Interactive Hug

If you’re the type of creative that enjoys strategizing and interacting with people as well as jamming with your headphones on, it’s important you incorporate copywriting skills into your arsenal. Here’s why: Continue Reading »

As one of three agencies sponsoring this years event, RED had a significant presence at Adobe Max ‘09. A group of us spent a couple days soaking up the inspiration. Continue Reading »

Working with a client like The UFC is fun because of our long standing relationship with them. Their trust in us to create a unique site that promotes their event in the most immersive way possible, creates positive-pressure in the design team and fuels our desire to push the limitations of what we can produce. All the projects we do at Red are extremely collaborative but this one in particular felt like an absolute creative mesh.  Continue Reading »

Do you come home from work tired and stressed? You may be feeling pressure that you’re not even aware of. Below I’ve outlined several problems I’ve observed myself and my colleagues encounter in a typical work day – then I’ve given you suggestions on how to deal with them. Continue Reading »

Also known as Single Point of Truth, is an OOP philosophy intended to remove the process of repeatedly writing the same code. The theory is that duplication decreases clarity and increases the chances of inconsistency through interpretation. Continue Reading »

If you’re like me, you probably have a lot of personal passion projects that are in your mental queue. Time goes by without you ever executing these ambitions. The reason is because there’s more than one step. When you consider investing your spare time toward these creative ventures, the sheer volume of work needed to reach your goals dissuades you from beginning and you opt to start it another time. Continue Reading »

I don’t watch a lot of music video channels anymore… I’m not sure if they got younger or I got older but, I just can’t relate to the general vibe of today’s popular artists. Every so often though, I stumble across a real piece of art. Continue Reading »

One part frustration and one part fascination. CS4’s motion Editor and 3d capabilities are both exciting and annoying at the same time. Continue Reading »

With the cross promotion of Movies, Television Shows and Video Games – we’re collectively watching the maturing of what I call the Adventure-Experience site. I’ve noticed many of these types of sites have been popping up lately on The FWA and such. They’re going to become more common and keep getting better, so I’ve made them the subject of today’s post. Continue Reading »

It’s been said that ones mental attitude and ability to communicate are key to their success. I’m going to outline the aspects of an Executive (Sales, Project Manager, Producer), mind-set and how these traits can be combined with your Creative talent to potentially chart your path quicker. Continue Reading »

Here’s a list of what I consider to be the fundamental skills needed to make it as a designer in the interactive advertising world. Continue Reading »

Today I’m going to walk you through the process and execution of the event micro-site UFC 82: Pride of a Champion. This article was originally written for Layers Magazine but wasn’t approved in time to go to print, so I’ve modified and posted it here. Continue Reading »

I’m writing this post to remind the younger designers of the one and only key to a successful career – a crazy portfolio website branded with your skills and attitude . Continue Reading »

The iPhone has been out for almost a year now. I think it’s time for my official review. Continue Reading »

FWA Theater

is one of the best things to happen to the web in a while. Why? First of all because Fi’s on-line video application FiV is simply breathtaking… and secondly, there’s finally a resource to consolidate all the inspiring video motion graphics work out there. Continue Reading »

This was an interesting project, We basically handed the Photoshop files off to John and watched him do his thing. Here’s a peak into the creative process behind UFC’ first Papervision site. Continue Reading »

Personally, I’ve had my fill. I’d rather pour 100% of my energy into my day job and spend my free-time with my family or pursuing hobbies. This is easy because I have a good role at a good company – however my freelance career was integral to the path that landed me here – which is why I highly recommend freelancing to young up-and-comers. Continue Reading »

For some reason I’ve never become a huge video-game fanatic. I had a super-nintendo when I was 11, enjoyed it and that was about it. I’ve always appreciated the graphics, animation and special effects, but as I got older, I was way too into sports, career and social life to see the value in repetitive decisions made within a fantasy realm. Continue Reading »

I’ve recently become a huge fan of on-line training. I thought I had a well-rounded skill-set, then I met lynda.com. Now I’m convinced It’s just a matter of time before I can levitate monitors with my mind. Continue Reading »

I admit I originally didn’t see the potential of papervision. Coming from a background in 3d and illustration, I just didn’t see the value in being able to rotate around a jagged low-poly object in Flash… and I still don’t, but I now see there’s other, more creative applications for this exciting engine. Continue Reading »

I always enjoy this time of year because of all the “best of” type countdowns about popular media. Here I present the top picks from the sites I’ve bookmarked over the past year. Feel free to email or comment with your own. Continue Reading »

Animate in After Effects, export to FLV with an alpha channel, Actionscript playback in Flash with a tweening class. Continue Reading »

While flipping through this month’s (November) issue of Web Designer I was thrilled to find daddyyankee.com, a project I headed while at Elastic People, profiled in the cream-of-the-crop section.

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If you’re truly ambitious you’re life revolves around your work, so finding the right squad to join forces with is vital to personal happiness. I’ve pulled it off twice and it’s a simple formula that revolves around relationships. Continue Reading »

As of September 17th, 2007, I will be nestled comfortably in my new role as Art Director for interactive agency Red, located in Santa Monica, California. I think it’s safe to say my ultimate goal of master-of-the-universe, is one step closer. Continue Reading »

Having a variety of interests keeps our minds stimulated, gives us something personal to focus on and improve at, but mostly, helps to balance us out as human beings. Here’s a few suggestions on how to incorporate hobbies into your lifestyle, why their important and which ones you should pick.
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I was recently interviewed by Rob Ford of theFWA.com, possibly the largest and most reputable award site for interactive design, on-line marketing, games, Flash, etc. Here’s a direct link to the interview. As it’s a little hard to read on their site I’ve re-printed it here. Thanks to anyone who reads it. Continue Reading »

Part 2. of my article on creating a unique website in Flash, the interactivity and animation portion. Continue Reading »

As a mind that’s always analyzing and seeking improvements all to often I find myself forming some positive conclusions about my life or my work, taking action on them then gradually having them fizzle into nothingness without me realizing until a couple months later when I notice I’m formulating the exact same conclusions again as if it were for the first time. Continue Reading »

I’ve used both my entire career but my home business has always been PC until recently. Having nestled in tightly at Elastic People which is entirely run by Macintosh computers, when it recently came time to update my home office I chose to go with a MacBook Pro and I’m pretty happy with that decision. So much so that I think I can outline exactly what type of person would prefer a PC and what type a Mac simply by comparing them to cars. Continue Reading »

Thinking of taking the plunge and freelancing full-time? I did and had success from a client stand-point but over time gradually became very dissatisfied. Once I deduced what needed to change I found the right mesh with the company I’m currently associated with, Elastic People. Here’s the pluses and minuses I encountered freelancing. Continue Reading »

Ever had one of those afternoons where every few minutes your forget what you were doing? If you still think a healthy lifestyle means eating less or it’s only purpose is to make you more attractive, I’m going to outline a few ways that promote a balanced physical well-being that spill over into improving your productivity and mental performance. Continue Reading »

Potential clients and people that can hook you up with potential clients are everywhere, they’re moving around you like schools of fish but they don’t know you, they don’t know who you are or what you can do for them.

Let’s change that. Continue Reading »

In my attempts to come up with something fresh and exciting that’s tailored to each client I’ve fashioned a few guidelines that allow me to funnel my creativity toward the details, which is key. I’ve broken them down into 10 easy-to-understand tips and divided them into “design” and “animation”. Continue Reading »