In the Winter of 2005 I was at Cal State Long Beach studying Graphic Design and Film.
I didn't have a real job in college but I did freelance design work. It paid well and got me through school and paid for Lakers tickets and stuff like that. Right around that time jeffstaple started a blog and began documenting snippets of his life online.
His was one of the first blogs I ever really followed. He was an asian graphic designer who collaborated with Nike and was into basketball and rap music - it was a pretty natural fit. I don't know what I expected from his blog, but I can tell you that it blew my mind right from the start. Within the first few posts it became clear to me that jeff was not living an ordinary life by any means.
Not only was he doing design work for A-list brands, he was also getting new sneakers as gifts, shipped to his office by the manufacturers before their general release dates, on a regular basis. He had started a recreational basketball league for creative professionals in New York City that Nike sponsored. Their rec league played it's championship games in Madison Square Garden.
In the blog's 6th entry, jeff posted photos of Victoria Secret model Izabel Goulart stopping by his office to play ping pong with him and it was officially over - this guy had somehow designed and was living my fantasy life.
Anyway, long story short, I feel like that blog really opened my mind in a lot of ways. I think a lot of decisions that we've made with 0484 have been influenced from afar by jeff and his brand.
So, a few weeks ago, I heard he was looking for a video crew in LA. I got his email address from his website and shot him a really brief message with a link to our site.
And then last Tuesday he called me up. It was around 9AM (I was sleeping). I picked up the phone, he said 'Hey, my name is jeff from Staple Design...'
He hired us to shoot an interview with him and RZA.
Bobby Digital
RZA loves chess
This was a Q+A session at the Apple store in Santa Monica. Right afterwards we went down the street to a private room inside a nearby restaurant and we filmed a cool, very intimate video of jeff interviewing RZA.
Should be a fun one to edit. I'll let you guys know when it's finished.
Stay tuned. Bong bong.
