Join Us at HOW Design Live in Boston

HOW Design Live 2012

Yes, both of the partners of Hexanine will be speaking together at this year’s HOW Design Live. We’re super excited and ready to deliver the goods at our talk, and it’d be fun if you come too. We’ve always left the HOW Design events re-energized, inspired, and with tired arms from carrying cool swag. This year it’ll be in Boston from June 22-25 — clam chowder, that other historic ballpark, and that New England charm. What else do you need to know?

As speakers, we’re authorized to give you a super-secret promo code that will get you a $100 discount. Just enter HSPKR in the discount code box during the registration process, and HOW will deduct $100 from your total registration. Combine that with the March 30th Early Bird rate, it’s $170 off — that will buy a lot of Sam Adams beer! Can’t wait to see you there.

Proofs For Damn Good Book

Damn Good Book proofs

We’ve just received the proofs for our upcoming book, “Damn Good: Top Designers Discuss Their All-Time Favorite Projects” and are fine-tooth combing one last time before the volume heads to the printer. We’re finalizing the details with our publisher, HOW Books, and everyone’s excited as the finish line draws near. We will be releasing some more images, spreads, and other sneak peeks of the book very soon, so be on the lookout.

New Work For Humana

Humana Kiosk

We collaborated on a touchscreen presentation for Humana, alongside Edelman, Re:Think Post, Grow Interactive, and Humana’s internal team. More details in our portfolio.

Our Book Is Coming Soon

Hexanine book, "Damn Good" coming soon

Join us at the SUPER iam8bit art show!

After nearly two years in hiatus, the iam8bit art show is back, with a high-profile gallery opening next Thursday, August 11th! This show will be one for the ages, and definitely worth checking out. Started by our friends at iam8bit in 2005, the art show has featured hundreds of artists’ interpretations of their favorite 1980s video game heroes, heroines, villains, and damsels in distress — and this show should be the best yet.

Peep the awesome poster art above, created by our buddy Dave Crosland.

Also, the new iam8bit book, which we designed and co-published, will be officially released at the show.

Take a look for more info on the opening, and the evening’s festivities, which will include all-night ambiance by DJ R-Rated. Both Jason and Tim will be in attendance, so come down and join us for the festivities!

Presenting SUPER iam8bit: More Art Inspired by Classic Video Games of the ’80s

Video games are no longer a niche market. They’re big business, having long-since eclipsed Hollywood blockbusters in revenue. Culturally, we’ve grown used to video game franchises with their own storylines, plots, and characters — a complex web of merchandising, marketing, and gameplay.

It’s easy to forget that these paths were forged by a cast of simple, clever little characters of ’80s videogames. Their screen time may have been short, but Pac-Man, Q*Bert, Mario, and many other characters were bursting with personality, fun, and an ethos that we wanted to capture in the book, SUPER iam8bit: More Art Inspired By Classic Video Games of the ’80s. With our client-partners and co-publishers, iam8bit, we designed the entire volume, helped curate the mass of excellent artwork, and launched our creative imprint, Plastic Highway.

For more details about this project, power up to our iam8bit portfolio page.

And if that’s not enough ’80s video game goodness for you, be sure to check out iam8bit’s 5th art show in Los Angeles, where the book will be officially released and available for sale.

Open Letter to CDOT: Steer Away From Crowdsourcing

An Open Letter to CDOT Chicago Department of Transportation

UPDATE: We received a Twitter reply from @CDOTNews. See the end of the post for details.

To:
Gabe Klein, Commissioner of CDOT
Chicago Department of Transportation
30 N. LaSalle Street
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60602
cc: Rahm Emmanuel

Dear Commissioner Klein and Mayor Emmanuel,

It’s no secret that the city of Chicago currently finds itself in a challenging financial state. The economy and the previous administration’s decisions and poor budget planning have left our city with the desperate need to do more with less. Many organizations and businesses face similar challenges — and there are a lot of ways to cut costs, trim expenditures, and stretch the city’s money. But crowdsourcing the new CDOT logo is a terrible idea.

Read on…

Jul 11 2011

2 Comments

Behind The Design: Our SUPER iam8bit Book

We’re wrapping up the production on a book we’ve designed called “SUPER iam8bit: More Art Inspired By Classic Video Games of the ’80s.” The book was written by our partners at iam8bit. Hexanine designed the entire volume, from cover to cover, and we’re also co-publishing it under our new Plastic Highway imprint.

While the book won’t be officially released until next month, here are some fun moments we’ve had during the process:

Super iam8bit cover shoot

Read on…

A Little Tease For HOW 2012

At this year’s HOW Design Live conference, we got to take some time to chat with our friends at HOW about creativity, inspiration, and why we go to events like this one. This year’s Chicago experience was amazing, and we’re looking forward to attending in Boston next year as HOW authors, as well! Here’s a little edited tease of great HOW authors and creative personalities, including James Victore, Sally Hogshead, Darius Monsef, ourselves, and more.

iam8bit Collateral Added To Portfolio

iam8bit Stationary

Our print collateral work for iam8bit is now up in our portfolio, so take a look.