A Story of a Jade Bangle

Every piece of jade is unique. The Chinese believe that jade have their own spiritual callings. With an artisan’s crafty hands, the beauty and characteristics of a piece of authentic jade can be revealed. A piece of jade jewelry, made especially to be worn by humans, are not to be pursued. Due to its own spiritual calling, it would make its way to its destined owner.

Mother acquired the jade many years prior to moving to California in the spring of 2005. Before she moved, I went to her house often, helping her pack the house and accept whatever she didn’t want to move with her.

During one of those days, with her house full of cardboard boxes everywhere, she came to me and said, “This, I bought for you…” as she held up in front of me a bright red satin silk pouch. She unbuckled the brass snap button of the red pouch, adorned with golden threaded embroidery… A circular ring of pale green slid out and emerged in front of my eyes…

I recognized it’s a jade. It looked commonplace under the light. I appreciated her gesture, and knowing I wouldn’t see her often soon, I wanted to put it on right there and then. The unforgiving stone didn’t budge my big stiff hand… It was painful!

Mother saw the struggle, smiled and said, “It’s not time yet… Just keep it.” She put the bangle back into the pouch and handed it to me.

Years gone by. I started a creative and design business. Recession came. Time was tough and life was hard. Constently tried to reinvent and get by… I thought of Mother often–Her ways, her cooking, her words of wisdom…

One day I went through my drawers and rediscovered the red satin silk pouch. I couldn’t remember what it was until I felt the 2.5″ ring it contained. I opened the pouch and recalled the moment when Mother presented this. I held the bangle against the light and discovered the never before seen complexity within this simple ring of pale green, composed of smoky beige clouds and little dark green clusters of veins scattered throughout inside this perfectly round, crafted and polished wrist bangle.

I felt comfortable with it. It’s not stunning, not impressive. It didn’t look expensive. But it has its subtle and natural beauty that is honestly what it is… It made me feel close to home… Close to Mother…

Holding it with my right hand, without much thought, I gathered my left hand fingertips and put it through the bangle. I naturally slid it toward the wrist, slowly… Then, without really knowing what I was doing, the jade made it past my knuckles and landed on my wrist in no time… Without any pain.

Suddenly I realized that I was wearing it. “Oh no, can I take it of?” I thought, and tried to pull it out. But it was stuck! I was experiencing the same pain and struggle I felt when I tried to put it on the first time… Now it’s not letting me taking it off!

I’ve been living with the jade bangle ever since. In the beginning, it took me some time to adjust to the clunky noise it would make, every time I rest my left hand on a hard surface. But, as I hear the subtle banging noise, it’d always remind me of Mother, as if she was here with me — Because she wears a jade bangle too, and it’s the same noise she would make.

Day after day, the warm thought of Mother helped me I grow very comfortable with the jade. The noise has become a part of my life. The jade itself has become a part of me, my being, and an inspiration of Mother’s wisdom.

 

Trigger… Effect… Results.

[This is the second publish of my Facebook Note, originally written and published in March 5, 2010]

Recently we received a link of a music video from a friend of ours. It’s really cool! We favored it on our YouTube channel. After watching this video I can’t help but remembering back in the early 90′s, while I was only a freshman at Cooper, during a 3D Design class, we had an assignment to design an installation to move an object without using hands. My solution to this assignment had become a process to turn a fresh pineapple into a canned pineapple… without the expense of a factory. So my friend Victor, who was my partner for this assignment, and I together built something very simple, trying to achieve the schematic in the picture below. It sort of worked–We needed more time to plan and design the perfect mechanism… But let’s get real: it was only a college assignment with limited time and resources. (Classmates: remember this one?)

Rough sketch of one of my projects in 3DD @ Cooper, freshman year

The grand meaning behind this small project was a sarcastic expression of protesting against the food industry in the United States–Where every natural thing turned into processed canned goods… As for the execution– Was I inspired by Rube Goldberg? Maybe… I can’t say that for sure. But I can say this: At the time, while commuting to NYC daily to school, I walked pass a sculpted public art in the Port Authority terminal, which gave me the inspiration. Also at the time, I only lived in the U.S. for about 6 years, still in the cultural shock, so I really didn’t know who Rube Goldberg was. :-[

In 2003. Honda produced a multi-award winning commercial: The Cog. That was so satisfying to watch… Simply amazing! That was one of the most expensive commercial to make. I heard it took something like 150 takes to get it right version… Yikes!

Maybe one of these days, I’ll really fully execute the idea that I had back in 1991. (Dream on!)

 

What Do Power Tools Have in Common with Taxes?

­If you are a carpenter, building contractor, or your job is related to the construction industry, then the power tools you use can be a tax write-off. Other than that, Jackson Hewitt logo!!  This brand has miraculously found a common ground between power tools and tax services!  (I’m being sarcastic.)

Let’s start with the symbol.
The rectangle with a high-contrast white radiating circle seemed to mean a rising sun, which can be a very nice concept for a tax services company. However, the drawing of the radiating circle utilized straight and diagonal lines, which gave it a very industrial look—inappropriate for tax services. Therefore the execution needs improvement, so it would look more like a rising sun than a bunch of metal wires and steel pipes.

The Font Choice
“Impact” is a versatile, condensed font that is very heavy in its weight. It has been known as an attention getter, often appears in posters for that reason. For its heavy weight and rectangular shaped letters with rounded corners, resembling basic industrial elements, it is suitable for headlines and masculine subjects, such as sports and news.  If a brand chooses this font, this brand must be masculine, heavy duty, solid, etc… Black & Decker is a successful example to use Impact in their brand. How Jackson Hewitt arrived the decision to use this font in their brand, I have no clue. But surely the name “Jack”son wouldn’t help presenting the brand image closer to being a tax services company, when it’s set using Impact.

The Colors
Jackson Hewitt chose 2 very bright, basic, primary, masculine and high-contrast colors—black and red—to represent their tax service brand, which is another mistake.

Tax service is money matter.  Money matter is neutral, unemotional and universal. So it should avoid using bright and primary colors to communicate money. Green is a good color for money, especially for use within the United States because of its currency colors. If Jackson Hewitt tax service company would use green and gray in their branding system, there would be an excellent marketing opportunity to connect “Jackson” Hewitt with money matters using $20 bills… (Take a look at your $20 bill, President Andrew “Jackson” is looking at you!)  In Jackson Hewitt’s case, having “Jackson” being a part of their company name is God’s given gift for promotional marketing! Pity no one saw this connection!

Let’s look at Black & Decker again: It has black and orange in their logo. Husky doesn’t always use 2 colors in their logo but they use black and red throughout their brand system—Same as Jackson Hewitt!  Both Black & Decker and Husky use black and a warm color in their branding systems and both are successful power tool companies. When a branding system works, it sticks in people’s mind. That’s why when I first saw Jackson Hewitt, I thought it was a hardware store selling power tools.

Here’s a visualization of what I thought Jackson Hewitt logo should say:

P.S. Just recently, I found out Jackson Hewitt has filed Chapter 11… Do you think that’s got something to do with their brand? Maybe… Indirectly?

 

Full-on Production for the Real World Las Vegas

In the past, our MTV client had been OK with our unusual creative graphic solutions that complimented the stories of his reality series. We would research for graphics and imagery that were meaningful to the location and/or the series stories, build animations with those elements in 2D and/or 3D. For the headshots, we would usually get original photographs from the MTV.com people to introduce the casts in the opening…

But recently, we were told to design the graphic packaging within the MTV brand, setup by the in-house design department, which required original footage, and pretty much banned all computer generated graphics, and required the content/show footage be the dominant element in the graphic packaging… Which meant we couldn’t do it with the same design process as before. The only time the production would utilize graphics would be in the end title…

Here’s an excerpt from MTV On-Air Show Packaging Style Guide: “…select powerful, meaningful…images and build a strong graphic language using well-designed typography that elevates the content and conveys the story… All design decisions should…avoid the graphic gymnastics and 3D renderings of the past…”

In order to be compliant to our client’s brand, we were required to produce original material… This project was an unprecedented production process for us, but we welcomed the challenge. With our graphic design background, we designed the end title/logo with a twist of Hard Rock Hotel, where the casts lived while in Vegas. We shot original footage of the Vegas neon lights, cast headshots and time-lapse of the stage being built.

During the time-lapse shoot, we had 2 photographers, one shot the floor scenes and the other sat in the cat walk, taking the overhead shots. We tried to shoot the stage in an angle similar to the jib camera that begins the show, which would enable our opening graphic to work seamlessly into the host’s introduction… But we could only shoot from the cat walk, which was at the left side of the stage. So we centered the shots on the blue circle, and the result was not too bad.

The time lapse and the neon lights were our favorite part of our production process. In the end, we think it all came out alright.

For this season’s “The S#!% They Should’ve Shown” special, which premiered the week after the “Reunion” premiered, we showed, in the opening sequence, primarily the unseen footage they were going to talk about. For transitional and title parts of the sequence, we used the franchised keyhole/eyeball graphic and the Vegas neon footage that we shot. So the creative end of this piece was more straight forward compared to the “Reunion” opening. We did, however, add production value by composite the Vegas neon footage into an HD grid using a simple element of repetition and time-offset effect. These neon light footage, thus became beautiful, abstract, animated patterns that juxtaposed the circular symmetric and concentric iris theme.

“The Real World Las Vegas Reunion” premiered on June 8, and “The S#!% They Should’ve Shown” premiered on June 15.

 

The New Devlin Pix Logo

A very nice, well crafted, classic, memorable logo for Devlin Pix

Our friend and independent film director, Paul Devlin, incorporated his documentary film company, Devlin Pix, in the beginning of this year. Along with the event, he had his company’s new logo/symbol designed by a talented designer, Drew Zimmerman.

The number one reason why we liked this logo is because of its simplicity. The designer has boiled down the words “Devlin Pix” to its most simple form, while adding unique qualities to the individual letters D & P to make this symbol harmoniously represent the company’s core function.

The lower case of letters D & P just happened to be the upside-down form of each other. The designer saw and utilized this opportunity to create a symmetrical, visually balanced symbol. The ascender of the D & the descender of the P were strategically drawn, “sliced” and positioned so they subtly suggest film strips on a projector and/or reels of film.

The color chosen for the logo, in my opinion, is a true reflection of Paul’s personality–a peaceful cool bluish gray for a quiet, intelligent, cool guy.

This is a very nice, well crafted, classic, memorable logo for Devlin Pix. Congratulations, Paul!

 

TCM & “31 Days of Oscar” Graphics Package

It’s very nice! We love it! They used the kaleidoscope filter, I guess in After Effects. Not long before TCM’s “31 Days of Oscar” began to air, we did a design package using After Effects kaleidoscope:  MTV’s “The Ruins S#!t They Should’ve Shown”, premiered right before Christmas…  I wonder if our work had anything to do to inspire the “31 Days” package?  Nah… It’s my wishful thinking… We would love to have TCM as a client though–They do such beautiful and thoughtful work in every single spot. Bob and I are both big fans of their promos, ID’s and design packages–So classy and elegant!

 

Try using After Effects to make a slideshow

Go to our website to see more of our After Effects work:  http://www.artifactuality.com/gallery.html

 

“BLAST!” is coming to New York City!!

Finally BLAST! the movie is coming to town!!

The extreme adventure science documentary BLAST! directed by our esteemed colleague Paul Devlin comes to New York the first time from June 11th to 18th. We created the graphics package and maps that helped telling this heroic story of the pursuit of scientific truth. With cutting edge technology in very cold places, BLAST! supplied plenty of real life thrills as well as a rare glimpse into the personal thoughts and beliefs of the scientists who dedicated their lives to the journey…

Congratulations to Paul and the entire BLAST team. The film is absolutely worth seeing for adventurers, philosophers, filmmakers, and any one who has an interest in the question of where it all came from.

BLAST! has been seen and well received around the world. Go to www.blastthemovie.com for more information, including the trailer and the upcoming screening schedule in IFC Center and Cinema Village.

Here’s our opening graphic and “how it works” sequence, part of many things we did for this film.

 

The music for our “Real World Brooklyn Reunion” Graphic

I just found out that our favorite producer managed to get the license from Duran Duran and have “Notorious” to be aired with our graphic!

Originally we mixed a funky street beat for the Brooklyn Reunion Special graphic package. But never knew that they were trying to get a license from Duran Duran! I guess if they didn’t get it, at least they’d have our remix to fall back on…

“Notorious” worked out so well too!  Very excited to see our graphic played out with the song. Check it out on MTV.com.

By the way, did I say that I recently got the autographs from Duran’s Simon John & Nick? (Don’t mean to rub it in… Ha!)

 

Lesson of the Day

Recently as I did a project that involved converting a stock photo to illustration, I estimated that I would spend about a couple hours on that drawing because it’s a simple image. So I provided a small quote, also to help out a friend. I ended up spending 6 hours making the drawing! Because, once I began (after the agreement was signed,) I noticed that there were a lot of intricate details within the photo and there’s a great opportunity to make a really beautiful drawing. Through this experience, I learned that I under estimated several things–Most importantly my craft and my (automatic) passion to create beautiful things.

If I didn’t care about making a drawing beautiful, I probably would spend much less time and do an OK job and the work would be finished and the client would still be happy with it. But because I care, I spend more time to make it perfect, the drawing came out exquisite. (Shown here is a detail of the drawing.)

Christine's illustration from a stock photo