Not Fast Enough

After weeks of consideration, I've decided to make the switch over to Squarespace. Blogger has been a home for me for over half a decade, so this no light matter. However, it's the pace of innovation that keeps me glued to any service or company, and while I am tied to Google for my personal e-mail endeavors, it's not good enough of a reason for me to stay.

The ETA for the new site is roughly 10 days. Until then, thank you for all the support over the past several years. It's been a pleasure.

Come enjoy a sneak peek below:

PS: No worries, Ekoshyun Blog will continue to be open until I decide send this back to the Blogger-sphere.

Project Codename 'Colfax'

I've got a new Summer project in the works. This one will be a digital/mixed media piece that I shall call for now, 'Colfax.' It takes influences from Shepard Fairey, Cryptik, David Choe, and amongst many other street artists I've lovingly tracked over the years. Expect it to start meeting the streets sometime in early October.

For the Kaws

Was bored today, so I thought I'd combine Disney's Mickey Mouse's 'Hang Loose' hand and the Kaw's popular eye-cross pattern to make a canvas print for my bedroom wall. If he ever finds this, he's probably gonna sue me penniless, but I see this as more of a tribute (and the fact that I can't afford those damn $10,000 prints). Cheers and message me if you want a copy.

Demon Child

I've never really come out with this, but at one point during my college career, I had a run-in with a demon child from another world.

The backstory: Endless upon endless parties at a house reminiscent of the one falling apart in Fight Club. Aside from broken fixtures and a floor that smelled like hell, '666' and pentagrams began to litter our walls. This stemmed from an ongoing inside joke and a group of friends who found this type of stuff entertaining to poke fun at (mainly because we were in the middle of God's country, but also because they found it simply hilarious).

The event: After several months of this ongoing cycle of party + graffiti + more insane nonsense, I found myself awakened at night by heavy breathing by my bedside. This wasn't just normal breathing either. I'm talking distinct long deep breaths with 2-3 second pauses in between. It chills me to the bone 'til this day.

My body was facing upward, but I quickly realized I couldn't move anything. My eyes were closed shut as I felt a strong force binding my legs together. Still calm (at this point at least), I struggled to move my feet. No luck. This binding soon went up to my hands beside my body and pushed them together. This eventually eerie binding force soon moved to my neck (and this is when I started freaking out) and I began choking. No air. Sheer panic.

I somehow managed to force my eyes wide open and my gaze shifted towards the right side of my bed. There it was. A little girl with her mouth wide open, one hand out, commanding this awesome nonsense. Of course, I tried to scream, but I couldn't. Still, I managed to somehow break from her spell, and with any strength left in my body, took a swing at her demonous figure.

Yes, I punched a ghost in the face.

After that, all I can remember is silence and the sweat dripping from my face.

Opposition Now

I'm not usually one to encourage an uprising, but after seeing how much power certain industries can have over a technological age that's literally lapping them in bounds... I must say this: "Get a grip, people."

And there's no denying that the freedom of the Internet has brought forth something  that no one had ever expected; the birth of a cyber-country that doesn't discriminate, but celebrates our differences. An Internet that numbers in the billions - enriching knowledge to the masses at an unprecedented scale. Where sharing is truly caring, and no one takes injustice lightly.

I do worry about the powers that attempt to control it, however. These are not men, but corporate entities who do not care - they do not love. Empathy is the beating heart of the Internet and innovation is powered by the billions of minds that interact with it, hoping to achieve what was once impossible. If anything, I would argue that the Internet is already one of man's greatest triumphs in my lifetime. We just need to make sure its inevitable dilution by the struggling powers that be don't change the way our children experience it in the future.

Voices

Via Pen.io:

You know that ringing sound that you will perceive when you are in a very quiet area? Some people say this is an auditory-illusion brought about the ear’s inability to detect frequencies below the threshold of the human senses. This is completely wrong. That ringing covers up something else altogether. If you are quick, patient, and maybe a little lucky, you will be able to hear past the ringing. What you will hear are voices whispering to each other. They will silence themselves quickly but with practice, you will become more adept at catching and interpreting what they are saying. You will hear things of the past, the present, and the future. However, you must be careful. Because there is no such thing as a voice without a body.

And when you start noticing them, they will start noticing you.

Once and For All

I hinted in every way imaginable, yet she still kept her distance. Her scent alone would permeate my memories and dreams. And after all these years, I decided that I'd tell her once and for all, "We're not friends, you and I. Not when I have this much love for you."

Light and Darkness

As the new year encroaches, I continue to be mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of what has happened in 2011. I've managed to jump around the country several times - traveling, working, and visiting old friends (as well as making new ones) - experiencing nearly every time zone in Northern America.

I've witnessed a protesting world unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime. I've become more knowledgable in tools for design, partnerships amongst friends, the web ecosystem, blogging, airplanes, HCI, hair products, marketing, and mortgages. I furnished an entire apartment by myself from floor to ceiling. I rumbled. I stirred. I tried to separate hard work from love... still with very little luck.

I continue my struggle with the ridiculously slow pace of consumer-facing smart home technology and home theater systems. I maddens me when we have the technology there, just with no one there to connect the dots.

I've become inspired. Not by just the individuals I work with, my colleagues, and industry, but by the plain and simple belief that: "Most people try to do good. But more often than not, they naturally choose the option of convenience." Master the method of delivery and you master the art of crafting user experience. My intention is to complete the circle in 2012.

Where The Crazy Happens

Not sure why I felt the need to take a picture of my desk tonight. Perhaps it's due to the 12+ hours of creative work I put in today. And still feeling energized.

Urban Sprawl

Screw a suburban sprawl, I'm all about that urban mother fuckin' supercity spawl. Above, the current city of Tokyo taken from a helicopter.

Denver Winter Arrives

My Bertoia is lookin' a little cold outside.

iPad Wormhole

About to fall into the deep end of some very, very intense iPad designin'. This also means updates will be restricted to only 2-3 times a week until December. FYI.

Meanwhile, you should follow my other Tumblr blog, dedicated to Corgis.

Legacy Leftovers

To reach such high critical acclaim and accomplish so much in so little time is definitely something to be praised. But it's everything as a whole; the merger of design and consumer, his sensitivity towards multimedia-based future, and lifelong deliberation towards creating better lives for all of us - that's what I've come to known Stevie for. Thank you for everything, good sir.

A Cinematic Orchestra

Still working on getting settled into Mountain Time, but until then I'll be hunting for inspiring art and video projects to take up time. There's plenty of ideas out there - it's remediating and making it 110% yours that's the challenge.

Warm the House

New prints from the Ghostly Store, all framed and ready for my housewarming party tomorrow night.

When You’re a Designer

Nobody ever told me, but when you're a Designer:

• You won’t be able to afford your own taste.
• You’ll notice everything that is even slightly out of alignment.
• You’ll never look at a problem without “reading” the context.
• You’ll only analyze a space, you won’t just experience it. 
• You’ll be a bystander.
• You’ll be endlessly fascinated with natural light and shadows.
• You won’t be able to let anything go, your brain will spin, you won’t sleep.
• You won’t be able to talk to anyone about what you do. No one will know what a Designer does.
• You’ll be weary and content at the same time.
• Your eyes will hurt.
• You’ll be less respected than you thought.
• Your shyness will be interpreted as arrogance.
• You’ll be working on your craft for years, you’ll never feel like you’ve mastered it, but you’ll keep at it, everyday, again, again.
• You’ll remember every single thing you did wrong on a project, and that will keep you from seeing everything you did right.
• You’ll want to put everything in order, always… But, you may choose not to do that.
• When you’re young, your heroes will be irrelevant. You’ll figure out the people who really matters when you're older.
• You’ll mark the milestones in your life by the projects you were working on at the time.
• You’ll come to know a little about everything, you’ll know a lot about just a few things.
• You’ll begin to see any built environment as a continuously evolving form, built piece by piece by generations of individual efforts - You’ll begin to see balance between individuality and community.
• You’ll often have an opportunity to be the center of attention, but, you won’t know how to take advantage of that.
• You will be interesting… eventually.

How I Roll

Checkin' in from Denver, CO. So far, so good. Job kicks ass. People kick ass. Mountains kick ass. Food kicks ass. City architecture... meh. But small town, neighborhood-y feel in a pretty large city - always a plus in my book. I'm also thinking about whipping together a video soon. We'll see how far it goes with all this flying around to Seattle, Cali, Portland, etc.

Oy, Canoes!

Cannibals capture three men. The men are told that they will be skinned and eaten and then their skin will be used to make canoes. Then they are each given a final request.

The first man asks to be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible. His request is granted, and they poison him. The second man asks for paper and a pen so that he can write a farewell letter to his family. This request is granted, and after he writes his letter, they kill him saving his skin for their canoes.

Now it is the third man's turn. He asks for a fork. The cannibals are confused, but it is his final request, so they give him a fork. As soon as he has the fork he begins stabbing himself again and again, yelling "Fuck your canoes! Fuck your canoes!"

In this case, we're the canoe. As you might have guessed, I am not happy.

Someone Once Asked

I was once asked why I got into design. And when I say design, I do speak of the many languages of design. From interior of baths to the canvas, music to the digital wireframes, design is what I largely have set out to do.

So why design? Why not medicine, law, construction, or education? For one, I feel good design excels with an emphasis on respect - consideration for everything it encompasses. I'm not saying it is unbiased compared to the other industries mentioned, but it does not deny its biases nor points its finger at its shortcomings. It is what it is - good design will flourish while bad design is universally rejected.

It is... unlike our fragmented political system of today. Where it feels like watching we're all watching the WWF, except the actions of these individuals are creating real ramifications down the line. Design does not strive to have an Agenda. It is there to solve problems - real wicked ones. To connect the dots and bring a truer reality to light, not what some man on pedestal is telling us.

In a way, design can be labeled as a distraction. A distraction from how fragmented we are as people. Or how angry we are at problems we can't seem to grasp. The fact is, everything is ultimately connected, and design seeks to expose this. Even in an age where technology is moving faster than we could have ever imagined, it has hasn't really solved anything over the past few years, only revealing how fragmented we are as an entire generation.

My intent is to use the tool of design to flatten the canvas and draw connections that are not based on political agendas or self-serving motives, but the unbiased language of humanity itself. The only problem with this approach is that humanity is inherently biased (as am I), leaving me pondering if what I'm setting out to do is possible at all. It couldn't hurt though, right?

The Biggest Design Problem

For me, the biggest, most personal, and most gratifying design problem that of the home. Why is this? The ornate nature of decoration and matching of physical objects is self-expression through surrounding contexts - contexts that are interacted with daily and constantly feeding back to whether or not that chair was a bad purchase.

And god knows what kind of insane things your brain must be doing when trying to figure out it all. People are such interesting creatures.