PRINT IS DEAD?

As the internet continues to infect every single possible action in our daily lives, we often hear that the printed word will soon be extinct. You hear this most often when it relates to traditional print magazines. Experts call it a dying breed...A waste of time. And true, while magazines simply cannot compete with their online counterparts when it comes to speed, there are still some dinosaurs out there trying to fend off extinction.



I recently started getting into MISSBEHAVE mag and for some inexplicable reason, this woman's magazine is one of my favorite reads right now. There's a lot of magic that goes into making a great magazine. (Writing, photography, creative direction, design, production, printing...and so much more.) And the ladies at Missbehave are definitely doing it well. It is without a doubt a major pain in the fucking ass to make a magazine. But some people still choose to do it! Other magazines like THEME, MONOCLE and ANTENNA and others are the last of a dying breed. I really applaud their resilience and determination.





We've had our fair share of experience in the magazine world. We currently handle the art direction for DIME MAGAZINE. It's great because our passions for basketball are shared equally. In the past, we've done creative direction for The Fader, Gear Magazine, Fugue Magazine, Sportswear International and a ton more. From our perspective as a design firm working with independent pubications, we always try and support their cause to the best of our ability. Hooray for the indie's! Keep them presses running!

JETTI. SON.

I received a package from fellow blogger Edison Chen recently. It was his new #1 CD that he just released. Big ups to hitting the top of the charts. That is definitely no small feat. Respect Eddie!
So as I'm about to toss off the Fedex envelope it came it, I notice the front reads "YOUR SHIT ON TIME". I was taken back a bit cuz I know sometimes in Asian countries they use American curse words like it ain't no thing, but this was ridiculous! On second glance, I noticed that the sly CLOT crew went and made their own express mail envelopes! That shit is hot! Double props to you Eddie.


As many may or may not know, we love creating brands. Of course we love our brand, Staple...but helping new up and coming brands out is something we really have a passion for. A recent addition to our client list is WeJetSet. These guys are billing themselves as "The online destination for premium travel goods." Well with all the traveling I do, you know I'm in there like swimwear. We handled the identity and branding for WJS so peep the site. Oh and in case you don't travel much but need a reason? Homies are giving away a Mercedes Benz C-Class in celebration of their website launch! I didn't say Hyundai, I didn't say Kia. I said MERCEDES-BENZ. I said FREE. Proceed....

+++


I forward all my emails to a YahooMail account in the event some shit ever goes down on my server, I'll have backups of emails on Yahoo!. I recently noticed that they now offer unlimited storage. Is it realistic to think they can offer every single person on planet earth an unlimited data account for their emails? How is that even mathematically possible? Things like that boggle my mind. Imagine your business plan: We're giving EVERYONE. EVERYWHERE. An UNLIMITED amount of "x". For FREE. I must be missing something...

+++


Random NYC celeb sighting. This time it's the gorgeous Heather Graham in front of the Hotel on Rivington shooting what looks the the cover of Complex Magazine. The only thing that beats a Heather Graham sighting is an Anoma Ya Whittaker sighting. Wassup Anoma!

VA.

When it comes to airline companies, its pretty obvious Virgin Atlantic operates on a different level than everyone else. I don't know about you, but when I fly American carriers (i.e., Delta, Continental, AA, etc) don't you get this feeling that the whole operation is on the verge of complete collapse?
Even their supposedly hi end elite mileage clubs...all they really are is terminal gates with free peanuts. Enter Virgin: I recently spent some time in Heathrow's Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and I must admit...i was praying my flight would be delayed for a few hours. Its really amazing in there and puts to shame what any company has going Stateside. I really don't understand it. You gotta think that the American companies have spies going to these places right? At the very least for research purposes. Do they just walk out saying "We give up. We can't compete."? The difference is literally light years.


This looks like one of those AUTOCAD renderings you see in Wallpaper. But this is really what it looked like.


Every hear of a lounge with a rooftop garden overlooking the runway? Yeah, me neither. Until now.


The rec room included a pool table, big comfy sofas and a 104" plasma screen tv.

Branding goes a long way. American carriers look like they hired the cheapest college kid they could find to design their collateral and then on top of that, hired the cheapest manufacturers to make the stuff.








They offered a full complimentary menu of excellent food. Peep the intricate placement of food product/logos/branding/colabs/color. Just perfect.


Need to get some work done? In the US, that means hunting down a free outlet that is of course behind some plotted fake plant and then sitting on some lame loveseat with the laptop falling on the floor. Virgin gives you full on offices...a full service business center really.


But hey...not everyone is a multitasking workaholic. If you're the type that just wants to chill and not think about anything...sit on one of their swings and catch some Z's as you look out on the runway.

CODE;C

This Thursday the 19th, I'm proud for Reed Space NY to host the first solo exhibition of Yohei Watanabe aka Code;C. Yohei comes from a skateboarding background, and he lived and breathed that lifestyle during his teen years and 20s. He now works as a fine artist, graphic designer and fashion designer, having set up fashion labels called 4d and Transport. His collaboration includes brands such as Levi's, Good Enough, Minotaur, CLS and Resonate, and also with individual artists such as Matzu-MTP, his high school classmate. His completely fearless style, coupled with his natural ability to execute anything creative places him in a very unique position amongst his peers.

PROMETHEUS
New Works by Code;C
Thursday July 19th, 2007 / 7pm-10pm
RSVP required: codec@stapledesign.com
Exhibition Dates: July 20th-Aug 9th, 2007

Official Post Reception
Club 205
205 Chrystie Street
11:00pm
DJ Alex From Tokyo on the wheels

Reed Space
151 Orchard Street (b/w Rivington and Stanton)

IPHONE. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISMS.

All in all, the iPhone has changed my life. Seriously. It's been 2 weeks, and 3 countries and I can confidently say this is a revolution in your hands. Everyone has sang the accolades of the iPhone. Far and away it is better than ANY phone available on the market. But that doesn't mean it's perfect, and thankfully, Apple realizes this. But I thought I'd offer some constructive criticisms after my first 2 weeks of use with the iPhone.
Before I begin, I want to give a huge shout to the INCASE TEAM for hooking Staple up lovely with a bunch of their dope accessories. To be honest, I am typically not a fan of protective cases. I feel like for some strange reason, it is the duty of a device to deteriorate over time. Its like that family that used to put vinyl plastic over their sofa. I always thought "why?" BUT, these INCASE sleeves for the iPhone actually improves the performance of the phone! And I am all for increased efficiency. You feel less dainty with it. Like you can chuck it around more. Its not slippery in your hands and in the black version they sent me, it looks sleek as hell. Thank you Tony.

Ok now to the rants:
(in no particular order)

1. Let me see how many new SMS and e-mails i have from the "locked" screen.
The pop-up SMS feature is great...but something small up top, like next to the EDGE icon would be nice to see at a quick glance.

2. CONTACTS: Finger scrolling is fun, but give me the option to just type in a search field to find a name.

3. First you endanger my unborn babies by burning my balls with the MacBookPro...Now you're killing my brain cells with the iPhone! This phone gets pretty damn hot!!
Interestingly, I've heard from some users that their phone never gets even warm. And others have reached boiling points even while the phone is not active nor charging.

4. If you have the iPhone retrieve your emails directly from your server, something will get become screwy with your iMail/desktop mail app settings. I instead decided to forward my main emails to a secondary email address and have the iPhone check that exclusively. Problem solved. EXCEPT!............

5. The iPhone's Mail feature does not allow you to customize or change the REPLY TO: email address in your sent emails. This is a VERY basic feature available in almost all other PDAs.
Which means if you send an email from your phone and the person replies to that email. You will only get it on your phone and you won't get it on your main computer.

6. Deleting emails is fun in Mail App. (A simple swipe and tap.)
But you should also offer a DELETE PRIOR feature like they had on Blackberry's. Emails should be separated by the day you received them so you can choose to delete an entire day's emails in one shot. I get over 300 emails a day and swiping out each one, one-by-one is a biatch!

7. No copy and pasting of text?!?!!

8. AT&T customer service is very poor compared to T-mobile. Just FYI.

9. Can't adjust and modify ringtones and alerts to your liking. I'm not big on T.I. as my ringtone, but I'm saying, give me some different options. I mean,the songs are already on there, why not just link them to the phone? I assume money and chargebacks are at the root of this problem. In addition; if you want to set up an alert for SMS's, you have 2 options. ON or OFF. And if you want it ON, you're stuck with what they give you. Overall, the sounds and alerts are a little subtle. And I assume that's just Apple being design-y and all minimalist. But when it comes to alerts, I just really want to hear when someone is trying to get a hold of me!

9. Volume is a little low overall. Both in calls, ringers, alerts, speakerphone, etc. At maximum volume, its juuust perfect. But if I'm in a noisy area, a little extra playing room would be good.

10. AT&T International voicemail is WACK. For some reason, the message says "re-enter the phone # of the person you are trying to reach." I mean, most people are on speed dial so to have to look in your address book and remember the number and retype it in is a pain most of my clients are not gonna bother with. Very user-UNfriendly. I called AT&T about this and that's the way it is. Booooooo.

11. In the RECENT LIST on the phone; make little icons that represent 'incoming', 'outgoing', and 'missed' calls. (The red color to indicate missed calls is a little kindgergarten.) You can still see if the call was incoming or outgoing but currently you have to click once to see. Better if I see the whole list at one glance.

12. In the locked screen, you show the clock in a nice big font. But you don't show me AM or PM! I know it SHOULD be pretty obvious. But when you wake up in a foreign land, in a dark hotel room, with crazy jetlag, and it just says 5:06...it can honestly be either AM or PM and you can't tell the difference.

13. Allow me to customize the home screen. Why assume everyone needs a STOCK or YOUTUBE icon on the home screen?

14. Camera is great but some basic settings would be great. Like night shooting, ISO settings etc.

15. No iChat feature yet, but its pretty obvious why. AT&T, you greedy bastards; trying to squeeze every last nickel for the SMS's.

16. Not sure if this is a result of being in a foreign network (in Barcelona, the service provider switches between Vodafone and Moviestar) but I find that at least once a day, the Mail app gets stuck trying to download mail. The mini pinwheel at the top of the screen continues to spin as if trying to get mail. I find that when this happens, its able to get the emails but the contents of the email are slower to come thru. The fix for this is to just restart the phone which always works. But that little annoyance takes me back to my T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile days. Boooo.

17. Change the color of the CALL button or the TEXT Button. No reason they both are green. And I always mix the two up.

18. Please add a button on the home screen for ADDRESS BOOK. As of now the only to access it is via the PHONE which is a 2-3 button process.

Well, that's it for now. Can you iPhone users out there think of anything else? Leave a comment! (on Darrin Hudson). You'd be surprised to think that Apple actually reads this stuff and the comments help in future software upgrades. That's the beauty of the iPhone. They can make changes over-the-air.
Over and out.

MHI.

We have this running joke in the office. A few years back 2 English guys came into Reed Space and rifled thru some designs really quickly and left saying (in full thick English accent) "Everything looks a bit like Maharishi dunnit?" Now every so often we just bust that line out for a few laughs.
Its funny because in fact, much of it is true. They could very well be one of the most knocked off brands around. You might say, well didn't they do the knocking off by appropriating camo from the military? There's truth in that, but to the level at which they did it? Think again. Their massive DPM Book is the be all and end all reference for anything remotely related to camo. And when I visited their headquarters out in Shoreditch, its evident that camo is not a "trending" pattern they are incorporating. Its a way of living. Seems like for founder Hardy Blechman, it's his mission in life to remove all negative and violent connotations from camo and reposition it as the work of art it truly is.


The MHI offices feel like you're walking inside of a huge tree. Stairs sort of begin and end wherever they want. Some are barely wide enough to fit a human. Others start in the middle of a floor. And no grand entrance or anything. Even if you worked there, you could easily walk past the non-descript door.


Maharishi is the exclusive distributor for Medicom. So as you can imagine, toys are everywhere. They often make their own designs to be produced by Medicom as well. Not too many clothing companies I know have an on staff toy sculptor. Here's a special Nike x Michael Lau collab they recently got in the mail. Nothing adds to your office like 3ft tall figures of Kobe, Roger Federer, Ronaldinho.


This corner, I must admit, was creeping me out.


Hardy and Damian of MHI, unboxing a bunch of goodies sent from Medicom.


The H behind the M. And I.


And off he goes. One thing we have in common...our preferred mode of transportation: The Honda Zoomer.


Damian, thank you for lunch as well. Hope to see you in NYC soon.

+++


After the visit to Shoreditch, it was back into Soho to visit Wes at Foot Patrol...one of the best sneaker stores in all of Europe. Picked up some goodies like the freshly dropped New Balance joints with the removeable velcro "N". Good looks Wes!


And finally, after a long day, I sat back with some friends for dinner and a beer. Nah, I haven't had a beer since '93...so its Ginger Beer for me. Fentiman's...the best ginger ale I have ever tasted.

REED JAPAN SALE.

If you're in Tokyo this weekend, head over to Reed Space JPN for some big savings...upwards of 50% off...on everything in the shop!!! Come on down while the price is right.

FROM BARCY TO MADISON SQUARE.

If you had to go from Barcelona to London, any sane person would have take the hour or so direct flight. But since I am sadomasicist, I went from Barcelona back to New York City for 20 hours then back into London. But I have justification this time! My team, Team Terminators made it to the finals of the Nike Recess Federation and we secured the rights to played in the World's Most Famous Arena: Madison Square Garden! How can I pass that up?!
Well it was definitely well worth the air miles because our team came up with the victory over the 2 time defending champs, Team Generation! I am so proud of this squad...We finished the season with the best record at 14-3. We lost 2 games by 1 point each. And we were by no means a big team. We won it with speed, hard work and team effort. Congrats to my squad!
Right after the victory, I couldn't even celebrate with the my team. I had a car waiting right outside the Garden to take me directly to Newark Airport. It felt kinda pimp I must admit. And I just barely made my flight to London, Gatwick. Needless to say, my body is wrecked and my brain is in a time warp. I really dreaded this whole ordeal and was close to cancelling the London trip. Especially with these terrorist doctors running around town. But I decided to go thru with it. Sometimes, you just have to not stress things and let the tides take you to wherever they want. And I just felt like the tides wanted to take me to Barcelona, then MSG, then London.











+++



My friend Raoul who owns Exposure started a small tradeshow called First Exposure. The idea is a small collection of international brands, from different cultures, mediums, lifestyles...put them all in the same room and see what happens. It was a very interesting mix of creatives and a lot of press and buyers came out and represented.




Charlie was running the details of the show...


...along with some help from Bijules!

+++

I'm rarely a big fan of customized kicks. I always prefer when it's a legit product from the manufacturer...but Nash created this exceptional piece. He mixed a Visvim FBT and a 360 Sole unit and the result is simply amazing. The craftsmanship really blew me away. Its looks like a real collab! Look out for some more heat from the creative mind of Nash.

BCN 2.

More from ground zero at Barcelona...

Its getting harder and harder to come correct with the shoe game. I used to really take the time and figure out my kicks when i went away on trips. It was my mission in life to break necks. But nowadays, the janitor has some AF1s on that I've never seen before. I must give props though, there is still some heat out on the floors. Keep ya head down.


1. Brace yourself kids. Not for the faint of heart. Check out what Martin from MagSeven did to his FLOM Futura Dunks. He made them into low tops! With a machete and duct tape! Ouch....
2. Asics Gel is definitely offering up some crazy heat. I am loving these right now.
3. Is it a Talaria? A Presto? An E-Cue? An Aquasock? Its none of the above. This proto came straight out of Nike's Innovation Kitchen and is known as The Net internally. You may not be fortunate enough to see this ever made. But I sure hope they do. This is PRECISELY the direction Nike needs to be going in.


Ah the sport of Ping-Pong. It somehow has the magical ability to bring a smile to eveyone's face. It's a great universally accepted game that crosses all boundaries. Of course, I didn't realize that when I first determined I wanted a ping pong table inside our booth, but that is what I learned as I watched various people pick up the paddles over the last 4 days. It can be said that there are two sides to every person. One ON the ping pong table and one OFF of it. Its hilarious to see people get so into the competition.



+++

And a couple of last goodbyes to some people I got to catch up with at Bread and Butter and Barcelona.


Alex C and Greg D / Veterans in this game.


Staple....we do it for the children.


It's not a trans-atlantic flight if I don't see Mike Malbon from Frank 151 on the plane.


I think someone should sue Bread and Butter because it's pretty obvious they discrimate against fugly people.


I think these guys were comparing download speeds on their blogs. Kevin/Hypebeast, Nick/Twelve Bar, Michael/LaMJC

BBB HEADS.

The great thing about Bread and Butter is the sheer number of interesting people that come out and represent. Many people mistake BBB for a Southern Europe specific show...its untrue. BBB is totally global. I reconnected with people from Japan, HK, LA...all over the world. I wish I could capture all of them but I'd need another couple of 4GB SD cards. (In case you're wondering how the iPhone performs as a camera, all vertical headshots shown here were taken with the iPhone.)


Akiko / Lodown.


Arnaud / Carhartt Europe / Work In Progress


Cory / Burton


David / Kangol (Peep the red Fragment Kangol! Hot....)


Gareth / Pointer Shoes (New collection is off the charts. G, keep up the struggle.)


Team Hellz Bellz (Doing for the ladies what nobody else is daring to do.)


Henne. He has the look of someone who has to wait 6 more months for an iPhone. haha...


Martin / MagSeven / Untitled / Streetwear Today


Sunny / OG Sneaker King / CK Designer / Staple Creative Team


Mat / Proud 2Be A Sticker, Flyer, and soon forthcoming, a shopping bag.


Sara / Newest member of the Staple Fam. Repping BCN to the fullest.


Jeff / Weekly Drop


Nico / Staple / The biggest loser: -17 lbs!

BARCELONA ARRIVAL.

Out of all the places I am lucky enough to visit on this planet, Barcelona is one of the most picturesque. Its difficult to take a bad photo of this city. Upon the first day's arrival in BCN, it's straight to work as we prepare for our exhibition at Bread and Butter. On a whimsical decision I decided on putting a ping pong table in the middle of our booth. Why? Well...why the hell not!?! Turns out our table was one of the most photographed things in the entire show. See how staying true to oneself usually works out in the end?


I think this is one of the reasons why the people of Barcelona are so friendly and beautiful. This is what it looks like at 9:47pm. Amazing...


The Barcelona coastline.


The closing party for BBB. Nice vibe in a public outdoor park.


The set up and preparations for the staple booth. Did I mention the ping pong table is customized! We don't mess around. Good lookin out to Martin at MagSeven for all the assistance.


The work doesn't begin here. It started much earlier. We don't only exhibit at BBB, but they are also a design client of Staple Design. We designed the visual identity for the Sport & Street section of the tradeshow. Cool to see this blown up to the side of a building.

More to come as the festivities begin...Stay Tuned.

RELEASE THE HOUNDS.

To celebrate Indepenence Day, we are freeing you from the oppressions of full retail and throwing a nice big sale to honor our forefathers! Come stop by on your day off for some Crooks and Castles, 10Deep, Royal Family, King Stampede, Acapulco Gold and a whole lot more. 50% off or more.

Last time we had a sale a few weeks back, we had it planned to last 4 days. It lasted a day and a half because we were completely emptied out. Come early and come prepared this time. If there's a line, please be patient as we try and let only a certain number of people in the store at a time so everyone gets a decent shopping experience. We don't want it to turn into a riot scene (again).

Reed Space Sale
151 Orchard Street (next to Reed Space)
Starts Wed July 4th at 1:00pm.

LAST MIN. ANNOUNCEMENTS...

...before I leave for Barcelona and the Bread and Butter show which takes place this week.
I'll be coming out of semi-retirement in BCN and I have 3 DJ gigs set up. I haven't spun in front of a live crowd in over a year now. AND to boot...this will be the first time I try it with Serato! Should be a hoot! Nothin like a rockin' evening filled with technical difficulties.
Here are the details if you're in town:


+++

Want to say wassup to Va$htie who blessed her presence at Reed Space while on a shoot for her new artist, Lucy Walsh.



+++


I've been a judge for Cut+Paste since their inception and its great to see John and these guys grow. They've gone international now! So check them out in a city near you. And if you think you've got it what it takes to take a critical beatdown from this year's judges (myself, Deanne Cheuk, Futura, Brent Rollins and Andrew Bujdoss--damn! I'm gonna be shook to be on stage with these design rockstars) sign up and enter. Deadline is July 15th.

+++


NEWS FLASH: Ping Pong is hot again. I know, because WGSN said so. Now its official. Wait till they see the Staple booth at Bread and Butter (muahahahaha...)

iPhone Update: It gets better with each passing day. I'll provide a deeper evaluation on the iPhone in a few days. The big question that will be answered in 6 hours: Will it work seamlessly in another country??