First off, I did not design these beautiful wallpapers. That was the work of Jamie Varon. I did, however, work with Shatterboxx on the user interface and overall experience of the app and worked with the developers on implementation. Some features included: filtering, coverflow interaction and preview mode.
Have you ever heard a song where the remix is better than the original song? This might be blasphemy to some, but I like this version of M83′s “Midnight City” more than the original. That’s saying a lot—absolutely love this song.
I want to just drive through concrete jungles, listening to this song.
What do you think?
If you told me that “get an app I worked on to be featured on the iTunes app store” was a goal of mine, you are wrong. Well, I guess things change.
Get an app I worked on to be featured on the iTunes app store
Paper’d is an iPhone app that allows you to browse through beautifully designed wallpapers for your phone and download them. Jamie and Nicole came up with the idea and connected with Adam and I to work on the Experience and Code. When Adam and I saw the idea, we knew this was a great idea that would go somewhere.
Week one has beyond exceeded our expectations. We were featured on the iTunes App Store, ranked #11 on top lifestyle apps and have had more than 40,000 downloads in one week. We were even featured on Mashable.
It was a lot of hard work and dedication to get this app out, but in the end it was so worth it. I couldn’t be happier to work with my best friend and a pair of new friends on an iPhone app.
I remember when Steve Jobs died, I told Adam that we should dedicate our work on Paper’d to him—really think about how to push this and make this a great app that people will love and want to keep using. It is amazing how much we have pushed the app together from the original idea.
We are very proud of what we have done, but want to make it better, make more apps and keep living, keep designing.
We passed Starbucks on the top Lifestyle Apps!
Number one might be tough to knock off. Note to self, don’t buy any Macs from your iPhone. We’re going for the top though—occupy app store!
We even got some BFF love from Alyssa
After living in Brooklyn for about three months, it’s becoming a weekly routine for me to go over to Atlantic Ave. and hit up the Brooklyn Flea Market. I’m always afraid to bring money to flea markets because I will spend a ton—so much great arts and crafts you won’t find anywhere else.
One of my favorite places at the flea market is W Records by Monkey. These guys take old vinyl records and create some pretty cool things: notebooks, necklaces, bracelets, keychains—see more on their website.
I absolutely love their stuff, and the reason is because of the material. Their product is 100% Brooklyn, from the look and feel and the practicality. When I was there a few weeks ago I was talking to one of the guys about the Beastie Boys song Rock Hard where they resample AC/DC. We were talking about how the Beastie Boys (who are also from Brooklyn) really mastered the art of resampling.
The stuff the guys make at W. Records by Monkey really reminds me of resampling—taking something old and giving it new purpose. If you are in Brooklyn go check out the flea market on Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm. If not, order their stuff online. I absolutely love the Brooklyn necklace I got (image above).
For those of you who remember me in a past life, I used to make a lot of art and draw. I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing. For a while, I was motivated to go back to grad school to get my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting and be a university professor.
My life has since moved in a very different path.
I absolutely love what I do now, and part of me feels like I am a better designer than artist. The biggest difference between an artist and designer is that an artist will create usually for the self and it is an expression of that. Designers, on the other hand, typically create for an audience or people…the users. I love designing for the users.
I still try to make time to draw a bit here and there. I did a little Valentine’s Day sketch of a Skrillex card. If you don’t know who he is, this probably isn’t funny at all.
Perhaps I should open a store on Etsy and continue to do doodles…if I have time.
I’ll make time.
