BBM

Shipped these in from New York just before Christmas as gifts for a few clients.

If you've never had one of these, you have no idea what you're missing.

I first found this place a few years ago on a trip to New York - one woman was selling these tiny cupcakes, cash only, out of the back of a restaurant kitchen in SoHo. They tasted so good that when I came back to California, I told Matt we should drop everything and start a location in SoCal. I filled out a franchise inquiry on their website. I'm not kidding.

But they weren't franchising at the time. Four years later, they have 9 fancy, non hole-in-the-wall locations all over Manhattan and are making a billion (estimated) dollars a year.

Anyway, right before the holiday we shipped a couple hundred out and shared them with the some of the people who are keeping our agency afloat - that is, until the day that we get the call from Melissa that says she's ready to take over the West coast.

DIGITAL 0484

How to create realistic digital avatars of yourself for Holiday greeting cards.

In early December I saw an image online of a guy's face that looked just like these. It looked like a photo of a real person that got put into a video game or something. I showed Matt. We thought it was cool and decided that we should recreate the effect for our company Christmas card. We didn't really know exactly how to achieve the look or what in the hell we were getting ourselves into - but that type of thing happens a lot so it didn't deter us.

First off we took a few portraits of each other, dropped them into Illustrator and started drawing triangle shapes all over our faces.

We started to fill the triangles with gradients of color that were sort of similar to our skin tones. This was one of the hardest parts - the process of just getting an initial rendering of each of us took forever - like probably over 40 hours. We scrapped early versions and started over because we were learning new/better techniques as we were going.

Finally we got to this point where we at least had versions of ourselves that we could adjust and fine tune.

We began to print proofs and then slowly revise the colors and shapes and sizes of everything, one round of changes at a time. It was almost the end of December at this point.

The finishing touches, like these highlights on our eyes, took forever to get right but definitely helped bring it all together.

And then finally we decided to pull the trigger and print these up.

Now all I have to do is write these last 100 cards and we'll be all set. Keep an eye on your mailbox, our digital faces will be there soon.

SPACES

When I was 19 and still at Cal State Long Beach I started freelancing out of the 100 sq. ft. bedroom I was living in.

I kept that sort of thing going at a few different houses throughout college.

In 2007, Matt and I both graduated and, sort of on a whim, we decided to rent an office in downtown Long Beach. We only had about 1 and a half clients at the time. Some days we would work from the office in the mornings and then play golf in the afternoons because we would literally run out of things to work on. Those were the days. That's actually the office where we met Victor and John from The ID Agency.

In 2009 I moved to Newport Beach and the Long Beach office no longer really made sense so Matt and I both worked separately from home for a couple years. We Skyped a lot. Actually worked out fine.

Since 2010 Matt and I have rented a two story house together in Irvine, lived upstairs and made the bottom floor an office. It's a short commute.

But it's 2013 now. It's no longer just Matt and I and the home office was getting a bit crammed. So we decided it was time for the next 0484 office.

Introducing 459 Wald. Suite 150. Irvine.

Click to enlarge.

More pictures and details and stuff soon. We're currently waist deep in paint rollers and cordless drills and assembly instructions. On the bright side, we now know everyone at the local IKEA and ACE Hardware on a first name basis.

UPDATE: To celebrate the new office, a good friend of ours just released his first new song in 7 years. Jay-Z donated a verse as well. DOWNLOAD HERE. Thank us later.

2K12 RECAP

Twelve images from 2012.

Everyday we show up at work and it's a little different. There's always something new. It's definitely not all glamorous - far from it sometimes - but there is a good variety. And we get to travel a lot, which is cool.

Barton Perreira Spring/Summer 2012 Shoot

My brother Jesse is a huge Wu Tang fan. When we were kids we used to read all about them in The Source and listen to Wu Tang Forever and Method Man all the time. When we filmed the RZA interview with jeffstaple, Jesse actually came out to Santa Monica and got to meet RZA and got an autograph and stuff. Ryan and Matt and I made a 'Best of Wu' playlist and listened to 'Gravel Pit' and 'C.R.E.A.M.' in Matt's 4Runner the whole way to the shoot.

Ford Mustang Factory outside Detroit.

Shooting the Pikes Peak Hill Climb for Ducati this year was completely different than last year. We knew everyone this year, we knew the mountain, the conditions, the schedule, everything. It was still extremely rigorous and dangerous and grueling but at least we knew what to expect. So we kind of just took it all in stride, woke up everyday at 3AM, got dressed for the freezing cold and stopped by 7-11 every morning and stocked up on an obscene amount of donuts and Aspirin and energy drinks and beef jerky.

Our boy Mark Cernicky in May on the new Ducati Panigale at Miller Motorsports Park outside Salt Lake City.

The Forza Horizon girls at E3.

The Double Loop Dare was cool because it was right in the middle of Downtown LA, nextdoor to Staples Center and everyone saw it on TV during X Games. The day before the stunt, Ryan and I went to the Press Junket that Mattel threw and spent an entire afternoon learning everything there is to know about HotWheels cars.

Filming from Tayler Malsam's pit box at Las Vegas Motor Speedway alongside UFC fighter Amir Sadollah.

A sneak peek from our forthcoming interview with jeffstaple.

Hitting the links with JT.

Matt and I have known each other since we were 12 - nobody thought that this could be our jobs. But you really have to just surround yourself with the right people. We work with and for people who inspire us, people who have some of this shit figured out and that we can learn from. We want to be the least successful and youngest and brokest people at these meetings. Then we're doing something right. Thing about that.

We spent plenty of time in the beginning working for start ups and small poorly run businesses and clients who had no clue. We paid our dues. But we also moved on. Thank God.

Sincere thanks to everyone who makes this possible - Victor and John and everyone over at The ID Agency, Tim Cadiente from Barton Perreira, Adam Sperling from The Shriners PGA Open, Fabiana from Shriners Hospitals, Garrett and Cernicky and everyone at Cycle World, CCS, Momentum Worldwide, The Gary Group, Steve and Tayler Malsam, Jones Bell, Formula Drift, Michael Louis Kelly, Greg Tracy, Carlin Dunne, DJ Hapa, Jamey Price, Sam Bisset, Chip Hanauer, Ken Konecki, Jordan Warren, Sarah Barnard, Holocuren, Layback Larry, etc. etc.

DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND

This is the story behind the biggest crash of 2012.

Back in August, we were out at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Colorado filming for Ducati and The ID Agency. But the event features a lot more than just bikes and on raceday there were a ton of car crashes - none more horrific than Jeremy Foley and Yuri Kuznetsov's Mitsubishi Evo flying off the side of the mountain. The fan footage of the crash in action is unbelievably violent but the fact that both Jeremy and Yuri walked away from the crash is what made their story truly incredible.

In the aftermath of Pikes, Jeremy and Yuri went on an incredible press tour including stops on all the major networks. In September, Matt and I flew down to Dallas along with Jennifer from ID and we sat down with Jeremy, Yuri and Kevin Dubois, the car's builder, to get the full story.

We had one full day at the Evolution Dynamics garage and Matt and I managed to film everything from complete coverage of what remains of the wrecked car to hour long interviews with each of the 3 guys - all on behalf of automotive seat maker Recaro.

In November, Recaro threw a special event for the LA Auto Show where the video was unveiled in front of a crowd that included Recaro drivers Ken Block, Tanner Foust and Bucky Lasek. Check out coverage of the event on ID's blog.

Anyway, if you've got 3 minutes to spare, check it out - it's snagged over 75K YouTube views in it's first month for Recaro - not bad :)

Much more to come in 2K13. P.S. Shout out to all the Nicky Hayden fans who discovered us last week after his tweet.