Hello Boulder, Colorado!

My Room for 3 months

So it has only been just 2 days since I arrived to Boulder. First thing I notice is that there are a lot of open land, it's super warm (30 degree's), and there are a lot of pubs & wing places. My new room mate is pretty awesome and she also has a cat named Slayer! Already went around Boulder with Calvin and Maria to get settled in for the internship. I don't start my internship at Crispin Porter + Bogusky until October 4th, but for the mean time I'm just enjoying the neighborhood and soaking up the sun.

Meet Slayer

Haagen-Dazs Cafe, Boulder

Boulder Bike Parade @ Pearl Road

Crispin Porter + Bogusky x Yoshi

So I am officially going to be working at Crispin Porter + Bogusky for the next 4 months at Boulder, Colorado. I will be working as a Product Innovation Design Intern, while working on some pretty sweet projects. Right now I am applying for VISA's with CICD (Center for International Career Development) and hopefully if I get it quickly I can get my plane ticket and fly off! A little information of who or what CP+B is and what they do, here is a small quote from their website.

"CP+B is a factory. A factory that makes advertising, interactive, branded content, and products. There is no assembly line. All the work is custom-designed and assembled by hand." - Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Also as a side note, Crispin Porter + Bogusky was also mentioned in Fast Company front page of their most recent issue. Those that are interested at what CP+B are doing, here is a scoop of it's recent actions.

Fast Company
Insiders Dish on What's Ahead for Crispin, Porter + Bogusky Without Alex Bogusky - by Danielle Sacks

Dunny Update

Updated Figure/Vinyl Display

Finally made my last batch of the stair case display shelfs and they are looking pretty fantastic! Also as a side note, my birthday just passed and I am now officially 23-years old. Getting old here, but despite that I will be still collecting toys! But here's just a very short update. I will post the Illustrator file (CS5) and EPS file for those that want to make their own stair case display shelfs.

Megaupload: Staircase Display File

Photoshop CS5: Content-Aware

Been playing around with the new Photoshop CS5, content-aware tools and all I have to say is "wow". I can't believe how far Adobe has come and how much of a jump it has made from CS4. Now that I have been playing with these tools, I don't know what is real or fake. Here are some samples of what I have been playing around with.

For those that don't know the new "Content-Aware" tool, it is basically a cloning or stamp tool that takes it's surrounding images and make a duplicate layer. For those that know how long it took to patch and duplicate images, this is very time consuming. It takes a good 20-30 min to patch and touch up images, but with Content-Aware all this takes a good 5 min. I was completely blown away from what this tool can do.

Dunny 2010 Series

Dunny 2010 Series

Nothing new lately other then waiting for work to start in June and catching up with some old friends. Other then that the new Dunny 2010 Series is about to come out soon and the line up is pretty sick! Here's a check list image from the SpankyStokes Blog for the up coming 2010 series. I can't wait for that Sket One Ketchup Dunny along with the Travis Cain's Balloon Dunny. With the ratio's that are being posted right now, although I'm not sure if this is the official ratio, it's looking pretty good. Although with another Frank Kozik chase, it's bound to be another mechanical robot. I hope there will be photo's online to see what that looks like!

One Piece Wobbline Pirate Ship Collection

Besides the new 2010 Dunny Series coming out, this month my P.O.P Usoppu and Nico Robin should be coming out soon. Also I am still debating whether or not I should get the mini Wobbline Pirate Ships Collection by MegaHouse. It would be nice since I'm getting the P.O.P crew set and with the mini boat beside them it would be pretty neat. But going to think about it for a while.

Haruhi x OnePiece

Members Meeting

Look who decided to join the Party! ... Figma Haruhi has finally arrived from AmiAmi and she's already taking charge of the red chair. Along with that Haruhi is joining with OnePiece bringing her Shirohige (White Beard) pride. Here are just some photo's of the wonders of SIAT + Laser cutting machine.

Haruhi X OnePiece

IDsketching Tutorials

IDSKETCHING.COM: Printer Sketch from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

So didn't really do anything today so I decided to try one of the drawing tutorials from the IDsketching website. First time drawing this so it's not too bad. Hoping to practice a lot more and then hopefully use more of the PrismaColor markers. Here is the result of what I drew out and the tutorial that I followed.

Learning How to Draw

So currently I am taking a drawing class for this semester. I haven't really learned anything from the class other then the obvious theories which is the same as photography. I have been looking at some video tutorials from IDsketching.com, which is an awesome site for those who are starting to draw. I wish I learned how to draw perspectives more in my class, but we will see what I learn in the end.

Here are some drawings that I was working on for my first assignment. The overall project is choose 3 artists/designers or what ever of your choice, write a biography, pick a sample, and essentially mimic their art style or something particular from the sample. I think they could have taught us a little bit more on drawing before we got into this assignment. The artists I choose for my assignment is: Tim Burton (Film related), Daigo Ikeno (New Media/Game related), and Brian Bolland (DC Comic artist).

Drawing, Filming, and Buying

IDSKETCHING.COM: Surface Finish from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

Haven't blogged for a while since there hasn't been anything interesting lately. Finally went to my first lab for drawing and we kinda just ended up sketching some lines and shapes. Pretty basic stuff but nothing really new... I'm hoping to read up on some video's from IDsketching.com (link sent by Andrew). Had a chance to film some clips for an up coming documentary called "Feeling Fine", which is about a disease that everyone will encounter when they encounter a kitten/cat. Clips and bloopers will come in a bit so check that out later on.

Akiyama Mio & Hirasawa Yui - Figma (K-On! series)

by MAX Factory

Other the filming and drawing, I've been buying a few things (well a couple of things) online from Hobby Link Japan and AmiAmi. Recent updates from GoodSmile is that they released the Akiyama Mio for Figma as of Yesterday. Pre-orders will be coming up in a few weeks. On top of that Voltage is having a release for the Dunny 2010 Fatal Series on January 28th, 2010. So be sure to check those out and hopefully I will be seeing some people at the release party at Voltage!!

Dunny Fatale Series 2010

Dunny Fatale Series 2010

Dunny Fatale Series is coming out late Jan 2010!! These 3-inch figures will include 18 talented designers, artists in this series will include Alex Anderson, Catalina Estrada, Klor, CW, Aiko, Kathie Olivas, Wendi Koontz, Koralie, The Baroness, Junko Mizuno, Aya Kakeda, Tara McPherson, Anna Chambers, Amanda Visell, Amy Ruppel, Julie West, Toofly, and Sara Varon.

For more information source found at KRonikle

Japanese Bottle Design with Squids

Japanese bottle design from squid

Japan's Ika Tokkuri sake bottles are pretty much as green a bottle as you'll find; they're made entirely from squid skins. Bottle-like shapes can be made by artfully stuffing the squids with rice or grain, and then using another green technology--the sun--to dry them into the desired shape.

As for that fishy, squid taste? It's actually desirable among certain sake drinkers, as it makes the taste "smoother and milder," sort of like aging Scotch in a particular type of wood cask; but unlike the casks, the Ika Tokkuri are edible after use, producing a sort of sake-infused squid jerky that should taste familiar to Japanese bar-goers.

Reference

Blog article found at Core77.com

Original article click here

Tokyo Design Exhibitions

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Future Revisited Exhibition

Lately I have been having a hard time trying to update the blog because the WiFi connection at home isn't that strong. But I'm finally updating on a few that I have done over the past 4-5 days. First off I went to the COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Future Revisited exhibition at the ICC Tokyo Opera City Center in Shinjiku. The exhibition is about using the human body, mind, and sound to create a architectural space. People can interact with the piece and a part of them will add something to the existing space in the exhibition.

THE OUTLINE: The Unseen Outline of Things

Naoto Fukasawa & Tamotsu Fujii

Another exhibition is THE OUTLINE: The Unseen Outline of Things by Naoto Fukasawa & Tamotsu Fujii at the 21_21 Design Sight Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, in Roppongi. The "outline of design", something obvious yet invisible, emerges through the efforts of these two men. This exhibition, including 100 products designed by Naoto Fukasawa and some 70 photographs taken by Tamotsu Fujii over 4 years, is something never attempted before - an exhibition revealing what everyone has sought... the "outline of design" - Naoto Fukasawa.

Rudolph x KrUnk-A-Clause 2009

Rudolph X KrUnk-A-Clause

Finally had a chance to go to Voltage this week. Been a while since I last went there and because of projects its been pretty hectic lately. This week I attended the Interactive Futures 2009 at Emily Carr University. There were several interesting keynotes and some performances. Keynote talkers such as Paula Levine, George Legrady (developer of the Seattle Library Project: Making Visible the Invisible ), Steve Dietz - talked about Stereo & Hertzian Lifestyles, and many more. You can check out the link here for more information about the conference and I hope there will be another one in the near future.

Endangered Dunnys + Pecha Kucha Night!!

Dunny Endangered Series

Today was a pretty awesome day. First off the Endangered Dunny Series had their release and I got myself a case. This would be my 3rd case that I have bought in my life so far. The line for this series is pretty sweet. I love all the Dunny's in this series, especially the one's with objects!!!... Also I went to Pecha Kucha Night Vol.6 and there were pretty interesting talks. Designers and Artists such as Marian Bantjes, Jonathan Kassian, Linus Liam & Denis Liu, Julie Gendron, Jeff Hameck, and many more.

Endangered Dunny - Jeremyville

Other then going out to grab a case of Dunny's and Pecha Kucha night, today was my first consultation of the semester. Empty as always, but I hope this will grow eventually. I have been playing around with SolidWorks 2009 Premium and I have to say it is pretty sweet. The new SpeedPak option is a nice new feature for the assembly, so this saves the hassle of rotating the object around so that you can mate it.

Endangered Dunny - Sket One

For the past few weeks the business class is getting interesting and I'm starting to re-look at my understanding of business people. The content in the course is similar to what I have learned on design sustainability but using different terminology. Hopefully before the month ends I will make something in SolidWorks and make some things for fun. Trying to slowly update my portfolio and add in some more examples of my work.

Hello YDSHINTO.COM & Project cont.

I just recently bought myself my own domain. SWEET!!! so instead of using the Simon Fraser URL, I can now just use my own domain url. My website is now located @ www.ydshinto.com ... Other then buying my own domain I have 2 more projects left to finish - Animation & Spatial Prototyping. The animation is almost coming to an end and the spatial prototyping project is still under development.

Right now, I am still trying to implement arrays into the Flash Action Script that I am creating. This is so that the project can just run off a simple code but have multiple input. The Flash Server is still in process so I am a bit worried about trying to get information from MAX MSP. The WORST case scenario is that the project is just running off MAX MSP, without the Flash but that means that my portion of the work has gone to waste. So hopefully that I would start to see some good results for the up coming days.

On other news, the 2009 ItaliaDesign layout is almost coming into completion. More like just the pre-studies that I have done before going to Italy. This years ItaliaDesign guys have a lot of context that they are covering. I have yet to see what they will introduce to this years Italia research.

Portfolio!!!

My Portfolio - Finally done @ ydshinto

So I finally finished my portfolio. It has been 2.5 months since I told some people that I would finish back then. Have been pretty busy for the past few weeks with projects, proposals, essays, animation, and the usual. So I have not slept for around two days from now and I am beginning to feel uneasy. But it was all WORTH it!!! I have yet to buy a domain, currently searching for a cheap one right now. Thinking about either buying a ydshinto.com or a yosukeshinto.com, seeing that it's still available... Since I'm done with this portfolio + updating it slowly, I have some time to finish up some IAT320 - Body Interface projects, studying for an up coming final, and finishing up some 4th year projects.

Illuminate Yaletown & Pot Luck Dinner

Ice Installations - Illuminate Yaletown 2009

Recently attended the first annual Illuminate Yaletown event, which features contemporary light installations where the people in Vancouver can enjoy something that they have not seen before. The event was filled with local designers and performers, along with DJ Leanne and innovative ice sculptures. There were 27 contemporary light-art installations, ranging from interactive drawings on the buildings to pulse reading environments. Although this is new to the people in Vancouver, this isn't something new to the students in SIAT at Simon Fraser.

Light Graffiti - by Eos Lightmedia

Come to think of it, this is only at its surface level of interaction of what Vancouver is only seeing. The students in SIAT are exposed to many different types of interactions with light and environments. By going to this event I had some high expectations for some interesting inputs and outputs, but turned out that this was just visually pleasing. I find that the projects done in SIAT are a little more interesting and I hope that some day SIAT would be able to participate in the annual event and show the people in Vancouver there is another level of interaction out there.

Other then the lighting event, went out for a pot luck dinner at Andrew's. Had a nice get together with a few people and made some takoyaki (Japanese octopus desserts) and some Crepe's made by Jack Sam.

Wise Words from Barry Schwartz

Just recently updating myself on TED talks and came upon Barry Schwartz's -  The real crisis? We stopped being wise. Thought I would share this with everyone and hope that some people would be inspired by Barry's Schwartz's wise words and dare I say, wisdom.

IxDA '09 FINISH

Last day of IxDA '09 (Feb 8th) and it was awesome!!! not only it was my first interaction design conference that I attended but also it was my first time interacting with other designers without having to be introduced by other designers or professors. The day began at 8am, meeting up with Fiona Raby along with Ben Ku, Jack Sam, and Vicki Molder. We had a nice coffee meeting with Fiona and talking about the projects that we do in SIAT and introduced the ItaliaDesign Field School to her, which she was interested in. Had a nice conversation about what she does at the Royal College of Arts (RCA) and the kind of projects that her students work on.

After a nice coffee meeting with her I booked myself to all the other keynotes and lightning round that I could get myself into. The first keynote of the day was How to Change Complicated Stuff by Marc Rettig, which talked about the idea of context of not only changing the things the design by shifting the value of what we are about to design. Meaning, shifting the way we process our ideas. The lightning round that caught my attention was Play in Social Tangible Interactions by Kars Alfrink and Understanding Contexts of Use by Miles Rochford, which I believe both were worth attending. The topics are similar to what I have learned over in Italy, which is working around existing elements, working within the context, and observing the embodiment that these interactions are being taken place. 

Finally the IxDA ended with the keynote: Each One, Teach One (and Other Ideas for Delivering on the Promise) by Kim Goodwin, which I believe was an inspiring presentation. The Keynote talks about the idea of not only understanding the process, context, embodiment, etc, but being able to have the ability to exchange our practice and to help grow your profession. 

IxDA & Jon Kolko

Day two at the IxDA and I attended the 1st Lightning Round talk on the topic of Interaction Design Synthesis: Translating Research into Insight - by Jon Kolko, which recently gave a speech at SFU in Ron Wakkary's lecture titled "Experience Design is a Bunch of Horse-shit". I find that both of his speech's got to me and I am looking at interaction design from a new perspective. Not stating that I've learned nothing for the past 4 years in SIAT but just viewing "experience" from a new perspective.

On top of that I have meet people from R/GA, Crispin Porter, Copper, Axure, HUGE, and many more companies. I begin to feel this feeling of wanting to talk to more and more designers about what they do and perhaps if they offer any internships. Some of the talks that I have attended are truly inspiring and I hope there are more events to come.