing. And Jason from Notion (an excellent music composition program) had kindly sent along an invitation for a quick demo, so I got to see that in action too.
Finally, it's my pleasure to announce that I'll be speaking at the 2007 HOW Design Conference in Atlanta later this year in June, with a session called "Self-Promotion and Portfolios in the Digital Age". I am definitely the least qualified of the immensely talented and diverse list of speakers...so it's reassuring to see a few familiar faces on there from past schooling and internships. It will be a new experience for me, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. It's just too bad they don't allow onstage pyrotechnics.
Friday, January 12 at 2:15 PM
California Dreamin'
Happy New Year! I'm back in New York now, with about a week to go before changing coasts. The holidays in Virginia were perfect, filled with family, good food / wine / hot chocolate, and catching up with old friends. Unfortunately, I was sick for most of it, so there was also much recovery time spent on the couch with movies and the Wii (Elebits is fun, and my younger sister still always beats me bowling in Wii Sports). I also saw The Pursuit of Happyness, which was great and served as a nice inspirational introduction to San Francisco. This is pretty cool too: my friend Kate was recently at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NYC and saw a familiar illustration; it's part of a larger collection on Speak Up's popular "Word It" feature. Hopefully I can catch the exhibit sometime between packing up and saying goodbyes this week.
Tuesday, January 2 at 6:29 PM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
Okay Samurai Journal (Subscribe RSS / XML)
Dave Werner's Portfolio (okaydave.com)
Archives (Cardboard Box)
Contact (Mailbox)
My Videos on Vimeo
My Photos on Flickr
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