Imaginary Zebra™ // Official Blog

Connor Surdi Business Cards

2013-02-27T20:19:00.002-08:00

Connor Surdi
Business card design for Washington based photographer, Connor Surdi.

First impression is important, this set of card was designed to spark a conversation and leave a memorable experience. 15pt silk lamination + high raise spot UV on both sides.

Unused designs:

'til next time,
-Benson

The Not-So-Classic Switcheroo

2013-02-25T20:04:00.002-08:00

Switcheroo is a personal project by Hana Pesut. I stumbled across it a few days a ago and was fascinated by idea and how men and women are willing to pull down their face for a picture like these.Michelle and I decided to give it a try, and boy, trying to squeeze a size 10 feet into a female size 5.5 boots was not an easy task.

These are knee slappin' good:

It was all fun and game for the "before" photo:

Michelle cracked up and I was in tears for the "after":

Love is about putting yourself in her shoes, right?

I'm calling these people out:
-Marvin & Elissa
-Tony a& Livia
-Joey & Jenny
-Lu & Margaret
-Cody & Samantha
-Kyle & Connie
-Lao Toe & Kailin
-Allen & Nicole
-Mark & Fiona
-Kevin & Liz

Ladies, the sexier the outfit, the better it gets.

'til next time,
-Benson

Tying the Knot—Margaret and Lu

2013-02-22T15:01:00.002-08:00

This past Wednesday, not only did I have the honor of witnessing the registration process (which doesn't sound as glamorous as it appears), I was also given the opportunity to document the event. This process is fairly simple compare to the flamboyant wedding ceremonies what most perceive. It was a quick and easy 2 step process to make a marriage official. While in the Civic Center, through the course of approx. 2 hours, I came across a dozen couples in different shapes and sizes taking the step to tying their knots. It was beautiful. I'd like to congratulate the newly wed, and since Margaret's my sister, I'd like to welcome Lu to the family.

My lovely assistant for the day:

Many of the shots here wouldn't have been possible without her.

The soon-to-be husband and wife:

'til next time,
-Benson

Cranefold Photography—Identity design

2013-02-14T23:18:00.001-08:00

Identity design for a California based photographer, Andrew K.

Aside from photography, he also loves papercrafting, which inspired the name "Cranefold". He loved the art of it and how, with the patience and precision, he could make something creative and beautiful with just hands and paper. Crane was chosen because of its simplicity in the origami world and also how eloquent it can be in the real world. "Simple moments made beautiful" is what he sees the two fields have in common and it's what he strives to do in photography.

'til next time, -Benson

Be Seen Magazine—Branding Development

2013-02-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

I had a side project a year back called "BCBeSeen" where I tried to do unbox videos and reviews. It was too time consuming, so the project was postponed for a good while. Recently, I have a couple of friends who are interested in doing features for style and fashion, so we teamed up to create a digital magazine that curates our interests onto a single platform—Be Seen Magazine.

Visit the magazine: here.
There's not much on there just yet, bear with me.

Show some support via Facebook:
'til next time,
-Benson

Jeremy Boyle—Branding Development

2013-01-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

Brand development and stationary design for Jeremy Boyle, a rising photographer from Fairfield, California. Jeremy provides various photographic services from lifestyle journalism, automotive photography, to portraits. It is important to create a brand mark that can seamlessly implemented into the different aspects of his work, while providing the voice of a young, modern, edgy photographer. Here's the brief of a simple, cohesive mark designed around his work using the initials "J.B.".

-Benson

CES 2013—Day2 of 2

2013-01-27T11:59:00.002-08:00

The last release of the 49ers inspired items have kept me busy. Here I've finally found the time to finish up part 2 of 2 of the CES trip. This time I went to LVCC to check out all the big players. However, although they had all the big players at the event, all I cared about were the photographer sessions, so sorry to disappoint you if you were looking for more coverage (Verge, Engadget, Wired..etc all had terrific covers on the show, so check them out if you didn't find what you looked for here.)

Vegas is all about buffet, so kicked off the day with an all-American buffet at Monte Carlo, right across from MGM.

Then, we headed to Venetian for the shuttle to LVCC. This was what we faced:

Good thing they had a terrific system down, so even with 150 people waiting to get on the bus, it only took us less than 20 minutes of wait time to hop on board.

The Central hall:

As we stepped in, a tree of ultra-books majestically greeted us with its presence.

Intel, you baller, you.

Right next to it was the "GoPro" booth:

Nothing new, they had a wall full of goPro Hero 3s.

...but they also had this beauty:

Then we came to a wall of bendable 3D monitor. No more keeping yourself perpendicular to the screen, with this display 3D can be viewed from different angles.

That's Michelle standing directly underneath the screen. Shit was humongous.

More TVs.

Widened screen. Eh.

This was pretty cool:

With this display, player 1 would view the screen as if the whole screen dedicated to their own. Same goes to the screen to the right for player 2. So this eliminates the split screen multi player mode.

TV with camera installed:

(This was not photoshopped by me.)

LG also had an easy dress yourself up monitor.

I knew I'd look good in a dress.

Finally, the moments I've been waiting for—digital imaging potion of the show!

The signature gold:

Nikon had an enormous booth. I think they blew every competitors out of the water (including Canon).

The mirrorless section: V/J one series camera.

The crown jewels:

..and they had a lens tree.

I couldn't stop drooling.

Video testing section:

Lastly, they had dozens of cameras set up with their premium telephoto lens for everyone to try out:

BAM, picture taken with D800 with the 400mm f2.8 lens:

Panasonic:

Nothing new from Lumix.

Did see a waterproof SD card:

And a explosive view of a Lumix FZ series camera.

Samsung:

One of the slickest Micro 4/3rd cameras I saw at the show.

While heading to the next booth, I bumped into Xzibit:

Polaroid:

I had so much expectation from them, but I only ended up with a devastatingly bad impression.

The camera was horrible: Bad resolution on the actual photo and on the screen.

Their old digital instant printing camera came with no film to try out and was beat up cosmetically.

Nonetheless, they still had one of the all time classic SD70 collapsible:

Canon, yet another disappointing act from CES.

The scale and design of the booth was not as delighting as the one Nikon was presenting. Not much interaction and not much new items. Everything that's already on the market are their main display—with the 6D, M mirrorless, and 5D mk3. I was hoping to see a 70D or 7D mk2...

Low light testing room:

The Canon EOS M, a tiny micro 43rd camera that's compatible with the EF and EF-S lenses. (Ooo)

Shot by the Canon M, not bad.

Canon did have all the lenses (L lenses) for people to try out.

Taken with the 50mm f1.2L using 5D mk3.

100mm Macro f2.8L!! Amazing lens. Fast, sharp, and expensive.

Like Nikon, a dozen of pro body mounted with the telephoto L lenses for people to play with.

With the terrific telephoto lens, I had to run out for a few test shots. This is how far away I was from Tony and Michelle:

And these are the photos taken from a 400mm on a 1Dx.

Canon's crown jewels.

The inside of a 400mm L.

Right next to Canon, we had Pentax/Ricoh.

Wall of colorful Q10. Terrific concept where people can customize their own color:

Image quality? Eh.

Ooo, what's this?

Pentax's really pulling out the old-school card on this one.

The K-01 designed by Marc Newson: It's much more awkward looking in person than expected.

Fujifilm:

Fuji's coming up with plenty of terrific cameras recently. Not only have they produced phenomenally beautiful cameras for their micro 43rd line, they also have a dominant place for instant camera line.

Fuji's new mini 8:

The $1400 camera with a APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor:

And BAM, the X-Pro!

The last camera stop: Sigma.

oo, the new 35mm f1.4

...and the 200-500mm Sigma BAZOOKA.

Had the chance to try out their pro-body Sigma SD1 with 46 mega pixel.

46 MP?! This is the result shooing from a 24-70 sigma f2.8 lens. Under all the pro setting (light, bg, camera..etc) provided by Sigma.

Finally, we wrap up out trip here at CES with a tour around the automotive portion of the show:

Does this remind you of an Audi?

The actual Audi:

There ya go, a quick two part posts about my trip to CES. Overall, it was a cool and delighting break from my day to day routine. Though, I did expect to see a lot more items that are not yet on the market, so that was a bit disappointing. If you could find the time to make it out to Vegas, def. check out the CES and emerge yourself in a 3 day long gadget tour.

'til next trip,
-Benson

For San Francisco | 49ers Edition—Design Process

2013-01-19T14:27:00.001-08:00

*This is not an official apparel for the San Francisco Giants. It is, however, a design inspired by the SF 49ers.

I wouldn't say I bleed red and gold, but I'm certainly a big supporter of my local team. 49ers have made a pretty good run so far and they better take home the trophy! It's been almost 20 years since their last championship and I think it's about time to renew that record. Who's got it better than us? NOBODY!
To celebrate the hardwork by our 9ers, Marvin (MKP) and I teamed up again to pump out a design for the occasion. Here's the breakdown from head to toe of how we came up with the design:

First started with our Imaginary Zebra (Zeeb Character) template. It's come a long way. I started making these back in '08 and this is the current version after dozens of revision and polish.

The main adjustment for this particular is the jersey style. This would be the same throughout all the characters I'll be making for the Niners.

Then, it's the color palette:

For screen printing, there's a limitation for color. Not too much on the technical side of things, but financial side of things. The more colors = the more expensive. So it's important to cut the colors down to only the critical ones and optimize those for the final design. Good thing most teams have only two, if not one, colors as the primary scheme.

Next is to figure out the amount of space we have on our garments.

Note that there's male and female sizing, therefore, the space is only as big as your smallest shirts.
With the limited room for design, we had to CUT DOWN the players to only the most significant ones for the graphic.

Whether a player's a good/significant one is highly subjective, so here are the ones Marv and I decided to keep. We've heard many requests to add other players, but with the amount of room and time it'd take to include, we had to regrettably say that this would be the final list:

Now, onto the characters:

To customize the players, there are a few key points to pay attention to: The shape of head, ears, facial feature placements, hair, and signature features (tattoo, jewelry, outfit..etc)

Quick example: Jim.

And a few others:

All the characters were individually designed via Illustrator.

And the placements were set using Photoshop.

We like the signature red and gold, but simply couldn't leave out the black. So we came up with 2 color ways for this design: Home and away jerseys on black and red garments.

Back design:

Now available in 3 different styles—tees, zip-ups, and crewneck sweaters.

These items are for pre-order only.
You can pre-order them here.

'til next time,
-Benson

CES 2013—Day1 of 2

2013-01-17T00:28:00.002-08:00

Ah, the actual show. This is part 1 of 2 of this ENORMOUS trade show, where they had exhibits in Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) and the Venetian ballrooms. All the big players were at LVCC, leaving some of the most innovative startups in Venetian. Day 1—The Venetian.
Woke up not really early, but still early enough to make it to breakfast.

Thanks to Yao coupons, we nailed some quality breakfast for about $7 each. Good start.

Tony couldn't wait to devour those egg Benedicts.

The show opened at 7:30AM.

I'm not good at many things, and waking up early is definitely one of them.

Badge acquired.

Let's roll.

A product by In2uit:

Beautifully designed, meaning it looks nothing like speakers. If I wear purses, I'd be down for one of these.

Bar speakers by Exelway:

Wall speakers that takes little real estate. So much potential.

Things like these would only come from startups:

Innovation often requires the balls to take risks. A great idea that beg to differ would almost certainly be shot down as it goes through the various layers of the hierarchy structure of a big corporation. Large brands like to play it safe. And massage mouse isn't safe (metaphorically).

I applaud the thinking and execution they had for renting out a hundred, if not thousand, dollor booth to display this. I hope this flies. Best of luck.

Saw a couple of 3D printers in the building:

...and the objects they can produce blew my freakin' mind:

That's a bunny. So far, so good.

BUT DYAM:

THEN, THIS!

CITY SCAPE? NO PROBLEM!!

That's a $3000 dollar machine for small scale 3D printing and a $30,000 machine for more complex designs.

Vapor Armor is one of the best "products" I've seen thus far:

They can vacuum seal almost any item to make it waterproof. Cool thing is there's no visible guard nor wrapper when finished. The only down side is they're looking for manufactures to integrate this process into the production line, instead of working directly with end users. Also, it's pretty pricey. Even with a wholesaler (large manufacturer), it'd cost $30-60 to seal one product.

Auto. foldable baby stroller. Very cool, but I'm not exactly sure why this would come in handy.

Too lazy to pull your cell phone out of your pants? There's a product for that:

Brother showed up with an amazing embroidery machine:

BAM:

FlyGrip—the one handed smartphone solution:

T-Mobile had an amazing booth out in the back. Took up a whole conference room.

I was born a diva, son.

Tony's great grand kid.

Quick break.

Holi, a company that makes colorful LED light fixtures that can be controlled by smartphones.

They also made colorful shades.

More one handed solution for your smart devices.

Transparent LED? not bad.

Vapor touch sensor device? AWESOME.

A device implemented in the seat cushion to reduce noise. I thought they were offering massage seats. My bad.

Met up with Yao for dinnner.

Yao's the Yelp for Vegas (metaphorically). He's the go-to guy for any casino reviews, restaurant reviews and directions...etc.

He brought us to Aria for its new buffet joint:

There goes day 1 of CES.

'til tomorrow,
-Benson

CES 2013—Arrival

2013-01-16T00:51:00.002-08:00

I was there 2 years ago and had a blast. Although, Cody and I were bombarded with tablets and 3D monitors, we still had our fair share of innovative exposure on various media. Tech advancement accelerates like no other, so to keep up (for no practical reason), I brought Michelle with me for a quick 3 day break to check out the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) International in Vegas 2013!

Spirit Airline for the cheapest tickets out there (If you don't have any luggage's and don't plan on consuming any drinks/food during flight). Will probably stick with South West next time around.

Note: Plane ticket's as long as $30 one way, BUT any carry-on would be $35per. extra one way. Check-it bags would be $45 one way. Any drinks or food during flight would be extra. So, unless I have a place in Vegas and wouldn't require me to bring any change of cloths, Spirit would be the flight of choice.

Mk3 + 12mm lens = very long self portrait arms.

Flight was delayed, we happened to skip lunch, and just so there's a burger joint right next to the boarding gate: Perfecto.

A fat meal before we get even fatter in Vegas.

It cost extra to get salad on the side. I left with no options but to choose to live the American dream. Very delicious dream.

Everyone's an expert photojournalist around the dining table. Michelle's no exception.

Now, the waiting game.

When real life emoticon meets instagram:

She was dead on.

Then, we took off.

I don't remember last time I got on a domestic plane. Either the seat's gotten narrower, or I grew a lot taller. I prefer the later.

BAM, one and a half hour later ( which really felt like 15 minutes for we slept through the whole way) we have arrived. Houston, we've touched down Vegas, the sin city.

Lines of slot machines stood on the lobby floor. How refreshing.

I see innovation already:

Fresh flower vending machine. Gamble your chance on the freshness of these flowers. and your chance with the babe when she found out that she just sniffed a bouquet full of last-minute-efforts.

VEGAS!

The Eiffel tower that's not in Paris.

Hotel lobby—Treasure Island.

Big shouts to Yao for booking a room with such terrific view:

Pressing all the shirts (my shirts) for the next couple of days. She's amazing.

Bellagio.

Of course we did:

Tony joined us in Vegas.

Took a trip down the strip for the famous Earl's sandwich.

...and there we saw:

Grey hair, black turtle neck, iPhone messin'. He's back.
That's a wrap for day 1. Posts of the ACTUAL show will be up shortly.
'til tomorrow,
-Benson

IMAGES—A photography project

2013-01-08T00:36:00.003-08:00

Redesigned my tumblr for a new project—IMAGES. A project dedicated to my interest in photography. I'll be trying to post an image daily for as long as I can.

'til next time,
-Benson

Happy Holidays—a photoshoot

2012-12-24T14:11:00.004-08:00

Merry Christmas, fellow zeebs! Doggies are cute, but they're even cuter with an outfit. I've had encounters with many dogs in the past, yet none as close or as intimate with these two—Shining and Mini. So, for the holiday season, I grabbed a few outfits for them and did a quick photoshoot to preserve some memories.

Here are the models:

Mini.

..and Shining:

Who didn't seem to enthus. about the shoot. Mini's typically the one that complies. Shining's smart, so unless the treat's major enough, she usually does what she wills. She's a cat.

The cool outfits from Amazon.

Camera, light, action:

Oh, Shining.

"Seriously?! this is all I get for each photo?! I need to call my agent."

Glad we snapped up a few for the occasion:

Happy holidays and may you have a wonderful Christmas.

'til the next holiday,
-Benson

Weekend at Lake Tahoe

2012-12-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

Took a short trip this past weekend to Tahoe—a much needed vacation. It's been quite some time since I last skied or have quality family time. Plus, Michelle's never seen snowfall (though, she's seen snow), I was especially excited when I heard about the major snowfall at Tahoe before we took off. We rented a cabin, grabbed a crap load of grocery, and picked up a set of snow chains, then off we went!

From home to Tahoe's a 3 hour drive. That's 3 hours of chat and game and snack grubbing. WRONG. Everyone passed out (except for Michelle, who struggled to stay awake to make sure I don't pass out) in the car and I solo'd till we're 40 minutes from the destination.

Due to the heavy snow, we were required to put on snow chains: Otherwise, we would've pull a tokyo drift along the mountain trails. That would've been epic, except no one would live to tell the story.

This is my brother and I putting on snow chains for the first time. Took us 15 minutes, with the help of YouTube.

Arrival!

No idea what we got ourselves into:

Actually, we knew exactly what we got ourselves into—hot tub time machine!

It was too hot:

Day 2 started off with some thick snow from the night before:

I was extremely excited to see my car covered by a 2 inch snow. Really because I only get to see things like this once every 5 years. I doubt I'd be at ease if I have to wake up to this daily.

Snow day—Sierra at Tahoe!

Getting our equipments ready.

Fun fact—this was Michelle's first skiing experience, too.

Gear'd up and ready to roll! Nicole, Allen (Yilun), and Michelle.

Very good snow. (not that I know much about that)

We're skiers.

Look who we found: The snowboarders.

Good run.

We even took the challenge of going up the "Grandview," which we later learned that it was a terrible mistake. My back was soaked by snow by the time I reached the end of the hill because I fell so often and in so many strange ways. We were going incredibly slow with our skies, that I think we would've reached the bottom of the hill if we just walked the whole way. Good times, though, good times.

Bro seem to know exactly what he was doing. Hence, the "expert" starbursts.

Skiing's exhausting, that wrapped up day 2.

Last and final day:

Time flies. or maybe I just hadn't taken enough photos.

Woke up to the delectable meal by Shirley!

Stop drooling.

Snow fight? of course.

Then, we headed down to the actual Lake.

Margaret's not to fuck with.

Taste the rage:

We didn't do this:

Some elves did. It was so beautiful!

Bro powered up again and asked us to snowball him:

A series of photo sessh:

Snowman building? done.

We had to.

Last, but certainly not least:

Jam, condensed milk, and snow.

Ooooh yes.

Before we headed back home and wrap up the night at Tahoe, we took a stroll downtown:

It was delightful, though cold, trip with terrific people. A weekend well spent and well rested. Now, time to hit the computer and pump out more designs!

'til next vacation
-Benson

"Best Gift Ever" X'mas Collaborative Project—Design Process

2012-12-10T14:36:00.001-08:00

"Best Gift Ever" is our biggest project yet, where we collaborated with 100 of you to come up with a design for our winter/Christmas items. The span of the design process took more than 2 weeks, from accepting entries to compiling and polishing the design to the way it looks for the final products. Stoked to show you what went down on our end! (Pre-order period: 12/10 8PM PST to 12/13 11:59PM PST here)

On 11/26, we announced this project:

We asked you guys to contribute one thing that you want to the most for X'mas.

Thank you guys for participating and trusting us, even when our "mockups" didn't look really look promising.

Due to our limited capability to pump out the design, we had to contraint the entries to 100 only. To our surprise, the items flooded in like teen girls at a Justin Bieber concert. We cap was filled within 24 hours of our announcement:

Members of the IZ team speedily organized all the items into various categories for easier execution.

Here's a glance of almost everything. Each of the item's illustrated by hand from scratch. 12 hours worth of illustration. Oh yeah.

And a closer look at the individual items: Automotive related.

Food and places. (One on bottom right's the secret gettaway island.)

Items and accessories:

Animals:

Electronics, of course.

Instruments:

Footwear:

People and symbols:

Toys and jewelries:

Also, due to the little space that we have on the shirt, there are items implemented on the workshop staff:

Now, to compile all the items into a single graphic can be tricky. The idea that we came up with is "workshop," where a group of Imaginary Zebra's helpers would sort and examine the items as they travel on a conveyor belt across the workshop.

Really rough draft. It took me 40 minutes to go through all the items and strategically composing them into the final design.

The main structure for this shirt is based solely on the conveyor belt, so that's first on the to-do-list.

Then, spacing out the items and helpers:

Wrap the design up with the "workshop banner" on the bottom right, as well as the entrance and exit.

Once completed the layout, shadow and details are added to polish the design.

..and finally, a thick outline over the entire graphic to make the design more compact.

As for the back, we're including all the names of the collaborators. Just listing out the name's too boring and feel too much like a high school senior shirt. So we came up with a "nice list" and illustration idea for design:

Yet another rough draft, this one took me 2 minutes. ha.

The final design:

Up close and personal for both the front and back design:

Thank you for contributing!

Lastly, placement on the shirts: It would be placed on white tees AND crew neck sweaters.

There'll also be two options to choose from:

One with the simplistic approach, and one with all the names of the collaborators.

Same goes to the sweaters:

Happy holidays. I don't think a project like this has been accomplished by any brands (that I know of) in the past. We're making history here! We're probably not gana make a dent in the universe, but we'll definitely have a personal and kickass shirt for this winter! Thanks again to all the fellow zeebs, collaborators and supporters out there that makes this project possible.

Pre-order period: 12/10 8PM PST to 12/13 11:59PM PST here

'til next project -Benson

Bluetooth Bracelet/Watch by Mobile Fun—Product Review

2012-12-01T19:49:00.001-08:00

This isn't the most advanced gadget out there, but I sure feel hell of a lot more futuristic when using it. It's the bluetooth enabled bracelet slash watch from MobileFun, leading online retailer for mobile friendly and innovative accessories. Cut right to the chase, here goes my 2 cents.

First look at packaging:

Simplistic matte finish with a magnetic closing from the side. I was sent the white version out of the 6 possible color schemes.

The content:

I usually just expect a watch when I buy watches. This one not only comes with a watch, but a USB charger (that's a plus), and a UK adapter (this one's sold from the UK market place).

Very slick looking.

Due to the white surface, finger prints aren't particular visible.

The inner rim of the watch has an extra layer of rubber for grip.

Charger that looks like a viper.

Having to receive this product in the States results in leaving this adapter useless...

But fear not, now that quite a few of us has an iphone (49ish% market share in the US), one can simply use the IPhone provided USB wall adapter for this nifty device:

The charging outlet on the watch is a bit funky, but whatever gets the job done:

A micro icon would appear when charged properly.

Taking a closer look, the white version of this bracelet/ watch resembles the Honda Asimo, no?

It's quite thick.

It only comes in one size and it fits quite small.

The manual is straight forward and helpful. All it'll take is the initial setup (which will take around 3 minutes), then the rest of the feature for the watch is intuitive.

The COOL stuff:

The watch mostly serve as a fashion item when asleep. Only by a click of a botton would it display the time:

When receiving a phone call, caller's number would be displayed. AND the watch would vibrate.

This feature comes in handy when you're a conference or loud environment (club/bar) where you'd keep your phone in your pocket or on silent.

If you receive a call from one of your contacts:

Caller ID would show up. BUT, if the caller ID's consisted of "Emoji" icons or characters that this device can't recognize, it would only show the numbers.

Another cool feature for the forgetfuls like me:

When the watch is connected via bluetooth, it would vibrate when it's too far from the device. Hence, notify you when you left your phone elsewhere. Very cool.

Overall, this is a pretty sweet item. Solves problem in a advanced and fashionable ways. On another hand, I would expect better graphics (just to please the eye) and smaller form factor.

*Edit 12/01/12, this item's discontinued.
Thanks again, MobileFun for sending me the item.
Check out other iPhone 5 accessories through their site and get blown away but their innovations.

'til next review,
-Benson

Partake in our BIGGEST COLLAB EVER—The Best Gift Ever Project

2012-11-26T23:52:00.000-08:00

You're invited to partake in the BIGGEST collaboration ever! With the holidays coming up, we want to know what YOU are looking to receive under the Christmas tree this year.This is your chance to leave your mark on one of our upcoming shirts and we are truly looking forward to what you have to say. ~~Last day to submit an entry is 11/28/12 11:59PM~~ Cap reached 11/27/12 9:18PM! Thanks to the 100 contributors. Design will be out shortly.

Yesterday, I've received my early X'mas present. By accident.

Here's what went down in a nutshell: I've been eyeing this Uniqlo Jacket for quite sometime.. and my thoughtful girlfriend noticed and secretly bought it in advance like a true ninja and ready to gift it on X'mas (She likes to plan ahead. More-than-an-entire-month ahead). Yet, to her surprise, I came across Uniqlo's recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale and was ready to place an order for this jacket myself. She stopped me as I put the jacket in the shopping cart, then BAM. "Merry Early X'mas."

It's an amazing feeling to receive something you want (and have an awesome girlfriend). But, people like different things and it's hard to figure out exactly what that is:

So, that ignited the idea of this project. A collection of all the things we like, making the collage of things "the best gift ever."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To make this a complete and successful project, we'll need your help. Here's an invitation to collaborate with us making it the largest collaborative project we've ever done! (Fingers crossed)

1. Input your name and wish list item (the ONE gift you want the most)

2. We'll go over all the items and compile the ones that's draw-able into our gift list.

3.Then, we'll work our asses off implementing everything on that list into a graphic. AND place YOUR NAME along with all the other contributors' on the back of this shirt!

Like this:

There, now that you have an idea, let's roll and be a part of this epic collaboration:
~~Last day to submit an entry is 11/28/12 11:59PM~~ Cap reached 11/27/12 9:18PM! Thanks to the 100 contributors. Design will be out shortly.

'til next time,
-Benson

ThinkTank Sling-O-Matic 10 Review

2012-11-25T00:26:00.002-08:00

Flabbergasted when I received this package from ThinkTank! They're a group of innovators striving to make the best carrying solutions for the photogs of all kinds and ages out there. They sent me the "Sling-O-Matic 10," which is the smallest sling bag of the three size family (10, 20, and 30). Meant for light weight shooters that only needed 2-3 lens tasks. Without further ado, let's get the review going!

The brand and the product. $137.75 on both their official site and amazon. May be perceived as quite a bit pricey at first glance, but there's a few reasons why it's worth it.

The lady on the hang tag seem exceptionally happy. Maybe because she's holding a 400mm f2.8 BAZOOKA. Or how ThinkTank really helps make her job easier. Let's see if the later holds true.

Here's the "how to put on a sling bag 101."

oooooo, very fancy.

Quick view:

The package consists of the following:
-Dividers to customize the main compartment.
-Rain coat
-Straps for fastening.
-Catalogue that would make you want to buy more ThinkTank items (you're warned.)

Opening up the main compartment, you see:

Lots of Nikon things we can't afford, but can certainly fit into the bag.

Although this is the smallest bag of the family, it's basically still made out of ALL KINDS of compartments that would fit ALL KINDS of things:

Let's count.

Flat compartment on the front/back side of the bag.

More on the surfaces.

Smaller spaces for micro-tools, SD cards...etc.

Tripod, monopod (or umbrella) got their dedicated spot, too.

Straps come in different sizes and shapes:

Chest, check. Waist, check. Tripod? Check.

Each is indicated, too. Major plus! Straight forward and user friendly. None of that "tall, grande, venti" bullshit.

Installation of these straps' intuitive. Just put the hook into the loop. BAM!

...though, the hook can be a bit tricky.

Le Rain Coat:

Rain, milk, liquid? GET OUTTA HERE.

Unlike regular backpacks, a sling bag provides easy access for a photographer to reach for the camera/lenses without having to take off the entire bag. But the handy maneuver comes with a compromise—all sling bags consist of a single strap, which can really exhaust the shoulder after a long period of usage. ThinkTank, on the other hand, solves that problem:

It's more like 1 step.

...then, voila!

Finally, this is the bag in action! (I don't usually bring this much stuff, but hey, let's see what this bag is made out of)

Just slightly larger than my Macbook Pro (2009).

Large enough for a pretty serious light shooting session, yet small enough to carry around with ease.

Guess that makes me a happy photographer, too!

I give it 4.5 stars. Great aesthetic, durable quality, innovative construction, straight forward application, do exactly what it's suppose to, just slightly pricey. Very well made product. *Thumbs up.

Check out the bags here.
Thanks, again, ThinkTank, for the awesome sling bag!

'til the next review!
-Benson

For San Francisco—Design Process

2012-10-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

*This is not an official apparel for the San Francisco Giants. It is, however, a design inspired by the SF Giants.

In 2010, Giants took it home. People (San Francisco people) went wild and the streets were covered by a sea of orange and black. I was there to witness it all. Who knew, Giants might be able to make history again this year around. To support or local MLB team, Marvin (MKP) and I teamed up to pump out these Giants inspired shirts for the occasion. Here goes the design process:

For vector based design, the setup was simple:

Characters was done in Illustrator, then layout through Photoshop.

We wanted to revolve the design around the players as a time specific approach, marking the time and players that could possibly take home another World Series. So, first step was to pick out the major-est of the major players. With limited spacing for printing, I could only fit so many.

A list of 14 players were chosen as the inspiration of this shirt. They're listed as follow: Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo, Bary Zito, Buster Posey, Bradon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Pablo Sandoval, Marco Scutaro, Gregor Blanco, Angel Pagan, and Hunter Pence.

Then, to distinguish each player, I pin pointed and emphasized the facial features:
I split each person's face into 7 general parts for variation—eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears, facial hair, hair, and shape of the face.

Matt Cain's a bit chubby and triangular nose, while Madison Bumgarner has frown-y brows.

Tim Lincecum has longer face and hair.

Another key thing to list out was lefty vs righty. Adding accessories such as bats, gloves, and hats would make the design more detailed and complex, but it'd backfire if we got the lefty/righty wrong.

Next, we chose the uniform. Home, of course.

A generic character, Zeeb character I call it, was made ready to adopt the various alterations. Color palette was set in place. And gadgets made for the detail touch.

BAM: By the time I finished, my canvas was covered by reference photos, failure attempts of weird looking zeebs, and just random shapes and forms that was never used.

For a closer look, here are a few of my favorite Zeeb characters inspired by the actual players of the SF Giants:

You see what I was talking about the frown-y brows?!

Players with distinctive facial hair are much easier to develop and have it resemble the actual person. Thank you, Sergio.

I don't usually do, but I tweaked the nostril for Ryan. You're welcome, Ryan.

Facial hair was difficult to design, especially one as wild as Zito's.

My favorite Zeeb character: Brandon Crawford.

Posey just look like a very nice guy. But hey, he's the only one with the catcher suit. Chyeah!

Long hair, long face, narrow mouth. check.

Matt Cain's just a bit chubbier, just the way we like it.

Last, but certainly not least, Pablo Sandoval, the Panda, with three bats inspired by the 3 homeruns he did during the first game. Slaughtered the Tigers. Sorry, Tigers.

The final design:

A back logo was also crafted for the occasion:

Now available in both tee:

and crewneck sweater (it's getting cold):

UPDATE as of 10/28/12: New back logo that will be on all the shirts! Congrats Giants for taking the title!

Here's the limited run of the Giants inspired designs.
Pre-order the t-shirt here.
Pre-order the crewneck sweater here.

↑ 'til next -Benson

Less than 30 hours to go.

2012-10-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

Less than 30 hours to go till we wrap up the pre-order session for our Cameraman tee. And this means two thing: 1.) For those that have pre-ordered (thanks for the support!) your shirt will be in production and delivered with 3-4 weeks! 2.) For those that haven't pre-ordered, you might just have to wait for the Pentax cameraman if you ever want one from the series because these will not be re-printed.

Grace's take with the shirt:

Raymond's take with the shirt: (Thanks Liz, for making it look so good!)

Pre-order yours here.

'til next time,
-Benson

15 Things I Learned At Startup School—hosted by Y Combinator

2012-10-22T09:50:00.003-07:00

Catering towards hackers and programmers, Startup school's an annual event hosted by Y Combinator, an incubator that invests a small amount of money (average around 18K) in a mass amount of selected startups twice a year. Startup school's a free event (though, there's an application process) that provides entrepreneurs and programmers that think about building a startup a platform to network and learn/get inspired from talks given by CEO and founders of some of the major companies out there.

I'm no programmer, but I'm curious to see what goes down at an event like this. Here's what happened:

Cody's a Startup School veteran; he was here last year. I was told to show up early, for the venue gets packed very quickly. Taking his advise, I got there right on the spot.

The venue:

Needless to say, Stanford's beautiful.

Cody was right, people were here early. A long line was formed when the door for registation was not even opened, yet. There was free food right next to the venue, too. These programmers weren't here to joke around. Fully committed to getting that name badge as soon as they could.

Meanwhile...

I got free food all to myself.

After breakfast, I almost got what I needed:

Networking is a big thing here at Startup school. Everyone had a stack of business cards ready and ready to start a conversation when your eyes meet theirs. I felt a bit intimidated. But hey, that's seem to be the rule of the game. Like a big funnel, if you talk to 50 people, you just might find 3-5 (that's 10%) inspirational ideas/potential partners/people that are really genuinely talking to you.

Cody came to the rescue. A familiar face always ease the awkwardness over small talks.

The talk starts at 12PM, people are lining up to get good seats.

Here. We. Go. The 15 things I learned at Startup School:

Mark Zuckerberg's up first. People went wild.

1. It's about building what you want to use.
This won't guarantee your success, but it's a good start. Mark (most people call him Zuck) never expected to build a company and raise billions. He just wanted a service to connect the students. Plus, even if you failed at making yourself rich from doing so, you've still built something that's of good use to yourself.

Up close and personal.

Founder of Uber, the crowd-sourced taxi service.

2. Make your users tell stories about your products.
Uber has lots of creative marketing campaigns. At valentine's day, they had drivers deliver roses to their passengers. On presidents day, 1 in 20 cars would be treated as if the rider's the president. They would have black Cadillacs sandwiched the taxi and drive towards the street where both sides are lined with American flags. And to top it off, when the passenger arrives the destination, the driver would wear shades, ear piece, acts as FBIs and opens the door for the passenger—a true presidential treatment.

The operation for Uber's definitely beyond fun and game, a complex operation strategy tree is all set in place:

Next up:

3. Every entrepreneur needs determination—resilience and drive.
Resilience is the flexibility to morph your failed ideas to a successful one. It's the trait that could pick yourself up when time gets tough. It's the capacity to endure countless rejects from investors and yet able to keep your chin up. Drive is the ambition, the ability to strive for greatness, and the will to succeed.

4. Don't doze off, otherwise you'd miss a great talk.
He was a quick talker, I simply couldn't keep up. Sorry, guys.

An hour for Lunch!

Complimentary pizza, my favorite! They ran out very quickly:

...and by the end of the day:

Programmers have enormous apetite.

A line for the restroom.

Only at the men's restroom. Why?

Because the male to female ratio's 50:1. Just like what you'd expect in an engineering couse:

We're back and there's Tina Seelig!

Executive Director of Stanford Technology Ventures Programs and author of "What I Wish I Knew When I was 20." Good read.

Ben Silvermann, founder and CEO of Pinterest.

5. Committing Matters.
When there's no backup plan, success is your only way out. Ben Silbermann quit his Google gig in May of 2008. Started Pinterest in Nov of 09. Lunched on March 2010. And finally reached 3000 users in June 2010 after 8 months after he initiated the project. It was not a glorious track record, but he pushed it.

6. Build something you believe in.
When he pitched to a group of investors, some walked out even before he finished his presentation. It was difficult times, but he knew he had to stick with his guts.

This guy's awesome, Ben Horowitz, the founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz. His firm was evaluated at $800mil, during the rise of the tech bubble. He was one of the first few firms doing cloud computing at the time, but it was burning the cash FAST. Within a couple of years, the bubble crashed and he was forced to IPO to keep the company going. They IPO'd at $200mil. It was devastating. But worse was yet to come. After a few quarters passed, cloud computing part of the company was still working hard at burning its capital resulting an evaluation at $55million mark. Ben pulled the trigger and dissolved the cloud computing portion and focus strictly on software. In 2007, he sold the firm to HP for $1.6 billion. Happy Ending. Moral of the story—startup's like a roller coaster ride.

7.Greatest thing about being rich, is not having to work with people you don't like. So says Warren Buffett.

A photo taken at Ron Conway's party.

8.Products Matter—building a product that improves how some large group of people does something important by 10x. The significant notion being 10 times better. It's not about being just a little better. If you want your product to blow people out of the water and actually convert and start using your product, you got to make sure it's got what it takes.

9.Taking the market—there is no crying in baseball and no profit for number 2 in technology markets. Investors like number one, consumers pay attention to number one. Michael Phelps took Gold in the 100m butterful, who took silver? Exactly.

10.Have courage.
Even James Cameron, the director of Avatar/Titanic said "Failure is an option, but fear is not."

Then, it was Tom Preston-Werner's turn.

Github is still a unfamiliar thing to me. Cody told me it's got something to do programming. It went way over my head.

Quite dramatic. No distraction, all talk, as he put his phone on the stage:

11. A good business is made up of people, product, and philosophy. Good people make good decisions. Good products attract good consumers. And good philosophy brings in good people.

One of the biggest angel investors in Silicon Valley—Ron Conway of SV Angels.

SV Angel's invested in more than 650 companies, some of the big ones include Google, Facebook, and Twitter...etc. Ron shared his insight on a few interesting meetups with the founders of Google and how he choose to invest.

12. Invest in people.
After seeing thousands of startups and its founders. Ron can tell whether to invest in a person after 10 minutes of conversation. He's got a good instinct on whether the person would succeed.
—whether he/she has the charisma, leadership, passion, ability to execute...etc. A good case would be Jack Dorsey of Twitter. He loved Ev William and his team, where Jack's a part of. So when Jack started twitter, Ron was in, no questions asked.

13.Growth is the lifeblood of innovation.He gets growth. When the product/service attracts crowd, innovation's certainly involved.

Rakuten's THE biggest online market place in Japan, taking 35-40% market share. It's like the Amazon of Japan. Taking only $200,000 in VC, majority of the funding came from operations itself. The company started off by asking merchants to pay 6 months' fee, at $600 USD/mo, up front to maintain the cashflow of the platform.

14. Success = innovation + operation. Innovation's crucial, but without proper execution and operation, one could still run a company down the sewer.

15. Improve, improve, improve. Hiroshi believe that it's in his Japanese culture to strive for greatness by constantly improving. Same philosophy I heard from the working culture of Toyota.

Due to a prior obligation, I had to miss two speakers, Joel Spolsky of Stack Exchange and David of Weebly.

Though, I didn't get to hear the stories of two phenomenal CEO, it still ended with a good note—free snacks:

Well, that's it. A terrific event that would certainly get you pumped and inspired to take that leap that you've always wanted. In fact, Cody and I went to a cafe immediately after we left the event to come up with potential new projects. But that's for another post.

'til next time,
-Benson

My DIY Standing Desk—The $22/$31 IKEA Hack

2012-10-18T16:30:00.001-07:00

If I died from free-falling 120,000+ feet above the Earth, I'd die as a badass. If I died from saving a kid from a car crash, I'd die as a hero. And if I died from pursuing my dreams, I'd died as an inspiration. But if I died from sitting too much?! That's just lame. I've been exposed to lots of research and articles about how bad it is to sit all day for the last couple of years. For those who have job nature like the one I have, where we revolve around a computer all day, those articles are aiming directly at us. Knowing there'll be no happy ending sitting around, I've finally found time to do something about it.

I've been skeptical about the research. But now that I've also gained a few extra inches around my waist, a standing desk just might be beneficial one way or another.

Like I usually do, I tried to find the easy way out—Amazon. If it's affordable and looking good, why the effort of building my own:

Where desks are often below $100, standing ones are priced at an average of $150+. WTF.

So instead, I went for the DIY options. After some research, I was delighted by MANY creative approaches:

..but they either don't look as good as I hoped, or just costing a bit too much to build.

Until I stumble across an article in Wired Magazine. Colin Nederkoorn, CEO of customer.io, built one with parts from IKEA and cost only $22. And not only is this project inexpensive, one can implement this method on top of his/her existing desk! Bravo, Colin, Bravo!

Sitting's (too much) no good. The basic principle is simple: Monitor just slightly above your eyes and desk/keyboard just slightly below your elbows.

Following the tutorial, I headed to IKEA: Colin's option's $22, it mainly for a single computer that doesn't require much space. I tweaked it a bit and come up with a $31 option for those that need extra room.

Material search:

Found the Viktor shelf, but the length isn't as wide as I'd like...

So I went for a different option:

$1 extra for 20 extra inches? Sounds good.

I also grabbed two tables instead of one for extra space:

Still needed lots of clean up to do, but a quick placement to see how everything fits:

Using a 3/32 inches drill to make a few holes for the screws:

Using two 4.5x50mm screws for the bottom portion of the bracket and two 3.5x35mm screws for the top. Why? since the top portion of the table legs have screws in the center to connect the table top, the 50mm screws would clash with it.

At 90 degree angle and weights directing from the top to avoid it skipping out of the screw head (cam-outs).

...then as I turn the legs into the table top, I put too much force on the side of the bracket and it snapped:

Turnout, the legs are hollow (which is why this item's so cheap). So keep in mind not to put too much weight on these brackets!

1st attempt:

2nd attempt:

BAM, my $31 wide and spacious standing desk. on top of my desk.

Tutorials for other standing desks:
Colin's $22.
Ikea Hacks.
Adjustable standing desk.

'til next time,
-Benson

Cameraman Design Process—カメラマン設計プロセス (Nikon Edition)

2012-10-16T10:37:00.001-07:00

Going at it for Round 2! Connor and I have teamed up again to collaborate on the 2nd set of cameraman, this time for the Nikon shooters out there. Cut right through the chase, here goes the design process!

After more than 3 months of planning and character design development, we're ready for round 2:
Canon version was our first collabo. For those of you that haven't wrapped your head around the cameraman idea, yet, check here for the initial post.

Connor's a self-taught photographer based out of Bellevue, Washington. A shot of some trees during a wedding in 2007 led to his endeavor to becoming a future Japan fashion street photographer(his dream). I've known this man through Rolo (dunksrnice), but we've never met. Yet, his passion's apparent. His photo projects and portraits of fly whips and hot babes shows innovation, creativity, and character. Not only am I inspired, I'm jealous.

Cameraman collabo is to "create a super hero that is made of cameras/lenses etc. "
Ladies: Cameraman is used in Japan by men and women to describe themselves as photographers! No gender bias here!

Keep it simple this time around: Less softdrink, more junkfood. I'm in no ways making myself any healthier.

To knock the Nikon version out of the park, I chose the top of the line items to piece this cameraman together:

The sketch process was a bit tricky. We need to keep the collection cohesive, while adding enough differences for this one to make sure either can stand on its own: Aside from the distinctive accent of the gold, a red cape was added because it's badass.

Minor tweaks for better balance:

Details:

we modified the back design as well—simplicity's the key.

When Canon camera was released, this happened:

Now available to pre-order here.
Connor can be found here.

'til next time,
-Benson

FAME 2012—Event Recap

2012-10-15T19:14:00.002-07:00

F.A.M.E. stands for Fashion, Art, Music, and Exhibition. It's a bi-annual event typically hosted in San Jose that gathers some of the best locally grown street wear brands and artists alike for a night of loud music, glamorous fashion show, and mad shopping spree. I've been a FAME veteran, for this would be my 5th attendance (never missed once; that's better than how I did in school).

This is Bobbi. He's the host. Along with his team, they bridge indie brands like us with the genuine and local crowds. Win/win.

Don't be fooled by the cupcakes, I heard he only sleeps 2 hours a day, plants his own produce, and eats danger for breakfast. He's the last guy you want to mess. Come to his events.

Dinner started early. Mcky D's not my first choice for meals, but at times like this, we compromise. A quick dinner then back to work:

While we're still in the process of clearing out our old inventory, we designed the booth with grab boxes for easier access. This is our 6th rendition of our booth. Much more can be improved, but I'll leave that to a later post.

Candies were added to our booth. This feature's a keeper.

An enormous screen projected onto the blank wall. A great way to watch the show when it's flooded by the crowd.

F.A.M.E. stands for Fashion, Art, Music, and Exhibition. Officially.
To me, they stand for something else:

F—friends. Corny, but can't be more fitting. I meet new friends and catch up with the old ones at EVERY SINGLE F.A.M.E. Every once in a while, I would even come across friends that I've lost touch since years ago.

This is Nikko from high school. HIGH SCHOOL, that sounds so distant (I'm just getting old).

Rolo (old friend) and Joey (new friend, and an amazing bboy).

Shirley and Eric from Popping club!

Fellow brand owners are great peeps to connect. Some share the simliar aesthetic and philosophy, many have been through what I'll be going through, and all of them understand how difficult it is to be established and earn the heart of a customer. Not only would we help each other out, they're also great sources to bounce off ideas with. Here are some of the brands from F.A.M.E:

The most innovative products goes to Blankshoppe—they have a collection of wide variety of products. From recycled newspaper textured handbags to studs filled bracelets. They've got it all.

Top Tier Vintage Company

Cloth hanger as a business card? Genius and memorable.

Wolves Den.

Hands down the cleanest set up. Neck breaking on every aspect of the booth. Helium filled balloons? They nailed it.

Black'd out Boba Fett? Done.

Gold & Thread by Hagen Valencia.

Custom handmade collection. Easily the craftiest booth out there.

Kusopop

Jon's awesome and probably the friendliest person I know. This would be the go-to spot for custom vinyl goodies. While they're holding it down strong on the toys, they've also expanded their horizon to cut-and-sew as well as heavily embroidered varsity jackets:

Unfortunately, Ray couldn't make it, but it just proves how great of a man he is that his friends would come out and hold it down for him. 1nspiration is free!

Hiiro and Dane with one of a kind custom hats.

The details would blow your mind.

Homegrown Blends.

Petals and Peacocks.

Finally met Mike & friends from Booger Kids.

Breezy & Halloway, the home grown SJ brands holding it down.

IMinusD, your SJ fixed gear supply shop.

Nicole and Jayne with their Lashes in a Box.

Jon, Melanie, and their team with a MASSIVE amount of apparel and accessories from Fully Laced.

Last, but certainly not least. We have the most photogenic man from SuhReal.

A's for Art. All kinds of art.

This is Mike and he's awesome (that's a Frankenstein Ninja Turtle he's painting). If you're around the area, he's a got a show going at Kaleid Gallery titled "Space to Grow."

M—moments. Hundreds of cameras and phones capturing every moment of FAME. Beyond the event itself, many are anticipating the collection of journals and passages written about what went down through the eyes of the photographers/bloggers.

Rolo's always taking photos. And the photos are always stunning.

Jon's got it going on.

From our team, Grace!

and Raymond, capturing the event bits by bits.

We all take pictures of different things:

E—entertainment. Aside from the plethora of brands and apparel across the floor, there are much more going on that would please your senses.

The soon-to-be filled catwalk:

Dance competition:

Spoken word:

and live music:

Another year, another FAME.

By the end of the day, I'd like to thank my team and my lady for coming out to support and help make it another great vending experience! This simply wouldn't be as fun without you guys.

And Christine as well as rest of the crew to help assisting us and answering all of our questions at hectic times.

See you all next year:

'til next time,
-Photos by Grace, Raymond, and I
-Benson

The Making of—Miniature T-shirt

2012-10-13T10:47:00.001-07:00

FAME's coming up. This time around I wanted to keep things simple and focus more on the display as oppose to the tabling setup. Michelle had a spark of creativity of a zeeb'd out sketch mannequin as part of the decor. GENIUS IDEA. Not only would this item fit well with the theme of FAME, "my favorite thing," it'd resonate with the illustrators/doodlers/crafters out there. So I pulled out my dusty sewing machine and got ready to work...

First, we grabbed a mannequin from IKEA for $5. Barbies would've worked too for t-shirt this size, but barbies' just not my thing.

Any cloth would suffice, but I took one of the defects from the past for this project. Using actual cotton tee would preserve the nature of a stretchy t-shirt.

Scissor and thread. No brainer.

The first method's a fail, so keep in mind this is not the way to do it:

I trimmed out the shirt before sewing them all together. Seems like an intuitive process, but it yielded horrible result due to its miniature size:

which seems fine until...

Skin tight. Not exactly how I perceive Imaginary Zebra to fit on any person.

So there goes version 2:

Sew before cutting out the shirt:

Even white on white would mark a visible outline for cutting:

Much better:

Moment of truth:

BAM:

Zeebhead was illustrated with a sharpie.

'til next project,
-Benson

Uniqlo. Sketchtravel. ParaNorman. A San Francisco Trip.

2012-10-11T00:06:00.005-07:00

Uniqlo had its grand opening last Friday. Although, I've been to Uniqlos quite a few times else where, I just couldn't resist its "special pricing" promo. Since Michelle also happened to be in town, I picked a few (well, two) places to swing by while we're at it. One of which was the Cartoon Art Museum, where they're currently exhibiting the "Sketchtravel" project and the art of "ParaNorman." You wouldn't want to miss either.

Couldn't start the day without...:

From Anderson Bread. If you know Anderson, you'd also be drooling like I am. Right now. As I type.

Red and white, a classic color combo made to steal your attention.

Uniqlo had its grand opening last Friday. Friday is a crowded day, let alone having a grand opening of an international mega corp in downtown San Francisco. So I thought I'd swing by on a Tuesday instead. Apparently, the charm of Uniqlo is timeless:

15 minutes, we got in.

...and we grabbed a few things:

2 oxford shirts with 6 socks—$40. Slick deal, anyone?

Now that we got ~~shopping~~ deal hunting out of the way, we visited the day's main attraction—Cartoon Art Museum:

I was there once and had a pretty good impression.

Sketchtravel is project started by Tsutsumi (Japan) and Gerald Guerlais (France). It's a unique international charity art project. This red sketchbook was passed from one artist's hand to another like an Olympic torch in an artistic relay through 12 countries over 4 and half years. This traveling museum contains the personal visions of 71 exceptional illustrators, animators and comic book artists, including artists such as Bill Plympton, James Jean, Rebecca Dautremer, Glen Keane, Frederick Back, and Hayao Miyazaki.

I heard about this project last year through a friend and was intrigued by the idea. I almost grabbed the book when it was only available in french. Recently they hosted a kickstarter campaign and I was instantly a backer. With $10 pledged, I got two tickets for their lastest exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum:

The book even got its own custom wooden case!

A single idea and a blank spread of the canvas sprout amazing, creative, and inspiring ideas. Here are a few of my favorites:

Enrico Casarosa, story artist from Pixar.

The Brief Affair:

Bill Plymton (US).

Dominique Bertail (France).

Pierre Alary, comic book artists from Marvel.

Eric Gosselet, character designer from France.

Sylvain Marc (UK).

Peter Nguyen, artist from Blue Sky Studio.

Ben Butcher, product designer from Pixar.

Bill Presing, story board artist from Pixar.

Paul Felix, art director from Walt Disney.

Lorelat Box, artist from Walt Disney.

Taiyo Matsumoto (Japan).

Catia Chien (US).

Alex Puvilland, animator from DreamWorks.

Hayao Miyazaki, man behind Totoro, Valley of the Wind, and Spirited Away.

Luis Grane, animator from Pixar.

Enrique Fernandex (Spain).

Peter De Seve, illustrator and character designer from Blue Sky Studio.

Glen Keane, animator from Walt Disney.

Aside from the illustrations, I like to pay attention to the unique signatures from the different artists as well:

Then, the second part of the exhibit's the making of "ParaNorman." An incredible stop-motion animated film that I've heard so much about.

We all share the same trait.

Ideation for the house:

The actual house:

miniature sized:

Mindblowwwnnnn!

The attention to detail put me in awe:

WHAAAA.

Wrapping the day up with some greasy pizza:

Uniqlo was alright, but the show was a BLAST. I was overwhelmed by the inspirations from the exhibit. In fact, I took so many pictures of the show, I think I was able to make out an entire book from them, but I still bought the sketchtravel book instantly as soon I made it back home. Each individual piece reflects passion in every stroke, and it's people like those that would truly make our world better. Visually.
'til next time,
-Benson