Netdiver Mag

Noon (-5GMT). Netdiver Mag has resurfaced. After 2 yrs hiatus from publishing – honey I’m back!

47 new posts + 2,236 posts in all + 50 thumbnails / page in the galleries.

Enough to feed your eyes??

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The decision to do so followed a discussion with a friend back in November 13 – who hoped that after my sabbatical – I would relaunch it. His desire concurred with mine and since, much time was spent to ‘revised’ the original interface – whilest thinking – that a few updates would be.. ok.

On June 14, we were almost ready.

As for any good stories – and the usual last minute fudge-up that can arise – it wasn’t for any of these that we decided to extend ‘baking time’ to relaunch.

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June 13, I quested Matt Woolhouse – a Creative Director at Super Mega Awesome located in Boston who lives and loves the world of design and finds inspiration within the walls of this site – to give me his take of then navigation – that I was not happy about at all.

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He returned a few comps – and tada – navigation direction was finally settled.

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Gregor Zakelj – whose firm VBG designed our ‘new’ identity – saw the navigation on our beta site – and came up with this comp for the index – throwing us a ‘huge’ unexpected curve – on June 16!

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I was so exhausted and at first it was oh no – then JF – Netdiver Mag co-founder and my all time code hero – had a look and really liked it and – right then – we decided to ‘run with it’.

To say intense don’t even come close to describing the frenzy mode we were in – I sleeping 4-5 hours – pulling-in 22 hours non-stop yesterday.

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Lastly thanks to Chris Mish – owner of Balboatech – who stayed-up to tweak and spruce-up our server till the wee hours this morning.

He is my long-time resident back-end geek – go to for anything LAMP – and now – our hosting provider for the past couple of years.

Our dedicated server runs at top shape based on his decade plus experience. He has worked for (Media Temple) + 2Advanced.

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I’m so ready! Let’s do this. To infinity and beyond!

This is it! After 2 years on hiatus from publishing – I’m back in the fold. So much has changed in such short time – an yet – one thing has remained unchanged: my passion for finding – discovering – featuring awesome talents and inspiring projects. Hello to my family – fellows – colleagues and friends in the industry and culture of design – I’m ready to change the world.

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via: Illustration by Keenan Cummings

RIP / Hillman Curtis

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I’m crying like a baby.. oh no. Hillman was an inspiration, a mentor and such a good and kind person. Very secluded and protective of his intimacy – I met him twice – second time w/ his little beloved son.

Soft-spoken – he has made a profound impact on my life. If you have not yet read MTIV Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer – suggest you do. Just re-read what he wrote in the copy he gave me.

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For those not knowing him, he was a pioneering new media designer, former design director for Macromedia and eponymous partner of the digital and film agency in New York City.

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He has designed a much acclaimed / criticized website for Adobe just previous the web standards started to gain terrain.

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When he started filmaking – I supported him wholeheartedly and we had on and off discussions about the concept.. etc.

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His last video explaining his parcours and a glimpse of his ghastly look.. A look that I know all too well.. when I went through the pain of loosing my little ‘bro.

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Hillman Curtis, a Pioneer in Web Design, Dies at 51 by Paul Vitello

Hillman Curtis called himself a serial self-reinventor.

He once explained his penchant for reinventing himself in an interview. “I originally went to school for creative writing and film,” he said. “I then spent 10 years pursuing music, and, after failing at that, I did various random jobs. I got into design out of desperation — I didn’t want to wait tables or pound nails.”

“The reason for designing new media is simple — to subtly and quietly change the world.”

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Hillman Curtis 1961-2012 by Gabe de Urioste

My experience with my hero. Yesterday, my cinema hero and mentor, Hillman Curtis, died after a long battle with colon cancer.
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Hillman Curtis, 1961-2012 by Observatory: Design Observer

Nothing had prepared me for coming face to face with him, and as we set up for the taping, I had to adjust my frenetic energy to connect with his serene and gentle manner. He was certainly not what I expected. — Debbie Millman

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RIP Hillman Curtis by Oliver Lindberg

.net: What advice can you give to new designers?

HC: Everyone’s path is different, and I realise that as I interview other designers. I realise that their relation to the craft is unique. All I can say is design with care, don’t avoid things like grids (grids are important), and examine the tradition of graphic design.

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His last interview published April 11. Interview with Design Legend Hillman Curtis by Jens Loeffler.

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Touching au-revoir on his FB profile.

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Above picture courtesy of: Richard Charlesworth

quote by Katharine Green: This proves it… he always could FLY!

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That is one of his stories – and we had talked about the ‘ending‘..

My gosh. You will be missed my dear.

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Addendum: RIP / Arnaud Mercier. Another loss for the design community – past September.

This morning I am stricken and saddened. Just read the news that Arnaud Mercier aka Elixir Studio (about 12-13 yrs ago) has passed. Founding partner of Area17 (also refers to the optical cortex of the brain where visual data is received, patterns are recognized and images are formulated. This is not a coincidence) have issued this message.

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Addendum: Area17 released a short summary of what happened.

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He was a pioneer, visionary and his talent will be greatly missed in the design community. Through the years always supported his career and efforts. What a loss. I am so sad.

Follows a little homage to a great designer.

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Meet Arnaud Mercier, art direction and embark on a voyage into a breath taking sweeping view of a one of a kind portfolio.

At Elixir Studio you discover his unique style, his jaw dropping pictures and flash storyboards that which makes Arnaud an accomplished master communication designer.

Best of the Year (BOTY) recipient in 2002.

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From the *subway* experiment to interface designs for Blastradius studio and reknown clients, each work is different and extensive. Such profound thought is given to visual placement for navigation and text as well as branding integration… one very well should spend lots of time, learning from him.

Don’t miss his ‘Journey on flash movie’ and watch how the frames unfold. I must have watched it about x4 times!

But there is more! Be it picture montages, print design, logotypes or design stills, there is not one single entry that is boring.

Another of his quality is understanding chromatics. The play of color, the contrast, these little bits of numbers and arrows, though a style that is much in used… sorry but not with this kind of subtlety!

I bet even his discarded work would be worth seeing.

Now, can somebody book this guy to publish his own work? Wish I could ’cause I would.

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circa: 1999-2000

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Arnaud Mercier is now operating under AREA17.

circa: February 2002

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Where do great talent go? At AREA17, home of extra prolific creative execution master Arnaud Mercier (who was listed as a design forte recipient back in 2002) et al.

Luckily for us, most of his outstanding past work is still available for viewing.

Now what do you think of the information tree-like navigation?

Again, LUV his work!

circa: December 2006

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AREA17 located in both Paris and New York, founded by Arnaud Mercier have a new website.. Anyhow, they have a tagline that pretty much summarize their approach:

We believe websites can change people’s lives.. is that crazy?

circa: March 2010

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He is also the founder of these 3 services which highlight his personality, temparement and interests. He was aiming at facilitating human interactions in art, career and commerce.

Subfolio – customizable web interface to your file system

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Krrb – connect with your neighbors in-person commerce

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Slash – a mobile / online contemporary art agenda

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Sooo grateful to have found a repository of large graphics of his early work. There are much more – follow link below to see.

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via: Graphic ExchanGE

Creativy x2 – because the business of design requires that our creative processes grow and seek nutrition and enrichment. Here are two articles to feed your mind.

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Creativity? Pursuit of change

One of my favorite quotes comes from a book I highly recommend: It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be, by Paul Arden. "All creative people need something to rebel against, it’s what gives their (and clients) lives excitement," and, "Successful solutions are often made by people rebelling against bad briefs."

Here are some pointers to keep your creativity alive.

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Originally published in Design in Flight magazine – launch issue. / Republished by Icograda as a featured article.

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Ideas! A closer look at creativity!

So how do we in fact become proficient idea generators? First, ideas = creativity. The root of creativity stems from the word creation which is to create from nothing. Nice theoretical assumption. Now what is the practical side?

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Originally published in Creative Behavior magazine

Since repurposing Netdiver Mag and opening Netdiver Mag – I have been quite busy working in kinda of stealth mode to tweak-tweak-tweak how to present new content, production of this FANTA (code name) project which intends to afford a robust and playful outlet for creatives around the world to express and promote themselves. No due date yet.

Curious? Read more in-depth in this just released interview I did for FUEL magazine (for iPad). No iPad? Download as a .pdf which sports one of my illustration on their launch issue cover :))

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Netdiver Mag is all about sharing what catches my eyes both as inspiration and creative lessons that probe and push me to excel in whatever I enterprise. I need the visual stimuli as the air I breath.

Through the years, I realise that I have been very discrete about other passions in my life – apart from everything design – but this is about to change. Like.. now.

Five years ago I took the despotic rule of the CTRL+Z universe out of the equation and started painting large abstract canvas. Why? To play with pretty colors for sure, and keep learning about chromatics. But also to learn about new problem-solving and decision-making processes. By painting would you say?

Well once you’ve applied a spot of paint and don’t like the result – can’t delete it right? So this forces me to think and ultimately, find a way to recuperate the ‘mess’ and make it part of the emerging visual. Sometimes the sum of my painting is just a string of corrections. Sometimes it is pure insight.

Also, since my little bro passed 1.5 year ago, he was a musician and experienced with the music production industry – he admonished JF and I to stop ‘researching’ and start ‘doing’.

We had a band 20 years ago and worked 7 years on our projects. When came the www opportunity – we jumped in and for the best of the past 15 years – it was our main focus. JF became a FED (front-end developer) and I a publisher. We had and still have much passion for what it means to be connected 24/7 to the world via technology. I am in awe every day.

We don’t care so much for technology as we care for content distribution and leveraging the creative industry (all disciplines confounded) through disintermediation and circulation of works like never before in the history of our creative culture.

Throughout the years we composed music / songwriting (and piled up a good amount of sketches), invested in new instruments and in the digital music studio parnophelia required to do a decent demo. All the while JF was (and still is) re-learning the new era way of music recording and production. Michel serving as a catalyst, kind of signified it was time for us to go back to it.

We are currently working on two albums. First one is an ‘in memoriam’ album with lots of instrumental tracks to be freely distributed to people going through the agony of losing someone.

The second is a compilation of new and revisited songs, that dip into what we think is now ‘our’ sound and style.

If you read this far, thank you. You visiting is the reason why I am pursuing everything I’m doing. I am no longer a closet publisher, artist nor songwriter.

Expect that the mix of ‘content’ on Netdiver Mag to include from now on the daily mix of creative inspirational projects plus bits and pieces of what I am doing, such as takes (snapshots) of on-going canvas, design experimentations and music.

You ok with that?

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showing: Take #3 untitled

For your viewing pleasure and vintage appetite – Netdiver Vintage edition has been replenished! See for yourself.