Welcome.

I finally got my studio setup in the new house. It’s been almost a year since I had real studio space to work in, so it took all of about 10 minutes before the urge started to take over. Currently working on a large oil on wood piece and a 12×12 canvas. Also, check out flickr for some recent photos - I’m terrible about updating but getting better.

Matt

This is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Every so often, usually during the NBA playoffs, I feel like a sports guru and choose to pontificate on my usually strange theories. One example is the idea of “kryptonite” in the NBA. I think all sports suffer from this, but I can’t even pretend to have knowledge about most other sports besides basketball. Kryptonite, as you may know from comic book lore is the space rock that can kill the otherwise invincible Superman. My version of NBA kryptonite is that there are teams that can’t seem to beat other teams, no matter what.

Case 1. Dallas versus the LA Lakers. At one point the Lakers bounced back from 40 points down, in Dallas, to beat them. Embarrassing. The Shaq led Lakers always seemed to find that extra something to beat Dallas, and eventually, Dallas started expected LA to win to. Even without Shaq, as long as Nowitzki is playing, edge goes to the Lakers.

Case 2. Everyone versus Jordan’s Bulls. Utah, New York, Phoenix, Detroit (after 91) and pretty much any other team during the Jordan years. People seemed to expect to lose to the Bulls.

Case 3. The San Antonio Spurs versus the LA Lakers. Any era. Now sure, I admit to being a Lakers fan so my bias is surely showing. Regardless, there is no denying that the Spurs only win when the Lakers are in trouble. Kobe has destroyed the Spurs. Shaq destroyed the Spurs. Fisher has stabbed the Spurs in the heart more than once. At Duncan’s absolute prime, he could not defeat a healthy Lakers team. He knows this. Pop knows it. And no matter how many Championships they win, the team knows that they didn’t have to go through the Lakers to get there. Duncan’s mechanical play will not ever hold up against Kobe’s passion for winning. Fisher can hold off Parker, Luke or Vujacic can cancel out Ginobli, and I don’t care who you match up with Duncan, they are no match for Kobe and Odom or Kobe and Pau.

It’s one of the magical things about the Lakers that makes me a fan. They seem to bring a mystique with them that makes any deficit seem fragile and the last two minutes of every game more exciting - that anything is possible. NBA writers will search to define this “kryptonite” feeling from watching the Lakers/Spurs series this year, I will sit by and watch as the Lakers hit a 3 at a crucial moment and the Spurs just crumble.

It’s May, but it’s never too late for hopes and dreams for a better 2008. So, 5 months late - here are my hopes for the rest of 2008.

I hope that businesses everywhere suddenly stop fearing change.

I hope that…

…people realize ALL relationships are two way.

…someone comes up with a vinyl quality music format that suits the iPod generation.

…and that it’s successful.

I hope that social media realizes that it needs to HELP people make money, like search, so it doesn’t fade away.

…that I never HAVE to sell my paintings.

…everything gets wi-fi, is networked, and I can control them with my 3G iPhone.

…that Apple never loses it’s soul.

…that Microsoft finds it’s soul again.

…someone finally figures out how to create renewable, portable hydrogen and puts it in my car tomorrow.

…Lakers WIN! Lakers WIN!

…next time, someone takes my advice and implements my recommendation WHEN I make it, rather than watch everyone else succeed with a lesser version. Really. It’s getting irritating.

…I never have to see a T-shirt with Tommy Hilfiger all over it.

…I find a copy of Secret Invasion #2.

…my wife gets everything she wants in life.

…spam finally just stops.

…the next president figures out how to make America beautiful again (to someone besides Bill O’Reilly.)

…I find the time to leverage this backlog of inspiration. It’s massive.

I hope that I no longer have to wait to see what’s next.

I hope that I learn patience.

Some have heard me babbling on about the idea of “the personal brand”, specifically how the web and the idea of product personalization will make personal branding a reality. The more I work online, with social networks especially, the idea of the personal brand takes shape and becomes a conversation about what’s happening now, rather than what will happen in the future. Take Myspace and Facebook and the idea that you now have the ability to create an “image” of who you are, or more likely, who you WANT to be online for the world to see. Myspace and Facebook offer oodles of options for personalization, as do pretty much all social networks these days. In fact, the social network you join says something about you as well. For example, Virb is like Myspace for creatives.

When you consider how easy CSS has made customizing the web, and how the web has made customizing your clothes easy, and how Apple and Adobe have made design easier (not everyone is a good designer, but it’s easy for them to try,) it seems as though many of us are already creating our personal brands. I see this the strongest in two areas - social/new media types, and artists. Modern pop artists have been doing this for years, as people like Jeremy Fish and Shepard Fairey become widely known (at least visually) their visual identity becomes synonymous with their name and define them as artists.

With social/new media types, the idea seems all the more transparent. They create profiles with their actual names on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Bebo, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Brightkite, and many others, and they use these methods to create their identity, often blending their personal and professional into one identity. It’s less about transparency and more about broadcasting. For those that gain enough followers or readers or friends, it becomes important to manage output like a business AND like a brand, carefully crafting the message and content. It’s fascinating to watch this come to life, and see the way different segments use different media online to develop what is becoming their own personal brand.

It certainly hasn’t reached critical mass yet, and we may be at least a decade away from the most extreme edge of the personal brand movement (such as carrying around our own logo files to have printed when we go buy a new shirt, for example.) For those folks who make their living online, however, personal brand is happening now and is very real. In fact, I think I’m going to create a “personal brand standards” document to help me manage my own personal brand. I’ll post it here soon!