theartofanimation:

Pascal Campion

maitealbuquerque:

Illustrator and animator Liam Brazier makes cool geometric illustrations of familiar pop culture icons like Darth Vader, the Incredible Hulk, and more. 

incredible.

thingsorganizedneatly:

1,000 Doors by Choi Jeong-Hwa

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give
the right things a chance to catch you.

As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  But before you can begin this process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you.  You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot.  Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.  And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on.  No, it won’t be easy.  There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them.  We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems.  That’s not how we’re made.  In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.  Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.  This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself.  Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves.  Read The Road Less Traveled.
4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.  Yes, help others; but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.
5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you likeeveryone else.  Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.
6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.
7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.  Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.
9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive.  But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either.  You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else.  Read Stumbling on Happiness.
11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.  Evaluate situations and take decisive action.  You cannot change what you refuse to confront.  Making progress involves risk.  Period!  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.
13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet.  Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you.  But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others doing better than you.  Concentrate on beating your own records every day.  Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.  Ask yourself this:  “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”
17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you.  You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough.  But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past.  You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation.  So smile!  Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart.  You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too.  If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.  Just do what you know in your heart is right.
21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.  Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.  Read Getting Things Done.
24. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.  Don’t take the easy way out.  Do something extraordinary.
25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well.  You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears.  The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
26. Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life.  When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.
27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out.  But making one person smile CAN change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  So narrow your focus.
28. Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.  One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?”  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen.  Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story.  If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
30. Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life.  Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.  Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design

attached from smashing magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

Packaging design has the primary goal to attract customers’ attention. For this purpose, package designs can not simply inform the customers, but also provoke feelings and communicate emotions. An effective packaging looks attractive, impresses with its creativity and is just nice to have on the shelf.

As an ongoing part of our monday inspiration series today we present excellent examples of beautiful, attractive and communicative packaging design. We have also tried to present creative and unusual ideas which you could use for your projects. Below the gallery you will also find some further references to blogs and resources related to packaging design.

You may want to take a look at our related posts

• Beautiful and Original Product Designs
• Celebration of Vintage and Retro Design
• Innovative Designs and Devices

Packaging Design

Atypyk!
Atypyk is an artistic group of French creative minds. Their products are smart yet ironic, and their ideas are packed into good packaging examples. The second picture is the packaging of a 6pack-vase (cans not included).

Pot Of
biz-R has recently completed a naming, brand direction and packaging project for Clive’s new ‘Potof’ range of fresh organic meals. a really bold, highly graphic, identity based on symbology,pattern and colour associated with each recipe’s origin. The eye-catching result communicates beautifully, on and off the shelf.

100% Chocolate Cafe
The concept behind Tokyo’s 100% Chocolate Cafe is to put your senses in the middle of a chocolate kitchen. They live up to their name with over 56 types of different chocolates, cheese and black pepper chocolates. They also serve chocolate drinks, chocolate pastries, chocolate ice cream, and even chocolate sandwiches. Colorful and clean packaging.

R Design Studio
Sexy, striking, catchy and beautiful — package design by R Design Studio from London. The choice of colors is remarkable.

Tasty Type
Izze Beverage Co®. doesn’t boast their nonprofit mission on their label, but the design’s simplicity hints that they are a different kind of company. Izze’s sales grew 450% per year over the first two years without any TV, print, or online advertising. Surely their success is due in part to the bottle — clearly branded with Trade Gothic™ caps and a clever use of a Caslon™ asterisk, emulating a cross-section of the fruit contained therein.

Best Wishes Bag
This package is literally over 20 years old. The design is still amazing.

Beer Bank
Stylish, traditional packaging by designlab Fuerzza.

Tiger-Tiger Ice Cream
Flavor sounds like something from one of Miss Retro Modern’s or Charm & Poise’s challenged recipe cards!

cd&c self-promotion > wine label & packaging 
Wine label and packaging. The colors of dots on the wine bottle are chosen very carefully: notice how well they fit to the branding logo on the bottle.

Espa Packaging
Packaging design for a range of advanced skin care products for one of spas. Strong, vibrant gradient in use.

Arcadia Organic Tea
This packaging was hand made and assembled by me for a package design class as part of my BFA. The pattern was lacquer transfered to green paper. They come in a package of four so placed back-to-back all the little pyramids would nest together to make a larger pyramid.

Graphis Packaging
Retro packaging with dominant geometric forms. Nowadays the design looks impressive and vibrant

Scone Mix Package
Orange Cranberry Scone Mix designed by Montia. Simple yet attractive. Notice how well the package uses only three colors.

Porto Novo Caffee Package
Designed by Fizi Pao. Beautiful and elegant packaging.

Cocoa Bar
Some pretty bar wrappers from Cocoa Bar, NYC.

Askul Garbage Bag
Even although a package bag isn’t really something one would give a special attention to, some interesting solutions are possible. The design below makes use of colorful typography.

Cadbury Milk & White Chocolates
Cadbury Packaging Designs for ‘Gourmet Chocolates’. Designed by Daniel Elliott. Simple but sweet and attractive.

Sferra 1891
Packaging for Sferra’s recently debuted 1891 line. Linens packaging.

Coffee Time: Bag and Cups
Stylish old-times-packaging from S43 Agency for a CoffeeTime brand from Latvia.

Book Packaging
Peter&Wendy love typography and a strong typographic packaging. We love it too!

Typographic Packaging
Another example with typography in use. Sometimes all you need is just a title of what is inside the package.

Steampunk Packaging
According to designer, the task for this design was to pick a subculture and design a series of pictograms/logos & etc for it, and then apply said logo(s) to a package for a set of information cards about that subculture. Designed by Rovina Cai from Australia.

Brad Surcey (site is currently offline)
Strong colors and beautiful compositions. Notice how well the title of the product is emphasized, it strongly and clearly communicates what is inside without revealing too much unnecessary information.

Warming Little
Designed by Thirdperson, comprising a range of special winter soups with promotional heat resistant cardboard sleeves that slotted onto the existing cups. They’ve scooped a few awards, including Design Week 2008.

Ferrarelle
Clean minimalism at its best. Excellent packaging of a mineral water bottle.

Typography
Nothing can beat the old school typography.

Remarkable Pencils
Apparently, the 10 pencils packaged into this box are 100% remarkable. Well, at least they have a remarkable packaging.

Askinosie Chocolate
When it comes to the design of chocolate packaging, there are a number of options available. For instance, you can provide the package with some further information about the chocolate and give it a more traditional, historic and authentic look.

WH Smith
“Our brief was to create a compelling and inspirational solution. Because of copyright issues regarding artist’s work was a problem, our solution was to take inspiration from the though process behind how one paints and draws and to convey famous artists thoughts by choosing relevant quotes that captured the spirit of the product. We achieved this by commissioning different illustrators to recreate these quotes with the relevant use of materials.” Designed by R Design.

Askul
Original geometric forms can also be used for product packaging. And they are attractive, too!

Visualization of CI
Clean and slick design by Martin Zampach.

Food Packaging
Nice old times strike back. Louise Fili with a traditional, old-times food packaging.

Before Grain Dog & Cat Food
Well, it is the packaging for dog and cat food, but it just look good. Notice how interesting the typography is used — the letters are building a pyramid.

Vintage Packaging
This design is more than 20 years, but it still looks very impressive. Beautiful color scheme for a vintage t-shirt packaging.

Fuelosophy
Fruit drinks designed by Templin Brink Design combine beautiful illustration and an interesting form of the bottle.

Banana Juice
Well, that’s an original design. Banana juice package in form of a banana! Designed by Naoto Fukasawa.

Infuzions
Creative packaging by Parker Williams Design.

Equal Exchange
Designed by Good Digital Agency.

Typographic Packaging
Here the typography is pretty loud.

Tea packaging
Experimenting with typography.

Beck 8-Bit
One more time experimental packaging.

Fruits Packaging
Original packaging which may surprise and attract customer’s attention.

Afro Coffee Packaging
Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work…

Chocolate Scrabble
Unfortunately, this item is no longer available.

Coke Vintage Packaging
Old times, old times. We really miss packaging like this.

Japanese packaging
Really original design.

Last Click

Package design for Turkish Delight
Sometimes packages can really communicate emotions. The intention of the design below was to attract children and provide sustainability instead of throwing it away after consuming this product. For this reason the package can turn into a paper toy. The children can put together the body which is inside the package, and the face.

Pio Pio Cheep Cheep
A sweet paper toy one more time.

Milk Boxes in Love
Yeeeah! He found her! Or she found him! In any case, these milk boxes are now together. When buying a next milk package make sure to buy two — for Mr. Milky and his lady. Milky has a sad history. It is nice to know that everything is fine now.

Sources and Resources

• Dzine – Packaging Design
• Packaging Design Inspiration
• Vintage Package Design
• Creative Packaging Inspiration
• Package Design Patterns
  A series of professional observations about package design practices within specific product categories.
• Off The Shelf
  A Japanese packaging design scrapbook. Collected by James Bowskill.
• Japanese Packaging Design on Pingmag

Japan Package Design Awards 2011

By Darrell NelsonPublished: June 14, 2011Posted in: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

The winning designs from the Japan Package Design Awards 2011 have been on display to the public in the upmarket Matsuya department store in Ginza. Ranging from minimal and clean, to retro and functional, the display showcased the best of Japan’s designers. Running since 1985 the contest judges around 1,000 entries for the competition, with the judges evaluating design based on core topics of; aesthetics, manufacturing, physical distribution and environmental impact.

Looking straight out of the 60s the retro, classic design of the yoghurt from Meiji above, won a Gold Award, aimed at appealing to children and evoking a wholesome Japanese family brand. Whilst we loved the simple beauty of the Japanese confectionary packaging below which picked up a Judges Favorite.

Packaging is an extension of the product in Japan and focus has always been as heavily placed on the design of what the item is contained in as the product itself. Often with numerous layers encasing small items it can come across as unnecessary when we look at them from today’s attitude’s towards waste. However the intricacies and beauty of the packaging greatly enhance the brand as they can be as visually pleasing as they are often practical in their design. From complicated folding patterns that open in a certain way reveling an encased sweet, to form that reflects the contents of the package itself, Japanese packaging has what designer Kenji Ekuan has termed “furoshikibility“. A Japanese design principle, this means, “inventing various modifications of a simple tool or technique in order to adapt it for as many different forms of usage as possible – complexity created by simplicity or ‘complex simpleness.’”

Another retro theme the chocolate packaging below was awarded a Bronze Award, and the “Soysh” sparkling soy drink, although not sounding particularly delicious in description, is a beautiful example of clean, smooth lines making an appealing product and was a Judge’s Favorite. The other product below from Gatsby is a hairwax and was awarded the Golden Award, with clear functionality and playful colors in a modern design.

The portable dispenser from Ajinomoto which was awarded the Gold Award is designed to be attached to a mobile phone or keychain and with the panda image really is a particularly Japanese designed product! Whilst Elecom’sheadphones picked up a Silver Award with the packages playful colors.

In the drinks section there were more old school designs with this Ultraman designed soda can picking up the Bronze Award, and the classic bottle of cider awarded a Judges Favorite. The Silver Award to the colorful, yet subtle bottle of Sake with a very traditionally designed bag.

Shiseido picked up a SIlver Award with an intricately designed rose motif compact mirror in a wooden case, reflecting the brand’s more luxurious side. The bars of soap from Pola, designed around a modern, traditional Japan with warm colors and origami like folds along the packaging, were awarded a Golden Award.

The Grand Prix prize however was awarded to “Zenkashoin”, a pastry store in Kyoto shown below. A fantastic example of the “complex simplicity” the designs capture the essence of the brand and its traditional roots.

Related Posts:
Hidden Tokyo: Omotesando Koffee
“Space food” Calorie Mate: health food in minimal packaging
Urban Gardening in Bottle Caps

Jambox by Yves Behar at The Temporium

Jambox by Yves Behar 
at The Temporium

15 December 2010   

The Temporium: we have ten Jambox portable wireless speakers in limited-edition packaging designed by Yves Behar of Fuseproject on sale at The Temporium, our pop-up design store in London.

The Temporium is the only store in the UK stocking the product in special “shoebox” gift packaging, designed by Behar and featuring an old-school boombox on the lid and the legend “That was then… this is now”.

Jambox, produced by Jawbone, plays music from iPods, iPads or any Bluetooth-enabled device.

The product comes in black, grey, blue and red and costs £160. See our earlier story about Jambox for more information.

The Temporium is at 221 Brompton Road, London until Sunday 19 December.See all our stories about The Temporium.

See also:

.

Yves Béhar’s sketches
of JamboxMore about
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Yves Behar

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Posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 at 11:53 am by Rose Etherington. See our copyright policy.

The Best Nerdy Experimental Typeface

Overprinting Colors in Illustrator

Overprinting Colors in Illustrator

Scenario: You are designing a piece which will be printed in two ink colors. To enhance the impact of the design, you mix tints of the two inks to create additional colors.

Knockouts and Overprints

When different colored objects are stacked, fills and strokes apprear opaque because the top color knocks out, or cuts out, the area underneath when printed.

Knockout

When overlapping colors are desired, the top shape must be designated to overprint instead of knockout.

Overprint

Creating an Overprint

1 Select the object(s) on top that you wish to overprint.

2 Choose Windows>Show Attibutes.

3 In the Attributes window, check Overprint fill. Strokes can be set to overprint as well

3. To view the overprint on the screen, choose View>Overprint Preview.

Mapping the Movies: 50 Films for 50 States Infographic

October 27, 2010 • 11:00 am PDT

For fans of maps and cinema, take a look at Reddit user Subtonix’s U.S. map that replaces state names with films that take place there or best represent the state. It’s great that he chose (mostly) good or classic films. See a larger version here.

Via Flavorwire

YouTube 2.0 helping new stars redefine TV

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY

Updated 3h 58m ago |

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. — Blending as it does into a forgettable suburban strip mall, Metro Skateshop is easy to miss. Not so its owner, Joel Jutagir.

• 

  By Martin E. Klimek, for USA TODAY

  Joel Jutagir, chosen by YouTube to take part in its first-ever Creator Camp, shoots video of skaters inside his Pleasant Hill, Calif., skate shop last month.

The skateboarding fanatic has turned his decades-long obsession with filming himself and his friends into a popular channel on the video-hosting site YouTube, where roughly 15,000 subscribers regularly tune in to see his tricks.

“YouTube isn’t just a video platform; it’s really a social networking site, a place to show like-minded people what you’re up to,” says Jutagir, 36. “I’ve been totally amazed at the response.”

Perhaps no more so than the folks at Google-owned YouTube, the Web’s dominant video site with nearly a half-billion unique visitors a month.

If YouTube 1.0 was about showcasing random clips, YouTube 2.0 represents a quest to become a genuine entertainment destination. The company has become so convinced that grassroots content creators such as Jutagir are the key to this metamorphosis that last week it sent him and 24 others to its first-ever Creator Camp inNew York.

Winners of the YouTube NextUp program were selected by users of the popular website. They received $35,000 to spend at will as well as training on everything from lighting a scene to marketing their brand. In return, YouTube hopes to grow its viewership and sell more ads targeted at specific demographics, revenue it then shares with the videos’ creators.

Diverse as America itself, the attendees ranged from a recent Korean émigré from Manhattan who is winning fans with her cooking videos, to a kid in Nebraska hoping to launch a homegrown MTV. Some of these would-be Scorseses eke out four-figure incomes through the ads on their YouTube pages. A few pull in six digits. All see a self-made future online.

“Getting together like this made me see that if I want it badly enough, making videos can be a way of life,” says Jutagir, who immersed himself in courses with titles such as “Building a Loyal Audience” and “Breakfast with Rob Burnett,” the Emmy-winning TV writer.

“For a growing number of people, this is not a hobby, it’s a career, and we’re just trying to move them up the ladder faster,” says Tom Sly, YouTube’s head of strategic partner development and programs, noting that another 20 up-and-comers will attend video training seminars in Los Angeles and Chicago this summer.

Sly bristles when asked whether such amateurs can pump out videos and shows able to compete for eyes with more professional Hollywood fare.

YouTube stars, and stars-to-be

More than 20,000 people are YouTube Partners — content providers who company officials feel can consistently upload innovative videos capable of driving viewers to their sites. Any ad revenue generated is shared, “with more than 50% going to the partner,” says YouTube spokesman Matt McLernon. The number of partners making more than $1,000 a month is up 300% since early 2010, and a few hundred pull in six figures a year. YouTube hopes to increase the number in the latter camp; below are two such success stories, as well as three others who attended YouTube Creator Camp hoping to join their ranks:

Michelle Phan: Youtube.com/michellephan

Subscribers: 1.4 million

Total views: 393 million

Known for: How-to beauty videos with lots of creative flair, mixing music with graphics

Michael Buckley: Youtube.com/whatthebuckshow

Subscribers: 1.1 million

Total views: 302 million

Known for: Upbeat and borderline irreverent reviews of entertainment news and gossip

Emily Kim: Youtube.com/Maangchi

Subscribers: 42,000

Total views: 8.2 million

Known for: Fun, easy-to-follow Korean cooking tips

Bryan Odell: Youtube.com/BryanStars

Subscribers: 52,000

Total views: 8 million

Known for: Interviews with rockers rumbling through Nebraska

Joel Jutagir: Youtube.com/metro236

Subscribers: 16,000

Total views: 1.4 million

Known for: Skateboarding videos

“Amateur is not an accurate description of who they are. I’m continually impressed by the writing and production quality of these videos,” he says. “This is about the American dream, which technology is now enabling in ways we never imagined possible.”

Stressing audience interaction

Such hyperbole is rooted in reality.

YouTube may have started out as a place to watch America’s funniest home videos, but it steadily has morphed into one of the key ways in which we consume media.

With the proliferation of broadband, television — once the sole in-home delivery system for visual arts — is being challenged by Apple- and Netflix-connected monitors that have some viewers unplugging from cable companies altogether.

“The eye is the prime sense used to take in the world, and the very definition of TV is changing to include whatever you see on your smartphone, your tablet or even the digital sign in Times Square,” says Tracy Swedlow, CEO of InteractiveTV Today newsletter and executive producer of a recent conference in San Francisco called “The TV of Tomorrow Show.”

“Interacting with your audience through video is unquestionably a new dimension for TV as we know it, and people are inventing new content formats all the time,” says Swedlow, who recently saw a prototype of a small, disposable screen that would slip into a magazine much like a blown-in subscription card. “There are plenty of people learning on the job as the technology mushrooms. YouTube has democratized the concept of the professional.”

That dictum certainly applies to camper Bryan Odell, 21, who recently notched 50,000 subscribers for his music-scene commentaries and interviews. He moved out of the basement in his parents’ home in Lincoln, Neb., using his modest YouTube success to rent his own apartment.

“I want to be the Ryan Seacrest of YouTube and get to the point where any musician will want to come on my show,” says the affable Odell, who started out doing on-camera interviews as an intern for a local TV station and quickly found he could attract an audience online. “I think people like that I’m a nerdy, quirky teen in a hoodie, talking to their favorite stars. They can relate.”

So far, Odell has scored chats with the likes of musician and director Rob Zombie and the bands Korn and Slipknot.

“It used to be tough to get publicists to deal with me,” he says. “But now I’m ‘that YouTube guy,’ and it’s easier. Frankly, I’d love to do this for the rest of my life.”

Michael Buckley not only knows the feeling, he’s also even closer to realizing that dream.

A bona fide YouTube star with more than 1million subscribers, Buckley has been “making a comfortable six-figure salary for some years” through ads that accompany his showWhat the Buck?!, a manic Talk Soup-meets-Weekend-Update blitz in which Buckley skewers the day’s celebrity gossip.

“I think what’s different about media today is that instead of just watching something, we all want to share what we feel about it immediately, and that’s where I come in,” says Buckley, 35, of Wallingford, Conn. “It’s a great life. I love what I do, and I get to stay at home and I’m my own boss. What’s not to like?”

The wise-cracking Buckley is mining a rich vein.

Today, seven in 10 adult Internet users watch videos, and 50% report watching humorous videos, up from 31% in 2007, according to the most recent survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Viewing educational videos jumped from 22% to 38%.

“There’s certainly decent evidence out there that consumers like both professional as well as amateur content, whether it’s passing on a clip they saw on Comedy Central or sharing something done by a name you may not really know,” says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project.

“But again, definitions easily get blurred,” he adds. “If I’m shooting high-quality video of a classroom and posting that, is that an amateur video? The terms are really losing their meaning. And users increasingly don’t care.”

What they do care about, however, is being entertained, and in that sense we’re in a new Gold Rush era, “where users and companies are all digging for that nugget,” says longtime Silicon Valley observer Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at Discern Analytics. “We’re already seeing hits with print, like the success of (self-published Amazon author) Amanda Hocking, and I think TV will be next.”

He says YouTube is making the right moves by “setting up a good marketplace. … I happen to be a fan of (an online) channel that just shows videos of passionate cowboy artists. News is another area. One can imagine this generation’s Walter Cronkite maybe coming from online, someone smartly commenting on events from their own home.”

Video stars are born

For the moment, YouTube remains the biggest platform around for anyone with such aspirations.

During the past year alone, the site’s hold on viewers rose 20%, from 33 million minutes per month to 40 million (about 28,000 days), according to the online-data firm comScore. By comparison, Hulu plus the top network-TV sites combined totaled 8 million minutes.

“But there remains a difference between the viral video hit and people producing videos that draw a consistent and loyal following, which is much more difficult to maintain,” says comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman. “This is where TV still has an advantage.”

Hollywood has remained largely on the sidelines when it comes to original online entertainment, preferring to use the Web as either an afterlife for its high-gloss productions (via Hulu) or as a concept testing area for established stars (see the FunnyOrDie comedy site).

That’s not to say its execs aren’t tuned into and admiring the comparatively low-budget support YouTube is throwing some of its promising stars.

“We can learn from the people up north, because Hollywood tends to fear failure while Silicon Valley doesn’t mind experimenting,” says Michael Yanover, head of business development at Creative Artists Agency, which had a big hand in starting FunnyOrDie. “YouTube isn’t writing massive checks and they’re not trying to take on the networks. They just want to see what might work, and that’s smart.”

Yanover says he’s been impressed with the steady growth in professionalism of what he sees on the Web today.

“Some of those people really are improving their chops, to the point where we even represent a few, like Michelle Phan,” he says. “I don’t usually quote (media magnate)Barry Diller, but he said, ‘Talent is finite,’ and I agree. That said, Michelle is an example of someone coming off YouTube that’s rising to a professional level.”

Phan, who taught at the New York camp, has the kind of success story that can send millions scurrying to their webcams.

Four years ago, the now 24-year-old Vietnamese-American from Los Angeles was going to art school and working as a waitress at a sushi restaurant. In what little spare time she had, Phan blogged about her passion for doing makeup. Fans suggested she give a tutorial by filming herself.

Today, she has a million YouTube subscribers and rubs corporate shoulders with Julia Roberts and Kate Winslet as Lancome’s online makeup artist, posting a video a month featuring Lancome products, filming and editing the clips herself. She focused her seminar on improving the look of amateur videos.

“My pet peeve is bad lighting,” she says with a laugh. “I think that’s one thing, a fairly simple thing, that I can help people with. I know everyone is very eager, some just need some polish.”

Emily Kim, 54, is the first to admit her videos lack style, but they make up for it with charm. Her YouTube cooking channel has 41,000 subscribers, people from around the world who tune in for her tips on how to serve up either a traditional Korean dish or her own inventions featuring un-Asian ingredients such as collard greens.

Kim left South Korea a decade ago and moved to Toronto. Three years ago, she arrived in New York, where she worked as a domestic violence counselor. On the side, she indulged her love of cooking through online videos. She now has three self-published cookbooks on Amazon, and recently quit her counseling job to focus on her videos.

“I can’t believe what is happening to me,” Kim says. “I have a close bond with my people, though. One man, he came to visit me from the Netherlands. We filmed an episode together, making tuna pancakes. My people liked it so much, he came back to New York a year later and we filmed another one. So fun.”

Kim offers a simple clue about what it takes to win online. Personality. She exudes it with her big smile, inviting demeanor and even her online nickname, Maangchi.

What does it mean? “Hammer,” her codename from a period a few years back “when all I did for three years was play online video games, you know, killing villains and superheroes. I had to choose a macho name, of course.”

‘It’s gonna be cool’

Back in his cramped California shop, skateboarder Jutagir is about as opposite of a hammer as you can get. Soft-spoken and prone to staring off into the distance, he nevertheless is resolute about his mission, one he can now pursue thanks to his YouTube grant and training.

“I’m going to do a documentary about skateboarding around the world. We leave this summer,” says Jutagir, pointing to a slight teen who will star in his Endless Summer-like travelogue that will capture the lives of boarders across the U.S. as well as in places such as Bangalore, India.

“It’s gonna be cool,” says Daniel DuBois, 16, of Martinez, Calif., whose appearances on Jutagir’s YouTube channel have helped him land clothing and board sponsors. “It’s weird to have people know me because of the Internet, but they do.”

DuBois says he and his peers never watch television. “For us, what we want to see is online,” he says. “It’s quick, it’s fast and no commercials.”

Jutagir laughs. It’s a giddy laugh, the kind you’d expect from a guy who owns a small skateboard store in a strip mall who is about to travel around the world chasing a dream — and then share it with a waiting audience, one online clip at a time.

Art much?

sunday february 6, 2011

Art Much?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be an art collector but the cost and my lack of knowledge in the world of fine art have always been prohibitors. This year I finally decided I wasn’t getting any younger and gosh-darnit-I’m-going-to-start-a-collection.
So! I did my research, spoke with a few friends who are much more sophisticated than me and made a few discoveries. I started by buying a few things I liked off Etsy. Maybe not gallery-worthy art (or maybe it is, what do I know?), but nevertheless the work fit my style and compliments my home. First I found a few lovely and haunting photographs by Anna Lazaro.

Next,I bought a few prints from Kristin Kemper, a disney-esque artist.

Then, I was given the gift of an original sketch by renown artist N.C. Winters who paints, sketches and designs comic strips.

This is the original sketch, which makes it much more exciting to own… and it inspired me to really splurge on a piece I’d been lusting after for a while, but didn’t have the balls to buy until now.
John Brosio, one of the premiere Fine Artists in the nation, has been reviewed by the Washington Post, National Academy of Sciences, American Art Collector and ArtScene among many others. He is renown for his “tornado” paintings, but has also branched out into some pretty cool pop art, all of which maintains a Norman Rockwellian undertone and a tongue-in-cheek sensibility. If you are familiar with fine art even remotely, you may recognize this one…

Now, I’m so excited to show off my first fine art purchase from a critically acclaimed artist, John Brosio. I’ll post more pictures once I get it framed, but in the meantime, feel free to drool and be jealous of my original pastel sketch…

This is all to say that if you are interested in art but don’t know where to start (insert Scarlet Pimpernel reference here), I recommend picking up an American Art Collector magazine at the bookstore, talk to your friends who have better taste than you, and fish around! See what you find! It’s important to mention, however, that, just because a magazine or gallery says something is “art” doesn’t mean you should like it. Find pieces that speak to you, artists that inspire you, things that have a story behind them that you will want to tell people.
My friend Beth is fantastic at this. She has some amazing art in her home. Some of it is very expensive, some wouldn’t be worth a dime, but any piece you ask her about has a story that is somehow significant to her.
Don’t be afraid to experiment! It’s never too late to start!
Xo BJG

http://www.bjgofficial.com/

this plane has eyes…

in fact, plane wasn’t invented based on flying bird anymore?