Hey guys, if you are in or around Brooklyn on Saturday, December 10th, please stop by 3rd Ward‘s annual Handmade Holiday Craft Fair. This is my first year as a vendor and I am excited to be sharing a table with my good friend and creator of HerbanLuxe handmade organic cosmetics. I will be displaying my new line of Danger wall art, prints, resin jewelry and screen print tshirts.  It will be a warehouse full of unique items and great holiday sales by many different local artists. Come check it out, visit us and say hi!

Here are the event details from 3rd Ward:

Friends don’t give friends bad gifts! Get your lists ready for the 5th Annual 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair, an extravaganza of beautiful, clever, never-before-seen gift items for your friends, family and—while you’re at it—you!

Come browse all types of creative handmade gifts including jewelry, bags, housewares, paper goods, toys, clothing, winter essentials, culinary treats, and much more! Plus stay warm and merry with live music, DJs, cheap seasonal cocktails, and some quirky surprises. This is one craft fair you won’t want to miss.

Saturday, December 10th
Noon to 6 pm
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY
FREE admission

New to the Danger Studio as of this weekend, is a really cool collection of handmade Danger pendents!

This is my first attempt at making jewelry out of my designs and I’m really stoked with it’s transformation. I took my Wanderlost collection of graphics and cropped them into 1 inch circles, then obsessively cut out 50 small prints. Each of them is affixed to silver plated pendents, and finished with a glass dome enclosure. The work becomes a magnified orb of bright color, and each is completely unique from the next.

Later this week I’m going to attempt another round using resin as the finishing glaze. I’ve been using resin over the last year on all my wall art, which gives it a glossy glass finish so I’m excited to see if I can bring the same great results to jewelry.

Next up are a batch of rings!  All will be available on etsy once I’m happy with the collection. Stay tuned!

Hey guys!  This Saturday, October 8, from 8PM-2AM, will be the third Signal to Noise event at the Museum of the Moving Image.

I’m super excited to be invited back and Jeff and I will be once again outfitting the place with 6-7 projectors filling their performance space. I’ve been busy in my studio creating new materials, testing new equipment and getting ready for this epic set-up. Hope to see some of you there. We’ll be working with a number of other visualists that evening and will be VJing for MiniBoone.

Here is some additional info from the museum’s event page:

Signal to Noise once again takes over the entire Museum of the Moving Image with interactive spectacles and visual delights, including electro-jams, post-rave vibes, circuit-bent video, shadow game tournaments, battling guitar video game contests, and much more as the galleries stay open late and the party goes later.

DIY rock superstars Anamanaguchi command the stage with high-energy low-res anthems, kicked-off by Extreme Animals‘ preposterous video/music explosions, MiniBoone’s raucous tunes with eyecandy from Holly Danger, and Landlady’s catchy experimental rock. LoVid blasts video noise from handmade hardware, and Modal Kombat duels on acoustic guitars-turned-game controllers.

Chill out to Smooth Breeze‘s easy-listening jazz and creamy screensavers, and beat out the competition during an all-night tournament of Shadowplay, the live-action puzzle game you play with your shadow. Luck You Collective, easylife, and Strongbros hold down the lobby with ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE, featuring Burger Sundae, Girlbro, Beatsaface, and Latitude Zero on the decks.

Co-curated by Jason Eppink, Assistant Curator of Digital Media, and Anamanaguchi.

Open bar from 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., sponsored by Reyka and Samuel Adams. Cash bar follows.Coolhaus and Big D’s Grub Truck parked out front. 

Tickets: $15 (advance) public / $20 (at the door) public / $10 Museum members / Free for Silver Screen members. Members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. Advance sales will be available until noon on the day of the event. Following this, tickets will be available at the door. Ages 16 and under must be accompanied at all times by an adult (18 years or older). Must be 21 and over, with proper ID, to consume or purchase alcoholic beverages.

Advance tickets can be purchased by clicking here

RSVP over at the Facebook Event Page

Last Friday morning I got on the early train to Roseland Ballroom for the 2nd birthday of New York’s finest and freshest motion graphics design conference  F5 Fest. I was lucky enough to attend back in 2009 for it’s first installation and having had such an inspiring experience I signed up to attend again. It is seriously amazing to be in a room with all your heros and surrounded by so many creative folks. F5 has proven to be one of the most intimate conferences I’ve been to. It’s an intelligent mix of artists, designers, art directors, vjs, scientists, technologists, film makers and musicians. They even set up scheduled drink breaks in between speakers so that everyone can meet and hang out. Doesn’t get better than that!

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the most memorable moments for me this year was getting time to talk with one of my main inspirations in the design world for over 10 years, Scott Hansen, aka ISO50 / Tycho.

Scott was awesome and walked me through his VDMX setup that he uses to VJ with during shows. I’ve been on the verge of transitioning VJ software for quite some time. Thank you Scott for helping me realize I should get on board with VDMX, and taking the time to chat about Burning Man, VJing and for inspiring me further.

Another highlight was listening to Jacob Escobedo, creative director behind Adult Swim and the Cartoon Network. He described a really funny story about when he was younger, living in Nevada, and suffering through eating his first ever goat taco.

After eating this wretched food, he walked outside and saw the image of a severed goat’s head on top of a refrigerator which stopped him in his tracks. From then on, he developed his design mantra to be: “Does this image have severed goat’s head?” Which means,  Is the image I’m designing:  1) Arresting  2) Simple and  3) Memorable ?

I’ll never forget that concept or this image he showed us:

Cartoon Network and severed goats head graphics aside, Jacob happens to be another design hero of mine.

The design concepts that he developed for Broken Bells album artwork last year inspired my entire Wanderlost collection of wall art. I only wish I could have met him over a beer at the F5 bar!

We also got to listen to Scott Belsky discuss the creative process. Are you the Dreamer, the Doer or the Incrementalist when it comes to creative thinking?

Knowing which category you fit into ultimately helps a creative team get things done from the concept to the execution by learning to become proactive instead of just being reactive. Scott is the founder and CEO of Behance, and the Behance Network, Action Method, and The 99%.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scott had the most advice to offer in the ways of helping us to create, not just be creative. Here are a few highlights from his talk:

• Create windows of non-stimulation 2-3 hours a day. He says this is your sacred space for deep thinking.
• Spend energy on staying organized. Being organized is a huge competitive advantage.
• Organize with a bias to action. Measure the value of a meeting in action steps.
• Tap the power of circles. Find your network.
• Seek competition. You will drive yourself harder and faster if you feel the urgency to create something first and best.
• Don’t become burdened by the consensus or by the unremarkable.
• When it comes to ideas and design, find one or two sacred extremes to present to your client. It will help shape the direction of your thinking.
• Overcome the stigma of self-marketing. Build a following. Curate your stream.
• Foster Accountability. We need to share our ideas liberally, in order to get other people to hold us accountable to them.
• Gain confidence from doubt.
• When finding people to work with you, seek initiative over experience.
  

There were so many highlights from this years festival that it is impossible to write about each one. Here are some folks to keep your eyes on:

• Creative motion graphics studio powerhouse Onesize. Mind-blowing graphics work.
• Creative illustration and motion graphics by Buck.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Syyn Labs, a scientific twist of art & technology. These guys were responsible for the engineering of a mind-blowing Rube Goldberg machine used to create OKGO’s “This Too Shall Pass” music video.
• Shantell Martin, friend and VJ sketch projector from the UK. The top image of me above was shot during Shantell’s live performance, Hidden Ora, that she orchestrated on the fly with her wacom tablet and sketchbook pro during the F5 after party at Good Units.
• Mark Romanek, visionary film director behind “Never Let Me Goâ€� and “One-Hour Photoâ€� – as well as countless iconic music videos and commercials.
• Kid Koala, Eclectic Method, Nathan Love, Wayne White, Neil Huxley, Adam Bly, the list goes on.

All in all, an amazing weekend. It was really wonderful to meet all my new friends as well. Keep in touch. Looking forward to the next F5 Festival.

Happy new year everyone!!  I hope the exciting new January energy is causing hibernations of creativity for you like it has been doing for me!

The frosty temperatures have me spending a lot of time in the studio and producing some new materials for upcoming shows, prints & shirts as well as a new website! A new batch of Danger tee’s are on the way this week, and I just received my first round of Danger stickers!  Stickers will come free when you order a shirt, will be available for purchase on etsy and I’ll also have a bunch for free at my shows if you come up and say hi.

UPCOMING THIS WEEK, THURS, JAN 27th -

There is a very special show to come out for if you are around the city this week!! -Kodomo and I are psyched to perform our first show of 2011 as part of, Forward Motion Theater presents, “EYEWASH”, this Thursday night, January 27th at 9PM. Live Bands & Visuals. Interactive pole-dance installations. DJ & dancing. Special Guest Performances. All at the R BAR – 218 Bowery St. (Between Price & Spring) For more info, check out the links above or RSVP on Facebook HERE.

See you Thursday!

It was really quite a cool experience to see my collection up on the walls of this beautiful boutique. A total first for me and for the work that I’ve produced at the Danger Studio this year! As a result of this show, and my now bare walls at the studio, I have purchased a whole new round of wood boards for a brand new collection of work to design!

Here are a few snapshots from the boutique on opening night!  Check back here next month regarding a possible closing party at the shop. (Click the images below to view them larger…)

Hi Everybody!  I have a last minute announcement to make regarding an exciting collaborative art show happening this week.

This Tuesday, December 7th, I’ll be exhibiting my mixed media collage work & Danger t-shirts alongside Liz Squillace’s Paradox Ink line of screenprints at the Kriti Collection Boutique in Greenwich, CT. The opening party will be happening from 5:30-8:30 pm and the work will be featured at the shop for the next few weeks.

If you are in the neighborhood please stop by and grab a drink with us! There will be drinks & refreshments provided, live music and plenty of unique art, shirts, clothes & accessories.

The shirts are now available on the Etsy Danger store.  The mixed media wall prints will be available on Etsy next week!!

In other news, if you are interested in coming out to see one of the next upcoming performances scheduled, there is a nice variety for you to choose from!

NEXT UP//

NOV 14. – VJing for KODOMO @ 3RD WARD, Brooklyn, 8PM

NOV 18. – VJing for BIG MOSEY @ ARLENES GROCERY, Manhattan, 9PM

NOV 20. – VJing for MANTYHOSE @ SEASIDE TAVERN, Stamford, 10PM

DEC 2. – VJing for EXIT MUSIC @ UNION POOL, Brooklyn, 10PM

DEC 9. – VJing for DJ KILLA MONJARO + MORE @ SEASIDE TAVERN, Stamford, 10PM

The summer is in full swing, my blog has been quiet for the last few weeks, and I’ve been struggling to nail down one big opening date for my studio party – HOWEVER, I finally decided to set it in motion and see what happens!

Next weekend I’ll be having an official open studio night, Saturday, August 7th, featuring multi-projector live video mixing, and a poster exhibit displaying my new design series.  It is a private party, so please, if you are interested in coming – Email me to RSVP.

If you can’t make the opening party on the 7th, you’ll be happy to know that another date is also potentially in the works for a Kodomo show on Saturday, August 21st. Hope everyone is having an adventurous and creative summer!!  See you soon.

After every trip, I am immediately fueled into an active wanderlust, longing to go somewhere else…

I always come up with the most visual ideas when I’m outside my routines and experiencing different cultures, conversations and vibrations of people in other places. Traveling is something I became obsessed with years ago when I first started designing. Having only been back in town for a week, I can happily say that Austin sparked a new light for me. It’s the beginning of spring and the beginning months of my studio. There are good energies all around, exciting shows on the way and hopefully more travel in the near future. New visuals on the way!

By Day 3 I was hitting my stride and in full information-absorption-networking-documenting mode! I trekked to the convention center with my laptop & I began my day with a panel called Real Time Video Blogging led by the makers of Rocketboom, a witty, successful NYC-based daily video news blog, and Amanda Congdon of Sometimesdaily.

A lot of the session seemed pretty common sense to me, but there were good tips to remember. They suggested that if you are interested in starting your own documentary style blog series, to first and foremost, always get a lawyer involved and make sure you are legally contracted, no matter what the project big or small. Find your personal niche to write about, create a mission statement and figure out who your audience is. Then get involved with larger projects that attract a similar audience so that you can attach your name to them and generate threads of new contacts back to your site.

A great site for copyright free stock video material to use in your blog if needed: archive.org. I’ve known about them for years, but haven’t yet put any of it to use in my own work. Personally I think they need a more organized website to be useful for my needs, but there is a tremendous amount of free material on there.

Video blogging in itself is something I’d like to try my hand at, but have never been good at turning the camera on myself or interviewing people at random. Those are two things I’d like to work on for future documenting practice. After this experience at Burning Man, I promised myself I would learn how to speak in front of the camera properly!

Next up I went to Visual FX for Indies: Big Impact Small Budget by Zane Rutledge of Zane TV. This was probably my favorite panel so far (next to seeing Gondry!). Zane is a writer, filmaker, editor, director, and FX junky who’s main love is post production. He provided a number of awesome slides that I photographed and uploaded here, in order to remember all of his great lists of tips & links.

This is pretty obvious, but the number one thing he stressed as being the key to great fx, is great audio. Never underestimate the power of sound effects and music added to visual effects to give the animations life.

He also went over something he calls “invisible fx”. Touchups and additions to film work that you don’t necessarily notice in the final piece. For example he showed us a clip where he actually tracked cold breath to character’s faces into a scene where you had to understand how frigid the temperatures were! That’s a lot of rotoscoping! I don’t have the type of patience.

He also spoke about “camera projection” which involves mapping still photography over a 3D landscape and matte painting to fake depth. This was really cool and possibly something to experiment with. A good example of this, is the first scene in one of his films called “Wake Up” which I’ve posted below. The entire city-fly-through is done with one still photograph! If you watch the whole thing you’ll see other scenes which use this effect as well, including the man jumping off the building at the end and the cityscape below as you see little cutout cars animating around the photograph. Very cool! Sometimes I forget that simplicity is the answer to achieve a certain effect, especially on a low budget production.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty soon it was time for me to catch the keynote for the day, featuring Evan Williams who created Twitter. I barely got a seat there were so many people who crammed themselves into this lecture. I’m not a Twitter fan, so I was reluctant to go, but I decided it was important to see what all the buzz was about.

Evan described Twitter as a constantly evolving information network to share and learn what you care about at the exact time that it happens. While I personally haven’t quite adapted that into my own life, I see how this form of communication could be necessary progression in our tech-obsessive, ADD culture. It is the quickest and easiest way to connect with the most people at any given time, at anywhere in the world. It was actually hugely useful at the SXSW event itself, because it led me to know exactly what panels, films & shows were going on at the minute that I checked my phone. Perhaps I’ll try and adapt to it a bit more since so many people these days are using it as a major form of communication.

Here is a clip from the keynote where Evan describes the future and evolving features of Twitter. I got bored and left, sorry Evan!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Later in the evening I trekked over to the Texas State Capital building to join the VFX Master Series presented by SIGGRAPH. I specifically enjoyed listening to the visual effects directors for the film, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” They said that the character design was adapted from 60′s children’s travel book designer M. Sasek & UPA Animation Studio films of the 30s & 40s. After many iterations of design for each character, they storyboard out the entire film and begin 3D tests for each character’s gesture, color palette, voice and body language.

After dinner, my last stop that evening was to check out the interactive after-party event called Plutopia. I only caught the end of the performances, missed DJ Spooky, but loved the 3 projection screen set up, visuals by Dr. Strangevibe, and live music mixed with electronica in the auditorium of the Mexican American Cultural Center. I was in time to catch the last band called White from Bejing. The energy of the crowd and the visuals got me excited for my own gig that I was preparing for on St Patrick’s Day as part of House by Southwest. I spent the rest of the night documenting with some video, and drawing to the music until the lights went on.

On Day 2 my number 1 priority was seeing Michel Gondry in person. He is one of my all time favorite visionary heros, who has inspired me endlessly in creative projects. I waited an hour to see the man and get 4th row at his seminar. Gondry echoed a similar practice to something Ze Frank had mentioned in Day 1′s panel. The emphasis to pay attention to every single off-the-wall idea that you have. Don’t dismiss it out of fear or logic. Pay attention and put energy into them. Give them breath before you kill the idea. Test it out and reinvent each step of the way to be as open as possible to all concepts.

It was pretty thrilling to hear and see him in person. I missed the premier of his new film “The Thorn in the Heart“, but I was just as excited to see him a few feet away from me. He’s quite timid, thoughtful and charming in his approach to how he answers questions. Something that resonated with me was that he said that sleeping is part of his creative process. “Listen to your dreams”, he said, “That is the time when memories are reactivated, and talking out your dreams lead to great ideas.” He also stressed that story boarding is absolutely key before executing ideas and sitting in front of the computer. If the idea makes sense on paper, it should make sense for the film or story that you’re trying to create. Another little exercise he does to begin a creative project is that he edits soley within the camera. Films for a few seconds or minutes, hits pause, and then continuing to the next shot. No further editing in the computer afterwards. I think it’s a fantastic and simple idea to try and see what you come up with in a single stream of thought.

Next I headed over to see a panel on Cinematic Title Design. We were shown a title design case study of the new film “Life 2.0” about Second Life, the virtual world, user-generated online community. They showed us each design iteration, with & without music and how the sequence was built up over time to it’s end result. The speakers stressed how important it is to tell your basic story up front without giving anything away, and hint at something that happens later so that the audience feels a sense of connected familiarity when they see it again. Story boarding is also equally important when considering the title sequence. Play around with the location of the intro, whether or not it makes sense to fall in the front, middle or end of the film. Personally I wasn’t crazy about their design for Life 2.0, however, when the presenters went to show us the final sequence with final music in an online clip off Vimeo, they accidentally found that Tronic Studio had remixed their title sequence, and I find this so much better! Tronic studio has long been one of my favorite animation & design firms in NYC.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I then sat in on Remix Goes Mainstream, a session involving the art of remixes, video mashups and copyright law. They briefly discussed two main sets of guidelines that we should be aware of as editors & filmakers: Creative Commons and Fair Use. I’m never quite sure of my rights to use clips of other’s work in my projects, so I bought the book from one of the speakers, Clearance & Copyright by Michael C. Donaldson. They showed us a few examples where it was completely legal to use other filmmakers work when it was presented in a new context. One I really enjoyed, was created by another one of the panelists, Johnny McIntosh of rebelliouspixels called Buffy vs. Edward. He used footage from two different sources, and cut them together as if they were telling one new story. Hilarious!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other examples showed documentaries that couldn’t have told their stories without using clips from other works. Under a certain time limitation, it is completely legal to use, and was even released to HBO. Another great resource for artists, specifically for photos & stock images, is Flickr’s Creative Commons page.

Later I sat in on Improving Social Media with Live Streaming Video led by Brad Hunstable, the creator of Ustream. Ustream has allowed us as users the ability to broadcast video live from anywhere in the world, from our cameras and even from our phones. While still in the panel listening to the creator of Ustream I downloaded the iphone application within minutes and gave it a shot when I was at a concert later that afternoon. Ustream gave me a URL telling me where the signal would broadcast to, and then asked me if I wanted to post the link to any of my social networks. After that, all I had to do was hit the “Go Live” button, and I was on, streaming from SXSW! Streaming live makes anything we do an “event”, which makes it a more special occurence than something that can be viewed on-demand at any time later. Huntsable emphasized that the impact of broadcasting one time live, will attract a larger audience than shooting something and posting it later. It gives people a reason to go to your page, in real time, and allows people to engage in a more meaningful way. It is also trackable to discover where your audience is coming from, and records how long they stayed on the stream.

Due to over-scheduling myself, I missed Valerie Casey‘s keynote, but happily found a clip documented here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Valerie Casey consults with start-ups, governments, and companies all over the world on challenges ranging from creating new products and services, to transforming organizational processes and behaviors. She was named a “Guru” of the year by Fortune magazine, a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and a “Master of Design”by Fast Company. She was also selected as one of the “World’s Most Influential Designers” by BusinessWeek. Valerie is the founder of the Designers Accord, the global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive and sustainable impact.

I ended the night meeting some of my friends from HUGE over at Ruby’s BBQ for a Lonestar and some Texan barbeque. Little did I know, it had been written up by one of my favorite traveling chef’s, Anthony Bourdain.  Thanks for taking me out for a great night guys!!

I finally have a quiet moment to myself to digest, decompress and formulate information. I have an overwhelming amount of data swarming through my head and need to transcribe it all along with the words scribbled throughout my trusty notebook.

Day 1 began when I left the windy rainstorm that took over NY, as I departed Laguardia at 6AM. I was on 2 hours of sleep and on the cusp of delirium. Somehow in that state of mind I thought it’d be a good idea to upgrade my flight to first class since the self-check in machine asked me if I wanted to. The big shiny button was too enticing not to push. Plus it was 5AM and I was feeling claustrophobic and sleep deprived. Though for the most part I just really wanted some decent space to set up my laptop and do some editing. Yes – Editing at 6AM! I was in the mood for some god awful reason. Most likely motivated by the fact that later that day I was aiming to hit a Final Cut “Supermeetup” that would allow me to share my work with a group of editors. I had to cut down a reel into 10 minutes, so I spent that morning cutting deliriously before the sun rose.

This is my 4th trip to Austin, and yet only my first experience at SXSW. I organized my schedule to reflect over 95 panels during the course of my 5 day stay. Saturday I arrived, just narrowly escaping the hurricane behind me, and got in just in time to catch a conversation late in the day with Ze Frank.

Ze is someone I learned about in college for his witty, weird, spontaneous humor through videos and design concepts. Probably most well known for his “How to Dance Properly” videos. Due to the nature of his off-the-wall ideas, he says he’s always had anxiety over whether or not they’re going to be successful, but that he’d make them regardless of whether or not anyone ever watched them. This only fuels his desire to want to push the envelope, and get his concepts out in public rapidly and faithfully to his viewers. Not only that but he says he strives to do things that have not been done before. He’ll do massive amounts of research and data collecting before starting a project to see if he can be the first one to do it. He deems it a success if you can google an idea and it doesn’t exist yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I realize from his talk that I need to pick up my game & brainstorm more.  His ideas are so zany, and so unexpected, that it is a breath of fresh air to hear about, and it leaves me curious to see what else he’ll come up with next. It also reminds me how I can harness that kind of energy to put my own ideas into action, despite any anxiety I might have towards them potentially being too weird, or not good enough. It takes you out of your routine ways of thinking and allow you to start opening up to the unexpected.  For example, when someone asked a boring question about jumping into the freelance world, Ze’s answer was, “I’m a Unicorn!” There is so much to be said for just putting out your craziness into an audience and see what happens.

Later that evening I headed over, DVD in hand, to the Final Cut meet up over at Maggie Mae’s on 6th Street. I immediately met up with one of organizers who was able to show my work on the projection screen and TVs filtered throughout the venue. While it was fun to show work at SXSW to a room full of editors and videographers, it would have been more exciting for me, if it was more of a forum and less of a party. The work on the screens became background videos and we didn’t get enough interaction following up with each artist who showed. For example – there was a guy who showed work before me that almost entirely resembled a brazilian collage animation that I love, yet when I went to ask who’s work it was, the guy presenting the work had no idea. So that was kind of a bust. What made up for it was the $10 raffle ticket I bought, that won me a copy of Adobe’s CS4 Creative Production Premium Suite, worth $1700. I couldn’t have asked for a better first night!

To celebrate some good news that I will be posting about in upcoming days, I’ll be giving out my new DANGER PINS at the next few performances. Just come over and say hi!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed… I’ll be calling a couple of potential design studio spaces this week to see about taking my biz out of my crooked little apartment and into town. Wish me luck!!

A drawing sample from students in class

Friday night I trekked out to Washington, DC to join the Motion Graphics Festival. The workshops all sounded wonderful, but it especially piqued my interest when I read that VJ Shantell Martin was teaching a workshop in live-painting. On the practical side of what I do, my instinct was to take the After Effects class, but the VJ side of me couldn’t let go of the opportunity to hang with other visualists from around the world, so I signed up.

The class introduced the idea of using a wacom tablet mixed with painting software to drawing live and intuitively to music, while recording your session and being able to cut it up and re-use it as animation in performance or later for editing. I found this particularly useful because I never record what I’m doing directly from the screen. There is a program called I Show You which does this perfectly, creating a high res quicktime file.

While much of my personal VJ style has been to mix motion graphics & after effects work, with video files, I’m interested in seeing what direction the concepts I learned in class could take on for me. Definitely a lot of fun, and definitely a new tool to play with and explore.

Thanks to all of you who I met this weekend. I hope our paths cross again soon!

Tonight I designed a flyer to promote a few upcoming fundraiser dates for the project. I’ll be projecting visuals in the dome on Saturday July 18th, with Waking Dream, Light Harvest, and Levitation Theory. There will be endless amounts of music both nights, and camping available for free.

Make sure to mark your calendars for July 17th, 18th, and a pre-event fundraiser at the House of Love on July 11th.

Click here for location of the dome in Google.
 

 Work in progress of a series of Danger pins that I’m currently creating.

 

Just a quick reminder that I’ll be at the Delancey Wednesday this week, projecting in collaboration with the music of Kodomo. We’ve been working hard for the last few months to get things ready and this will be our first performance together, and my first choreographed video performance. Should be a great night, especially with the dozens of other musicians booked for that evening!  I’m excited and hope to see many of you guys there!  9:30 sharp, 40 min set.

Also, I wanted to note a change in dates for the June gig at Monkeytown with Cutlery. Instead of June 11th, we’ll be there June 25th. Sorry for the mistake!

In other news, I’ve been busy feeling the motion of seasonal changes and moving forward on some new projects. Soon you can expect to see an updated portfolio reel from me and possibly an upgrade to the Danger identity that I’ve cultivated for the last few years. Hopefully a full launch of my site is around the corner as well. For now, the process of revising my portfolio has officially begun after building my last round two years ago. It’s amazing how quickly time passes, and how quickly the showcase of your work becomes outdated!

I’m also currently working on making tiny 1 inch “DANGER pins” that I intend to give out at shows, and am having a really fun time with designing them. Right now they are based on the concept of “dangerous things that you’re afraid of”. If you have a special request, please leave comments here!! I’m open to suggestions!  What are you afraid of?  Above is an early rough example of one that I’m making for someone who has a fear of giant squids!! 

Lastly, I’ve got a new toy that I’m excited to get started playing with. I finally purchased a new digital camera after my beloved Olympus Camedia 5050z died half a year ago. I am now toting a Canon SD780 and looking forward to my memory card showing up any day now so I can begin to experiment! Keep a look out here for massive photo posts to come!

Dvein, Prologue, Psyop, Black Heart Gang, 1st Ave Machine, Imaginary Forces, Rachel Maddow, Moment Factory, Jonah Lehrer.Â

Since having worked in the corporate world of video production for the last few years, I haven’t had much opportunity to immerse myself in the art world (or even the commercial world) of motion graphics the way I wish I could. Thankfully, conferences like F5, after effects meetups and the VJ world have brought this back into my life in many ways. Most nights after I come home from day to day editing, I begin to collage my own new work and find myself experimenting into the early hours, to create a bigger, more original and more ecclectic library for future live video performances.

The F5 conference reminded me just how powerful motion graphics are, and how much I love that world & the people who make that sort of magic happen. Not only did the conference showcase some of the best work I’ve seen in years, but there was a really interesting discussion about the state of creativity, and how it works from a scientific angle. We talked about how to better access innovations from the left side of the brain, and how we should be open to all new endeavors that allow us to create connections, and draw inspiration from experience. Insights seemingly flourish best when not forcing creativity. Some highlights for me were seeing & hearing all of the bizarre places that people reach to for inspiration.  Found everywhere from rubberbands that were made into stop-motion spaghetti  to one person dipping their hands & feet in cement just to see what it would feel like to wear on their limbs for a week!  Ideas are formed in some of the most oddly beautiful ways and it has always been a passion of mine to explore how other people’s brain’s work.

Later this week I’d like to transcribe my notebook that I had with me for the two days and capture the raw thoughts I had while listening to these fabulous heros of mine.  As a result of the festival I’ve already taken some of the advice and put it towards a new identity scope for my danger visuals.

A few frame grabs from new Danger intro visuals

Lastly  I want to mention how VERY excited I am to say that a new collaboration is underway with electronic musician Kodomo. It looks like May 6th will be our first performance at the Delancey for the next Warper Party. Details soon to come!!

Inspired by the hauntingly beautiful music of the Cutlery ladies and the poetic words of Nick Cave. I created this piece with an old wooden frame & collaged imagery found from fashion photos from around the world. It almost came together in a seemingly unconscious way, and became an animated photo album that expanded from the corners of my imagination. The photography was altered, animated, arranged and woven into these treasured memories. This piece was created to be projected during the Cutlery’s live performance of this song, and was debuted on the four walls of Monkeytown last Friday night. Looks like we’ll have another gig there in June!!

Lately I’ve been feeling nothing less than colorful & vibrant. The world is opening it’s doors down all the paths that I’m curious to explore, and I’m happily skipping down each one with wide eyes. I had some time today between edits to remind myself how much I love layering in photoshop, and how much I love doing work that is purely for the art of enjoyment. For the last many years I’ve been working insanely long hours, and insanely hard for other people. Finally I have time to make art again, for myself.

This piece is inspired by one of my all time favorite design heros, Scott Hansen. It reminds me that as a designer, sometimes we don’t have to over-think our work down to every last detail.  Sometimes if we just start having fun and doing what attracts us, you get the best results and are happier for it.

I started getting email from Warper after signing up on their mailing list at Burning Man’s NY Decompression party last year. They were announcing their monthly shows and looking for volunteers to help out, project, play music, give workshops, etc. I signed up to project visuals and got a time slot within a couple days. It all turned out to be such a great night, at a perfectly lounge-worthy venue. I had a super fun entourage of friends who came out to support, drink and help in case of disasters, and I met a whole crew of great folks, musicians that were interested in what I was doing, future collaborations and just a general good vibe overall which made the night so wonderful.

I was so inspired by the night that I strung together a bunch of my latest designs and put it to a piece of music. I’ll probably end up doing this regularly after my projection nights. Each are different, and I add new work each time I play. I’m already looking forward to projecting again because of how excellent my experience was last week. I never knew what a rush it could be for me. The next show is this Friday night at Seaside Tavern (formerly Jimmy Seaside) in Stamford. It will be my first time collaborating with my brother, who is the drummer of the band, Manyhose, who I’ll be visualizing for. Please come out if you’re a Stamford local! Should be a fun night. We go on late, 11:30pm. Hope to see you!

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

I love, love, love this graphic!!  Having grown up with the idea of originality and uniqueness as a strong core value, I had a lot of trouble borrowing images to use in visual work, even though I’m a collage artist. I knew for VJing, the only way to get my start, was to develop a visual library. This is where I began collecting old movies and video clips that had elements of interest to me, whether it be in color, texture, or action. I’m slowly starting to realize what is stated in the graphic above makes a lot of sense to me, and that it does not negate the originality of the intended idea or the uniqueness of the person creating the work. While I do enjoy taking my own footage & photography, I also really love collecting elements from other sources and remixing them to new heights, almost as much..

Great tshirt design finds of the day! 

designbyhumans.com/

I’ve been hunting around for some inspirational design shirts lately. Much like those found on Veer’s site, or perhaps something like Threadless, but edgier, and more intriguing. Design by humans is definitely an inspiration in this direction. Though as a result of not finding exactly what I wanted, I think I may actually start designing some shirts of my own. I’m going to get the sketch pads out and start scheming and plotting! Can’t find it – make it, right?

To be continued…

 

I’m quite proud to say that my younger brother, Chris, has followed his dream in pursuit of a music career and is succeeding in ways that could never have been predicted.  Not only has he developed an entire recording studio in my parent’s basement and learned to speak fluent spanish, but he has a number of clients that he records daily for his independent business, Potent Productions.  This coming Sunday night he is having a CD release party for his debut album, La Herencia de la Familia Real.  

This album was produced as a collaboration of various musicians, and has created quite an impressive first piece. I was recruited to design the album, a complicated 6-panel fold out, which I had no idea how to approach when I first began.  The style of music is new to me as a designer – a mix of reggaeton, spanish lyrics & techno beats.  As a result I hooked him up with a David Apuzzo Photography to take a professional mix of high contrast photos and textured backgrounds that I could use to put the design together. 

Recently, with the help of Jeff Schram of SchramDesign, I was able to put up a splash page for my brother to sell the album.

This Sunday, December 28th I’ll be performing live visual projections for his release party at the Thirsty Turtle in Stamford, CT.  That means that this week I’m collecting ideas and brainstorming, what on earth it means to project for “high energy, spanish, club music“. That was the direction I got from Chris. I have no idea what I’m doing yet, but I’m excited to explore it and see what happens when I do.

This was a flyer that I created to promote a shared birthday between myself and three other very talented Sagittarians. The night was hosted by multiple bands and performances, while 2 walls covered the room in abstract visuals. Thanks to all who made it such a wonderful night!!!  My apologies to those who I didn’t get to catch up with. I was bought one too many birthday Chimays.  Thanks again guys!!

This is a result of an experimental night spent with my mac pro. I cut the vocals out of the song and strung together a quick rough cut of all the designs that came out of me last night. The elements used are a combination of print work that I’ve done, footage I’ve shot, as well as found footage to add texture.

Song is by the Knife called Silent Shout.