This past weekend I attended the San Diego Comic-Con. I’ve been wanting to attend this ever-growing geek mega-event since I was 11 or 12 years old. Back then I was a hardcore comic book fan, not only looking up to Batman, the X-Men and Iron Man, but also to their creators. Especially the artists. Back then guys like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, J. Scott Campbell, and Rob Liefeld were both my inspiration and my heroes. Of course, I’d also read Wizard, a magazine that covers the ins and outs of the comic industry. Every year they’d have great photos and reports from Comic-Con. I’d read about the artists interacting with the fans, the super impressive booths, the thought provoking panels, the merchandise, and more. Every year I’d think “Man, I need to get to this.” For one reason or another, timing just never panned out. The fact that I lived on the east coast, 3,000 miles away from the convention probably didn’t help.

Fast-forward 15+ years to 2010. The moons, stars and planets have aligned and I find myself living a little over an hour from the San Diego Convention Center. There was no way I was going to miss it again this year!

I’ve always heard stories about just how huge this event is, plus I’ve been to other (what I thought were) large conventions and events. So I thought I knew what i’d be in for. Wrong. The convention floor itself was massive. Towering video walls, gigantic over-the-top booth displays, 25 foot giant robots, and ultra-creative costumes for as far as you can see. As I write this, it’s the Monday morning after and my head is still spinning.

If you consider yourself a comic fan/pop-culture geek/video game addict or any other kind of nerd, I strongly recommend you make this something to check out at least once in your life.

If you’d like to check them out, I added some of my photos to my Flickr set.

Web Design

Quikselver and Roxy Surf Camps, run by Erik Nelsen provides instruction to boys and girls to help them develop the skills and confidence to become lifelong surfers.

Live at: http://eriknelsensurf.com

This past weekend I launched a “save the date” site for the Los Angeles Twestival. An annual charity celebration where people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally for an important cause.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area on Thursday March 25, 2010, join us. If not, see if there’s a Twestival in your neck of the woods.

Web Design

L’Auberge Hotel landing page.

(Note: This website was created as freelance work for Tarsadia Hotels.)

Web Design

Amara Resort landing page.

(Note: This website was created as freelance work for Tarsadia Hotels.)

Ah, the 80’s. A time when the only worries I had in the world was “Will I be home in time to watch G.I.JOE?” A time when hair was big, music was cheesy and Don Johnson was the definition of “cool“. A time when you didn’t have to view your pictures on you iPhone, because they instantly popped out of your Polaroid camera.

You see I’m a child of the 80’s. I love a lot of 80’s TV shows and 80’s music. I guess it all comes back to almost everyone’s thoughts of their childhood as “simpler times.” So maybe that’s why I’m really digging the new ShakeItPhoto app for the iPhone. You can take somewhat realistic Polaroid style photos right on your iPhone.

If you need me, I’ll be taking more photos and listening to Hall & Oats.

Web Design

Design comp. for Kellogg’s 2009 Star Trek movie promotion.

I Madmen’d myself.

Web Design

The House of Hope, a local non-profit shelter, was in need of a complete website overhaul. I designed and developed this online presence for them.

Live at: http://hopelowell.org

Ok. I’ll admit it. At times, I can be somewhat of a podcast junkie. So much, that I usually prefer to listen to podcasts in-place of music, on my 45-minute commute to and from work.

There’s something great about podcast that NPR (another love of mine) and other radio stations just can’t offer. That “something” is niche conversation. While NPR does a fantastic job bringing me the world and local news, they’re probably not going to talk for hours on end about topics like design trends, home theatre upgrades or Macintosh computers. So what I do is balance my listening between talk radio, podcasts, and music. As I wrote about a few months ago, music is very inspiring and effects all of the design work that I do.

In no particular order, here are a few of my favorite (audio) podcasts:

TWiT (This Week In Tech)
By many he’s considered the grand daddy of podcasting, Leo Leporte. Leo and a revolving panel of guests serve up the latest news in the world of technology every week.

Freelance Radio
John Brougher hosts this roundtable discussion that focuses on freelance design, development, creative writing, dealing with clients, billing and more.

MacBreak Weekly
Another of Leo’s podcasts. Here it’s all about Apple, Inc. News, rumors, product releases and events.

The Force-Cast
Ok, I’m showing some of my super-geek side here. The Force-Cast focuses on George Lucas’ world of Star Wars. Movie, TV, book news and reviews.

Net@Night
Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur (and occasionally Sarah Lane) discuss the latest and greatest on the World-Wide Web. Cool new sites, viral videos, and guest interviews.

HDTV Podcast
Ara and Braeden have been discussing the world of HDTV and home theaters for almost 400 episodes (378 as of press time). A great friendly discussion about the latest advances in home theater technology, thoughts and opinions.

Got a favorite podcast? I’d love to hear about it. Leave some suggestions in the comments!