signed, sealed

A few random images from around town the last couple weeks. A couple of them were taken while my friends Norbert and Frank were here from Berlin; including the awesome neon sign at an Italian restaurant in Playa Del Rey. A couple others are from a brief visit with an old friend, Mike, and his wife, Cat, who happened to be in town from Virginia. We only had about an hour window where both of our schedules were open, so I met them in Redondo for a little walk by the seawall where the seals are (or maybe they were sea lions?). As long as I've lived here and as many times as I've biked right near it, I never knew Redondo had a sea wall. Or seals. Now I know.

likeability

I'll be the first to admit that I was late to the party when it came to creating a business page on Facebook for jonberrydesign. I'm a pretty big user of social media, so it wasn't a matter of not understanding its value. While Twitter reigns as a medium for sharing ideas and information and engaging with others, I saw Facebook as more effective for sharing occasional personal things with friends and family. Plus in the creative industry, your clients often are also friends, so for me, it seemed like my own personal page already covered the bases, and I didn't want to add a second page that only duplicated my regular page. But in building the new website (which is finally nearly ready to go live), some functionality aspects made it necessary have a separate business page for jonberrydesign. I started one quietly at the beginning of January. A few friends noticed and followed immediately, but I kept it fairly quiet to get a feel of how it should develop rather than announcing and then going silent, which you see so often. I started posting and testing. People came on board gradually, especially with a couple spikes when I called attention to the page (but let's be honest, it's always awkward to ask someone to "like" you.) Nevertheless, I quickly realized the network and viral value of posts from the biz page as compared to those on my personal page, especially the effect of people liking posts. Instead of just sharing among people you already know as a personal page is set up to be, a biz page reaches outward much more than I realized it would. I'm sure the page will evolve over time content-wise. I make an effort to be sure it isn't just "look at our latest work", because that isn't the point of social media. So expect other occasional design stuff by others worthy of notice, creatively or topically interesting stuff, or just random fun stuff thrown in every now and then. I often mention how Facebook and Twitter made blog updates harder, because things that would be content for posts here on the blog 5 years ago are now much more efficiently shared there with a quick post and link. Having the page will give that type of content an easier way to co-exist with the blog. So if you haven't already, check out the page, give it a 'like' and help play a role in how it develops. (and thanks!)

the jonberrydesign facebook page

winter waves

I've been feeling out of sorts lately for reasons I can't put a finger on, so I took a break to clear my head and decided to go check out the waves - one of those things I always say I really should do more often. It was cold for the beach and rain was threatening off in the distance, making an ominous purple sky at the horizon; but overhead, the clouds had a warm glow from the sun that occasionally peeked out. As often happens when a storm is near, the waves were especially big. And with the cold temperatures, there was hardly anyone at the beach except the surfers. They must love it when its their own private beach like that.

start us up

And just like that, its football season again. MLS kicked off their new longer 2013 season this weekend, and suddenly all those 'things you meant to do during the offseason' just vanished. LA's home opener was Sunday, and in true LA fashion, that cool 61 degree forecast seemed a lot sunnier and hotter than they said. Not that that's anything to complain about - it sure beats a monsoon. Even though only its been a short couple months, the pregame tailgate was a great homecoming for everyone, but also had an awful lot of new faces. ACB kicked the game off with a massive tifo across the north end, and then was in full gear through the whole game. The team responded with a 4-0 rout of Chicago. Not a bad way to get things started.

believing

MLS season kicks off this weekend, so it seemed a good time to finally post a project to the website I did at the end of last season for the Angel City Brigade, a supporter group of the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup in 2011, but then went on to a disastrous beginning of the 2012 season, losing strings of games and falling to the bottom rankings of the league. But the team righted ship and started playing like champions again, and successfully made their way into the playoffs. This video was finished and released the same day of the first playoff game to help build excitement to push the team forward. The Galaxy would not clear the usage of any footage, so the imagery had to come from still photos, most of which are the work of ACB member Sylvia Despertó. Graphically the video references the stuff of pipe dreams unexpectedly forming into a reality, then a weaving of people and motivations together with a feeling of hope and excitement. One big dilemma ended up being balancing the motivations as a producer vs those of a fan. On one hand, the video needed to project confidence in going all the way to the championship and be able to stay relevant through all the playoff games and into the cup, assuming the team won their way through. On the other hand, a fan often doesn't want to jinx things by declaring wins before they happen. Balancing those led to treating the final line of "this is our time" as outlines with a subtle, but confident, "again" as the final button. Likewise, the image of Robbie Keane holding the MLS Cup was a quick subtle image - perhaps a vision of the future, or maybe just a remembrance of the year before. The celebratory tone of the end was not in question, however, as it reflected pride in the team, win or lose. Happily, the team went on to win the 2012 MLS Cup, giving several weeks of life to the video and fulfilling the hopes it projected. You can see the full piece here:

Angel City Brigade: Never Stop