In addition to the million other interests I have, you might be surprised to learn that I do digital pin-up art. Over the past couple of years, my work has started to gain some recognition and recently, I was offered the opportunity to be featured in a new book called “The Contemporary Illustrated Pin-Up” by Schiffer Publishing.
The book features me, along with 14 other awesome contemporary pin-up artists including Armando Huerta, Steve Baier, Paul John Ballard, Matt Dixon, Dave Nestler & Sonia Roji, to name a few, and it was a real honor to be featured along with so many amazing artists.
I just received my copy and I must say, it looks super fabulous! If you are into pin-up art or are just looking for a sexy coffee table book, this is definitely one to get.
Here is a screen capture for the first level of a Facebook game called “Fragrant Flowers” that I helped develop while at Razorfish for Unilever’s Drive/Rinso/Surf laundry detergent. (It is called Surf in the UK and Asia and Rinso in Turkey)
The goal of the game is to grow a virtual flower. A different flower every week, for 6 weeks. Each flower is representative of the different fragrances of laundry detergent. The player has to water the flower, talk to it and protect it from different types of weather.
This version which runs for 6 weeks, was launched in Argentina and the text is in Spanish. My role was user experience consultant, information architect, and in the beginning, interim project manager. In addition to UX, I created the game design document as well as the wireframes. The project had a very short launch window, a small budget and skeleton crew, so I think the team did an awesome job.
Writers, authors and publishers have been influencing technology and culture since the written word was invented. I am constantly reminded of this every day on my commute to work, when my train crosses over the river and passes thought Mainz Germany, which is the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, the father of the movable type printing press.
This invention was one of the key catalysts for starting the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. It’s creation occurred over 500 years ago, and yet I am shocked and amazed when I think of all of the revolutionary events that have occurred because of it, just in the span of my lifetime.
In the past few years we have experienced a new renaissance of sorts, in the growth of ebooks, ebook sales, ereader devices and the self publishing industry.
It is now possible for an author to write, self publish and sell their own books online, literally from a mobile device and are able to make a decent living from it. Some are making millions from it.
The Good News
The good news is, that no longer are we restricted to having to rely entirely on a publishing company as a gatekeeper to successfully promote and sell our books.
We have reached a point where the same promotional, printing, sales and distribution capabilities, once only available to major publishing companies are becoming available to everyone. These tools are free and easily accessible online, which is also, I might add, where the readers are browsing and doing a majority of their shopping. [click to read more…]
When I was young, I can remember having some sort of dream or daydream about where I would be when I got older.
From what I can remember, the picture in my head is just a scene of myself with a beautiful woman I was married to. We were walking hand and hand down a tree lined country lane, somewhere in Europe. It was autumn and I could clearly see the particles blowing around in the light of the sun, as it streaked through the trees. A dog ran by us and up the driveway to a beautiful stone country house with a red door and large arched windows. There was a red Karmann Ghia in the driveway, which is weird because I hate red cars and I hate old VW’s even more.
I’m not sure if I actually made this up or maybe I just saw an ad in some 70′s magazine with the photo, but the image still sticks with me and is crystal clear. Somehow I remember thinking, that’s me and this is where i’ll end up. When I think about what I did for a living, my first thought was an author, or a professor or maybe a scientist?
I write a lot about making plans and setting goals. My blog, for example, plays a large part in achieving my goals, but I’ll admit that unfortunately it has suffered from a lack in focus for a long time now. It’s hard when you have so many scattered interests as I do, but at some point you have to stop the analysis paralysis and just focus.
Time to set a goal or set a dream and take action towards it.
I am officially an author. On July 17, 2012 I published my first book on Amazon Kindle. It took two years to write, and a majority of it was done using a mobile phone or an iPad, while standing on the train from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt Germany, during my long commutes to and from work.
Yes, two years is a long time to write a book, especially when edited down, was only about 120 pages. or so. The first year was kind of a wash because I just kept rewriting the first 2 pages over and over. It wasn’t until the following year where I actually took it seriously, created a solid outline (a plan) and dug in.
The goal of this book was not to write a bestseller or change the world. It’s certainly not a feel good, Oprah Club, curl up with a cup of tea, kind of book. (In fact it’s a little bit “shocking” but more on that later.)
It was simply to just write a book, finish it and publish it. It was purely an exercise in completion. In my post about creating a 20 year plan for myself, writing a book was one of my 2 year short term goals. Well… mission accomplished.
Thought for the Day: While innovative thinking is a much discussed, rare, valuable and sought after skill these days, sometimes thinking INSIDE the box can be the hardest thing to do.
My advice would be that before you go spending valuable time, energy, money and resources dreaming up some BIG idea and glorifying the need for “new, creative, crazy and innovative” make sure you first have a solid grasp of the “old, tried and true, reliable and predictable.” Chances are you haven’t even scratched the suface of what is right in your very own backyard.
What underutilized or untapped resources do you have hiding in the closet or right under your nose?
Who do you already know that you can ask to help you?
What can you do to make what you already have, even better?
I’d be willing to bet that you have way more options than you think.
New isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes the best new ideas are the old ones that are just reanalyzed and better thought through.
Throughout my entire life, I have always had some sort of collection going. It started with comic books and Matchbox cars, then model rockets, then tropical fish, then action figures, then guitars, then mexican art, then books, then Harley Davidson t-shirts, the list goes on and on.
You see, much like squirrels instinctively hoard nuts and berries for the winter, humans have these instinctive, primal urges hard coded into our brains too. With us, however, it is a little more complex.
With the advent of 24 hour grocery stores and electricity, somewhere down the line, we stopped NEEDING to hunt and gather to survive, or collect pelts or the skulls of our enemies. [click to read more…]
The project I was working on for the last year and a half is FINALLY LIVE! My “technical title” was Senior Information Architect for Crytek’s new social network called GFACE.
It is hard to describe all the roles and responsibilities I had on this project because I wore so many hats that covered so many touch points. I can honestly say that I have never put so much effort and personal blood, sweat, tears and great ideas into a project as with this one. I am really proud to have worked with such a talented team and I am really happy that it is now live.
This was a lead position acting as Senior IA, UX designer and marketing consultant, working closely with a creative director, biz dev, social game designers and developers with the goal of building: a gamer-focused, next generation social network that “Played Like a Game”
My Roles included:
User Experience Design
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Creative Direction
Mobile iOS UX/IA design
Social Media Marketing Consulting
High level concept development for:
Social & viral advertising
Social & Brand Strategy
Game layer/gamification
Virtual currency & Economy
Achievement systems
Social & Casual Game conception
The service is now in Closed Beta release. Check it out!
Here’s a little story about how I made $97 in less than 5 minutes.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “Wow, dude… strippers don’t even make that kind of money!” right? I know… it sounds pretty incredible, but that’s just what I did, and as a result, I get FREE web hosting.
If you create any kind of viral, social content or if you are trying to get more bang for the buck out of your Twitter or email marketing, you should definitely read:
This is not another “How to use Twitter or Facebook” kind of book, but instead goes much deeper into the new science of using metrics for a more predictable, results-based social media marketing strategy.
The book confirms some feelings that I have had for a while, which are basically that the social media honeymoon is over. [click to read more…]
In full disclosure, some links on this website may contain affiliate codes which means if you click on them and buy something there, the owner of this website can potentially receive a commission for items purchased there
Writers, authors and publishers have been influencing technology and culture since the written word was invented. I am constantly reminded of this every day on my commute to work, when my train crosses over the river and passes thought Mainz Germany, which is the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, the father of the movable type printing press.
from it.
I am officially an author. On July 17, 2012 I published 
