Gordon Murray The Mclaren F1 Designer

For this month's tech-talk we invite designer Gordan Murray to come talk cars, design, and career atPlayground. Gordan designs formula one cars for a living. He's a true mechanical thinker. I'd say he's more engineer minded than industrial design, but he does an amazing job at mixing science with art in creating innovative solutions. Gordon is famous for the iconic McLaren F1. A car that revolutionized many standards in modern cars today. The F1 introduced new techs such as: carbon fiber construction, automated rear spoiler, and ground control. Innovative for its time, but are things we take for-granted today. Currently Gordon continues to design. He's developed a lighter, more stronger chassis technology called iStream. Check it out here.

To me It's fascinating to hear other designers share their process. A common philosophy I hear often is: Fail. Fail a lot. Fail often. But learn from your failures and adjust as you move forward. I've taken a photo of my notebook as Gordon spoke. I'm honored to meet him and happy he signed and complimented my poor sketches. 

LEARNINGS FROM ADWEEK

We love stalking Adweek for inspiration. A huge part of being an industrial designer is to pitch ideas. Sell a dream, a vision to a clients. The best way to do this I think, is through story telling. Industrial design isn't just about drawing awesome shit, CAD'ing sex appeal and cool aesthetics. To us its about capturing a clients DNA. Telling them who they are. Then telling them who/what they can become. It's more important than the final product. Lay the ground work before building the building.  More and more we've realized that integrating a good analytical eye into our design process goes a long way. Be empathetic to who they are historically. Innovation is building upon the past.  

Today I watched a Nike ad called "Unlimited You" -- My immediate reaction was... I thought "Just Do it" was already amazing. Cudos to Weiden & Kennedy for  this one. They've captured the essence of "Just Do It" Then pushed the brand beyond it. I love it. 

Adidas Y-3 Doodle

from good to great

I've been reading the book From Good to Great by Jim Collins. Like most popular informative books. The content often feel obvious. Yet it strikes me that we often overlook or under practice the values and work ethics given in these books. In one of the chapters I read this line:

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out is largely a matter of conscious choices." --Jim Collins

I'm reminded of Malcom Gladwell's ten thousand hours of practice. Its true. Greatness is evidence of making proper decisions, and long hours of obsession and practice.  Eventually you'll go from one whom appreciates to one who's a connoisseur. Are you good or great?

THIS IS WHAT APRIL FOOLS IS ABOUT

If you know us, you know we love pulling pranks on people. Here's an awesome one done by Virgin American Airlines. It shows big boys can have fun too, and that we all should add a little bit of silliness in our lives and work. 

Made Forbes

Read full article here. FORBES

Good Listening The Strumbellas "Spirits"

#WatchingTimeWithCS

Last Friday we posted an open invitation to the design community. Challenging anyone to take part in #WatchingTimeWithCS.  

The  whole thing started with the KAJ Alessi watch by Karim Rashid and a little dog. It then turned into a community fueled initiative that is loved and liked by KARIM himself. We're overwhelmed with everyone's enthusiasm and design submissions. As more people continue to submit designs today. We want to share all the great work done over the weekend, and that KARIM LOVES ALL THE DOPE DESIGNS. 

Monkey Watch, Monkey Do by Thom Doyle

Whale of a Time by Dayne Tanner

Time is Relative by Sean Missal

TickingTimeBomb quinlan draper

Time Flies by Elliot Raderman

Time is Irrelephant by Sean Miller

Kill Time by Frankie Vazquez

Koality Time by Mike Bolster

Juice Time by Tim Seward

Kitty Kaj by Matt Gill

Late for an important date White Rabbit by Maxence Derreumaux

Lunchtime by Kevin Hoffman

Slithery Seconds by Scotty Shu

Peaclock by Linda Jiang

Penguin by Bernice Rivera

Subtime by Nhan Thanh Mai

Soon to be Fossil by Mardis Bagley

Time Is Money by Connor Pelletier

TimeTraveler by Ed Cox Linda Jiang

KingKong by Andrew Edge

ADD TO THE KAJ COLLECTION

Last week we designed the WATCHDOG as an ironic  tribute to the KAJ watch that was destroyed by our favorite dog MANDU. What remained is the watchface, so we designed this holder for it. Check out the project here.  

Today, we ask all you amazing designers out there to design a version of your own. One of our buddies did  the "Whale,of a time." We want to see what you come up with. 

Download the watch CAD here.  Comment or email us your designs as they come here.  

One more thing. Here are a design criteria. 
1. HAVE A FUCKING CLEVER NAME!!! that's all. HAVE FUN. LOVE CS BROS.

Good listening adam vida - "tomorrow land"

A beautiful piece from our friends Adam, Mikos, L and Sam. Give this a listen if you enjoy good ol' hip-hop and great story telling. 

My first single as Adam Vida, produced by my brother, @MikosDaGawd. Follow him for amazing instrumentals and hip hop productions. Tomorrow Land, a song about how far we've come and how far we have left to go, because no day holds as much unrealized potential as Tomorrow. Off of my upcoming EP, set to drop April 2016. I chose to make this song my first single as Adam Vida, because it really represents the motivation I'm feeling at this part of my journey.. In life AND as a hip hop artist. Me and my friends I do this music with, we've come so far as a team, and I've come so far as A-1, but like all things in life I am changing. Adam Vida represents my growth as a human and as a musician, evolving from A-1 into something more worldly, more traveled, more experienced in life, hence the name "Vida". Hit me on Instagram and twitter: @adamraps And at facebook.com/callmeadam Peace ya'll, stay Thurl. Jahbahai.

MUSE work in progress

talented or obsessed

"THERE'S NO TALENT HERE, THIS IS HARD WORK. THIS IS AN OBSESSION. TALENT DOES NOT EXIST, WE ARE ALL EQUAL AS HUMAN BEINGS. YOU COULD BE ANYONE IF YOU PUT IN THE TIME. YOU WILL REACH THE TOP, AND THAT IS THAT. I AM NOT TALENTED, I AM OBSESSED."

AF1 scribbles

PROGRESS

"FAILURE DEFEATS LOSERS BUT INSPIRES WINNERS."

If your drawings suck, keep drawing. If your renderings suck, keep rendering. If your projects suck, keep working.

Aimé LEON DORE: SHERPA HOODIE

Another beautiful piece from one of our favorite brands. Well worth the two month wait. 

Break Bread DTL

Hopped into a rental and drove down to south to support the homie Keith Magruder's "Break Bread" show in LA. Here is a time-lapse of the whole weekend. Enjoy it. The show is up until March 13th make sure you head over to Think Tank Gallery to check out the work. 

WIRED MAGAINZE: OUR SQUAD

We are very proud to be apart of this team. Click here to read what we've been up to. 

my journey to playground

From flopping around aimlessly we learn to courageously crawl, then to stand, slowly to walk and finally to leap. In between these moments we fall tirelessly without much control, but it's okay, we're evolving. 

Evolution is great, it means we're breaking habits and treading unfamiliar territory. Evolution is also frightening, and to some it's life or death - the beginning or end to ones career depending on the path they choose. 

Last year Hoang and I took one of the the biggest leaps of our lives. We joined Playground. 

Hoang had just left Amazon to join Matter as Principle and I had just filled a leadership role at Astro. Things were beyond exceptional, we were blessed and real comfortable. We both had no intentions of resignation for at least a few years; the ink of our promotion letters had barely dried. But it happened, somehow, some way.  

It came in the form of an email: "do you guys want a unicorn-grade ID gig?" Who doesn't like unicorns? Who wouldn't read? So we did, and to be frank, it was a bigger deal than we had expected. Things were going exceptionally well with clients, so we didn't need another exotic pony. Our situation was as flawless as flawless could be. 

To our parents we were idiots. With an ocean to sail, who in their right mind would abandon a perfectly fine ship for a pair of swimming fins? Us, I guess. 

"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner."

To be extremely honest, this imperative moment left me feeling more vulnerable than I had ever felt in my adult life. As a designer, I had seen a few places, but Astro remained my first and only love. These were the guys who rescued me from the assembly lines of Jamba Juice, put a pen in my hand and told me I was made to create. In the design world, things like this don't happen often, especially for a premature sophomore who'. The spark they saw in me was nurtured into a flame and that's why we became family.

Walking away from Astro  meant submitting comfort, security and our house keys if things fall apart. It also meant rebuilding habits and taking on roles that brought shakes to my knees and sweat to my palms. I was truly scared again, for the first time in a very long time.

Interestingly enough, chasing discomfort was the reason why I left. As painful as failures are, and as stubborn as I am, I enjoy being a student. A student of everything. Some see evolution as age, I see it as wisdom, snowballing. 

If questioned today about my decisions, my answer would be yes I made the right choice. Not everything I produce will be perfect, not every product I pitch will change lives, but I'm learning and I'm trying. Best of all, these last 6 months felt like I went straight from crawling to jumping! 

Anh

Yesterday, Playground was featured on WIRED. Read more about our journey here. 

Lioness Launch Party

We'd like to congratulate the Lioness team on this huge milestone. It's been an on going pleasure working and learning from you all about vibrators, it's mechanism, and the science behind orgasms.  We're excited for your Indiegogo launch and its forward momentum. 

Last nights launch party was a blast. Thanks for having us. Here are some pics.

The misconception of followers

Let me start off by clarifying. We are HUGE fans of Instagram and genuine believers of all social platforms alike. Without them, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to reach giants like Audi, BMW, Nike, Adidas, etc. So trust us, when we say we are HUGE fans, we really are. 

Notoriety five years ago, meant creating an exceptional body of work, critique and refine; critique and refine; to finally post a web portfolio. A good artist received five to 10 views a day, a great artist 10 to 20 - and this took an overwhelming amount of physical effort. 

Today, engagement is granular. Those five to ten viewers  have become thousands to millions. Unlike Madison Square Garden, Instagram can not sell out and Twitter has no seating restraints. The internet has become our venue, and the couch, our stage. This is where the problem lies. 

One's success is often gauged by the number of followers he/she has and this is the major misconception.

If not all, most of the time, you find people's tongues rolled out and jaws on the floor when they meet a person with 100k+ followers. We've been approached by people with 200-300k followers, who have never handled a single legal document, written a proposal or touched a contract.  We've also worked with people who have less than a hundred followers who have changed the world in major ways. 

At the end of the day, avoid verifying ones experience or worthiness against followers. Don't let crowd building derail you. Stay focused, keep learning, keep doing, keep killing! Real world experience, over everything. 

Follow us :P