January 7, 2012

You must love what you do

January 7, 2012

A perfect moment

January 6, 2012

I tried…

January 6, 2012

REAL Success

January 6, 2012

Afternoon Longing

December 29, 2011

This is why the Internet is important: Inheritance Jewelry

My friend Danie­lle makes really awe­some jewelry. And now she has her own web­site, Inhe­ri­tance Jewelry.

OK, gran­ted, the web­site could use some work design-wise, but it’s still early days, she’s new to this world…

This is what Web 2.0 REALLY means to me, why it’s REALLY important.

It allows a young woman like Danie­lle to follow her dreams, without having to take out a loan, without having to sign a lease with some rich land­lord in some expen­sive neighborhood.

This is why the web needs to stay open

Go, Danie­lle, Go! Rock on.

December 29, 2011

“Souls Need To Be Touched”

Thanks to Kath­leen Warner for orde­ring the gaping­void busi­ness card above.

I’m pas­sio­nate about the idea that a busi­ness card should be more than just a way of han­ding out con­tact details, but a social object that sta­tes what you believe in, what you stand for.

Exactly.

December 29, 2011

Facebook is The New Suburbia

This car­toon was ins­pi­red by Matt Mullenweg’s very moving post over on GigaOm, “Open Web FTW”. He’s right, the web needs to stay open, WE need to stay open:

For a year now, I’ve said scrip­ting is the new lite­racy. That’s something I strongly believe. In Dou­glas Rushkoff’s latest book, he talks about “pro­gram or be pro­gram­med.” That is, if you’re not in con­trol of your inputs, you’re not really in con­trol of your out­puts either. You’re just a reac­tio­nary force.

[NB. gaping­void is crea­ted on Word­Press soft­ware, Mullenwag’s com­pany. I’ve hung out with him a cou­ple of times. A lovely fellow.]

December 29, 2011

The Genesis of gapingvoid Business Cards

If a law­yer gives you her  gaping­void busi­ness card, what does that tell you?

Like Jeff says, that you’re not dea­ling with a nor­mal lawyer…

Exactly.

[You can get the biz­card design above here, and if you like the design well enough to hang it on your wall, the print is for sale here. Rock on.]

I got the idea for gaping­void busi­ness cards when I was living in New York, when I dis­co­ve­red that I pre­fe­rred giving out my own, hand-drawn busi­ness cards to peo­ple, rather than the ho-hum busi­ness cards that my emplo­yer at the the time issued me with.

Of course, after a while it became a lot of work, dra­wing them every time I met someone. Even­tually I star­ted get­ting them prin­ted. Then I thought, why not print them for other peo­ple? The rest is history…

I always thought there was a mar­ket for busi­ness cards that stood out. Cards that reflec­ted the per­so­na­lity of the per­son han­ding them out, cards that said, “I’m not just one more ran­dom shmuck in a bar, doing the usual han­ding out his card to an equally ran­dom chick in a bar yada, yada, yada.”

Living in New York, in a sea of other equally oppor­tu­ni­tist young peo­ple on the make, it was easy to be “another ran­dom guy”. I don’t want to be that ran­dom guy. I wan­ted to be something else.

And it wor­ked. What star­ted out as an act of rebe­llion among the suits and hips­ters of Manhat­tan, tur­ned into a suc­cess­ful busi­ness and art career.

I’m having fun. You?

December 28, 2011

“Gotta get me some of them Idiot Filters…”

Thanks to Ben Nes­vig for orde­ring a set of our gaping­void busi­ness cards  [You can get your own here…].

The gaping­void busi­ness cards– my car­toons prin­ted on the back, your per­so­nal details prin­ted on the front– are desig­ned to act like “Idiot Fil­ters”. In other words, peo­ple who are cool seem to like them right away, peo­ple who are idiots always tend to ask “WTF?” So it’s a good way of gau­ging peo­ple, quickly.

That’s the idea, any­way. At the very least, they’ve crea­ted A LOT of fun for peo­ple over the years. And now we have more designs than ever. Feel free to ping me if you have any ques­tions. Rock on.