The Lab. A media arts company.

We’re starting off the year at thelab with some great news - the opening of a brand new office in Columbus, Ohio. While plans for the office have been in the works for about a year, thelab Ohio’s doors officially opened for business just a few weeks back, on January 3rd.

“We’re all really excited about this new venture,” notes David Bridges, owner and founder of thelab, “It’s a big step for us as a company. Columbus is a great town with lots of opportunity and we feel strongly that becoming part of that community will help open many new doors for us”

The original idea for the office arose as a way to provide better service and improve efficiencies for Ohio and other Midwest based clients. Just as with thelab’s other remote offices, this new venture utilizes proprietary technology and work flows allowing teams to share assets and review projects locally while leveraging talent and expertise from elsewhere in the company network.

Both offices have the exact same work and technological set ups, creating an extremely streamlined experience for clients. Because all locations run the same color management and proofing solutions,  managing color remotely is simple. That means teams can confidently work on a file in New York and output it in Ohio within minutes. This also eliminates the costs and delays involved with shipping proofs via FedEx.

The 5000 square foot space currently holds three employees, but the plan is to expand that number over the next year. The office is similar in design to the thelab’s Manhattan space in Chelsea, with an area for shoot production, a color correct viewing room with web conferencing technology, for real time video reviews, plus a BBQ equipped terrace for hanging out, just like in our New York office.

While the space is still a work in progress, we are really looking forward to its development and we are currently in the process of sending art and furniture to Ohio to make it feel more complete. A big thanks to our core team in Ohio, account manager, Andrew Kelly, producer Kevin Voorhes, and operations, proofing and all around facilities manager John Block for working so hard to help us get this project off the ground. Go Ohio!

This Thursday Jan 12th thelab will be hosting New York City’s third ever Nuke users group. A powerful visual effects tool which incorporates both color and compositing in one place, Nuke allows artists to work across all disciplines without having to use a number of different tools. Here at thelab we have incorporated the program into our creative process with several full time employees currently working in Nuke on a daily basis.

The event will be presented by our friends at Oceana Digital. Guest speakers will include Group President Jep Hill (J3P), thelab’s own John Ciambriello, Method Studios’ Brandon Fitzgerald, Mike Bailey from The Foundry, and a super secret (awesome) special guest.

Don’t miss this great chance to get key insights from industry insiders and to hear exclusive announcements from The Foundry. We look forward to seeing you here!
 
NUKE Users Group
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
7:00PM- 9:30PM
thelab NYC
637 West 27th Street
New York, NY
Click here for more information and to RSVP!
Questions? Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Rob Eberhardt is the lead web developer for thelab. His career has taken him on a long journey from slingin’ shakes at fast food joints to selling early personal computers, teaching people how to use those machines, developing software for himself and even a short decade stint in the music business. Here at thelab he is responsible for the architecture and development of all interactive digital projects. He also happens to be a pretty fun guy to be around and his viral video insight is massively mind expanding. Read on - that is if you’re not scared to have your virtual world reconfigured.

Where are you from?
I was born in Ecuador (my parents were teaching school there),  and grew up in La Jolla, CA. I moved to New York in 1990.

What was your first job?
My first job was the lunch shift at Wendy’s, cooking fries and making milkshakes for stressed out engineers across the street from General Dynamics in San Diego. After seeing my first paycheck, I found my second job, which was at a small family-owned computer store in San Diego. I sold Apple and Atari computers and taught training classes to happy new computer owners.

How did you get started in the tech world? What was the first thing you remember sparking your interest in the profession?
A friend of mine from school told me about something called the Third West Coast Computer Faire happening in L.A. (November 1978). His Dad agreed to give us a ride up there. I felt in my bones that my life was going to involve these new machines somehow, so I bought a couple of programming books and started learning to write code in my head and bugging my Dad to buy me a computer from Radio Shack.

How long have you been with thelab?
I joined thelab in February of 2009.

You spent ten years working in the Music Industry? Any favorite moments from that part of your career? Did you party on a boat with Diddy while eating caviar and drinking Cristal or anything like that?
You know the boat that T-Pain was on with Andy Samberg? I was on a boat very similar to that one. I believe deli sandwiches were served, and we got drunk and sang the Star Spangled Banner floating next to the Statue of Liberty. But seriously, one of my favorite moments from that part of my life was riding in an elevator with Robert Plant. That dude is sexy.

What are some of your favorite brands - the kinds of brands you have loyalty for?
I highly recommend Carhartt t-shirts. They fit well and last a long time. Also Bob’s Red Mill Blueberry Granola. Yum.

Having been in the tech business for so long, what was your response to the loss of Steve Jobs?
At first I was surprised by how deeply I felt the loss of someone I had not known personally. But I’ve spent almost 10,000 days (32 years * 300 days/yr - rough estimate) with my hands on some kind of an Apple product; I think that creates a powerful connection to everyone who designed and developed those products, especially him.  The Crazy Ones (Unaired).

What do you see as some of the most important technological innovations of your lifetime so far and why?
iPad – It’s surprising to me how much it has changed my daily routine. It really is a new interaction category, different from traditional desktop and laptop computing, different from mobile.

Internet – In the 80’s, I ran a BBS (look it up kids). If you told me that 20 years later most of the world would be connected and utterly dependent on the evolution of that technology, I would not have believed it. But here we are. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook—huge structural changes are taking place on a global scale, facilitated by these technologies.

What are some of your go to blogs, magazines or types of books?
Blogs: Daringfireball.net, Ars Technica, Asymco.com
Magazines: Atomix Mag (gaming), Tap! (iPad stuff), Wired
Books I’m currently reading: Diamonds are Forever, Stasiland, Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Podcasts: The Talk Show, Hypercritical, Build and Analyze, Filmspotting

Feel free to download an OPML file of my Google Reader.

Any favorite Viral Vids of 2011?
Murmuration, Countdown, Irene NYC, Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ (TI-99/4A/C128/2600 Cover Version)

Now that 2011 is coming to a close, do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
Clean and organize my home office so that I can mess it up again building a robot or something.

You can tweet Rob @robeberhardt or check him on Google +. Be prepared though, some of these posts are frighteningly awesome.

As the year comes to an end, it’s nice to think back and reflect on some of the awesome moments of the past year - and here at thelab there were many we are proud of. We were able to act as innovation partners to a slough of clients and brands we really believe in. We won some big awards from the Art Director’s Club and the One Show, to name a few, for our Comedy Central rebrand. We hosted a cultural arts platform of events with some of the best up and coming musical talent around. We made a music video for one of the most legendary bands in history, The Cars. And we shared our space with an award winning new agency, BFG9000. 

While all of these things are developments we could not be more proud of, perhaps what is sometimes the most rewarding is being able to participate in a campaign where we feel we can directly affect those in need. This year thelab worked with an organization called Pencils of Promise, to help them create a fundraising auction gallery on their website featuring hand-drawn artwork by artists and celebrities including Cold Play, Mariah Carey, Lea Michele, and Hugh Jackman to name a few.

Founded by Adam Braun, Pencils of Promise is a global movement dedicated to bringing education to those in need around the world. While in college Braun was backpacking across the globe when he asked a small boy begging on the streets of India what he wanted most in the world. The answer, “a pencil” sparked him to start thinking about education in a whole new way, and became the core for the organization that would soon be born.

There are currently more than 75 million children worldwide without access to education, and Pencils of Promise has made it their mission to change that. They are committed to supporting a world with greater educational opportunity for all. In 2011 alone, POP broke ground on 45 new schools and have successfully delivered over 1,000,000 education hours!

Adam Braun, the founder of the organization, sent us a great message this morning about the group’s belief in “radical transparency” which is rooted in the idea that you should see exactly what your money is enabling. We just wanted to respond by saying we are super proud to be involved with this initiative, and that we look forward to contributing more to the organization in 2012. Happy holidays to Adam and everyone in involved in Pencils of Promise from our family here at thelab.

Click here to find out more about Pencils of Promise or to donate.

Go to @AdamBraun to follow adam on Twitter.

It’s no secret that more and more industry leaders are taking steps recently to improve work flows by taking advantage of the smaller, more flexible and nimble agencies and vendors. As smaller firms prove their ability to approach creative storytelling in ways that the traditional ad media are not equipped for, executives on the client side are taking notice and making adjustments to utilize these more integrated shops.

In a recent Ad Week Article  Dana Anderson, the SVP of marketing strategy and communications at Kraft, talks about leading a sea of change for the company when it comes to the way they handle agency relationships. “Something that’s real interesting that we’ve seen in shops that have been formed in the last five or 10 years—people who came certainly from the advertising industry—is this holistic view.” she said. “I know that sounds simple but that they solve the whole problem, that they look at it as a whole cloth and bring to you that answer.” She goes on to talk about how their creative roster has gone from using larger global agencies to including smaller more integrated firms like Droga 5 and Taxi to name a few.

The agency side is also making changes to shift the way client relationships are maintained. For example the Toronto-based ad holding company MDC Partners recently anointed it’s first chief procurement officer Brett Colbert - a position once solely reserved for the client side of the business. “What I hope to do,” notes Colbert in a recent Ad Age Article, “is discuss with client procurement the measures that truly matter and what is used to define success, because not all metrics are useful and in fact some may be misleading. What I’d like to focus on is spend maximization rather than cost reduction.”

As the model changes for clients, the more integrated client to agency approach will require an increasingly integrated production vendor who understands these changes. At thelab we feel we understand these developments and our integrated structure lends itself to easily working within the needs of these types of clients. As noted by Colbert in the Ad Age article, cost maximization will be at the center of these discussions as agencies look to use new technologies and approaches to creatively expand their client’s communication reach. Vendors will have to adapt by executing more holistic and affordable multi level productions  that incorporate real analytics. That means executing on agency needs in a way that the traditional, single service production company simply does not have ability to do. We look forward to seeing more of this kind of change.

Chelsea Franks is a part of the retouching team at thelab. On a daily basis she casts her creative touch on a variety of client imagery from Kate Spade, Aeropostale and Victoria’s Secret to Rolex and Rachel Roy. She also happens to be a digital photographer specializing in fashion and beauty editorials, look books, portraits, lifestyle and travel imagery.

Where are you from?
Omaha, NE

What was your first job?
Shoe repair! My dad ran a shop that I started working in after school when I was 13.

How did your interest in photography start?
My mother was always into photography and bought me my first 110 camera for my sixth birthday.

What is your favorite subject matter to shoot and why?
Editorial fashion, because it’s the perfect blend between practical appeal and fine art.

Where do you draw inspiration from?
Mostly my environment, which is inspiring both visually and energetically.

How long have you worked for thelab?
It will be two years on January 18th, 2012

What is your day to day like here?
Unless I have a large project going on I’m usually coordinating with our Director of Retouching, Tom Goodwin, and the production team to facilitate whatever retouching needs are most pressing.

What are some of your favorite brands?
Designers: Ferragamo, Michael Kors, Matthew Williamsen, Alexander McQueen, Karen Walker (eyewear)
Technology: Canon, Apple Macintosh

What mags, blogs or books do you like to read?
The Onion, Surface Mag, but most importantly: Kurt Vonnegut!!  I’m really into fiction novels.

What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
The Faint, The Slackers, Operation Ivy, Immortal Technique, Man or Astroman.

Besides photography, what other interests do you pursue or wish to pursue creatively?
I’m looking to branch out into ‘digital art,’ which of course involves photography but would be more in the vein of conceptual design.

Check out more of Chelsea’s photography here.

In the spirit of the season, thelab hosted a pumpkin carving extravaganza last week for all of our employees, friends and family. Nearly 50 large pumpkins sat and awaited their new looks - and there was no question about it, these pumpkins were in for a future carved in some serious creativity. Guests gathered around sunset on thelab’s west side and all were in great spirits as the carving games commenced in full force.

Within hours thelab’s desks and tables were blanketed with an orange glow. Elaborate Jack-o-Lanterns carved with spooky spiders, intricate goblins, company logos and detailed faces, sat proudly throughout the office. All around family fun ensued and it was soon clear that this Halloween event was as fun for the adults as it was for the kids. An extended thanks to everyone who came, participated and carved their way through the evening. We love watching our company family grow and times like these make us realize how far we’ve come as a group. Have a safe and happy Happy Halloween from all your friends @thelab!

Last week thelab hosted its third outdoor concert series featuring Open Ocean, The Wild Yaks and DJ Rok One. The night kicked off with Open Ocean, a four piece all girl group who has been rocking stages all over NYC lately. The band brought us through the sunset with Jill Bradshaw singing and playing bass, Susan Domelsmith on keyboard, Sarah Frances Kuhn on guitar and vocals, and Angela Barrow on drums. These ladies came together four years ago, when Domelsmith, the designer behind jewelry line Dirty Librarian Chains started experimenting playing music with Bradshaw, previously the owner of the now closed but widely loved Nolita shop Iheart and currently the trend director at Stylesight. The band originally started practicing in the Iheart store space on Mott Street, eventually moving their home base to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Open Ocean has received a lot of attention as one of the most stylish girl bands in NYC these days, possibly because of the members’ side lives in the world of fashion. Besides Susan and Jill’s experience, Sarah Kuhn was previously editor for Teen Vogue and now focuses on her own accessories line of camera straps, SFK, while Angela Barrow is a stylist with her own line called Cheek-ie. Despite their collective ability to throw an outfit together, we picked these ladies less for their fashion sense and more because we just love their sound. Open Ocean brought with them their signature woozy, mysterious style of droney, surfer-like rock that was a perfect to warm-up for a crispy fall New York night. Their songs combine elements of psychedelia, shoegaze, 80’s and good ‘ole rock n’ roll, and wrap them together in a cohesive musical package. Download their self titled EP, mixed and produced by Jonathan Kreinik.

Next up was their self proclaimed “brother band” The Wild Yaks. “We’re friends outside of playing together,” notes Jill Bradshaw of Open Ocean who says they have been getting booked together a lot more lately. “Then we played a show together and both had such a mutual love for each other’s work that we wanted to play more shows together. Even though we have different sounds we come at music with the same love and appreciation, complemented by the fact that we like to hang with each other.”

All of the members of the Yaks share vocals while Robert Bryn tends to lead with Martin Cartagena on drums, Jose Aybar on vocals and bass, and Hunter Simpson on guitar. After a brief sound check which got the crowd interested, these guys carried the event into the night with fun and groovy rock sound. Their repetitive, group vocal style combined with a light hearted, long form song style topped off with a generally humorous and fun outlook on life make these guys a joy to listen to. They just finished recording their soon to be titled album, which is currently being mixed.

The night wrapped with the genre defying master, DJ Rok One, playing an upbeat mix of hip-hop, rock, and dance. The DJ set was complimented by an impromptu freestyle performance by thelab’s own Race B. who took to the mic like a natural, pouring freestyle lyrics. Look out for his upcoming mix-tape / album which is a collection of story based rhymes reminiscent of the Golden Era of hip-hop.

Big thanks to all who participated in making this evening a success. The positive response thelab concert series has received helps us keep the energy going through the fall and winter.  So stay tuned for some more fun surprises!  Check out all of the photos from the evening on our Facebook page.

Craig Paull is an integrated producer for thelab. He works on cross platform media initiatives of all kinds, from broadcast and print to interactive and beyond. He came to us by way of Martha Stewart Living and before that was a producer for a variety of theatrical, television and art gallery projects. Because of his extensive experience Craig breathes a fresh and creative perspective into every project he is involved in. Plus he has an awesome organic garden and brings fresh veggies for the office all the time. What more can you ask for in a producer?

What led you on the path to becoming a producer?
I had a very convoluted path, starting my career as a Certified Public Accountant, but always knowing I wanted to be in the entertainment business, after witnessing my uncle directing a car commercial while I was still in college.  After working as an auditor at ABC-TV and Paramount, I made the transition into production while taking film making classes at NYU.

What are some of the most interesting productions you’ve ever been a part of?
I have done many interesting projects, working with independent filmmakers, such as Todd Haynes, Tom Kalin and Isaac Julien. I produced a feature film, “Postcards from America” shown at Sundance, Toronto, New York, Berlin Film festivals among others. I also oversaw production on “The Question of Equality,” a four part series on Gay & Lesbian Civil Rights, plus did some music videos for classical musicians and corporate videos.

What about your most proud career achievement?
When I started at Martha Stewart Living all photography for the company was being shot on film. During my ten years there I oversaw the transition from film into digital photography, making sure that quality was not sacrificed for the new media platform.

What are some brands you are consistently loyal to and couldn’t live without?
Lacoste Brand Shirts, Oxo Good Grips, ANYTHING Mac (not the cosmetics). New fan of Cole Haan Shoes.

What are some of your go-to website, blogs, magazines, books or papers?
I am a news junkie and often find myself at news websites and blogs.  I also love design magazines like Dwell.

What’s your favorite creative outlet?
Cooking these days seems to be all I have time for outside of work.

What’s your favorite thing to cook?
I am a fan of the big green egg, a ceramic smoker/grill.  Love anything that I can make on the smoker, from plank smoked wild salmon, to slow cooked ribs.

Even as a kid Craig always hung out with the “it” crowd. That’s Craig on the left next to his childhood friend Calla Urbanski. It’s her birthday party. She went on to be an Olympic pair figure skater.

What was the most interesting job you ever had?
Aside from thelab, my favorite freelance jobs, were as an editor. I used to edit on ¾” off-line editing systems and used the AVID when it was Mac based. Editing music videos as well working on “Pets or Meat: the Return to Flynt,” Michael Moore’s update of “Roger & Me.”

What are you reading right now?
A Visit from the Goon Squad.

You were once involved in the NYC nightlife scene. What was your role?
I have done everything from door man, bouncer (in a lesbian bar), bar tender, go-go dancer. 

Any favorite moments?
My favorite moment when I was working the door at a lesbian club and got confused for a butch lesbian, by a real butch lesbian…

For the record we think Craig is looking very lumberjack-manly these days.

Here are some of Craig’s producer credits.

When tragedy strikes, the way a community responds can mean a major difference for those affected. Well, when the Berry family from Houston, Texas was faced with a horrifying accident in July, their community took action, to try to make a very hard situation better in any way they could. While driving home from an annual family road trip, the Berry family’s minivan was hit head on by another vehicle. Both parents Joshua and Robin were tragically killed. Their children suffered serious injuries. Peter age 9 and Aaron age 8 were left paralyzed from the waist down. Willa, age 6 suffered several broken bones.

thelab found out about this incident though one of our close colleagues, who is a member of Justin Bieber’s management team. The Show Your Hearts campaign was quickly initiated in an attempt to collect funds for these newly orphaned children in need. At thelab we were impressed by how quickly a community rallied together to try to help this family, and apparently we were not alone in feeling this way. Within days of the accident a slew of big name celebrities came together to support the campaign, the biggest being Justin Beiber, who has been asking people to donate through the site or by texting BERRY to 85944. He’s also asked people to swap out their social media profile photo for the fundraiser’s logo. Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and a host of entertainers and athletes have followed suit and are leveraging their weight in the twittersphere to ask for donations for the Berry family.

The large push worked, raising $30,000 in its first day alone, and Facebook page efforts have raised more than $200,000. Here at thelab we were happy to step and play our part by donating some design work to the cause. We created a one page print ad about the issue, which reads, “When Crisis Strikes, Love Strikes Back.”

Our goal was to give the campaign a voice with a poster and print execution that can be utilized cross across media platforms. We hope the print work helps to shed light on the situation with and end goal of raising funds for the Berry family’s ongoing needs.

You can Show Your Hearts to this cause by visiting http://www.showyourhearts.org or text BERRY to 85944.