| 00:18 | There's something really exciting
I guess about creating something.
|
| 00:22 | To make something.
|
| 00:24 | That's really why I like this business.
|
| 00:28 | Hello has been a place for me to do that.
|
| 00:38 | Things are constantly changing.
|
| 00:40 | In digital actually anything we do is living.
|
| 00:44 | Technology is evolving very quickly,
even interface design changes.
|
| 00:49 | So we actually strive to sort
of not create the perfect thing.
|
| 00:54 | We actually strive to create a solid
foundation, a solid base that we can evolve
|
| 00:59 | and grow over time with our clients.
|
| 01:04 | The web has been probably at the heart of what we do.
|
| 01:07 | We've never called
ourselves a web design company.
|
| 01:10 | The reason for that is because
we've never just done websites.
|
| 01:13 | We continue to do interface, application
design, product design, touch screen,
|
| 01:17 | kiosk, mobile applications, and games.
|
| 01:22 | We've had clients that come to us
and they've got everything under the sun.
|
| 01:26 | They're like we're on iTunes, we have
Facebook, we have blog, and we've got Twitter.
|
| 01:30 | But there's no thread that connects these.
|
| 01:32 | One thing could be saying one thing
that's different than another.
|
| 01:36 | They're all sort of chaotic.
|
| 01:37 | We're trying to figure out what is
the thread that can connect this back so that
|
| 01:42 | there's a meaningful story to tell.
|
| 01:44 | There's a meaningful dialog,
engagement, and relationship that consumers can
|
| 01:48 | have with their brand.
|
| 01:49 | That to us is really the challenge.
|
| 01:52 | It's creating simplicity out of chaos.
|
| 02:02 | David Lai: For me that journey at college
to "what do I do afterward" really was
|
| 02:17 | sort of a big question.
|
| 02:18 | Even if I went to school I felt like
I wouldn't really be studying what I wanted
|
| 02:23 | to do, which was really
more web digital interactive design.
|
| 02:28 | So I sort of figured maybe I should
go learn from the people who are doing it,
|
| 02:32 | that are doing it right now.
|
| 02:36 | I found this amazing digital shop
called Cow in Santa Monica started by five
|
| 02:44 | Art Center students.
|
| 02:45 | They too were really passionate.
|
| 02:48 | Because I think even when they were
in school they wasn't a digital program.
|
| 02:51 | So they created their own.
|
| 02:53 | So I went to work there and that's where
I met Hiro, a really talented designer.
|
| 02:59 | I never would have I thought we would
be future business partners, but you never know.
|
| 03:04 | You never know where you run into
somebody where you may find synergy or a way
|
| 03:09 | to sort of work better.
|
| 03:22 | Hiro was freelancing at the
time and I was figuring out the
|
| 03:27 | chicken and egg dilemma, like do I
just start a company and get clients or do I
|
| 03:32 | have clients and then start the company?
|
| 03:34 | And as fate would have it, the
Getty Museum called and asked me if I wanted to
|
| 03:40 | pitch them to redesign their web site.
|
| 03:43 | That's what I invited Hiro to co-pitch this together.
|
| 03:47 | We actually crafted this little booklet actually.
|
| 03:51 | On the cover Hiro had written
something like "why the Getty should hire us"
|
| 03:54 | or something and I deleted it and put
in big green letters "Hello, meet David and Hiro."
|
| 04:00 | I think when we gave that to the Getty
they thought that was the name of our company.
|
| 04:04 | So we laughed, but when we thought
about it, it made a lot sense.
|
| 04:08 | I mean "hello" is about communication.
|
| 04:11 | It's a greeting.
|
| 04:12 | You don't say that to somebody
you don't want to have a relationship with.
|
| 04:15 | And actuarially, what the web is
about; it's not about just
|
| 04:19 | disseminating information.
|
| 04:20 | It's about creating experiences for people
to build those relationships, to have
|
| 04:25 | dialog and connection.
|
| 04:27 | That's what we do as designers.
|
| 04:28 | We're connecting people.
|
| 04:31 | We made the commitment though to make
this a real company, that we weren't going
|
| 04:34 | to just be a band of freelancers sitting in our living rooms.
|
| 04:37 | We really wanted to make the
commitment of separating work and sort of
|
| 04:41 | personnel life.
|
| 04:43 | So probably within the first month
we actually started scouting spaces.
|
| 04:55 | This is where we started back in 1999.
|
| 04:58 | This is our first space in Culver City.
|
| 05:01 | You can see this is side street off
of a main street here, but really it was
|
| 05:07 | perfect for us, because we didn't
want to be on that main retail street.
|
| 05:11 | We wanted the side street.
|
| 05:13 | The smaller the better.
|
| 05:18 | We actually built one thing in the space,
which was a little wall with a counter
|
| 05:22 | so we could sit and eat lunch there.
|
| 05:24 | That was the only thing we built
and then this space back here was
|
| 05:27 | just workspace.
|
| 05:28 | This is where we started.
|
| 05:42 | So we moved from the smallest space
in this building actually to the biggest
|
| 05:46 | space within six months.
|
| 05:52 | This place was all empty.
|
| 05:52 | There was nothing.
|
| 05:53 | There was no wall or no conference room.
|
| 05:56 | There was literally nothing.
|
| 05:58 | So as designers we felt like we had to design this space.
|
| 06:04 | We tried to make workstations
to be really simple and practical.
|
| 06:07 | So these are half-height
cubicles that we made out of plywood.
|
| 06:11 | All of the desks are actually just solid core doors.
|
| 06:14 | So really simple.
|
| 06:21 | This was probably our biggest splurge
was to create this glass conference room.
|
| 06:24 | Partially because this is an L-shaped space.
|
| 06:27 | So by pulling the conference room out, we could let light in.
|
| 06:30 | By using glass it doesn't feel so small.
|
| 06:32 | It lets it feel more open.
|
| 06:35 | We've got designers sitting next
to programmers, next to strategists.
|
| 06:38 | So it's really a hodgepodge of people.
|
| 06:41 | We really try not to have departments
or areas that people have to sit in.
|
| 06:44 | I think that really creates a good
sense of cross pollination, letting people
|
| 06:48 | get up and talk to other people.
|
| 06:52 | When we first moved in obviously
we didn't have this long row of desks actually.
|
| 06:57 | We had this big empty space in
the middle and I think we had a ping-pong
|
| 07:00 | table in the middle.
|
| 07:01 | I think we've always had this slow
growth mentality, even when it came to do we
|
| 07:08 | open up another office in New York,
|
| 07:11 | we made the conscious decision that
we weren't going to just do it to do it,
|
| 07:15 | partially because we felt like the
connection, needing to be here. To look over
|
| 07:18 | the work is really part of the process.
|
| 07:20 | So again I think that that sort of
environment is really important to being
|
| 07:23 | able to do good work.
|
| 07:44 | So we created one of the first
touchscreens for TaylorMade Golf at retail.
|
| 07:49 | So that basically means it's a
touchscreen that you can come up to when you're
|
| 07:52 | looking at clubs and you can learn
more about the clubs and you can get tips and
|
| 07:56 | things from the pro golfers and things like that.
|
| 07:59 | Hiro Niwa: Basically, you touch anywhere
to stop the video and start the kiosk.
|
| 08:03 | So as I touch it at first
you're being presented with a simple menu.
|
| 08:09 | There are categories like Metalwoods,
Irons, Wedge, and Penta Ball.
|
| 08:13 | And these are the main categories of
products that TaylorMade specializes in.
|
| 08:15 | There are also sections like Tour Pros,
which is where they can get the news
|
| 08:20 | about the shows, and this kiosk gets WiFi enabled.
|
| 08:24 | So this information can be
remotely changed from a central location.
|
| 08:29 | So right now the TaylorMade is
offering two main Metalwoods groups of products.
|
| 08:34 | One is Burner and R9.
|
| 08:35 | So TaylorMade offers new clubs every
year so this next year they're coming with
|
| 08:39 | a new set of R9s and different Burner system.
|
| 08:42 | So again this is easily
updatable to be refreshed next year.
|
| 09:00 | David Lai: We're really talking
about things we truly believe in.
|
| 09:04 | If we don't feel good about it,
we're not going to sell that to a client.
|
| 09:09 | We realize that we needed to shift
the way we think about our business a few
|
| 09:14 | years ago, because we realize that
we in way we're already sort of like a
|
| 09:18 | digital agency for some of these clients,
where we've done work for them year after year.
|
| 09:24 | We start thinking, well,
why don't we just be their digital agency?
|
| 09:28 | So we started forming relationships with our clients.
|
| 09:31 | Clients are investing in us and
we're coming back with investing in their
|
| 09:35 | business as well, through ideas,
through the time and energy we put into that.
|
| 09:40 | That sort of base retainer allows us
to think about our clients on an ongoing
|
| 09:44 | basis so that we're just thinking
about them on a per-project basis.
|
| 09:48 | It's a very different model.
|
| 09:50 | Scott Arenstein: One of our newest clients is Tillamook.
|
| 09:55 | Tillamook is a dairy products
company and they're most famous for cheese.
|
| 09:59 | Specifically their medium cheddar.
|
| 10:01 | It's award-winning and here is baby
loaf of the medium cheddar cheese.
|
| 10:08 | So they came to us with a challenge
of really, they were revitalizing a lot of
|
| 10:13 | marketing stuff and really came to
us with how can we have a digital presence
|
| 10:17 | that really speaks to the brand and
speaks to the product, but also they have a
|
| 10:22 | very loyal and enthusiastic fan base and audience.
|
| 10:28 | When they called us we're really
excited, because we had a ton of Tillamook
|
| 10:31 | in our refrigerators.
|
| 10:37 | We are now their digital agency of record.
|
| 10:40 | It means that we're truly invested in their brand.
|
| 10:42 | It means that were constantly thinking about Tillamook 24/7.
|
| 10:47 | Meaning that everything they're
doing online to social media to physical
|
| 10:52 | experiences like their events or the
cheese factory, we're constantly thinking
|
| 10:55 | about how digital translates to their consumers.
|
| 10:59 | David Lai: Right now our focus is on building a foundation.
|
| 11:04 | That foundation starts with the web platform.
|
| 11:06 | So it's really their web site.
|
| 11:08 | Currently, they have something like five separate web sites.
|
| 11:11 | We're really trying to consolidate
those experiences into one place.
|
| 11:15 | They have this tagline of
"Tastes better, because it's made better."
|
| 11:20 | For us, we really wanted to understand what that means.
|
| 11:23 | That meant that we actually had
to go and experience that for ourselves.
|
| 11:27 | We actually had to go onto the farms,
we had to see why is their milk better,
|
| 11:31 | we had to pet the cows and see that they really were there.
|
| 11:36 | As we think about the web site,
we're actually connecting back to our
|
| 11:40 | experience on the farm.
|
| 11:42 | You get to see how they make it,
you get to actually obviously taste it.
|
| 11:46 | They make, as Scott was saying,
cheese, but they also make ice cream.
|
| 11:50 | So we got to eat a little bit.
|
| 11:52 | Actually, we got to eat a lot of both.
|
| 11:54 | So, yeah, of course, for research
that's really an important part of our process.
|
| 11:59 | Scott Arenstein: We're 100% behind
the brand and 100% behind their idea.
|
| 12:05 | If it works, that's great.
|
| 12:06 | If not, we're accountable for that.
|
| 12:08 | Then we learn from it.
|
| 12:09 | David Lai: We really want our clients
to feel like we are a specialized unit,
|
| 12:15 | but we are a part of their team.
|
| 12:16 | We are a partner.
We are a collaborator.
|
| 12:18 | And ultimately that's what leads to great work.
|
| 12:44 | Scott Arenstein: We've always loved Herman Miller.
|
| 12:46 | I mean, we have sort of our dream
client list and Herman Miller was like on
|
| 12:49 | the top of it.
|
| 12:50 | We have been sitting in Aeron chairs
for 12 years now and one of our jobs is to
|
| 12:56 | really bring new ideas to the
table, whether that be looking at
|
| 12:59 | how the digital toolset changes to new creative ideas.
|
| 13:05 | One thing that we always talk to
Herman Miller about is how do we elevate the brand?
|
| 13:10 | How do people associate an Aeron chair with Herman Miller?
|
| 13:13 | Because what we heard we talked to
people is that people can identify what the
|
| 13:16 | Aeron chair is, but they don't necessarily know who makes it.
|
| 13:19 | So one of our ideas was Design for You contest.
|
| 13:23 | Over the course of about six to eight
weeks these different prizes unlock and
|
| 13:28 | the more people that sign up,
the more prizes thaat get unlocked.
|
| 13:31 | They start off smaller, so there are
some smaller prizes you could win early
|
| 13:34 | on and as the contest goes on, the prizes
get bigger and at the very end there
|
| 13:38 | is this grand prize.
|
| 13:40 | We got very excited about partnering
with artists who created one-of-one limited edition chairs.
|
| 14:15 | David Lai: So you'll see here actually
drawing, painting, using X-Acto knives.
|
| 14:22 | We wanted to bring in some of their own personalities and elements.
|
| 14:26 | So you see like his tattoo.
The notion was sort of creating beautiful chairs.
|
| 14:33 | And that was what the artists were
doing, but then we sort of joked about
|
| 14:36 | what are we're doing?
|
| 14:37 | In a way we're creating art from their art.
|
| 14:40 | If you think about it, because we
needed to tell the story, we needed to show
|
| 14:43 | their art, with great photography, great video.
|
| 14:47 | Because otherwise it's not like
these chairs are just sitting in boxes and
|
| 14:52 | getting shipped out to people.
|
| 14:53 | Rather it's the fact that we
are trying to bring that story to life.
|
| 14:56 | So that's sort of our art.
|
| 14:58 | We made conscious decisions.
|
| 15:00 | We shot. We talked about
shooting really close-up shots of brush.
|
| 15:06 | Hajime Himeno: Really like really beautiful shots.
|
| 15:08 | But also kind of like getting these
behind the scenes kind of, showing the...
|
| 15:08 | David Lai: Yeah.
|
| 15:09 | You didn't always know what you're looking at,
I guess, but at the end of the day
|
| 15:18 | if people go "I really want
that chair," then we've done our job.
|
| 15:23 | So ultimately that was what we were
building, is telling that story so that people
|
| 15:27 | don't go, "Yeah, it just looks like somebody painted a chair."
|
| 15:31 | Rather they see the blood,
sweat, and tears that went into it.
|
| 15:33 | There is the beauty even in just seeing them work.
|
| 15:38 | We found that interesting.
|
| 15:39 | We felt like other people needed to see that.
|
| 15:41 | So that's really the reason that we did this.
|
| 16:06 | (Male speaker: Herman Miller? so you see the cities like that.)
|
| 16:12 | (So each one of these? you know maybe in between is like?)
|
| 16:17 | David Lai: My parents used to say that
I wouldn't go anywhere without my crayons and paper.
|
| 16:22 | I mean I kept loving to just draw stuff.
|
| 16:25 | For most kids, they like to draw,
but I think for me, I carried on that love of
|
| 16:30 | drawing far into elementary school
and high school and from an early age I
|
| 16:36 | really liked paper and pen and creating something out of that.
|
| 16:39 | I actually started playing with
computers through simple programming languages
|
| 16:47 | like BASIC and things like this.
|
| 16:48 | I think, I had taken an after-school
class or something and learned how to
|
| 16:52 | program really basic things like GOTO 10 and things like that.
|
| 16:55 | And you could make little basic programs run.
|
| 16:57 | And that was really exciting for me.
|
| 17:00 | So that was sort of my introduction to computers.
|
| 17:03 | Sort of the fact that it went beyond just writing things.
|
| 17:07 | It actually started to go into
really basic programming and understand you could
|
| 17:11 | create something that sort of could come alive.
|
| 17:13 | So, as the Macintosh grew and evolved,
I think I probably grew and evolved with it.
|
| 17:20 | I sort of kept upgrading to the next Mac.
|
| 17:23 | I think when the first color
Mac came out, it was like 256 colors.
|
| 17:28 | And I remember looking at one of
the graphics that you could create with it.
|
| 17:32 | And I just thought that was amazing.
|
| 17:34 | You could animate something.
|
| 17:35 | You could make it interactive.
|
| 17:37 | That was something I really hooked on, really early.
|
| 17:47 | The first book I ever wrote
when I was a senior in high school.
|
| 17:55 | I was doing a lot of icon design for
fun and so my friends asked me, "Hey, like,
|
| 18:01 | we'd love to learn how to do that. Could you tell us?"
|
| 18:03 | And I thought, you know what,
I will just write a little tutorial or something
|
| 18:06 | and share it with them.
|
| 18:08 | I wrote this book.
|
| 18:09 | I just sort of just decided to do it.
|
| 18:11 | It comes just like a floppy disk even.
|
| 18:13 | So back then, we had floppy disks.
|
| 18:15 | One of my first sort of experiences
is this sort of design at the pixel level
|
| 18:19 | where literally pixel by pixel you
created these little works of art that were
|
| 18:23 | 32x32 pixels in size.
|
| 18:27 | Whether it was like a little person
or animals, it didn't really matter what.
|
| 18:32 | I mean I think there is just something
really fun about icons that you could
|
| 18:36 | really have a lot of expression
in such a small space and so again I think at
|
| 18:40 | first we had something like
16 colors, I don't even remember.
|
| 18:44 | Not really many colors to work with
and very few pixels that we could
|
| 18:48 | actually influence.
|
| 18:49 | But if you just look at the fact
that you could actually create a thousand of
|
| 18:54 | these icons with that little space,
it just tells you the potential what you can do.
|
| 19:01 | For me, it was really about sort of just figuring it out.
|
| 19:05 | It could be frustrating at times.
|
| 19:07 | I mean there was points where
I didn't know what I was doing or it didn't work
|
| 19:10 | and things like that.
|
| 19:11 | So, I had done design freelance
or independently throughout high school and
|
| 19:18 | college where any opportunity to
design something, whether it was a flier or a
|
| 19:22 | brochure, poster, whatever it was I would jump at that opportunity.
|
| 19:27 | This initial sort of step of just doing
icon design was really sort of naive in
|
| 19:33 | a sense that I just wanted to create something better.
|
| 19:36 | I mean that's really where it started.
|
| 19:38 | I was using some applications that I really loved.
|
| 19:41 | I thought the user interfaces could
be better, so I took that challenge upon
|
| 19:46 | myself to try and make them better.
|
| 19:48 | And being sort of naive, I sort of
like packaged them up and emailed them to the
|
| 19:53 | company and said "Hey, you guys
should use these icons. Here they are!"
|
| 19:58 | And funny enough, they emailed me back
and said "Yeah sure, we like your icons.
|
| 20:03 | We would like to use them."
|
| 20:04 | And the next time that around that
company, that software company called me up
|
| 20:08 | and said, "Hey, we are doing another program.
|
| 20:09 | Would you be interested in doing the icons for them?"
|
| 20:12 | And I said, "Yeah, sure, definitely.
But I am going to have to charge you."
|
| 20:17 | And so that's sort of aspect of
sometimes you just got to do it worked for me,
|
| 20:22 | being a business designer.
|
| 20:31 | I wrote my second book when I was a sophomore in college.
|
| 20:34 | I basically wrote this book because
I wanted to teach myself how to use Photoshop.
|
| 20:40 | I actually didn't know.
|
| 20:48 | Huh.
|
| 20:51 | This is actually the book.
|
| 20:57 | So, this was the actual book that I have wrote, right here.
|
| 21:00 | So, this was the original.
|
| 21:02 | So, this basically became my cookbook.
|
| 21:08 | It was more self-taught--
I mean of course I was learning from books.
|
| 21:12 | I mean I love books.
|
| 21:14 | I think books are a core sort of way
to learn, but some of the stuff like I
|
| 21:19 | just sort of did just by learning on
my own things, like what's a layer or
|
| 21:24 | what's a mask?
|
| 21:26 | Other things like, actually I went
online and learn from other people too.
|
| 21:32 | I think if I looked at my work today
and it's the same thing in ten years,
|
| 21:36 | I've probably stopped learning.
|
| 21:38 | Learning is constant, so you are never
really the master of anything, and so
|
| 21:42 | the idea is that we are always trying
to learn something new everyday and that
|
| 21:46 | was sort of the philosophy when I
started and I think part of that reality was
|
| 21:49 | that by sort of thinking about that next
thing that you wanted to learn, you got better.
|
| 22:00 | For me, it was always about
being okay with not knowing something.
|
| 22:05 | I didn't need to pretend that I was
really good at everything, because I wasn't,
|
| 22:10 | and really the difference was being
willing to go out and learn it and try to
|
| 22:14 | figure out how to be better at it.
|
| 22:18 | My parents wanted me to find
a secure profession, as any parent would.
|
| 22:21 | They pretty much said, "I really
think you should go get a liberal arts
|
| 22:26 | education and you could always go to design school later."
|
| 22:28 | I think that's sort of how they convinced me of it.
|
| 22:31 | I applied to Cornell as a sort of Arts and Science major.
|
| 22:34 | I was in biology and really headed on the premed track.
|
| 22:39 | I mean I think you know parents wanted me to be a doctor.
|
| 22:44 | For me, what I quickly realized
is just because you are good at something like
|
| 22:47 | science or math, which is things
that my parents thought why it would be a good
|
| 22:51 | fit for me, is different than
having a passion for what you want to do.
|
| 22:58 | Between my junior and senior year
I had probably about six months to go and work
|
| 23:03 | and I got an offer to work
at Clement Mok Designs in San Francisco.
|
| 23:08 | The web was sort of coming to the
marketplace, in the sense that not a lot of
|
| 23:14 | companies had done big web sites yet.
|
| 23:16 | Companies were still trying to figure
it out and explore what is this web thing?
|
| 23:20 | What is this Netscape?
|
| 23:23 | There is a lot of limitations to that medium.
|
| 23:25 | We had 216 colors.
|
| 23:28 | At one point, we only had gray backgrounds.
|
| 23:31 | It was quite a challenge.
|
| 23:34 | Often it was sort of like you
had to just jump in and figure it out.
|
| 23:38 | A bunch of designers were working on the Nintendo web site.
|
| 23:42 | And I had asked one of the design
directors if I could participate, if I could
|
| 23:46 | throw my hat in the ring.
|
| 23:48 | And he said "Sure, why not?"
|
| 23:50 | I think as I started to work on that
design, he became one of those design
|
| 23:55 | directors became like a mentor
to me and really showed me how to do it.
|
| 23:59 | He would sit down next to me and I could watch.
|
| 24:01 | Overall the client liked my direction
and I got to work on that web site.
|
| 24:05 | So, its one of the first web sites
I got to work on actually was Nintendo's.
|
| 24:09 | For me that really confirmed this
was something I was really passionate about.
|
| 24:13 | I think it was really a confirmation that I could do this.
|
| 24:22 | I have seriously thought about going to Art Center.
|
| 24:24 | I really admired the work that was coming out of there.
|
| 24:27 | But at the time, since the Internet
and the web and digital was fairly new,
|
| 24:31 | there wasn't a lot of programs with
that kind of education so the curriculum
|
| 24:36 | wasn't really there yet.
|
| 24:38 | Second option was go and work
for a design firm that I admired.
|
| 24:43 | I worked for Cow where basically,
when there were students here, they had
|
| 24:47 | actually set aside a little room in
this building to do digital design, because
|
| 24:55 | there weren't digital design classes back then.
|
| 24:59 | Clearly, whatever they have learned,
I felt like they are passing on to me as well.
|
| 25:03 | So, in a way I was getting my
education through these Art Center graduates.
|
| 25:07 | And one of them said "Hey, one of
the directors of the digital program is
|
| 25:13 | looking for new teachers" and said
they recommended that he talked to me.
|
| 25:18 | And so after talking to him,
he basically offered me a position to teach
|
| 25:21 | at Art Center.
|
| 25:22 | So, the school that I thought I was going
to apply to 6 months later I was actually teaching at.
|
| 25:29 | It wasn't just about me telling students what they should do.
|
| 25:34 | In fact, students challenge you
and they challenge the way you think as well.
|
| 25:39 | To hear from students and to get
their thoughts about this space, this medium,
|
| 25:44 | this digital medium.
|
| 25:45 | What they wanted to do with it.
|
| 25:47 | What their hopes were of.
|
| 25:48 | What they wanted to learn.
|
| 25:49 | I definitely enjoyed that.
|
| 25:50 | I had a class that was pretty diverse.
|
| 25:55 | It was a digital media class and web design.
|
| 25:59 | So that basically meant that I was
teaching classes that had students from all disciplines.
|
| 26:03 | Transportation designers, product
designers, graphic designers, you name it.
|
| 26:08 | Really what I was trying to teach
is the fundamentals, how do you really learn
|
| 26:12 | to conceptualize and think
about interface design as a real discipline?
|
| 26:16 | How do you actually take the
fundamentals that you have already learned in
|
| 26:18 | design and apply those to this new medium?
|
| 26:25 | So, this is the classroom
where I taught for nearly five years.
|
| 26:29 | I was here probably three hours a day every week.
|
| 26:33 | So, really this was an unusual place
for some of the students because one of the
|
| 26:38 | first things that we did
was actually draw with pencil on paper.
|
| 26:42 | And actually try not to really touch
the computer, get into Photoshop, maybe
|
| 26:46 | until halfway through the term.
|
| 26:48 | So I was really trying to teach the
students things that they couldn't learn in books.
|
| 26:54 | We could literally sketch hundreds
of interfaces and really it's sort of
|
| 26:57 | paper prototyping, before you actually
commit to the computer and you are
|
| 27:01 | sort of invested in that.
|
| 27:03 | You feel like "Oh, I have spend
so much time in Photoshop, I have
|
| 27:06 | to keep going, whether this works or it
doesn't." It was a lot of fun, but after
|
| 27:14 | five years, I realized that I really
needed to focus on Hello and growing the
|
| 27:18 | business because Hello is really
actually starting to gain a lot of momentum and
|
| 27:24 | I still do invite students
to come into our studio every year.
|
| 27:29 | We always have classes
come in and visit.
|
| 27:31 | It's really nice to still have
that connection back to school and I always
|
| 27:35 | told the students this is the place
where you could really push yourself and
|
| 27:38 | you can experiment.
|
| 27:39 | You don't have a client and so in
a way, it's sort of nice to be back in that
|
| 27:43 | environment where you can sort of
have that "blue sky" thinking again, that
|
| 27:47 | reflection of how do I become better at what I do?
|
| 28:05 | (Instead of cities, what if it was a silhouette of like
5 cities that we're going to visit? And they're connected?)
|
| 28:11 | What I do best is the creative side,
the conceptual side, the strategic side.
|
| 28:15 | I don't know much about like health
insurance and benefits and all the
|
| 28:19 | nitty-gritty of running a small business but
I have to deal with that day-in and day-out.
|
| 28:23 | To be able to have partners
who can either give us advice, that can hook us up
|
| 28:30 | with the right partners, allowed
us to sort of free of some of that concern.
|
| 28:36 | Early on when we started, we had a
relationship with an ad agency called
|
| 28:39 | Crispin + Porter and Bogusky, and Chuck
Porter, who was the chairman of Crispin, Crispin
|
| 28:45 | had basically sold a potion of
themselves to MDC partners and he sort of
|
| 28:51 | introduced me to this idea and said
"What do you think about becoming part of
|
| 28:54 | the MDC partners network?"
|
| 28:57 | We loved the idea of collaborating
with other talented people and that was one
|
| 29:01 | thing that attracted us to this
MDC network, that there was other talented
|
| 29:06 | people on this network that
did other things that we didn't do.
|
| 29:09 | Whether it was advertising, whether it was PR,
whether it was-- it could be anything actually.
|
| 29:15 | It was really this diverse set of people
and that was attractive to us, that we
|
| 29:20 | could collaborate with others within
this network and so we don't have to
|
| 29:24 | pretend to be the experts anymore.
|
| 29:27 | We still are a fairly small agency,
but with MDC partners, we have got the
|
| 29:34 | backing of a public company basically.
|
| 29:37 | We never used to do monthly financial
reports and things like this because you know,
|
| 29:41 | we are a creative company and
it's very hard to have that side of the
|
| 29:45 | business discipline that you need to have.
|
| 29:47 | We are able to just sort of
balance the two, like how do we stay
|
| 29:50 | entrepreneurial but at the same
time understand that there is this
|
| 29:55 | responsibility of how you measure
your sort of business success, like to make
|
| 30:00 | sure that you do operate as a business.
|
| 30:03 | So, if we'e got ideas for expanding,
they are there for us and it's more a
|
| 30:08 | decision of should we do it
strategically than can we do it financially.
|
| 30:13 | So, we see them as a sounding board.
|
| 30:16 | The other thing was that they are hands-off.
|
| 30:19 | MDC never wanted to meddle in our
business and to this day, 5 plus years
|
| 30:24 | later, they don't.
|
| 30:26 | They don't meddle in our business.
|
| 30:28 | They let us run our business the way we should.
|
| 30:30 | So, they really are a partner.
|
| 30:32 | They invest an equity stake in your business.
|
| 30:34 | But they don't outright own you,
and the reason for that because they want us to
|
| 30:39 | be vested in this business.
|
| 30:41 | So in a way MDC allowed us
to sort of do what we do best.
|
| 30:56 | To work here you've got to be open to working on all
|
| 30:59 | kinds of projects in the first place.
|
| 31:02 | We really have never been specific
to a kind of project or a kind of client.
|
| 31:06 | You sort of have to just be a curious person.
|
| 31:08 | But we have a balance too, in that
we try to find the right fit for people.
|
| 31:13 | If somebody is passionate about
something, we try to line that up with their
|
| 31:17 | passion so that it comes through.
|
| 31:19 | I think that's what drives us.
|
| 31:20 | I mean, really the opportunity
to find things that pique our curiosity.
|
| 31:29 | Scott Arenstein: I spend a lot of time in music.
|
| 31:31 | I played the violin since I was like four or five.
|
| 31:33 | I have always had a very strong
connection with classical music in particular.
|
| 31:39 | I followed the LA Phil for many, many years.
|
| 31:42 | I mean most of my life.
|
| 31:43 | And David and Hiro, they've always
known I've loved classical music and I think
|
| 31:48 | even when we got the RFP, like David
forwarded it to me and was like, "Here you
|
| 31:54 | go violin boy," or something funny,
like sort of hinting that I would be very
|
| 31:58 | excited and very happy about it.
|
| 32:11 | The LA Phil was in a huge transition last year.
|
| 32:14 | I mean, Esa-Pekka Salonen had been here for many years.
|
| 32:17 | He was transitioning to some other things.
|
| 32:19 | And so there was a big search
for this new music director and conductor.
|
| 32:22 | And I mean, everyone in the world wanted Gustavo Dudamel.
|
| 32:24 | He is very energetic, very passionate
and innovative musician and conductor.
|
| 32:32 | Every major orchestra in the world wanted him.
|
| 32:37 | Basically, the LA Phil came to us
and the concerts that he was conducting that year,
|
| 32:42 | they were all sold out.
|
| 32:43 | They had been sold out for months.
|
| 32:44 | So the reality is, how do you sort of market
this new person but then also say
|
| 32:49 | like, oh, sorry, you can't actually see him?
|
| 33:00 | When I first started seeing video
clips of him, I mean just when he is
|
| 33:03 | conducting and his hair's going all
over, I mean, it's not very typical of what
|
| 33:07 | you see in a traditional environment.
|
| 33:09 | So when we saw this energy from this
artist and the fact that he was from
|
| 33:14 | Venezuela, he was 28 years old, and
we saw all these huge opportunities of how
|
| 33:18 | that could translate to reach
a younger audience here, to reach a more diverse
|
| 33:23 | audience here, a more Latin American audience as well.
|
| 33:28 | So for us, our initial thinking was,
how do we translate his passion?
|
| 33:34 | How do we translate his energy
into something that people can
|
| 33:38 | experience digitally?
|
| 33:40 | We also were very interested in
how can we sort of replicate a very physical
|
| 33:46 | performer and sort of explain to
people maybe why he does that and educate them there.
|
| 33:53 | So here's Disney Hall.
|
| 33:57 | What I loved about the space is
that you could sit in so many different places.
|
| 34:01 | I mean, I had never seen sort of
this back seating here, where you're pretty
|
| 34:05 | much like in the orchestra if you're sitting there.
|
| 34:07 | You can really see Gustavo.
|
| 34:10 | One thing that I really saw as
something cool with this project is, how do you
|
| 34:16 | take this environment, this amazing space,
and then create an experience so
|
| 34:20 | people can really feel that?
|
| 34:23 | It made total sense for us to really use a mobile device.
|
| 34:28 | What we did was really we partnered
with the LA Phil and were able to leverage
|
| 34:32 | some of the music that Gustavo actually conducted.
|
| 34:36 | And what we did was we sort of
sliced it up and put it into the phone and
|
| 34:41 | created an application where it was
sort of like a virtual orchestra in your pocket.
|
| 34:47 | Basically, if you load the app,
you can select a piece that Gustavo actually
|
| 34:52 | conducted and recorded.
|
| 34:55 | So we have four excerpts here.
|
| 34:57 | If you click one, it loads the piece and you're ready to conduct.
|
| 35:00 | (Music playing)
|
| 35:06 | So it's really leveraging the accelerometer every time I hit it.
|
| 35:10 | (Music playing)
|
| 35:18 | And if I go faster, I mean you really can sense it.
|
| 35:23 | If I go slower, you can really draw it out.
|
| 35:28 | (Music playing)
[00:35:44.00
And then it will just loop.
|
| 35:46 | And you can constantly be
conducting in Disney Hall a virtual orchestra.
|
| 35:50 | (Music playing)
|
| 35:57 | The media attention and the
press and everything was great, but
|
| 36:02 | when I saw kids playing this outside
of Disney Hall, and even personally,
|
| 36:07 | my five-year-old nephew.
|
| 36:09 | Whenever I came home, he would ask
if I could play that music app and he would
|
| 36:12 | grab my iPhone and load it himself
and be swinging it and really getting into it.
|
| 36:17 | So it was really that initial
exposure into classical music I saw as just
|
| 36:22 | being something amazing.
|
| 36:25 | So for me this experience has been
really cool and I hope other people have
|
| 36:29 | enjoyed this app and enjoyed the
game and getting to know Gustavo Dudamel.
|
| 36:53 | David Lai: Being a little paranoid,
we immediately secured two spaces instead of one.
|
| 36:59 | We quickly realized that we didn't
really need two spaces and we said well, maybe we
|
| 37:04 | can do something with it.
|
| 37:09 | My wife and I, we knew nothing about
setting up a cafe or running a restaurant,
|
| 37:14 | But we had this optimistic sort of
belief that it wouldn't be that hard, which,
|
| 37:21 | again, I think is the way you learn.
|
| 37:26 | Building out Tea Forest was probably
more painful and stressful than
|
| 37:29 | building out Hello.
|
| 37:35 | We went to expos and stuff like that
and really tried to understand this business.
|
| 37:40 | Running a cafe is very different
than running a design business and I knew
|
| 37:43 | nothing about making-- I didn't even
know how to make espresso, to be honest,
|
| 37:47 | when we first started.
|
| 37:48 | So I think one of the challenges was
like, I think we had two floor sinks
|
| 37:52 | back here, for example.
|
| 37:53 | We had to literally channel out the
concrete with like huge concrete saws
|
| 37:58 | and dig dirt up here.
|
| 38:00 | I mean, it was crazy.
|
| 38:07 | This mural was actually painted by an artist named
|
| 38:09 | Philip Lumbang.
|
| 38:11 | We pretty much created this
place to be a creative space as well.
|
| 38:14 | So we invite artists all the
time to come in and show their work.
|
| 38:17 | And so Phil came in and painted this for us.
|
| 38:38 | Phil's work that's been here
at Tea Forest is now blending over
|
| 38:41 | to some of the work we're doing over at Hello as well.
|
| 38:43 | A lot of artist collaborations
are friends or they are people that we've
|
| 38:48 | collaborated with before.
|
| 38:50 | Jon Burgerman, Dave Kinsey.
|
| 38:52 | A really eclectic mix of people
just to, again, share that art with
|
| 38:56 | the community.
|
| 38:57 | It was never meant to be a real gallery per se.
|
| 39:00 | Oddly enough, there's a ton of art
galleries down the street, some world class
|
| 39:03 | art galleries and in a way it's sort of nice.
|
| 39:06 | Even those people who work in those
galleries come in here and grab coffee and stuff.
|
| 39:15 | I think within the first week of
opening up Tea Forest we probably knew
|
| 39:18 | more about our neighbors and the
neighborhood than we had ever know in like
|
| 39:22 | three years prior.
|
| 39:23 | So we have definitely invested in Culver City.
|
| 39:28 | This was considered the redevelopment zone.
|
| 39:30 | So there wasn't very many places to eat, hang out.
|
| 39:35 | We love the fact that this has
been more a community place than it has been
|
| 39:39 | trying to be a restaurant or a cafe rather.
|
| 39:42 | I think it has been more about a
place where people can meet other people
|
| 39:45 | and talk to each other.
|
| 39:54 | We got to learn about the community
far more than we ever would have just
|
| 39:58 | being here as Hello.
|
| 40:01 | I think that's because the nature of
our business is, you know, you shut your door
|
| 40:03 | and you are sort of like doing your
work here and nobody knows what you do,
|
| 40:06 | where a cafe is all about being open
and inviting people in from the street and
|
| 40:12 | to have a conversation.
|
| 40:13 | So Tea Forest has become sort of a pleasant surprise for us.
|
| 40:17 | It was always meant to be this
sort of experimental business and we would just
|
| 40:22 | do it for fun, kind of stuff,
and it sort of grew to be something else.
|
| 40:25 | So yeah, you never know where things will take you.
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