I came in wanting a hybrid car and left thinking about a Subaru!

kirsi and her miso soup


japanese packaging, i've seen better japanese vending machines however


i liked this shirt too, but its for guys!




giving peace signs


small or medium?




I came in wanting a hybrid car and left thinking about a Subaru! We talked cars, girls, DVDs, the weather, design, going green, everything!


under the hot lights


I picked a fushia and brown T.


Kenny got in the "Hero shot" picture, silly Kenny!

Sunday Funday at Fatlace (more pics to come)

myself (a fan), ron (Fatlace partner), and kirsi (my partner in crime)


Meet Kenny he works at Fatlace and he has the shirt I wanted. they dont have it anymore--you had to be at the store when it opened to get one!

Mark and Jessica from Fatlace!

One of the best things about being a designer is having the pleasure to meet many talented people. I’ve meet Jessica through close friends when I made the move to NY. Not only did she help me survive the big city, but she has open my eyes to a culture I had no clue of, the sneaker culture. Through Jessica I've met Mark. Mark enlightened me about the sneaker culture through an initial chat at the Wild ‘N Krazy Kidz party, thus it lead into this interview.



Since briefly working with you on a flyer recently I’ve become more aware of your work. To those who are not aware of what you do, tell us a little about yourself and your work?
Mark Arcenal. Designer. Amateur Race Car Driver. Car builder. I've been in the design world since 1994 working at many agencies. I left that world to go client side and went to GAP for a year and now I'm working for Nike as the Global Design Lead for Sport Culture.

Since opening Fatlace, how has it change you? And how has it changed the community?
I started fatlace in 99 and it was a blog about hip-hop and all the things I liked. Today, it's the same but with more people involved and more insight. The blog was def one of the first out there. I've had a few stints at opening retail doors but this time it was our time to shine. The store itself not only helps bring the younger generation into Japantown but it was built Green! Our architects and builders, form 3, thinks only green so it was built using sustainable and recycled woods.

Was Fatlace something you envision doing while you were young, to seek entrepreneurship?
It def was. I was always about the hustle. I started my first business in 95 and knew it was something I liked doing. I just hated doing the books. I actually had to relinquish all ownership of the store since taking the nike job but I still help with design and consulting.

How did you find yourself at Nike?
A good friend invited me to campus to check out the campus and meet people. Didn't know I was going to meet with VPs and higher ups. End of the day, they asked if I was interested in working... I've always wondered what it would be like so I didn't want that question looming over my back the rest of my life. I was offered a job as the creative director at ESPN a few years ago. I didn't take it and I still wonder.

What are your thoughts about working at a big corporation such as Nike?
Its great. Nike does a lot for the community. They've paid their dues, made mistakes, and have bounced back to become even a better company. The people they hire all have a similarity in them. All driven. The designers they have are the best out there.

Could you eventually see yourself working at another big corporation or would you change the pace after Nike?
Probably do a solo project.

You’re like a little contradiction (in good way of course). You work at a big corporation (nike) and you are a part of a small company (fatlace), both involve your interest in sneakers. How does your work in both places reflect one another? Does one job have more influence on the other?
I think I influence both. You take from the streets and learn from the big guys. Nikes accelerated my thought process and you learn from so many people here. Almost everyone has had their own project in the past.

I remember having this conversation with you at the Wild ‘N Krazy kids party. I had mention that this market for sneakers has a tight connection with its consumers and has its own culture. How in the future do find yourself redefining it or being a part of it when it evolves?
Sneakers are for life. I've felt the same way since working for champs at Hilltop Mall in Richmond in 1985. When sneaker culture hit the mainstream in 04, I tried to separate myself from it cause it disgusted me. I took my racing life serious for a few years and Look at me now. Back in the sneaker life.

What do you see it evolving it into?
Not much. I've been forecasting culture clashing for the past 3-4 years. Now everyone who's into cars, are into shoes, and are into bikes, and into etc... Fatlace is in a good position cause we've covered those bases and everyone knows it.

Cough. Cough. Sorry I'm a little under the weather.How in the world do you find time for YOU? How do you keep balance?
I keep grinding no matter what time it is. It's kinda nuts. I work till 2am everyday and have been doing it since 95. When I'm with my fam, I try to turn it off and play with my kid Brooklyn. When I'm racing is when I feel it's "my time". Never in the day do I just sit and veg. It's not in my personality. Ask anyone that knows me and I can't not be doing anything. Like now for example, I'm waiting for my project GTi getting tinted and I hit you up so I can finally get to answering you Q/A, listening to old school cure beats!

Lastly what can we look forward to seeing in the upcoming year for (Nike or Fatlace)?
As for Nike.. Amazing stuff.
And for Fatlace.. A few cool collabs and more products. The wall project begins. We're looking for really upcoming artist to paint up our main wall and have art openings. If you're fresh, hit us up. We'd love to see your work.

Thank you so much Mark! It is always a pleasure. Good luck with all of your future endeavors. We’ll be on the look out for you, Nike and Fatlace's goods!

Fatlace is located at
1630 Post St.
SF, CA 94115
www.fatlace.com

Jessica/Yoshi

Name:Jessica Gueco - most people know me as Yoshi (highschool nickname)

Occupation:I work my 9 to... um there is no really end time to my day job! Everyday as a sales rep for In4mation clothing (a brand/store from Hawaii focused on the skate/surf/street culture). My side hustles consist of buying/designing for Fatlace, a few gigs with Hellz-Bellz, and some other side blogging hustles I do for special projects and R&D.

Bragging rights: HAHA! Not sure, but I've put out a few designs for Homeroom Clothing hoodies and tees, I'm known to have quite the collection of kicks, I'm working on a few collaborations that will knock your socks off ladies, most importantly I've somehow managed to surround myself with an AMAZING and uberly talented group of friends. Truly grateful.

Where are you at now: In limbo. HAHAHA jk - I'm at work =)

Design philosophy: Simple and sophisticated.

Favorable typeface(s): Helvetica (great movie - thanks Mark!)

What is playing on your iPod: Weezer, T.I., Natasha Bedingfield, DJ Shadow, Lil Weezy, Powderfinger, Jay-Z, The Pixies, Kelly Clarkson (shush), Led Zepplin, Iron Maiden, Marley, some Fergie, hahahaha pretty random stuff i know..

Your daily internet surf includes: where to start??? fatlace, facehunter, nitrolicious, manila style, cool hunting, wooster collective, honeyee, highsnob, hypebeast, itsdesignrelated

Guilty pleasure is: DESSERTSSSSSS! Brownie a la mode, apple pie a la mode, pizookies, ice cream cakes, sundaes, banana splits, fried ice cream, cold stone's cheesecake fantasy with brownies!

How do you get your news (tv, paper, net): Usually the news on tv and the web.

Drink of choice: hmmmmmmm.... i RARELY drink - but I'd have to say Jameson is pretty tasty (when i DARE!)

On a Friday night or Sunday morning you are: At home watching a Netflix DVD with the man and Sunday mornings you'll find me cooking pancakes in my pj's while fending my cats off with my foot or a spray bottle!

Dead or alive who is your favorite designer: ooooh good question... I would have to go for... well, I love Marc Jacobs, Lanie from Hellz-Bellz, Jeff Staple, just to name a few. And I adore the artist of "Little People" ( http://little-people.blogspot.com/)

Most iconic design: HMMMMM - another good one! I'd have to go with the Nike swoosh, the green color and font used by Starbucks, and uhmmm the 3 stripes by Adidas (although I much rather preferred their original design!)

You cant live without: My bberry and hair products!



Favorite trend: Blackberry messenger, blogging, and high-waisted wide legged jeans!

If you weren't a designer you would be a: FBI or CIA agent

Best book/magazine to read is: Cutie or Mini Jap mags!!! =)

What sort of educational background / work experience did you have before you started doing what you do now? NOTHING! hahahaa! I was a Politics major that just had great interests in fashion and street culture.

What has been a constant in your life / work and why? Working hard and to continue to work hard at EVERYTHING I get involved in - from family, relationships, jobs - everything!

What really gets you pissed angry? When people LIE.

What do you want people to remember you by or for? Being a woman of my word.

What kind of music are you into and do you find music inspiring? Do you listen to music when working? I love listening to well produced music - like Timbaland or singers with nice voices. I honestly love euro because it reminds me of my travels and life when I was there... Sure, I listen to my ipod or Pandora at work to keep me uppity.

If you could change one thing about design what would it be and why? I don't think I would change anything really. Design is all about trial and error and discovering new ways of doing the same things.

If you could choose 1 super power to have what would that be (be invisible, leap through time, freeze people, think xmen!) and why: To see the future - so I can forecast trends and become rich =)

What inspired you or made you want to become a designer? Growing up I've always been fascinated by fashion and design. To be involved in this industry has definitely helped define who I am through my own ideas and creativity. To know that you can physically show how you feel or show who you are as a person through art is an amazing thing.

How do you find balance? I'm a control freak so I like to get things done my way and get things done right away. This somehow helps me juggle all aspects of my life.

If you had to spend 24hours with 1 person in an elevator who would it be and why? Hmmmm... oh boy - this might get me into trouble! Besides Igei, my boyfriend, I'd have to say my really good friend -- he's a great artist known for his graffiti and a man that has many MANY years of experience and stories to tell! That's why he'd be my second choice - just to hear all his tell tall tales - wait? Is that a phrase? Did I get that right? =)

Anything else you wan to say, promote, do: Talk is cheap! Go out and DO!

Props to Jessica! Thanks so much!




my CONCLUSION
Fatlace isn’t just sneakers. It a lifestyle. It is truly the interests of the people who make the brand. The hard working people behind Fatlace and YOU the audience that take part in supporting the store, the blog, and the events.

you can check out Jessica and her blog on:
http://fatlace.com/yoshi/

Publicis And Google: The Exchange Program

If you haven’t yet heard the news, Publicis Groupe and Google have anounced a collaboration to swap executives at each other’s companies. The effort is being led by Google’s Tim Armstrong and Penry Price. Publicis will represent with Digitas Chairman-CEO David Kenny. AdAge reported that the goal is to create “initiatives related to accelerating the ability of technology to make advertising more effective.”

Maurice Levy said the exchange of talent will start soon. “For a few months or a year, people from Publicis Groupe [companies] will be working at Google, and people from Google will be working at some of our companies.”

This is little exchange program is very cool. Why? These huge advertising agencies really are trying to get savvy, to bust out of their bubble and save their asses. We’re all for effort.

source: media bistro

Events

Monday, January 28, 2008
ONMEDIA NYC
Mandarin Oriental, NYC
OnMedia NYC is where cutting-edge technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meet the global advertising and media establishment. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries. At OnMedia, our editors will also honor the OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies. Fifty of the top CEOs from the OnMedia 100 will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in our CEO Showcase.

Thursday, January 31, 2008
LINKSHARE SUMMIT 2008
San Francisco
LinkShare events are premier industry conferences for leaders in e-commerce and performance-based marketing. Now in its fifth year, the LinkShare Summit has become the West Coast gathering place to jump start your online initiatives for the coming year. LinkShare designs each event to be an interactive forum to share ideas, forge new business relationships, and develop long-term strategic partnerships. Through expert speakers, educational seminars, and high-level networking segments, LinkShare strives to give our partners exclusive strategies and opportunities to form winning and profitable partnerships. LinkShare Summit 2008 will take place January 31, 2008 in San Francisco, CA. We are currently accepting speaker proposals.

Thursday, January 31, 2008
THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MEDIA: PREDICTIONS FOR 2008
The Armory, 216 Fort Washington Ave., New York, NY 10032
Ember Media will host The Future of Digital Media: Predictions for 2008, a Digital Media Forum. The keynote speaker will be Clayton Banks, CEO of Ember Media. Other featured speakers include Jonah Bossewitch, Senior Technical Architect, Columbia University, Kay Madati, Vice President, Marketing, Community Connect, Inc. and Allen Stern, Editor, CenterNetworks. The event will address topics that include social networking, digital music, set-top boxes, mobile, online video, advertising, and user-generated content. A Q&A session and reception will allow attendees to continue the conversation with other guests. Admission is free with RSVP. To register, visit www.embermedia.com/predictions/2008/

Thursday, January 31, 2008
THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MEDIA: PREDICTIONS FOR 2008
The Armory, 216 Fort Washington Ave., New York, NY 10032
Ember Media will host The Future of Digital Media: Predictions for 2008, a Digital Media Forum. The keynote speaker will be Clayton Banks, CEO of Ember Media. Other featured speakers include Jonah Bossewitch, Senior Technical Architect, Columbia University, Kay Madati, Vice President, Marketing, Community Connect, Inc. and Allen Stern, Editor, CenterNetworks. The event will address topics that include social networking, digital music, set-top boxes, mobile, online video, advertising, and user-generated content. A Q&A session and reception will allow attendees to continue the conversation with other guests. Admission is free with RSVP. To register, visit www.embermedia.com/predictions/2008/

YSL goes digital

So with the emergence of technology it was only time for fashion house to embrace it. I remember in the past Chanel had a runway that had a huge iMac as its stage. The models would walk out of the silver base. Now YSL, Yves Saint-Laurent’s Fall 2008 men’s wear collection debuts on a video instead of on the catwalk. It is completely avant garde. The Daily reports today that instead of unveiling the collection in the tradition way—elevated walkway, lots of cameras, Anna Wintour in the front row—Mr. Pilati has decided to show it off on the big screen. Its approach is to have closer connection with its audience versus the long distance of the catwalk and viewers. The London music video production company Colonel Blimp, produced this digital film.

below is last years show

Farewell to Valentino

PARIS — Celebrities, socialites and fashion editors prepared to bid adieu to Italian designer Valentino, the king of the red carpet, who will show his final collection Wednesday after 45 years in business.

Hollywood stars including Uma Thurman and Gwyneth Paltrow were expected to attend the display, being held in a tent at the Rodin Museum at the close of the Paris spring-summer haute couture shows.

The 75-year-old designer was determined to make it a joyful event, even if some of his fans will inevitably shed tears.

"I don't want to be ridiculous, and I don't want to be emotional," he told the International Herald Tribune in an interview this week. "I must be happy. I have had a fantastic career, and I don't regret one moment of it."

Fashion editors paid tribute to the man who has dressed luminaries from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts in his trademark scarlet gowns and tasteful couture.

"You really can't mention the name Valentino without immediately thinking of glamour," said Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine.

Valentino shares the lifestyle of his jet set patrons. The perma-tanned and impeccably coiffed couturier owns homes including a chateau near Paris, a 152-foot yacht and an art collection including works by Picasso and Miro.

"He really understood how rich women wanted to dress," Bailey said. "That is something which sounds so obvious but in fact is very rare, and I think he will be dearly missed."

Wednesday's couture line-up also featured Jean Paul Gaultier, who went trawling for new clients with a parade of mermaids in scallop-patterned gowns and chic takes on his trademark striped sailor's top.

Valentino plans to end with a flourish, showing some 75 outfits _ almost twice the amount of a normal show.

He celebrated his label's 45th anniversary in July with three days of parties in Rome, prompting speculation that he was ready to retire following the purchase of Valentino Fashion Group by British-based private equity fund Permira for $3.8 billion.

After repeatedly denying such plans, Valentino and his longtime business partner Giancarlo Giammetti announced in September their decision to step down. Permira has appointed Alessandra Facchinetti, formerly at Gucci, to take over design duties at the label.

Although he will no longer be in the studio, Valentino has a full slate of projects for the coming months.

After a cameo in the 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada," he will hit the big screen again in "Valentino: The Last Emperor," a fly-on-the-wall documentary directed by Vanity Fair special correspondent Matt Tyrnauer.

This will be followed by a fashion retrospective in June at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Valentino has strong links with France, where he learned his trade, and will be made an honorary citizen of Paris in a ceremony Thursday.


By JOELLE DIDERICH Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press
source: The Associated Press

Flashing LIghts

Colin Munroe of canada. The song is questionable but the video does a good job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40G8sbl6o9c

Photography from Flufoto.

http://www.flufoto.com/

The R word

An insightful read about Recession from MediaPost:

Recession-Ho! (The Search Ecosystem Enters its First Economic Downturn)
by Mark Simon , Monday, January 21, 2008

MOST SERIOUS OBSERVERS OF THE U.S. economy agree that we're already in a recession; the question for us in search marketing is how badly we'll all be hit. Here are my thoughts as the search ecosystem goes into its first negative economic cycle.

Don't Worry, Be Happy (That You're Not Working at a Big Ad Agency)!
The first layoffs on Madison Avenue have already happened, the writer's strike is gutting TV ratings, and the only thing propping up the whole antiquated network-agency model is election spending and the Olympics. Add to this a genuine economic slowdown that will cut corporate profits and squeeze marketing allocations, and we may well be on the verge of the demise of the institution known as Madison Avenue.

All schadenfreude aside, keep in mind that there are no winners in a recession. While there's no question that a recession will hit untargeted, unaccountable media harder than targeted media that offer marketers insight into ROI, I disagree with those who claim that search marketing is "recession-proof." Yes, when campaigns are run correctly, paid search is a powerful and efficient marketing channel. But many search campaigns aren't run correctly or efficiently, and are far more wasteful than they should be (reasons for this include failure to use automation, poor training of in-house personnel, poor SEM agency performance, and artificially constrained budgets).

If times turn tough, search's intrinsic performance advantages will not save it from cost-cutting, because many spenders will do what they always do -- blame the channel, instead of taking a hard look at how they manage the channel. Some marketers will consequently withdraw from the PPC market; the good news is that this situation will create new opportunities for those marketers who get it right.

Search Engines May Get Hit Harder Than We Think
The finance, travel, and e-commerce sectors have all taken body blows in the past few months, and if consumer spending continues to dry up, the pain will get worse. The real bloodbath will likely be in online display advertising space (given that it's so ineffective to begin with). It's far too early to assess the damage, but during the last serious recession, which began in 2000, non-search annualized spending declined from $8 billion to $6 billion in the first 24 months and didn't recover completely until 2003. This trend cannot auger well for Yahoo and other properties highly dependent on display advertising.

While the search ecosystem has never been through a recession, finance, travel and e-commerce are huge search spenders and any further consolidation in these sectors (such as the case with Countrywide, which was swallowed by Bank of America last week) may cause a sizeable spending pullback. The fact that Google and the other engines have non-U.S. properties may limit their overall exposure, but only if a general economic downturn is confined to the U.S., which is unlikely in an increasingly globalized world.

We'll Soon See Whether The Keyword "Market" is Really a Market
If advertisers really start to cut back, and demand for certain high-valued keywords drops, the big question is whether marketers who decide to stay in search will see a corresponding decline in prices or whether the search engines will simply tweak their "Quality Score" and "Smart Pricing" monetization algorithms to make up the difference. As I've mentioned before, there are many reasons to be wary about this, especially in light of the possibility of "algorithmic collusion" between the engines (see: " Insider Data Trading (The Real Reason Keyword Prices Will Rise in 2008." ). On the other hand, if there is little or no manipulation, one of the bright lights of 2008 might be some keyword bargains we haven't seen in years.

What Impact on SEM Salaries?
SEMPO's recent survey of salaries for SEM professionals shows that while in-house people aren't about to become millionaires, they're doing very well relative to the rest of the U.S. workforce. A full 23.3% of in-house SEM newbies are making more than $70K a year, with 2/3 of their more experienced brethren (5-7 years of experience) topping this figure. There's nothing wrong with in-house SEM people making a fair salary, although I'd argue that in too many cases the results their teams create are inferior to those achievable through outsourcing. Unfortunately, in a recession, marketing departments are usually the first to feel the bite, and some in-house teams (especially those at the high end of the salary spectrum who are managing low, sub-$200K monthly spends) may find themselves under renewed pressure to justify what they're earning.

I'm bullish on the future of search, and believe that this industry is a great place to work, because search is becoming such an intrinsic part of all of our interactions with information systems. However, I'd also advise caution, both to people working in this business today and those eyeing it as a future career choice. I don't think that the search ecosystem will be devastated the way the tech economy was during the "dotcom bubble" of 2000-02, but the same rules for career survival apply today: do excellent work, keep your skills up-to-date, maintain realistic expectations, and make sure that your "real" social network is strong.

Mark Simon is vice president of industry relations at Didit, an agency for search engine marketing and auctioned media management based in New York. You can reach Mark at msimon@didit.com.

This is in and theres a Manila Case!

Looks like the Wired Magazine rumor was true. Macbook AIr was announced yesterday morning at Macworld. It claims to be worlds thinnest notebook out there.Must make all the PC notebooks feel fatty! PC's should go on a diet, im kidding. Set aside humor, is anyone impressed? As mentioned before its hard to top the ongoing hype that Apple has year after year. Stocks have slipped a little after the announcement. Well see! Below is a excerpt from Gizmodo.

MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 16, 2008—Apple® today unveiled Manila® Case®, the world's thinnest case for the world's thinnest laptop, the MacBook Air. When empty, Manila Case measures an unprecedented 0.07-inches at its thinnest point, but its dynamically adaptable height goes up to a maximum of 6.9-inches, adapting perfectly to the MacBook Air shape as well as to a standard*

Source: http://gizmodo.com/345406/apple-introduces-manila-casethe-worlds-thinnest-notebook-case

http://www.apple.com/

we used to laugh

This is what Wired Magazine (http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/breaking-macboo.html) is reporting in for tomorrows announcements at Macworld. I remember giggles in the studio while browsing the rumor sites the night before. Sometimes they come up with really good rumors! Cant wait for Steves Keynote. Here are a couple of sites that will be reporting in as it happens:

Apple Gazette
Apple Matters
Appletell
Arstechnica.com
Daily Tech Talk
Engadget
Loop Rumors
MacRumors
Mac Scoop
MacSpark
MacTeens
PomCast
SteveNote Live
Stuff
Uneasy Silence
World of Apple

macworld tomorrow! how could Apple

macworld tomorrow! how could Apple possibly top themselves?...well see!

Since when did BR have a fashion show?

Is this an attempt to elevate the brand and its visibility? I applaud them for the effort but the YouTube wannabe video seems to fail on execution. The fashion show seems to be an effort to make the brand more edgy with cool music (which the site fails to give a playlist, that would be nice to have added) bright orange clothes, and white sunglasses everywhere. Banana Republic and its motherbrand Gap is known for its mass produced, closet staples. So why deter for what they are good at? Atleast the music is good.

http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/info.do?cid=35127&mlink=35127,352643&clink=352643

Fatty Type

Poster about saving water (maybe), designed by Distrikt55/ United Kingdom

Trick typeface, designed by Andrei Robu / Romania


There has been a reocurring type trend in 2007 that is creeping into 2008. Fatty geometric type is everywhere. I first used Bauhaus for a flier that designed for Wild 'N Krazy Kidz but its seen across the globe from print, to packaging, editorial, promotional, to just about every design there is out there. Of course there remains a lot of unseen type that needs recognition but this fatty geometric type is fun and funky.

Bill Gates last Keynote at CES

where is my homeboy Steve Jobs?

i heart nerds.

The Nerd Handbook

A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.

It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that”. We’ll explore the consequences of this seemingly short attention span in a bit, but for now this project is the other big thing your nerd is building and I’ve no idea what is, but you should.

At some point, you, the nerd’s companion, were the project. You were showered with the fire hose of attention because you were the bright and shiny new development in your nerd’s life. There is also a chance that you’re lucky and you are currently your nerd’s project. Congrats. Don’t get too comfortable because he’ll move on, and, when that happens, you’ll be wondering what happened to all the attention. This handbook might help.

Regarding gender: for this piece, my prototypical nerd is a he as a convenience. There are plenty of she nerds out there for which these observations equally apply.

Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. It’s clichéd, but a nerd is defined by his computer, and you need to understand why.

First, a majority of the folks on the planet either have no idea how a computer works or they look at it and think “it’s magic”. Nerds know how a computer works. They intimately know how a computer works. When you ask a nerd, “When I click this, it takes awhile for the thing to show up. Do you know what’s wrong?” they know what’s wrong. A nerd has a mental model of the hardware and the software in his head. While the rest of the world sees magic, your nerd knows how the magic works, he knows the magic is a long series of ones and zeros moving across your screen with impressive speed, and he knows how to make those bits move faster.

The nerd has based his career, maybe his life, on the computer , and as we’ll see, this intimate relationship has altered his view of the world. He sees the world as a system which, given enough time and effort, is completely knowable. This is a fragile illusion that your nerd has adopted, but it’s a pleasant one that gets your nerd through the day. When the illusion is broken, you are going to discover that…

Your nerd has control issues. Your nerd lives in a monospaced typeface world. Whereas everyone else is traipsing around picking dazzling fonts to describe their world, your nerd has carefully selected a monospace typeface, which he avidly uses to manipulate the world deftly via a command line interface while the rest fumble around with a mouse.

The reason for this typeface selection is, of course, practicality. Monospace typefaces have a knowable width. Ten letters on one line are same width as ten other letters, which puts the world into a pleasant grid construction where X and Y mean something.

These control issues mean your nerd is sensitive to drastic changes in his environment. Think travel. Think job changes. These types of system-redefining events force your nerd to recognize that the world is not always or entirely a knowable place, and until he reconstructs this illusion, he’s going to be frustrated and he’s going to act erratically. I develop an incredibly short fuse during system-redefining events and I’m much more likely to lose it over something trivial and stupid. This is one of the reasons that…

Your nerd has built himself a cave. I’ve written about The Cave elsewhere, but here are the basics. The Cave is designed to allow your nerd to do his favorite thing, which is working on the project. If you want to understand your nerd, stare long and hard at his Cave. How does he have it arranged? When does he tend to go there? How long does he stay?

Each object in the Cave has a particular place and purpose. Even the clutter is well designed. Don’t believe me? Grab that seemingly discarded Mac Mini which has been sitting on the floor for two months and hide it. You’ll have 10 minutes before he’ll come stomping out of the Cave — “Where’s the Mac?”

The Cave is also frustrating you because your impression is that it’s your nerd’s way of checking out, and you are, unfortunately, completely correct. A correctly designed Cave removes your nerd from the physical world and plants him firmly in a virtual one complete with all the toys he needs. Because…

Your nerd loves toys and puzzles. The joy your nerd finds in his project is one of problem solving and discovery. As each part of the project is completed, your nerd receives an adrenaline rush that we’re going to call The High. Every profession has this — the moment when you’ve moved significantly closer to done. In many jobs, it’s easy to discern when progress is being made: “Look, now we have a door”. But in nerds’ bit-based work, progress is measured mentally and invisibly in code, algorithms, efficiency, and small mental victories that don’t exist in a world of atoms.

There are other ways your nerd can create The High and he does it all the time. It’s another juicy cliché to say that nerds love video games, but that’s not what they love. A video game is just one more system where your nerd’s job is to figure out the rules that define it, which will enable him to beat it. Yeah, we love to stare at games with a bazillion polygons, but we get the same high out of playing Bejeweled, getting our Night Elf to Level 70, or endlessly tinkering with a Rubik’s Cube. This fits nicely with the fact that…

Nerds are fucking funny . Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor. Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd’s other natural talents and you’ll realize that he sees humor is another game.

Humor is an intellectual puzzle, “How can this particular set of esoteric trivia be constructed to maximize hilarity as quickly as possible?” Your nerd listens hard to recognize humor potential and when he hears it, he furiously scours his mind to find relevant content from his experience so he can get the funny out as quickly as possible.

This quick wit is only augmented by the fact that…

Your nerd has an amazing appetite for information. Many years ago, I dubbed this behavior NADD, and you should read the article to learn more and to understand what mental muscles your nerd has developed.

How does a nerd watch TV? Probably one of two ways. First, there’s watching TV with you where the two of you sit and watch one show. Then there’s how he watches by himself when he watches three shows at once. It looks insane. You walk into the room and you’re watching your nerd jump between channels every five minutes.

“How can you keep track of anything?”

He keeps track of everything. See, he’s already seen all three of these movies… multiple times. He knows the compelling parts of the arcs and is mentally editing his own versions while watching all three. The basic mental move here is the context switch, and your nerd is the king of the context switch.

The ability to instantly context switch also comes from a life on the computer. Your nerd’s mental information model for the world is one contained within well-bounded tidy windows where the most important tool is one that allows your nerd to move swiftly from one window to the next. It’s irrelevant that there may be no relationship between these windows. Your nerd is used to making huge contextual leaps where he’s talking to a friend in one window, worrying about his 401k in another, and reading about World War II in yet another.

You might suspect that given a world where context is constantly shifting, your nerd can’t focus, and you’d be partially correct. All that multi-tasking isn’t efficient. Your nerd knows very little about a lot. For many topics, his knowledge is an inch deep and four miles wide. He’s comfortable with this fact because he knows that deep knowledge about any topic is a clever keystroke away. See…

Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head. It’s the end of the day and you and your nerd are hanging out on the couch. The TV is off. There isn’t a computer anywhere nearby and you’re giving your nerd the daily debrief. “Spent an hour at the post office trying to ship that package to your mom, and then I went down to that bistro — you know — the one next the flower shop, and it’s closed. Can you believe that?”

And your nerd says, “Cool”.

Cool? What’s cool? The business closing? The package? How is any of it cool? None of it’s cool. Actually, all of it might be cool, but your nerd doesn’t believe any of what you’re saying is relevant. This is what he heard, “Spent an hour at the post office blah blah blah…”

You can be rightfully pissed off by this behavior — it’s simply rude — but seriously, I’m trying to help here. Your nerd’s insatiable quest for information and The High has tweaked his brain in an interesting way. For any given piece of incoming information, your nerd is making a lightning fast assessment: relevant or not relevant? Relevance means that the incoming information fits into the system of things your nerd currently cares about. Expect active involvement from your nerd when you trip the relevance flag. If you trip the irrelevance flag, look for verbal punctuation announcing his judgment of irrelevance. It’s the word your nerd says when he’s not listening and it’s always the same. My word is “Cool”, and when you hear “Cool”, I’m not listening.

Information that your nerd is exposed to when the irrelevance flag is waving is forgotten almost immediately. I mean it. Next time you hear “Cool”, I want you to ask, “What’d I just say?” That awkward grin on your nerd’s face is the first step in getting him to acknowledge that he’s the problem in this particular conversation. This behavior is one of the reasons that…

Your nerd might come off as not liking people. Small talk. Those first awkward five minutes when two people are forced to interact. Small talk is the bane of the nerd’s existence because small talk is a combination of aspects of the world that your nerd hates. When your nerd is staring at a stranger, all he’s thinking is, “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”. This is where the shy comes from. This is why nerds hate presenting to crowds.

The skills to interact with other people are there. They just lack a well-defined system.

Advanced Nerd Tweakage

If you’re still reading, then I’m thinking that your nerd is worth keeping. Even though he’s apt to vanish for hours, has a strange sense of humor, doesn’t like you touching his stuff, and often doesn’t listen when you’re talking directly at him, he’s a keeper. Go figure.

My advice:

Map the things he’s bad at to the things he loves. You love to travel, but your nerd would prefer to hide in his cave for hours on end chasing The High. You need to convince him of two things. First, you need to convince him that you’re going to do your best to recreate his cave in his new surrounding. You’re going to create a quiet, dark place here he can orient himself and figure out which way the water flushes down the toilet. Traveling internationally? Carve out three days somewhere quiet at the beginning of the trip. Traveling across the US? How about letting him chill on the bed for a half-day before you drag him out to see the Golden Gate Bridge?

Second, and more importantly, you need to remind him about his insatiable appetite for information. You need to appeal to his deep love of discovering new content and help him understand that there may be no greater content fire hose than waking up in a hotel overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice where you don’t speak a word of Italian.

Make it a project. You might’ve noticed your nerd’s strange relation to food. Does he eat fast? Like really fast? You should know what’s going on here. Food is thrown into the irrelevant bucket because it’s getting in the way of the content. Exercise, too. Thing is, you want your nerd to eat healthily so that he’s here in another thirty years, so how do you change this behavior? You make diet and exercise the project.

For me, exercise became the project ten years ago after a horrible break-up. When the project was no longer the Ex, I dove into exercise every single day of the week. There were charts tracking my workouts, there were graphs tracking my weight, and there was the exercise. Every single day for two years until the day I passed out in a McDonald’s post-workout after not eating for a day. Ok, so time for a new project. Yeah, nerds also have moderation issues. That’s another essay.

Significant nerd behavioral change is only going to happen if your nerd engages in the project heart and soul, otherwise it’s just another thought for the irrelevant bucket.

People are the most interesting content out there. If you’ve got a seriously shy nerd on your hands, try this: ask him how many folks are in his buddy list? How many friends does he have in Facebook? How many folks are following him on Twitter? LiveJournal? My guess is that, collectively, your nerd interacts with ten times more people than you think he does. He can do this because the interaction is via a system he understands — the computer.

Your nerd knows that people are interesting. Just because he can’t look your best friend straight in the eye doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to know what makes her tick, but you need to be the social buffer — the translation layer. You need to find one common thread of interest between your nerd and your friend and then he’ll engage because he will have found relevance.

The Next High

As you discovered when you were the project, your nerd’s focus can be deliciously overwhelming, but it will stop. Once a nerd believe he fully knows how a system works, the challenge to understand ceases to exist and he moves on in search of The Next High.

While I don’t know who you are or why in the world you chose a nerd for your companion, I do know that you are not a knowable system. I know that you are messy, just like your nerd. Being your own quirky self will be more than enough to present new and interesting challenges to your nerd.

Besides, it’s just as much a nerd’s job to figure you out and maybe someone somewhere is writing an article about your particular quirks. Good news, he’s probably reading it right now.


http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

Free Mixtape

nice illustration. download here: http://www.grasuxxl.ro/en/index.html

FITC Amsterdam 2008

A “Do It Yourself” festival for new media designers and developers who will learn the latest in interactive techniques and technologies and how to apply them to their own work. World-class speakers, Canadian debuts of new media art exhibits, a prestigious international awards show and late night mixers round out the festival, providing an energizing round-the-clock experience for the delegates.

Festival sessions explore three practical sides of the industry.
The three streams are:

1) Technical: an expose of the latest
technology available and how it’ll affect your world
2) Creative: an exploration of the creative
process with personal examples from top designers
3) Business: how to tackle the challenges
and maximize the benefits of running your business

http://www.fitc.ca/event_detail.cfm?festival_id=29

blow your speakers out to this

Jukebox, Cat Power
Kate Nash, Kate Nash
Juno Soundrack

Colbert is baaaack

Finally something good to watch! Obama and Hilary must be thrilled!!

SF has hella love for NY

East meets West Party! Westcoasts DJ's Ant-1 and $ir Tipp, joins the Eastcoasts DJ Jay Jung and Unkle Chip at the Lower East Sides club Stay! Good times and good tunes will be delivered along with your tasty dranky drank!

Philippe Starck talks design

A refreshing perspective on design.

"the best way forward is

"the best way forward is through design" from Dwell Magazine's editor's note, Sam Grawe

Its worth the 9bucks!

Juno is an amazing film. It has a great story, unknown actors, commendable art direction, and very funny lines. The open credits involve a cross breed of illustration and film. It works well and is age appropriate for the audiences that are enjoying this flick.

blow your speakers out to this

whats good in music right now:

In Rainbows, Radiohead
Growing Pains, Mary J Blige
Some People Have Real Problems, Sia
B Side, Maroon 5

Apple Commercial

During the holiday season means we get overwhelmed with commercials that bank on selling their product through emotional value. The Apple holiday commercial does it well. It plays off the claymation that we all remember Rudolph " The red nose raindeer" for and works it into its current advertising. Gosh darn TBWA, who holds the advertising account for Apple! take a peek


Apple Mac ads; Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab; Creatives: Chuck Monn, Jason Sperling, Alicia Dotter; Director: Drew Lightfoot; Production company: LAIKA/house