CANARY SMART SECURITY
About a week ago Canaryreached out to Anh and I and sent us their first product to use. It's a smart security camera that connects to your network and let's you keep an eye on the things via the app. In our case the home office and dog Bentley. The camera is marketed as a home security camera but Its great for a mini studio or a small startup space.
Thanks for the hook-up, Canary team. Special thanks to Brittany of the marketing team-I won't put your full name here so you can avoid any potential stalkers, unless you want me to. Then send an email stating so.
A little background on Canary: They're a startup based in New York. I like their modern approach to security cameras by adding smart sensors that provide me data such as: Air Quality, Temperature, Motion, Humidity, Night Vision, Audio, Siren & Cloud Storage. These features are all valuable. I thought I was just receiving a internet-connected camera. Sorry Dropcam! You've been beat.
The packaging is impressive and made really well. Can someone over at the Canary HQ please let me know who produced your packaging? Because it's nicely executed, and the soft-touch paper and the folded box are great design decisions. My favorite part of unboxing the camera is the tasteful pops of Canary yellow at unexpected moments.
The camera is nested nicely in a paper pulp tray and properly protected. I'm shocked to discover how small the device is. I was imagining something twice as big. It's a bit taller than my iPhone 5s. BTW! if you're reading this Apple, I'd love to get my hands on an iPhone 6 or 7 - I'm familiar with how Industrial design works.
The setup was a breeze, it literally took me 5 minutes. The toughest part was probably downloading the app. I forgot my iTunes password.
I'm super stoked about this camera, the live stream is crispy and high def, and most importantly I can see what Bent's up to when I'm gone. Recently he's discovered a way to get onto the kitchen counter. . .
PS. I've started a personal blog called HOBO. I wrote about the canary there too, check it here.
Huarache NM 2015 lava
I couldn't help it but to pull the trigger on these Nike Huarache 2015 NM lava. Had to pay a bit more since these are only sold in Europe, but it's well worth the cash. Lately I have been buying so many red shoes - I'm thinking of switching to rocking only red shoes moving forward. I think it's an interesting self branding element, no? Before the photos, here is a little fun fact for you. In the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall he writes about the Mexican tribe Tarahumara. The Tarahumara Indians are some of the best long distance marathoners in the world. Beyond being some of the best runners, the coolest discovery is that the thin leather slippers they run in are called Huaraches. I wonder if Nike was inspired by this? Probably not...
Photo credit : Matthew Karsten of expert vagabond
And here are the now, less-cooler Hauraches.
Good Listening : Flight Facilities 1972 - 1982
Straight out of Trinidad & Tibago we have Flight Facilities. This Soundtrack Sundae is 1 of 4 tracks mixed by FF while being Triple J's EXCLUSIVE residents. Conceptually I really like the way these mixes are made, it reminds me of the story telling I find my self doing in design. There is alot of history in these GEMS. Check out the transition at about 4:30 to 5:30 -- ITS HOT
Adidas Tubular Primeknit Stone
Unfortunately we failed miserably trying to pick up a pair o Yeezy Boost so I settled for these poor mans Yeezy. The Tubular Primknits stone grey are pretty underated, personally i think they're hot. I'm digging everything Adidas has been dropping in the last year.
Good Listening : Chance The Rapper "Sunday Candy"
Here is the video:
and behind the scenes:
Our 2015 Core77 Award Announcment
Here's the final decision for this years core77 awards. You can check it out on core77 or here the video: Excuse the poor filming. I put this together quickly with my gopro.
Pinnacles National Park
We spent the weekend hiking the Balconies Cave route @ Pinnacles for Anh's birthday. Def a place we'd recommend you doing once or twice. The weather was amazing and the people were too. Check out the video:
Oki Sato on "Designing 400 projects at a time relaxes me"
That is something that a lot of people worry about but at the moment, the more ideas I think of, the more ideas I come up with. It is like breathing or eating or something. If I focus on only one or two projects, I guess I can only think about one or two projects. When I start thinking about working on close to 400 projects, it relaxes me. It's like a top; when it is spinning very fast it is stable and when it starts to spin slowly it starts to get wobbly.
It's also like a fish that has to keep on swimming or it dies. I feel some sort of similarity between myself and that fish.
Minus 8 Launch Party @ Welcome Stranger
Another solid collection from our guys over at Minus 8. The designers responsible for these beauties is our homie David Whetstone and our very own Anh T Nguyen
Weekend Warrior
creativesession_hoangmnguyen_gopro4_hero
Surfing is such a therapy to me.
I keep telling my self to pick up one of these new GoPros and haven't had a chance to. Finally swooped one before going out to surf with some buddies. I'm excited to film short videos this spring.
check out our short surf session:
GOOD LISTENING: Sweat The Mix v5 Emily Oberg
Nike Hurache NM 2015 (BLACK)
Don't think I can rock the initial NM drop in Pink, Royal Blue & Black very often. They just scream 80's all over them but these Black/White color way is too HOT. These will probably be my go to everyday, every weekend, sweat pants rocking kicks. You've gotta try these on they feel better than your favorite pair of slippers!!
Little things w/ Jeff Staple
Four years ago I remember stumbling upon a “Brand RMX” interview featuring Jeff Staple. Believe it or not, I watched it about 90 times. For a fresh out of school designer, this was my TED talk and Jeff Staple was my new hero. In a way, he was a reflection of someone I COULD be. An Asian hip-hop dude who created with Common and Talib Kweli, owned his own agency, designed for Nike, and has possibly done everything else a young HypeBeast was dreaming to do.
What I learned from the video was to seek my individual path and to fight even the smallest battles with my largest drive. It taught me to take pride and find joy in my work. No matter what scale it was, there was always something to learn and eventually it will make something of itself.
“ Little things adding up to the big things. That is probably one of the secrets to any of the success I’ve had. Any deal that gets made. Any of the positive things that happen, it’s all because of 20 little things that added up to that one great thing.”
- Jeff Staple
At the time it resonated so much because we were going through a recession, work was falling through, I was browsing craigslist for Photoshop touch-up jobs and loans were knocking at the door. At your lowest point as a creative, when big things came in VERY little it made the little things microscopic. Trading your passion for things that did not keep the lights on and food on the table was not tasty nor palatable.
Not to blab on with my SOB story, but it was this point in my life, after listening to Jeff that I re-found hope and motivation for design. Refreshed my perspective on all the little battles and fought them until the greater jobs were ready to come back around.
A couple ago days I had the pleasure to meet the man in person at Agenda so I thought I’d share a little back story. :)
CS X LIBERTY FAIRS
Our first Liberty Fairs, Capsule and Agenda experience! It was GREAT meeting those of you who rolled through to the Minus8 booth. Enjoy these photos. Write-up coming soon.
CORE77 DESIGN AWARDS x CREATIVESESSION
The creative process, and the life of an industrial designer isn't necessarily the noisiest or the most social, it's actually quite the opposite. This isn't a flashy line of work, and it definitely is not as glammy as the word "designer" makes it to be. Deep down we are nerds at heart. Pulling all nighters humping pixels, curves and circuit boards... hoping to change a life or two.
To us, Core77 has always been one of the VERY FEW mouthpieces for us silent workers. Shining light upon hard work, providing a platform and giving recognition where it's due. Core77 to Industrial designers is like HypeBeast to street culture. As a matter of fact, Jeff Staple and his crew were on the panel of judges last year!
Either way, it's an honour and a blessing to partake in the 2015 Core77 Design Awards. It's extremely humbling to join and collaborate with a panel of such impactful CEOS and Founders from around the world!
Enjoy a few fun snaps from our profile photo shoot! :P
Glory ain't so glorious.
Stolen from our friend and studio mate David Whetstone.
"THE AMERICAN DREAM" - JOIN US & BAKERSSON - FEB 6
Nothing better than breaking bread with your CreativeSession boys on a Friday night over our brother Keith aka BakersSon's AMAZING watercolor show! TIME&PLACE: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2015 ART ATTACK SF 2722A HYDE ST. SAN FRANCISCO CA, 94109
