Interviewed by NPR

so last week, i got a call from one of the guys over at RYZ asking me if i was available to speak on behalf of their design community. i was totally shocked! after all the stuff that i said in my post about the competition, i was truly surprised that they would pick me to speak about their company. but they said they respected my honest and fair opinion about their company and wanted me to speak for the designers - how cool is that??!!

anyway so i did. i went and met with this woman from NPR and with mic in my face, I described the company and the competition as i saw it. what was interesting was that she was really interested in what my thoughts were about the idea of companies getting their designs from outside their company - i know there's a better way to say that, i just can't think of it..

i thought it was really funny that she assumed that everything was done in house. i mean, i've been designing for big companies for years - never getting any sort of credit. i don't have a problem with that - i've always maintained that i work for money not credit.

so we went on but one point i wanted to make here (as i did in the interview) is that i think the "vote the design to win" model works, but i think the commodity just might be a bit pricey. threadless.com sells t-shirts for $15-20. t-shirts are the biggest selling item in the apparel industry - they're cheap to make and there isn't a whole lot of differences when it comes to fit.

now take RYZ - new company with one silhouette that no one has ever worn and they are selling it for $90. not a bad price for shoes, but you can't even try them on before you buy them. the online customization is certainly nothing new - Nike's been doing the ID thing for a couple years. but Nike has been around for 35+ years with a ton of R&D under their belt -they can do it and people will buy their shoes cause they know and trust the brand.

RYZ is a new company, they don't have a reputation yet and this format of letting people vote for the winner is sorta flawed. flawed in the sense that anyone (or at least some people) can promote the heck out of their shoe, gathering votes using whatever method they choose ... but that doesn't mean they will buy the shoes - certainly makes it even more risky when you add that to the fact that nobody has ever worn the RYZ shoe before.

my fear is that they wont be able to sell these shoes they create, or at least not enough to make a profit and they'll drop out - which would be a shame. maybe a idea would be to work with a trusted shoe company - like Adidas - i know they know some of those folks and they already do work with artists. get some shoes that people trust already and then do it - your overhead will certainly be lower!

well for now, i'll still support what they are doing - i think creating communities where designers can get feedback from their peers is great - just hope that it's the constructive.

cuteness!

there she is making some snacks - what an amazing wife I have!

the Gilt Club rooftop dinner

so last night Cassie and went to the Gilt Club's rooftop dinner on the roof of the DeSoto building downtown... and what an amazing dinner it was! we laughed, we drank and we ate some really delicious food.. here's a couple of shots to wet your appetite:







go make your reservations today for the next event - i think there's only a couple more throughout the summer.

flaming on the RYZ

ever since the RYZ competition ended, i've been in their site checking in and offering feedback on the site and it's functionality. i figure as a web designer AND a user, i'm proly a good person to make suggestions. frankly it's been a lot of fun seeing them launch their site and watching the community grow. i'm definitely passionate about art and design (go figure) and i love to help and teach, so i've been on it like crazy.

i resubmitted my original two designs into the system and wednesday the voting portion of the site went live. i was so excited to get see what would happen with everything and how it would evolve. i hadn't really looked at the site much the day before cause i was under deadline on a video i was editing so when i opened the site that morning, i was amazed at how many new designs there were - nearly double! the competition is on!

i got my friend Mø involved, too - he's a sick artist and a fellow shoe nerd.. tho not as intense as me. anyway, he was definitely feeling the competition too and submitted a couple of his signature designs. but it wasn't long before the battle started...

my problem with the RYZ concept and frankly the Threadless.com concept (not the company or the people who run it themselves) but what happens when you open the voting to a bunch of people who aren't necesarily designers or artists, the comment and ridicule without regard to people's feelings - and can do so anonymously!

now i've been in the design game for a long time and i've had some people rip me apart - right or wrong, i've developed a skin for it. new designers, young kids who are trying their luck at this wont have a chance. they're gonna get their feelings hurt and drop out of the scene. i did when i tried the threadless thing.. not sure why i thought this would be different. maybe i felt connected to the project cause i was in their first public event.

last night, i was alerted to a couple of posts directed towards me personally - and for no real apparent reason. i took a couple of screen grabs so you can see what i'm talking about... i think they get bigger if you click on them..



as you can see, i'm being attacked just for being on the site.. not really sure what i did to deserve this, but it's kinda lame. what's interesting about it is that they aren't even on my designs - i would think that if someone really wanted to attack me, they would do so on my shoe design pages... i mean, this guy didn't - but another guy did..



i believe this is called flaming.. saying negative things for no reason. what kills me about this guy and the other one is that neither of them have the nads to pony up their own designs for critique.. it's kind of a lame thing if you ask me.. here's another post by the Bomin guy..



now this one wasn't directed at me, but at some young girl who put butterflies on her shoe... do you honestly think that she's ever going to want to contribute something to this site again.. those folks over at RYZ aren't bad people, but if they don't get that shit sorted out, they wont be making designers out of everyday people...

is there a solution to this problem on the rise (he he)? maybe - what if you wanted to critique a design, you would have to have submitted your own ... maybe if people knew that their ass was on the chopping block too, they might not say such negative stuff.

i think i'm gonna back away from this site just like threadless.. i love the idea of a design community - and shoes a re a great platform (he he), but it's just not fun if people are going to be mean without having to be accountable for it.

burning candles

so today marks the 5th consecutive day i've been working from the time i've gotten up to the time i go to bed... well basically anyway. worked 15 hours straight yesterday editing a video for a meeting this afternoon. and i've got to get back into it again this morning..

i feel like my stress level just keeps getting higher and it just keeps getting hotter in our apartment. skylights are pretty and all, but suck in a loft apartment during the summer without central AC.

these next 2 weeks are going to be difficult.

following up

i want to take a moment here to comment on my last blog entry. i want it to be clear that i don't actually think they rigged the voting, but because i can't keep my mouth shout - and this is the perfect place for it, i simply wanted to present the facts as i saw them. i think what they are doing over there is truly a cool thing and i wish them the best of luck in making it a success..

but i still want my own shoes!

second place aint bad...

so i entered this design competition for a local shoe company. they are basically modeling themselves after the threadless.com folks.. cept with shoes - a great idea. so i submitted a couple designs - basically took some drawings i had done recently and adopted them in to the shoe templates. i mean, i didn't just drop them in. i actually considered the shoe and added elements that would make a better composition...

anyway, here are the shoes i did:

Mr. Giraffe



Naughty by Nature



unfortunately, when they made their template they had the names for the lateral and medial side reversed - which they later informed us about and offered the chance to revise the artwork. which i did. but they didn't switch it on their end. so my shoes ended up coming out backwards - not a huge deal, but as a designer who thinks about where things should be placed to get the read i'm looking for, i was a little disappointed to see that. in their defense, they had a lot going on so i can see how that might slip through.

what's interesting is that they kept talking about the shoe with the girl on it when we were communicating about the template problems. but when they finally told me that i was one of the top 5 and were requesting a statement on the design, they actually picked the giraffe. huh?

the big night

so the big night finally came - last night. there was a video interview and some shots of me with the shoe doing stupid random things like biting it and licking it - the kind of stuff i see in sneaker mags.. that was all a lot of fun and kind of surreal. here's a shot of me in them - one of the benefits to being sample size!




while we were waiting, i got to meet some of the founders/judges and chat a little with them. what's funny is that both owners and this other guy, Will (i think), were very complimentary about my designs - showing a lot of enthusiasm towards the naughty by nature shoe. in fact, one of them told me that they used that image for all their testing work... seemed kind of odd to me that there was so much attention to that design and yet it was the other one that got the nomination. regardless, i was happy to have been selected for either of the shoes.

so the night went on and they introduced us all individually and had us make a statement about our designs to the crowd who then voted on the shoe of their choice. here's a pic that Cassie took of me speaking off the cuff and trying not to sound too stupid. check out my awesome Helvetica Nue shirt that Cassie got me for my birthday a couple days ago - i'm such a nerd!



after a bit of socializing and subtle influencing of anyone i could chat up, they pulled all the votes - counted and announced the winners. i got second place and a beautifully hand crafted man purse from a local company called entermodal this thing is gorgeous ... i mean i really wanted the 1k in cash, but this is really quite a wonderful consolation prize..



some after thoughts..

so this morning, a friend of mine alerted me that the top 5 shoes were on the front page of the business section of the Oregonian - how cool is that i thought! so i went out and bought a couple copies - of course! the image in the paper had the winning design as the dominate image and then the others below. makes sense, but what puzzled me was the fact that both the laces and the tooling on the winning shoe had been colored - areas that we were told could not be changed in our designs. the shoe itself was simply black and white and adding the yellow laces and black tooling with the yellow outsole really changed the design for the better. in fact i remembered that i thought it was strange that he was the only one allowed this consideration and even at the event, his shoes were displayed this way.



additionally, the image that was in the paper and on the slide show being looped at the event was a rendering done from the original artwork in the submission. after they got the submission, they emailed us back with the renderings for us to see - and to tell us that the template was wrong. so basically, in order for that image to have appeared with the color changes in the laces and tooling, the artist would have had to alter it and then send it back... or someone on their end did it.. regardless of how it happened, if that was against the rules why would they have displayed it that way?


pictured above: this is how we submitted our designs

when they introduced us to the audience, the main founder guy Rob introduced the man who eventually won. what was interesting was that he mentioned having seen this guy's name in the paper - recounting that they had actually sought this artist out to have him submit his work. he was in the paper because he had just got released from jail where he served a two year sentence for graffiti. (as a side thought, i don't actually know what he did, but if he was just hitting a train car or something silly like that - then the charge was lame).

anyway, so after they talk about how amazing he was and how cool his story was, they passed the mic to him and he told us all about how he done this art while he was in prison... they guy who was standing next to me who would later introduce me whispered - how are you gonna compete with a story about being in prison for 2 years?!! this is one of the judges telling me this!

so after looking at all the facts, i started thinking about them as a company on the rise (he he) and what sort of image they want to portray with this event leading in to the future. when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. here's a guy who was busted for doing his art and then along comes this company like an angel from heaven scooping him up and placing him on a pedestal. i mean it doesn't get much better than that - after all they want to promote that everyone and anyone can design shoes - not just designers like me. if i won, what good would it serve? people would be like - of course he won he does this for a living. but when a guy off the streets struggling to prove his worth in the art community becomes a star - well that's exactly what this company is all about.

so at the end of the day, i think they made the right choice - even tho the "public" may or may not have actually chosen the winner. i mean, i know a little bit about being in business and if i were in the same shoes (he he), i probably would have made the same choice. and to be clear cause i know i've just ranted here, i actually did like his shoe and i think that what they are doing with their company is pretty awesome. i feel honored to have been a part of it and thankful that i got second place - which aint bad...