marvelled By The Sea

37.2552° N, 122.3830° W //

Trip Itinerary : 
a. California Coast Route 1
b. Pescadero CA
c. Harley Goat Farm
d. Pigeon Point Light House

At the peninsula walking up to the edge of the cliff, I marvel at the boundless ocean below my feet. Being here makes me feel small, I feel insignificant and powerless. In retrospect, the ocean is just water, and water can be soft and delicate like raindrops. It can be immense and treacherous like a tsunami. It is often harmless, sometimes deadly, but always alluring. We drink it, bathe in it, sail it, and conquer it.  I don't feel minuscule after all. 
 

Kanye @ SAP Pre Crazy

Excuse the blurry Iphone photos but I've got to say, Kanye floating above everyone is a bit pretentious don't you think? Who does he think he is? God? 

I think the stage and light design is sick though. I don't care what none of you think! I've been trying to go see Kanye for awhile now. I failed three years ago at SF Outside Lands. Just couldn't make it. Second attempt was in Chicago for his Yeezus tour. Missed that one too cause of equipment failure. This last attempt he didn't even perform. The guy came on stage and ranted the whole time, this was one show before he checked himself into the hospital and declared metal illness... What are your thoughts on this?

Here is the full rant:

YOU ARE NOT LIMITED BY YOUR ZIP CODE

A buddy of mine shared this Gary Vaynerchuk video with me. If you don't know Gary. Please get to know him. If you do. You know he's inspirational as fuck. 

This resonates deeply to me:

 "Your country is not the variable of your hustle my friend. Your hustle, your work ethics, your drive. Is not predicated on your zip code. " 

My "RED" Passport by Yves Behar

Every since I started shooting in 4k I've been eating up hard drive space quickly. How do some of you store your data? Do you use a server? A large leave-at-home drive? I guess you can never have enough hard drives  huh. I recently maxed out my portable drive, and decided to pick up this new Western Digital My Passport design by Fuse Project. I obviously bought it for it's color. Red is on brand. More interestingly though - Fuse's redesign plays with the concept of tension, the increase dichotomy between users private and public. Personally the refresh reminds me a bit of the Jawbone family. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, Yves Behar is also responsible for that. 

WHAT I'VE LEARN FROM KANYE ON GOOD DESIGN

IT'S SUBJECTIVE.

If you haven't noticed by now design is a subjective trade. Similar to our taste in music. You and I are unique because we're individually influenced, and we classify good design differently. So how can we identify if our design is good? Cause what's good to you, may not be as seductive to me. Kanye West said a line that resonates here. "For me, first of all, dopeness is what I like the most." Kanye's dopeness is loaded with personal introspection. Again, it's subjective. If I may dissect, he's tying all of his personal experiences, idea of taste, visual appeal and constructive criticism to articulate something intuitively dope to him. Keyword, himself. Simply saying dope may be misleading to the untrained eye. Because what's dope to him, may not be dope to you. If we formulate dopeness, it means 3 things:  aesthetics, crafted intention, and unwavering confidence. Good design is the sum of all three.

AESTHETIC

Own a look like Picasso owns Cubism and stick to it. Be consistent in applying the look. If you're working with a family of things, define a common style to tie them all together. It's best practice to choose a look that fits your project, and retain it all the way through. I'm not asking you to stick to one style for the rest of your career. Just stick to one style for the rest of your project. Visually it'll be perceived as aesthetic confidence. You'll thank me later. In the industry we call this Design Language. In the long term try other design languages. The best designers adapt different styles over time.

CRAFTED INTENTION

Good design is not just good looking objects. Having a beautiful object but a weak idea, is like building a skyline with shit foundation. It's a tall tale with a weak plot. Eventually it folds into itself. You'll be surprise how far a strong and deliberate idea goes. Seth Godin said it best "No one is asking you to be that person who invent something that never exist before." I believe the best designers identify a problem space, finds the solutions that already exist, and bring them together. For example camera phones. At some point in history it became cumbersome to lug around a film camera, and rolls, and rolls of film. At a one-point someone saw the opportunity to combine the camera with a memory card, and inspired a shift in camera technology. Cameras became smaller, thinner, and lighter. Small enough that at another point it became cumbersome to lug around a digital camera and a cell phone. Someone saw the opportunity to combine the digital camera and cellphone, and inspired a shift in smartphone technology. We're not asking you to design something that never exist before. Truthfully we are curators of the present, we identify the problems we live with today, we orchestrate and combine solutions that already exist, therefore we design for the future. This is how you build strong ideas. Qualify it with real world science, the more realistic the science the stronger the idea. 

UNWAVERING CONFIDENCE

Lastly be your number one fan. Like Kanye, loves Kanye. Be proud of what you produce, and don't produce anything you're not proud of. Unfortunately there is lots of vanity in being a designer.  Yes, be humble but also be bad-ass. You have a to command a level of respect for your designs. Companies hire you for your subjective opinions. Have confident in your work, because If you're unsure so will your cleint and audience.

Source: http://www.creativesession.work/blog/2016/...

"See the importance of intuition to visionaries— and how they must use it carefully. Learn how courage is the element that separates visionaries from mere dreamers, how visionaries are willing to get out and fight for their dreams. See how emotional intelligence is part of the visionary makeup, how visionaries must have the chemistry and charisma to attract supporters for their dreams, building allies and networks so that the dreams will thrive. And then there is LUCK."

--Erik Calonius

Inspiration to get through the rest of the week.

Marie Forleo and Seth Godin trade thoughts on 'Truth" and "Calling"

"If not now then when? In 5 to ten years. What will you regret?"

" Bigger isn't the point. More isn't the point. Are there bad ideas out there? Yes, there are a tons of bad ideas. Not all ideas are equality good. Finding a thing that works is sufficient.? That's the challenge. Entrepreneurs for example. too many entrepreneurs think that there is a prize for originality.  There is no prize for originality. At ALL. You should steal another persons idea. You should bring something that works in Detroit and bring it to Cleveland. Because you don't have to worry about apologizing... There are so many places that we need more of something...No one is asking you to be that person who invent something that never exist before... We are asking you to do, is choose to matter, and align with who you want to be. "

Scouting The Bay

Niro and I cruised the bay Sunday scouting locations for our next project. We took the Blackmagic, Dslr and Drone out to shoot B-roll. I can't tell you much about the project now, but I'm excited for whats to come. Here are a few photos taken throughout the day. Some of them are taken on the Iphone7. The quality produced by the 7 makes me want to sell all my gear. Ha.

ps. trying new color correction. 

Nai'Ke AF1 Boots

I have yet another red swag post. I'm excited about these custom Nike's because I've been shopping around for new motorcycle boots for a minute, and these are exactly what I've been looking for. Only ten of these are made, and mine are No. 4 of 10. Plus they're my favorite color. Randy is the genius behind the Air Force 1 and Vibram mash-up. He runs a cobbler shop out of Arizona, and is booked for months. I'm glad I got to him early. If you're not familiar with Randy The Cobbler, check him out on Instagram or his site. 

Panning

In design, new styles and processes help me move past designers block. If you're like me, being blocked is unproductive to the process, it's super frustrating, and I hate it. What helps me get past creative blocks is trying new styles. Learn other designers thinking habits and design techniques really help. It's like those WWJD bracelets. A reminder to ask yourself "what would Jesus do?" In our case replace Jesus with your favorite designer. 

I've been learning new camera techniques. What's good about this is, I'm getting more aquanted with shutter speeds, ISOs, and aperture settings (the exposure triangle.) Like any craft I believe you just got to put in the practice hours to be good. Thus far I've tried my luck at astrophotography. Today I dabble with Panning. It's funny - for a long time I called it "motion blur photos." I prefer "Panning." It's much more elegant. Panning is a technique for photographing moving objects. From what I understand, it's matching the cameras shutter speed with your subject, pan your camera in the direction of motion, have locked and steady arms, be trigger happy and shoot continuos burst. I haven't gotten the formula right yet, but here are my favorites from today's shoot. 

Supreme Wool Camp

My latest red swag pick-up. The Supreme Wool Camp Hat. The materials feel high quality, its constructed very solid, seam-lines and stitching are tight. No loose parts. My only wish is; that the black adjustment feature in the back is made of another material other than the cheap black nylon and plastic clips.