Lately I’ve been running into a lot of inspiring work (and people) that make me want to shoot something outside of client work and make a statement. This video by Sebas and Clim (music by Aimar Molero) is another one of those works that really got me thinking, despite it being a 40 second video. I think more than just being a well-executed, simplistic video spot, it really hits home some points that when followed make not only a great story, but a great brand.

Truth be told, there are tons of people out there that can dream and create work in this age, but I think what separates good brands from great ones are people who can also love, respect, wait, trust, pledge, share and enjoy that work with others. Just something to think about.

It’s been awhile since we first showed you the UMG bamboo iPhone 4/4S case design, but after some nit-picking work on some final details (and a meticulous manufacturing process), the case finally arrived at our door yesterday. After unboxing the first case, I can tell you that we were absolutely blown away by its fit and finish. The little details came out great – including the aperture volume/mute switch controls. Once we slipped the case onto the iPhone 4S, we were thrilled to see how snugly the case fit the phone. Here’s a look back at the design (above) and a close-up of the final product (below):

Check out more views of the UMG bamboo iPhone 4/4S case below. If you’re interested in picking one up, they are going for $150 USD shipped. Limited run of 10. Three are already spoken for, so hit up info@unscenemedia.com to place an order ASAP! Thanks for the support!

The other day the Equilibrium team took a trip down to the studio to snap photos of the entire product line for the website re-launch next month. It seemed to be a running theme that we all couldn’t sleep much the night before for one reason or another, so after a quick pitstop at Starbucks to get some caffeine running through our veins, we headed down and started setting up.

It’s pretty cool having a Canon master tech amongst the EQ team – so While Ethan from Light n Motion and I were shooting throughout the night, Michio gave our gear a factory fresh, thorough cleaning. For anyone looking to get their gear refreshed in Chicago, I highly recommend getting in touch with Michio for a cleaning. You can hit him up HERE if you’re interested. I learned a ton while he was working over my lenses and 5DII/7D – thanks again, man!

Anyway, if you’ve been keeping up with our Facebook posts, you’d know the shoot went on LATE and things got pretty interesting past midnight, haha. Despite the 3am delirium, the shots turned out amazing and it was a great opportunity for Ethan to get to play with the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro for the first time. It was also my first time seeing the ABR800 in action. For anyone on the fence about it, this shoot turned me into a full-fledged believer.

By the end of the shoot (and although we were all drained), it was nice to chill for a second with our second round of coffees and talk about where else the brand was headed in 2012 and what we needed to wrap up before Q1 comes to a close. The year is still early, but there’s a ton left to bring you guys the rest of the year, so be sure to stay up with the EQ team! I’ll leave you with this Instagr.am compilation from Elisha of AppleAvocado and the rest of the behind the scenes snaps:

The only way you’d have missed the Equilibrium USG live 2012 commercial film coverage on Facebook is if you were in a coma. Thanks to Elisha from Appleavocado and her fury of social media ninja-ing, you were able to follow us by the minute throughout the jam-packed two day photo and video shoot. Here’s a compilation of the Instagr.am action:

It was awesome to actually put some of the first big EQ 2012 plans in motion and see just how many people support the movement, be a part of the filming and follow us all on our social networks to see what was coming next. The shoot spanned two, chilly days but in the end, every bit of the each long day was worth it and I’m so excited to put together the final video for you guys soon! And as per usual with any EQ project the team is involved with, motivation and excitement trump exhaustion any day…so here are some photos (and video above) I took during the commercial shoot to give you guys an even closer look:

To get an in-depth look into what the EQ team did throughout the two days (as well as getting to know a bit more about this year’s campaign called “Find Yours”), check out the play by play and more photos from Edouard Pierre on the Equilibrium USG post. Before running down all the ‘thank yous’, I have to extend my huge gratitude to EQ for letting me be a part of the team this year – it’s an honor to be able to put the UMG stamp on their creativity and provide my input throughout the 2012 campaign. Huge thank yous are also due to:

Videographer/Photographer:
Mike Maravilla of UNSCENE MEDIA GROUP

Photographer:
Edouard Pierre of EDOUARD PIERRE PHOTOGRAPHY

Assistant Videographers/Photographers:
Michio Fukuda, Adrian Domingo

Social Media Guru:
Elisha Rio-Apilado of APPLEAVOCADO

Models:
Edouard Pierre, Michio Fukuda, Elisha Rio-Apilado, Glyph Sputnik, Daryl Swapt, Richard Galvez, Mark Almara, Krissa Rivers, Kevin Penczak, Anthony Galvez, Clifton Raffel, Jarius “Man of God” King, Daniel “Bravemonk” Haywood, Vince “DJ Flipside” Garcia, Julian “Julian on the Radio” Nieh, Suchada “Susie” Chaiyadej, Isela Herrera, Morris Jamlang

Extras:
Thank you for your participation in our car scene as well as the club scene! We very much appreciate your time and effort to make this video happen.

Honda Ruckuses Donated by:
Albert Yau
Daryl Swapt

Cars Donated by:
AJ Gillett: Honda Fit
Allen Castillo: 1995 Toyota “POOPRA” Supra
Richard Galvez: 2003 Mitsubishi Evo 8
Richey Troia: 2007 Infiniti G35s
Krystian Fiedor: 1994 Mazda RX7
Larriz Noguez: 2011 Hyundai Sonata
Mark Olsen: 1990 Nissan 300zx tt
J. Tuazon: 2001 Honda S2000
Kevin Daelo: 2006 Infiniti G35 Coupe
Patrick Sayaphoum: 2005 Toyota Matrix
Jim Jursinic: 2004 Scion XB
Anthony Galvez: 2006 Honda Civic X
Morris Jamlang: 2003 Mitsubishi Evo 8

Bikes Donated by:
The Bike Lane

Locations:
RGB Lounge
The Wormhole
The Bike Lane
The Silver Room
Phil’s Cleaners
Dragonfly Mandarin
Logan Square Skate Park
Chicago Transit Authority (Western & Damen Blue Line)

Mural Background Shots:
YAMS (behind Phil’s Cleaners)
Martin Hershey “Uncle Hek” Sims (RGB Lounge Lower Level)
Rahmaan Statik (behind Silver Room)

Special Thanks:
Goes to Phalkun from EQ for coordinating all this!

As always, be sure to ‘like’ Equilibrium USG, Appleavocado and Unscene Media Group to keep up with the EQ team in 2012!

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

My friend Mark linked me up to this yesterday and I spent my Sunday morning watching it and offering up my thoughts about the Digital Revolution and this wonderful documentary around it. It’s a common discussion to have amongst creatives – to dissect what we think about how art is progressing, its accessibility and what defines it in the grand scheme of things. And while I can certainly complain about the endless amounts of garbage that circulates the web, the fact of the matter is (without this Digital Revolution) I would never be able to do the things I love doing. If you aspire to do something creative nowadays, you don’t necessarily have to know anybody, have deep pockets or get classically trained to at least attempt something artistic – this essentially embodies me. I didn’t grow up having an insane creative network, have remotely deep pockets and certainly didn’t go to school for anything media related, so I owe my humble beginnings to the encouraging, creative people I’ve met and the Digital Revolution. That being said I do have a problem with the fact that…

Everyone is a photographer…everyone is a musician. I find it annoying that people who own a dSLR will claim to be a photographer and slap watermarks on their over-saturated, auto contrasted FB photos like they are the next big thing. You’re not, but sadly you don’t know it yet. The same applies to the music industry. Now like I said, I’m not classically trained by any means so I don’t knock people for doing their own thing (nor am I claiming I’m the next big thing), but despite these technologies being much more accessible, sometimes you just have to know what you’re good at and what you’re not. It’s also led people to believe that the true worth of art is reflected in popularity – the number of hits, the fans, the retweets. By that logic, Rebecca Black is a good artist. I’d have to say that the one good thing that comes out of greater accessibility is…

More art than ever before. It’s becoming harder to filter through the dribble to find really good creative work, but in general there is just more art than ever before. Despite school art and music programs getting deeper and deeper cuts from the government, the art world continues to gain steam and flourish in all new ways. I think this is a truly amazing thing. And I believe we have the Digital Revolution to thank for this. If the government continued to cut artistic funding from schools without the Digital Revolution, what would enable young enthusiasts to dream as easily? Most children have (or at least have access) to a computer where they could at the very least watch inspiring media, teach themselves, or begin creating their own art right from home. And because the breadth of this information is on the web there is…

No cap on creativity. I think classical training always helps in the grand scheme of things. People often ask me if I would eventually go back to school for design, photography or cinematography. At this point in my life (in all honesty), I wouldn’t. But if given the opportunity to go back in time and pursue what I loved from the start, most definitely. As much as I believe that being self-taught leaves no boundaries to your creativity, exposing yourself to a slew of people who have similar ambitions (but also different perspectives and tastes) can only help. And despite being a total proponent of the Digital Revolution, I have an incredibly deep appreciation for people who can still manually cut film, record music, paint and develop photos.

I think what I love most about this new age is the blend of digital and analog art (in both actual practice and thought-process) and how improvisational and fluid digital media has inherently become. To say this the Digital Revolution has diluted art is short-sighted – it is art remixed. It’s the danger of this digital world that makes it seem cheap – the reliance of post-production rather than a refined talent. Again, the “everyone is a photographer…everyone is a musician” phenomenon. But as with everything in the digital age, it’s about filtering through it all to find work that can both show you something you’ve never seen before and bridge analog art with digital.

It’s amazing to realize the types of collaborations that can come out of this revolution and the stories that can be told locally, nationally or globally. Gone are the days of media regionalization – the world is open to artistic interpretation from whoever is willing to venture there and put their point of view on the web for everyone to see. This revolution will cause people to re-think the ways in which media is created, received, interpreted and sold. To realize that art has the potential to impact the world through technology in the way that industry did a century ago is incredible. It’s exciting times to be born in an analog age and create in a digital one.

If you haven’t swung by RGB Lounge to bring home a bit of the All the Small Things gallery, your time is running out FAST. The gallery is running until the end of December (which we all know is right around the corner) and features art pieces from our uber talented co-op members and are priced right so you can take home a lot without the guilt.

Since the show was titled All the Small Things, I busted out the tilt shift and had some fun with the photos. Check ‘em out and swing by RGB to get your last art fix of 2011:

A couple months ago I had the opportunity to visit a gallery show for McLean Bronze. After walking around the multi-floor gallery space and getting a chance to really appreciate the finer details of Jack and Alice’s metalworking, I knew that UMG had to get involved with their art. Coincidentally, their son and close friend were amidst making a documentary about McLean Bronze – both of them live on opposite coasts (New York and San Francisco respectively), so I took it as an opportunity to continue the McLean Bronze story and delve deeper into the inspiration behind their pieces on a regular basis.

In this case, I wanted to introduce you all to McLean Bronze while also highlighting his Little Deep Boats series. To my delight, Jack offered to actually start creating a piece right in front of my eyes. It was incredible to see how his process had refined over the two decades that he’s been producing these boats. You can actually see a photo of the finished product on the new UMG Facebook page. Shortly after, we settled into good conversation accompanied by some amazing vegetable stew that Alice had prepared, coffee and Christmas cookies. As I was starting to pack up, Jack brought down the ultimate surprise – a gift from his collection for UMG to take home…which just happened to be the piece that I was so drawn to from their gallery show in October. Here’s a quick iPhone snap of it:

Needless to say, after a great day of filming at McLean Bronze, I am extremely excited to see where this project leads. The more I am exposed to their art, the more I’m looking forward to intimately introducing you to the metalworkings from this Johnsburg-based studio. As an artist myself, it is extremely inspiring to know people like Jack and Alice who were able to sustain a comfortable life doing what they love. Here are a few stills I took while I was shooting video:

Ever since I had the privilege of tasting a cake pop from Mad Poppers, I knew it was a brand that I wanted to help get to the level they deserved. Luckily, it seems they felt the same way. Soon after we had a discussion about building a website, UMG was on board to put together the Mad Popper online presence with branding, web design, photography and video. I put together some mood boards for them to review and a couple days later, I had laid the foundations for the website to come alive. Seeing as these are undoubtedly the most delicious cake pops I’ve ever eaten in my life, the pressure was on to build a site that would reflect that tastiness. I called upon Elisha from AppleAvocado to lend a hand in creating the perfect logo for the brand while I focused on getting the website coded and trying to showcase some photo styles that I think would mesh well with the direction they want the site to go.

As we are starting to round the corner to the final stages to site launch, it seems only fitting to give you a little taste of what you can expect from Mad Poppers. Enjoy a few photos and a little video I shot while getting together with the Mad Poppers team!

One of the things I love most about UMG is how involved we can be in a project. Often times, clients come to us looking for one service in particular having seen our work elsewhere, but after we show them what we can do for them in a broader sense, we typically get the green light to show them what we’ve got. Case in point, what started as a website build for a client in the medical field soon became a BRAND build including a website, photography, video and identity package. After some extensive brainstorming and research about what void this brand could fill within its field, I took a break from some web design concepts to sketch a few marketing poster pieces that I would later digitally translate.

The medical industry is unmistakably notorious for being bland when it comes to website design and marketing materials. Of course, the industry itself wasn’t built on sales pitches and gimmicks – it’s about building upon a great slew of knowledge, a stellar reputation, individualized care and attention to detail. Taking these things into account, I wanted to create a few things that would modernize medical marketing both visually and by taking upon a more easily digestable/understandable infographic type of feel by manipulating scale and imagery we already understand.

I chose to keep the color schemes basic in concept form (White and a Dark Gray: #1e1e1e), though they could be colorized if necessary based upon client preference and moodboards. The poster on the left obviously plays upon our tendency to focus on shifts in scale. The poster on the right plays both upon the whole idea of ‘Multiply’ (as it is a client in the reproductive field) as well as a tribute to the worldwide airport destination maps we have all seen while flying (because a majority of clientele will also be international). The graphic is also a reference to the name. Here’s a screenshot with both of them imported into Photoshop:

(Click the image above to enlarge)

(Click the image above to enlarge)

To have known Chris since we were both car fanatics in high school and have the opportunity to shoot his wedding was an honor in itself. We were the only people amongst our car circle with old school Bronzit/Champagne Beige BMWs, though to Chris’s credit, his car was much cooler and MUCH faster than mine. But I digress. It was from these humble (and admittedly impractical) beginnings that we became friends. And when he actually proposed to Andrea, I was honored to have been picked to shoot their wedding. But having known what obstacles that Chris and Andrea had to circumvent ever since they originally planned to share their vows, I knew I definitely wanted to give them something special for their day.

The original wedding date we set had to be moved back after Chris had an unfortunate car accident in that beautiful Bronzit E30. Between the aftermath of this and some equally devastating news on Andrea’s side of the family, it was unfathomably difficult to get through the past couple years. As their new wedding date (9/10/11) rolled around, though, it seemed to represent much more than just exchanging vows – it was a declaration of perseverance and a true testament to:

“I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

Although most people wait eagerly to get to the all important “I do”, this time the words precluding that affirmation had a much more resounding meaning for them, their families and for me. Their wedding actually had two ceremonies – one in a traditional church and the other at a nearby country club where we were granted permission to their golf carts to run around the course to shoot photos before the second ceremony got going. By the end of the evening, it brought me to the brink of emotion having listened to the heartfelt speeches, seeing how supportive their friends and family have been and how happy they made each other. And admittedly, it was even difficult to find the right words for this blog. If someone were to ask me what unconditional love would be, I would introduce them to Chris and Andrea. Congratulations again to you both! Here are some photos from the day as well as a highlight video above: