I had the pleasure of dining at Son of a Gun last night and it was damn good – shrimp toast, lobster rolls, mahi dip, dark and stormies and coconut porter all around. Mr. The Fox Is Black himself (Bobby Solomon) organized a little designy “bro” evening for myself, Justin of Aquarium Drunkard, Alec (one of TFIB contributors and sadly a Liverpool supporter – yet a supporter nonetheless) and Damien Correll who was in town from NYC. Hopefully, it’s the first of many evenings like this. I highly recommend checking out that restaurant and, even more so, clicking on all those talented dude’s links above.

It’s finally here! A new site design. I’ve added a rather comprehensive work section which allows me to show a little bit more about what I am doing all day (and night). Thanks a million to the ridiculously talented Caroline Keim (our brilliant tech lead at Something Massive) for helping me do this.

First posts about kittens, now a post about babies. This site is turning on its demographic. Regardless, I am happier than I’ve ever been (for the second time in my life) to say I have a new son. Arlo Cloud Atticus Setzen was born on August 10th at 4:46am. Massive love and respect to my amazing wife, Mindy, for enduring another pregnancy. Big congrats to big brother Jack! Total and complete gratitude to the angelic folks at Cedars Sinai, especially the NICU staff for watching over our little man.

My little sister got married two weekends ago in the Presidio in San Francisco. This pic of my dad watching my sister and her husband get their picture taken – sums him up in a nutshell. Love that dude.  The Golden Gate Bridge is fogged over in the background – such a perfect day.

There are some days I want to pack it all in, move to the middle of nowhere and get a job working at a deli. Other days, I can’t believe how lucky I am to do what I get to do. This past Wednesday was one of the best work days I’ve had in years. It was one of those times when everything came together. I’ll write up a full post once the new swrve site launches, but in the meantime… the combination of Matt/Muriel from swrve, their awesome cyclist friends who modeled for us, the perfect locations and the mind-blowingly talented photographer  Brad Swonetz it was such a successful day. I am so excited about this project. I just want to add that Brad Swonetz is my favorite photographer I’ve ever worked with. There’s not attitude, no ego – nothing but hard work and dedication.

front cover

front, back and spine

insider and disc

canoe

me (far right), harris (#12) circa 1983

Harris Eisenstadt was my best friend when I was growing up in Toronto. When I moved to San Francisco when I was 10 I started to lose touch with him and I hadn’t really spoken to him in about 20 years when I reconnected with him last December. My dad sent me a link to a write-up in the NY Times about Harris’ jazz band. Turns out my old friend is a highly accomplished and extremely talented jazz drummer and composer. Harris had finished a new album, Canada II, and asked me to design the artwork. The album is inspired by his Summers spent in the woods outside of Toronto. He sent me old photos from the camp he went to and, combined with my memories of that part of the World, we came up with some imagery that worked with the music. It’s been a dream of mine to design a jazz record since I was in junior high and it was such an honor to be able to work on this for Harris. I also found out he lived in Silverlake then moved to Brooklyn where he lives now. Next time I’m out in NYC I look forward to spending some time with he and his family. Check out his website for some music samples, tour dates and more information. Watch the video above to get a glimpse into his process.

Chris Gonya and Chris Gibbin

I spent about 24 hours in Vegas last week with my boss (and good friend) Chris Gibbin. We drove out for CES 2011. The show was a nightmare – the complete personification of the Windows Operating system. Badly organized, unclear, lots of unnecessary bullshit, gadgets that didn’t really work or look that cool and crowded. Vegas itself was a lot of fun. I got to see my old pal Chris Gonya who recently relocated to Vegas with his wife. Gibbin and I had an amazing meal at Mix which is one of the more insane looking restaurants I have ever been too. We spent some time at The Cosmopolitan which I guess is new casino. Best Coast happened to be playing a weird sort of lounge act show at a sports bar in the middle of that casino. It was really quite amazing. The drive home was long. I’d fly next time, however, getting to drive through the desert is a fun experience.

Here’s my turtle obsessed son getting his mind completely blown. He ran back and forth along the tank and then had me carry him (as if he was swimming) along the side of the tank. It was well worth it to see his reaction to seeing a turtle in person for the first time.

My friend, Joseph Ari Aloi aka JK5, has a new site up. It’s the first site of his to begin to get close to showing how prolific this guy is. He’s literally saved every drawing, sketch, painting etc. he’s made since he was six. You can see much of life-work detailed in his book Subconsciothesaurusnex.  Anyway, tons and tons and tons of work up on his site: drawings, tattoos, products, paintings, etc. etc. Congrats Ari! Check out his site.

One of Something Massive’s founder, Rebecca Coleman, undertook a huge project when she decided to start Cooking with her Kid. Rebecca set out to cook one meal a day for 365 days with her son Gus. The aim was to open up Gus’ eyes, mind and taste buds to a whole new culinary world; while at the same time she was teaching herself to cook Behold – Cooking With My Kid. With more than 100 days in they’re going strong, cooking amazing food, taking super cute photos and racking up the Facebook likes like no one’s business. Rebecca and Gus have been featured on Daily Candy, Oh Deeh Doh, Prudent Baby, Craft and many other popular sites. I think all her followers (yours’ truly included) are hoping their is a cookbook in the works. Hats off to Rebecca for this great idea and we all read in awe as she is actually able to do this (on top of running an agency, oh, and tending to a new born) daily. I am honored to have designed the blog and created the little logo header up top. Bon Appetite.