July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Le Tour

Let's just get this out of the way: I LOVE THE TOUR DE FRANCE. The first three weeks in July are a very special time for me. Not sure when exactly it happened, but it was around 2000... probably due to a certain Texan, but once I got into it there was no turning back, Texan or no Texan.

I watch every stage, twice, sometimes three times if it's a critical mountain stage. I have to watch the first early morning broadcast, with Phil Liggett & Paul Sherwen. This year I downloaded the $15 iPad app, so I can watch it live wherever I am. Thankfully Josh is just as into the tour as I am, so I've got a buddy to watch it with.

Here's a picture of us at the 2004 Tour de France, walking up to the finish of Stage 13, at Plateau de Beille.

For the past five or so years I've played fantasy TDF online too, where you create a team of riders and select them for each stage. I've never done better than top 1/3 but every year I keep hoping to get lucky. I check cycling news websites every day of the year, so I'd like to think I know some things about what's going in the peloton. Most years I register at least three teams, making slight tweaks between them. However, this year I am only going with one team (one dream). Here's the list of riders:

  • Fabian Cancellara
  • Mark Cavendish
  • Alberto Contador
  • Philippe Gilbert
  • Matthew Goss
  • Thor Hushovd
  • Tony Martin
  • Alessandro Petacchi
  • Yaroslav Popovich
  • Luis Leon Sanchez
  • Andy Schleck
  • Frank Schleck
  • Tejay Van Garderen
  • Christian Vandevelde
  • Thomas Voeckler
  • Chris Horner
  • Andreas Kloden
  • Jose Joaquin Rojas
  • Tyler Farrar

Viva Le Tour!

Published by yuriono in Blog
Tags: fantasy, france, tdf
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July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Love for Peonies

Anyone who knows me well knows that I die for peonies. Every May/June, like clockwork, I buy a steady supply of them so I'm constantly surrounded by their fluffy, ever-changing beauty. This year I was lucky enough to be Paris for two weeks in May (another post coming about that soon) and the city of light was filled with pivoine. I was in heaven. I made sure me and my Dad's apartment were filled with peonies at all times and, after I left, Dad gave me daily reports on their progress, as if my peonies were the last of me staying there with him.

Luckily here in the bay area peony season comes a little later than NYC/Paris, thanks to our friends in Oregon, who grow them for all of us west-coasters. How sad it is that they don't flourish in my garden, maybe I need to find the right variety that will bloom for me. As it is, I'm off to my flower mart to snap up this season's last blooms.

Paris peonies:

Monet's peonies:

My peonies these days:

Published by yuriono in Blog
Tags: home

July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Favorite Places, pt.1

I don't do RSS feeds, I do it the old-fashioned way with folders and subfolders of bookmarks. Here are some of my favorite places on the internet these days:

Mary Manning / Unchanging Window
Elizabeth Dunker / Fine Little Day
Mike Mills / Blog for Beginners
Miranda July / Blog for The Future
Aunt Cheryl & Uncle Emerson / Under the Tuscan Thumb
Garance Doré / Garance Doré

Published by yuriono in Blog
Tags: inspiration, internet
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July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Mt. Diablo (HereWith)

HereWith's second project was an outing to Mt. Diablo State Park. We each packed tools to help us "make stuff." I took along a Super8 camera, Lomo LC-A and a Nikon F2. We didn't make any kind of itinerary, we just wanted to go up there and see what happened. It was one of those overcast and on-the-verge-of-raining kind of days, super cold and windy up at the top. We walked around a little, took some pictures, and drove down to a spot below the clouds and above the quickly approaching fog bank. I love those spots around a bend where two hillsides meet... sometimes there's a little creek, or an accumulation of rocks. We found such a spot, with lots of dried, long, matted-down grass and oaks scattered above. We created a narrative in our mind and just went with it.

At some point we are going to properly "process" what we made that day, but in the meantime here are some images:

Published by yuriono in Art
Tags: film, herewith, photography
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July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Next June (HereWith)

I am part of an art collaboration with Jason Hardy. We are calling ourselves "HereWith." We were invited to create a piece for an auction benefitting the Oregon Humane Society organized by Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney/Portlandia). The only rule was that it had to "have a bird on it."

Jason wrote a poem and I handled the rest. There is a long story that goes with the bird being depicted but I won't tell it now.

Published by yuriono in Art
Tags: herewith

July 1, 2011 — No Comments

Coming Soon

There are some new things on the horizon:

Coming this summer & fall!

Published by yuriono in Blog
Tags: news
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June 30, 2011 — No Comments

Coolsculpting

Barbarian Group partnered with Cutwater to relaunch the Coolsculpting brand and website. Coolsculpting uses an innovative technique which freezes "stubborn" fat cells through a non-invasive process. Gaining ground in the media and opening more offices around the world, the company wanted to rebrand themselves to be more consumer-friendly.

As Art Director, I was responsible for setting the visual language of the site while concurrently working with Cutwater's creative team on photography and typographic styles. Visit »

Published by yuriono in Work
Tags: barbarian group, work for screen
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June 30, 2011 — No Comments

Kashi, 2011 Cereal Trial Event

Every year Kashi launches initiatives called "trial events," which are multimedia campaigns that usually involve either product giveaways or discounts. The goal of these events is to gain new fans.

In spring 2011 we worked on a trial event that centered around their cereals. As their digital agency of record, The Barbarian Group collaborated closely with Kashi's broadcast, print, PR and packaging agencies in order to create a fully integrated campaign.

As Art Director and creative lead for the account, I led the creative work which not only involved visual design, but also strategy, concepting, IA/UX and content development.

Early concepts:

Published by yuriono in Work
Tags: barbarian group, content strategy, IA, strategy, UX, work for screen
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June 30, 2011 — No Comments

Kashi, Seven Whole Grains on a Mission

Kashi asked their team at The Barbarian Group to create a rich, interactive experience to tell their brand story, "Seven Whole Grains on a Mission." The key pieces of this story were: What are the seven grains? What makes them special? Where are they sourced from?

As Art Director and creative lead for the account, I led the creative work which not only involved visual design, but also strategy, concepting, IA/UX and content development.

Published by yuriono in Work
Tags: barbarian group, work for screen
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June 30, 2011 — No Comments

Sony Bravia 2010 Showcase

Odopod worked directly with the creative team at Sony to create an immersive, interactive experience that showcased the new Bravia television and the philosophy that informed its revolutionary design. The site is divided into "stories"– Design, Connectivity and Picture. Each story had chapters which had their own mode of interactivity.

I was involved with developing the site concepts and as a senior designer I designed the room environment, interface elements behaviors, title plates and window backgrounds.

FWA Site of the Day • Communication Arts Webpick of the Week

Published by yuriono in Work
Tags: odopod, work for screen
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