We had so much fun duking it out against Esperanza last night at Graveyard Tavern that we’re already talking about doing it again! We’ll go even bigger next time! Thank you to everyone who came out and witnessed the throwdown, and special thanks to those who participated as part of Team Process. The final score was 3 - 2 in favor of Process! We won the categories of Darts, Pool, & Bearfights. Esperanza kicked our butts in Arm-wrestling and Sticker High-jump.

Finally, big thanks to our sponsors/supports: No Brakes, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jameson, SMKA, Standard, Fadia Kader, AsianCajuns, & Sorry Darlin.

Photo documentation of the evening after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Name:
Jeff Shinabarger

Aka:  
Shinny

Website:
www.giftcardgiver.com
www.plywoodpeople.com
www.jeffshinabarger.com

Where are you from?
From Lansing, Michigan
Now live in East Atlanta Village

Who do you work for? 
I hope I tell the stories of people in great need (often in poverty) and
find simple ways to connect that need with people of privilege.

What are your Current Project(s)? 
Launching a more-than-profit business called Plywood People – An innovative
community addressing social need. Creating a new campaign for an incredible
service organization in urban neighborhoods across the nation named Mission
Year. Creative Directing for a leadership experience
called Catalyst. Launching a viral microfinance
campaign called Never Ending Hope. Always collecting unused gift cards.

Who would you love to work with?
Excited to work on a small project with Chuck Anderson. Andre 3000. Shepherd
Fairey. The Peeps at All Day Buffet.

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
TOMS.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Zach Williams. Anathallo. Jay Z. Ryan Adams. Radiohead. Wild Sweet Orange.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Anything from Agave

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
The Midway in East Atlanta Village.

What are your Pet Peeves?
Talking and not doing. Cracking gum while chewing. Not clearing the
microwave and leaving 2 seconds on the little screen.

Shout outs?
My wife, Andre – she does the hard work of serving at Grady everyday.
Max. My dog – he is cool in every way.

Here’s a new track from Big Boi’s latest LP, Sir Lucious Leftfoot, which is supposedly coming out soon. This track brings back the all-too-familiar pace that sets him apart from the rest. Instant classic! Gotta love the East Point shout out at the end!

Thanks to Dax from SnortThis.com for keeping us in the loop!

Download: Big Boi - Shine Blockas ft. Gucci Mane

Photo by Kevin Byrd

Name:
Travis Ekmark

Aka:  
My first car was a humble 1989 Mazda 626. My friends called it “The Crappy Travis.” Eventually, the nickname for the car became interchangeable as a nickname for me. 16-year-old me was not pleased.

Website:
travisekmark.com
travisekmark.tumblr.com

Where are you from?
Atlanta, y’all. Please.

Who do you work for? 
Myself, Armchair, and People of Resource.

What are your Current Project(s)? 
At Armchair: writing, design, and production of content for the College Board take up most of my time these days. I have to say, our team is killing it lately.

For People of Resource, I’ve been doing some writing for DEX Studios and some internal strategy and design.

Just finished some work through Quo Vadis for lighting designer Christopher Moulder.

I’m designing a short publication for some of my favorite furniture designers, Rich Brilliant Willing. Also: doing a new tour poster for a very talented old friend, Sean Renner.

Figuring out systems, strategy, and social movements with Ted, Sri, and Melissa at Entry Level Big Thinkers. Trying to understand where young, upstart designers and thinkers fit into that space.

Gluzman and I are attempting to gain some footing as to where our collaborative relationship will go next as Mingle (eager to get more 3-D). Ted and I have begun a new art and design project, but it’s kinda hush hush for now. 

My wife and I keep a food blog of low-res iPhone photos of things we eat or make (and articles we like) called How to Eat Food.

Who would you love to work with?
I learn so much from all the people I’m working with now. Being in demanding, open, collaborative environments like Armchair and Resource is probably my favorite thing in the world. I’m psyched to go to work everyday and I feel pretty fortunate in that regard. Otherwise, I’d love to collaborate with some more outside-of-ATL friends: in particular, Foda Studio in Austin, Craig Berman in Chicago, and American Design Club in New York. Other dream teams: Charles and Ray Eames, Daniel Eatock, Naoto Fukasawa, OMA/AMO, Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam. 

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
Real answer: Beat-up Adidas Sambas. Preferred future answer: Air Max 95s in the original colorway. Or the Jordans from around the same time that had the patent leather. Nike was on fire then.

What’s on your iPod right now?
A constantly evolving mixture of old favorites, things I read about on blogs, and things I hear Farbod play at Armchair. To be specific, I can’t get enough of: Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, Animal Collective, Sigur Ros, Washed Out, Volcano Choir, Bibio, Eluvium, and The Field.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
The standard Chick-fil-a Chicken Sandwich, Nuevo Laredo, or whatever the moment dictates on Buford Highway.

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Octane

What are your Pet Peeves?
Ugh, my own work habits: I love new projects and I love working hard, but I’m also incredibly easy to distract.

Shout outs?
My lady, Stacy, and my kids, Bennett and Vivian. Additionally: My brothers, Kevin and Kenny. Sibling-in-laws: Noelle, Trey, and Nick. Armchairs: Kevin, Stefan, Farbod, Nate, Aaron, Michelle, JTrav, Melissa, Ryan, Gluzman, Erica, Rebecca, Marta. Resourceful People: DVA, Sloan, SK. All Yall: Sean, Ted, Nik, Rick Julian, Chris, Shelton, Collin, Zak, Josh, James Nord, Dudes of Sid Mashburn, new friends, old friends I don’t see enough of, and, the internet.

Come one, come…100 only! ESPERANZA & THE PROCESS have teamed up with your Atlanta Hawks to bring you a sporting experience like no other.

We have been given a block of lower level, center-court seats so that you can open up the 2009-2010 Hawks season in style on October 28th. Only 100 of these normally $80 tickets will be sold at a discounted price of $50. And if that weren’t enough… Each ticket will include the following:

-Pregame Tailgate
-Courtside Access for Pregame Warmups
-A Complimentary Chic-Fil-A Meal
-A Gift Bag of Game Day Exclusive Products from Esperanza, Process, & Sponsors with details leaking soon.

Important: All tickets will be waiting for you at will call at Philips Arena on game day. We are not shipping any of these tickets to anyone. Just swing by Will Call with a photo I.D. and your tickets will be under your name.

Click on the ticket above to purchase (via Esperanza’s webstore).

Name:
Joe Martinez

Aka:  
Joe Focus, J-money, Joe Martinez Photography

Website:
www.joemartinezphotography.com

Where are you from?
Always an interesting question. My parents are in the Navy, so I don’t have a “hometown” per se. We moved up and down the east coast for a while before heading out to Okinawa, Japan for 8 years (our longest deployment), so I guess technically I’m from Okinawa (aka, THE ROCK!)  

Who do you work for? 
I’m a freelance photographer so it varies, but I guess my biggest clients are Atlanta Magazine, Yahoo! Music, Converse, and Decrypt Productions.

What are your Current Project(s)? 
I just finished up shooting a couple assignments for ATL Magazine which should be in the October & November issues. Before that, I was in Europe shooting some press kit images for international singer-songwriter, Ana Free, and my good friend, Blake Brandes. We shot for two weeks in the Greek Islands; white sands, crystal clear water, and amazing weather. All in a hard days work! Next up, I’m looking to continue some personal projects and get some new promotional pieces out. Gotta stay grinding!!

Who would you love to work with?
I’d love to shoot for Monocle Magazine and GOOD Magazine. Love their design and the organic look to all of their photography. I’d also like to do some collaborative documentary work with some of my fellow young shooters here in the ATL.

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
My BRONZE Nike R9 soccer cleats. They’ve been all over the world with me, and even though the soles are finally starting to fall off, I’ll keep taping them up until they literally fall off my feet.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Ryan Leslie, Third Eye Blind, Phoenix, Maximo Park, Soulfire, Blueprint 3, J. Cole, Janelle Monae, Little Brother, Outkast, Kid Cudi, Common Market, Blu, Blue Scholars, Mos Def, Fabolous, Donnis, Frank Sinatra and John Mayerz, haha.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Western omelette from the Majestic for breakfast, Brick Burger from Brick Store for lunch, anything from 2 Urban Licks for dinner. Oh, and R. Thomas for a late night snack.

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Every time I think I’m over El Bar, I show up and fall in love all over again.

What are your Pet Peeves?
Dook University, the Cowboys not making the playoffs, dudes in super skinny jeans, Comcast, tourists, past due invoices, bad photography from good photographers, cheap labor from bad photographers.

Shout outs?
Big shout out to THE Wake Forest University, all of my fellow Demon Deacons, Coach Buck and the LuHi Crusaders, the Huge Mules, DJ Decryption (Yo Mookie!!) , Ana Free (Greecey!), Juliet & Ed, The Soulfire fam, ALL of the A.I. JOE SUPPORTERS, Treehouse crew, EC, The Graduates, Innuendo, the Columbus crew: Swellica (and Babo!) & J-Shores, Furlough Creamery, Ross “Rossome” Martin Photography, Jamie “J-Hops” Hopper Photography, Emily “E-Drizzles” Dryden Photography, Special K (Die first, then quit!), the whole Oki crew (Which Foo??), all of my OZ/NZ friends, to my little sis who just graduated from college and is already making more money than me, and to my mom (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!) and dad…this will all be worth it one day. Hang in there with me.

I’ve been reading a lot of Atlanta Hawks Basketblogs lately, and they’ve officially confirmed that the Hawks ARE unveiling a new alternate jersey on October 25th (3 days before Opening Night). I have a feeling (actually more like verbal confirmation from the beaks of designers at ATL Spirit) that they are going to be red jerseys with ATL written across the chest… similar to my mock-up that I posted during last season’s playoffs.

This is really exciting for peeps out there that are hardcore about sports-branding like myself. Sign me up for a #27 Zaza Pachulia joint!

photo taken from AJC.com

I apologize about the lack of updates lately. We, among other ATLiens, have experienced being flooded out from historic rains over the past few weeks. Here are some photos taken at our apartments by Jared Dalcourt this past Monday. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Germon from ThoughtMarker sent in this sweet photo of him enjoying one of the last days of summer 2009 in one of our “Dirty South” trucker caps. If you want to know what’s going on in the underground art scene in ATL, his blog is the go-to spot.

Photo by Kevin Byrd

Name:
Michael Gluzman

Aka:
Gluz or The Gluz

Website:
www.michaelgluzman.com

Where are you from?
Riga, Latvia

Who do you work for?
Armchair Media, Quo Vadis, Christopher Moulder, and myself.

What are your Current Project(s)?
I just wrapped on a short film directed by David Bruckner called One for the Road on which I was the production designer. I’m also working on a miniature DIY video about the SAT Test at Armchair Media for the College Board.

Who would you love to work with?
Honestly, I’m already working with some of the people I’ve always wanted to. I get to work with Christopher Moulder, David Bruckner, Wesley Wingo, Travis Ekmark, the people of Quo Vadis, Armchair…that being said, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with Teague, Frog, Formation, Ziba, or with some of the greats of cinema.

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep?
My silver Diesels.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Miike Snow, Jay-Z, David Guetta, Trentmoller.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Cheese Fritters and Belgian Fries from The Porter.

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Octane.

What are your Pet Peeves?
When people finish my sentences. People who say they will do something and never do. Pretention.

Shout outs?
Shout out to my wonderful lady, Ieva. Shout out to my family, friends, coworkers, and cohorts.

I just finished this illustration for our friend and local DJ, Rob Wonder. He’s been on tour with Scion this summer and just started a new campaign. We’ve been working on a few things with Rob so keep an eye out for more stuff to come soon. Photograph was taken by Zach Wolfe who just recently just shot the cover of Time magazine. Congrats Zach. Big things happening in Atlanta.

Here are a few close-up shots after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a new track from an ATL artist, PILL, that’s debuting this week on MTV Jams. What’s special is that this video was filmed and edited by our friends, Zach and Sumner respectively, from Zach Wolfe Live. This is their first music video to produce and they’ve already made it to MTV. They are batting 1.000! Congrats fellas! How many A-town landmarks can you spot?

Franco from XTM Online sent me this video from last weekend’s Faster Mustache 24 Hour Urban Bike Relay. It’s raw footage at this point, but it’s just a taste of what he’ll be compiling for a larger project. I know Ted has raced in this event before and it’s especially neat to watch the riders near and around our old digs downtown.

One of my favorite artists, Steven Dixey, is showing new pieces in a series called The Road to Damascus at Beep Beep Gallery on Saturday night. I’ve been anticipating this show for months now. If you call yourself a fan of the arts, you HAVE to see his iconic work. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick up something nice for the Treehouse!

Name:
Nico Amortegui

Aka:  
Dude

Website:
blu-magazine.com & sirevista.com

Where are you from?
Bogota, Colombia

Who do you work for? 
Blü Magazine and Sí Revista

What are your Current Project(s)? 
To launch our new Spanish magazine and finish my black and white photography book.

Who would you love to work with?
El Che Guevara

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
My 1977 Nikes

What’s on your iPod right now?
Carlos Vives, El Puma & Michael Jackson

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Bacon cheeseburgers from Flip

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
El Bar

What are your Pet Peeves?
Bitching ‘n Complaining

Shout outs?
Don’t believe the hype

Name:
Jake Tompkins

Aka:  
Jake the Snake (only to my little sister)
The Bike Polo Guy

Website:
www.atlbikepolo.com
My Flickr

Where are you from?
Born in Tennessee, lived in Las Vegas for a few years, Lived in Albuquerque for a 7 years, and I’ve been in GA for the last 12. I feel very much like I’m a product of the lower half of the US.

Who do you work for? 
At the moment I work for myself. I was working as a Cabinet maker at Thomsen Ltd. but times are bad and I got laid off last week.  

What are your Current Project(s)? 
I have a couple of community art projects I’ve been working on recently.
The first is called dividing lines. I took a canvas and painted a 10″ red stripe down the center. Then I handed it off to a friend who painted a slightly smaller beige/seasalt line down the center. It’s been through 4 friends hands so far and the changes keep getting better. I’m hoping to get the lines down to the point where the final line is a pencil line. you can check that out on my flickr page.

The second is about to start. I went around to local thrift stores and picked up about 40 LP’s. I’m going to distribute them to my more graphically inclined friends and each will be challenged to design something to be laser etched onto the LP that is an interpritation of the band name or album title. We’ll be doing an exhibition somewhere once it’s done. Pictures will go up once it’s done too.

I’m also working on a bid packet to get the North American Hard Court Bike Polo Championships in Atlanta.  Outside of making stuff, bike polo is my life.  

Who would you love to work with?
My standard answer used to be Sam Maloof, even at 90 years old he was a fantastic furniture designer and fabricator. He passed away last March and since then my aspiration has changed just to work with the people I graduated with a few months ago. All the kids I graduated with are fantastic designers. Other than that sappy answer most of the people I pine to work with are all dead. Charles Eames, Hans Wegner, Eero Saarenin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lewis Comfort Tiffany, etc. Also I’d trade a finger to work with any bike company on Bike Polo Gear. 

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
My bright purple suede Puma RS-1’s, I only wear them one or twice a year so I can have them forever.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Fashion Nugget by Cake.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
This is tough but The Bone Garden Cantina has hands down the best Traditional Mexican food in town.

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
The Porter, in Little 5, is becoming my new bar hangout. It’s a poor man’s Brickstore, but 15 min closer to my place than Decatur, and the food is great.

If I’m just drinking Coffee I love going to Octane for an Americola (Expresso+Coke=fantastic).

Also if you’re really into fruity drinks and fruity bartenders Joe Elvis at Papi’s is hilarious, I’ve definately spent a number of Friday nights hanging out there.

What are your Pet Peeves?
Karim Rashid… and his big ass glasses. Can’t stand that guy. Also the fonts Comic Sans, Papyrus, and Copperplate Gothic. And in Bike Polo, AGS Street Hockey Balls.

Shout outs?
Josh Tuminella, Michael Gluzman, and My friends at Resource

Thanks to Franco for spotting this one on MTV Jams today:
DJ Greg Street from Atlanta’s V-103 radio station made a cameo in this video repping one of our out-of-stock & (regrettably) out-of-production fitteds from this Spring. If you were lucky enough to score one, congrats. It’s a collectors item now! I’m not at liberty to elaborate on that any more.

Name:
Matthew Senna

Aka:  
Msenna/Jamie Marx/Captain

Website:
www.JamieMarx.com 
www.Msenna.com
www.thebreaksover.com
www.propervillainscollective.com (coming soon)

Where are you from?
North Plainfield New Jersey USA

Who do you work for? 
Those who need to be educated. And my unborn child.

What are your Current Project(s)? 
Jamie Marx winter collections / Our first piece of furniture with Lars Amhoff / shooting the first season of “Good Folk”/ GLC + J Marx + Alex Goose. And some miscellaneous other developments.

Who would you love to work with?
Marc Jacobs, Stefan Sagmeister, James Victore, Spike Jonze, Michael Jordan, Banksy, Trump, Racia Oliveria, Alexa Chung and Keira Knightly (the last 3 for business of course)    

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
Sneakers would have to be Jordan XI that shoe change my mindset on design and brands.. i was 11 and all my boys had them but me. momma dukes wasnt spending that on sneakers.. my friend took that box out and showed me them and it was over.. i had already liked jordan because my friends dad would take us to the bar with him to watch all the chicago games, but that pair put me on to the brand and their way of thinking… def one of my biggest influences. much respect.       

What’s on your iPod right now?
Jessica Tonder roughs, Pheonix, Mos Def, Anthony Hamilton, The Roots, GLC, YE, Bob Dylan, Outkast, Gnarls Barley,UNKLE, Rage Against the Machine and my secret listen…. juno soundtrack..   

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Taqueria del Sol or Alfredos Italian Restaurant because it reminds me a lot of the places up north.

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Georgia Dome on Sundays when the dirty birds are home.

What are your Pet Peeves?
Ignorance. And the lack of understand and appreciation for good design in the US. And logos made in Photoshop. 

Shout outs?
yo son check the fly shit son, check it, i got a new connect son.. i need yall to shout, the whole JM crew, shout my folks son, Rich i see you.. thanks for holdin it down! Kath keep makin them good meat balls! Kerry diversify yo bonds kid… Scotty keep cathin them large mouth.. JM Anglers next up….   im sorry i got a little to comfortable with these shout outs. reminded me of the old days MC’n. shouts to everyone who supports anything ive ever done.. the brands, work, sports..  everyone..  first shouts to Process, and all our accounts current and future…  shouts to Q, Jason, Lars, BFS, Raekwon, Tom Medvedich and my whole Proper Villains  crew.. shout to Jessica tonder, A Geezy and Uncle bob, shouts to Rob Mc, Dan, Will and Jada, John rusk, Julia of Neilsen, Clarkston, Woodgrain, Wilton, D and Jak, lex boogie, Big Mike, Luba Lukova, Kean University staff, Charlie, Kobe ill see you next month..im borrowing that ring!,  the handsome donkey crew ,GLC, Mike Turner, Jason Geter, Cory, D, Bill Hallman, Shoe Gallery, The Webster, BC, Timberlake i see you, Megan Huntz, freshiam, Dyrdek, Antenna, FALSE, Juli, cherokee crew, and anyone else i forgot…o yea and Jenna Rivers i love you.

We have a new batch of stickers that subtly hint at what’s to come in Fall/Winter. We’ll send everyone a stack with their online orders or you can score some in person at Standard 1841, Youngblood Boutique, and Black Sheep in Charlotte (soon).

Name:
Jordan Madison Gunter

Aka:  
Jordache

Website:
www.shoehorndesign.com    
www.stankonmydangle.com 

Where are you from?
Atlanta, but now sweating in Austin Texas

Who do you work for? 
Shoehorn, as well as working with Prototype Home which is a really bitchin’ Danish/mod furniture store in town. 

What are your Current Project(s)? 
Re-branding the largest structural/civil engineering firm in Texas has recently taken up most of my time. Great project and people though! Also pummeling the shit out of my banjo.

Who would you love to work with?
Southern Lord Recordings 
Moooi they have the sickest furniture concepts ever. I love me some furniture design…
Studio on Fire 

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
Fuck sneakers! I’ll keep my rattlesnake skin boots.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Zoroaster, Deerhunter, Bongzilla, Ralph Stanley, Weedeater, Tammy Wynette, W.A.S.P., Tanya Tucker, Dio, The National, Drive By Truckers, Mastodon, Torche, Xiu Xiu, Dale Watson, George Jones, Bad Brains, Throbbing Gristle, The Low Lows, McClane (check ‘em out) 

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Soul Vegetarian, R. Thomas, TOP FLR is the shiot!

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Clermont Lounge, The Local, Lennys, Memorial Tattoo

What are your Pet Peeves?
HIPPIES and Trustafarians. Get a life and quit pretending you’re selling sandwiches (to secretly fill up the Range Rover) to go the next Sound Tribe show.

Shout outs?
Will, Dan, Brent of the mighty Zoroaster, all the ladies at the Clermont, Grant at The Local, all my old neighbors on Ponce, Big Dick Willie, The Sexican, the baggers at Publix, Tyler, Joe and the McClane boys, my sis Carla, Jason, Kruseman & The Wizalope and everyone at Memorial, Larry, Feta, Jorge (even though I shed a tear every day he doesn’t call!)