Our short musings on design, branding, business and the human condition.
Super inspiring thoughts from Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and father of the video game industry:
Musings: Lawyer Up and Lose
These are short musings we’ve had on topics related to what we’re doing at Hexanine, in life, and beyond.
Lawyer Up and Lose
Scorching the landscape with C&Ds rarely wins you friends and probably hurts your brand image in the long run. Now that social media is maturing, we might even be able to measure how bad legal eagle actions affect the buzz around your organization. Maybe there’s a legal need to protect brand assets and preserve future profitability, but that needs to be weighed against the financial damage that turning brand fans into enemies can cause.
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.
14 Designers We’re Thankful For
As Thanksgiving approaches, we’ve been reflecting on the many creative people who’ve inspired and challenged us to grow, stretch our limits and be the absolute best designers possible. In the spirit of thanks and sharing, below are (in no particular order) 14 designers of all kinds who’ve influenced us throughout our careers. Whose inspiration are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments below.
Syd Mead
The concept designer and futurist behind visuals in films like Blade Runner and the original Tron, Mead’s forward-looking designs have brought the future to the present.
More Inspiring Retro Packaging
One of the great things about design is its ability to act as a window in time, for us to get a taste of what that era was like. If we’re old enough, those combinations of words and images conjure up powerful memories, associations and emotions. Great design does that.
How Atari Made Me A Designer
My Dad brought home our first video game system in 1983, when I was but five years old. The Atari 2600 had already become a gigantic, category-defining success, spawning a whole new industry of home video games. In the six years since its release, Atari had used its marketing muscle in TV commercials, ads in comic books and magazines, and I wanted one. From the moment my Dad pulled out the box from Video King, I was hooked.