The Design + Innovation Center’s Skateboard Panel event at NextSpace
June 15, 2009
Design is about people, and how they become inspired to create and refine products that are innovative, simpler, more efficient, greener, and – in the case of skateboards – just plain fun. The Santa Cruz Design + Innovation Center recently held a skateboard panel discussion in NextSpace that underlined how creative thinking, energy, and community involvement led to the development of our world class skateboard design and manufacturing industry.
NextSpace, for those of you not yet familiar with it, is the radical new coworking space on the corner of Cooper and Pacific that is becoming the preferred base for creative/technology startups in the Santa Cruz area. Take a tour, and you’ll see software developers, architects, writers, graphic and product designers, computer animators, intellectual property lawyers, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and innovators working side by side in the friendly, busy, rising-tide-floats-all-boats spirit that’s often called coopetition.
Fifty people - some NextSpace members, many not – crowded into the second floor café space on May 28th to hear a panel of local skateboard personalities give their varied insights into the ideas, the events, the design, and the people that have made this Santa Cruz industry into a world leader.
The panel was made up of Tim Piumarta, the Director of R+D at NHS, who gave the audience a fascinating history of of the skateboard wheel from back in the ball bearing days to the development of the sealed bearing and how it changed skateboarding forever. Connor Welles, Hard Goods Development Coordinator at NHS, who talked about the process of getting skateboard products manufactured and working with product managers. Don Bostick, who founded the World Cup of Skateboard, talked about the problems and rewards of running competitions and events. Erik Florio, the CEO of Whagaa, discussed the early days of wanting to do apps before the iPhone and how his app went to number one for a month on itunes. Judi Oyama, a longtime skateboarder and designer, gave an illustrated talk about the use of graphics in the industry. And Danny Keith spoke about his Grind for Hunger non-profit, running a retail skate business, his love for skating and how it has driven his life. There was a clear underlying tone of passion for the sport and the skateboard community in everyone’s talks.
This enthusiasm and commitment is a common feature of Design Center events. The basis for its existence is that Santa Cruz has, over the last twenty years, become home to a large, world-class group of creative professionals in the fields of design, technology, software development, research, and entrepreneurship. Creative professionals need and want to live in inspiring surroundings like Santa Cruz but can’t always afford to. However, successful creative professionals can. As a result Santa Cruz, being the most attractive and interesting community within commuting distance of Silicon Valley, has attracted a disproportionate number of top creative professionals. But many commute to the Valley for work, and those who run businesses in town find most of their clients and professional connections come from the Valley. So the paradoxical situation arose that a major regional creative center was unaware of itself as such.
Enter the Design Center, two years ago. Its purpose was first to make Santa Cruz aware of itself as a major design and innovation center, and then to spread that awareness across the region, the country, and indeed the world. And this is what is happening. A series of local events and exhibitions, centered around design and technology, are not only forging new links across professional boundaries but making local creative professionals aware of the breadth and depth of design skills available, in many cases, just a few blocks away. Find more on upcoming events, local designers, and what’s going on in the Santa Cruz design community at the Design Center’s web site www.designsc.org. Join us!
Finally, the Design Center wishes to thank all the sponsors of the skateboard panel event: Santa Cruz Skateboard, Santa Cruz Skate Shop, NextSpace, Fringe, Khiro Skateboard Products and Parachute Design. We also thank our Board, under the chairmanship of Darrin Caddes, for their guidance, and the members and volunteers of the Santa Cruz Design + Innovation Center for their support and enthusiasm.
Local Duo Launch Graphic Design Biz
May 26, 2009
Young & Talented is a new monthly series that will spotlight some of the exciting things young entrepreneurs, artists and musicians are doing here in Santa Cruz.
SANTA CRUZ — As many people try to weather the economic storm that’s been blowing full force for months now, a young local duo are heading straight into the winds with the launch of their inaugural business. Earlier this month, Davy Reynolds, 26, and Ruby Anaya, 23, launched Parachute Creative, a graphic design firm that creates everything from band posters to candy packaging.
As Anaya puts it, “If we don’t know how to make something right off the bat, we find a way.”
And already things are moving quickly. Reynold’s eccentric band posters have become ubiquitous in store windows downtown in the last few weeks. He now does poster designs for upcoming performances at The Red and 515. Parachute Creative also designed HappySantaCruz.com, a site co-founded by city councilmember Ryan Coonerty.
In the month since they launched, Parachute Creative has done work for local bands, real estate agents, the Santa Cruz Design & Innovation Center and Ashby Confections, a local chocolatier.
Reynolds, who looks like a clean Russel Brand (he was born in England as well), brings an out-of-the-box illustration talent that always starts with a pencil and paper. Anaya, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz last spring with a degree in biology, handles the administrative side of business making appointments, talking to prospective clients and giving Reynolds her frank opinion on his work before he sends it out.
“She’s ridiculously and annoyingly intelligent,” Reynolds said. “Whenever I get really stressed, Ruby helps me figure out a solution.”
In a few short weeks, they’ve managed to build a client base that’s increasing everyday. While I was interviewing them in their office, a new client called to setup a project.
“We’re getting more and more referrals every day,” Reynolds said.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Before they launched, they were broke, had just left their previous job and didn’t even have a proper computer.
So armed with a $5,000 small business loan — they had hoped for $10,000 — and Anaya’s brother’s computer, they opened up shop in NextSpace, a collaborative downtown office home to freelancers and small business owners, keeping the thought of failure out of their head.
“Failure pretty much wasn’t an option,” Reynolds said. “I figured there was no way I could lose considering the amount of sweat we put into this.”
But the stakes were high. Just last week, Reynold’s credit card was declined when he tried to purchase a coffee at Lulu’s.
In light of this, things are pretty bare bones at the home office. But you can still tell there’s a designer in house. Reynold’s sits at a desk made of cinder blocks and wood. On it sits the company’s first and only major purchase — a brand new 24-inch iMac. The mainstay of the business.
Other items include skateboard decks that he designed himself and a black and white TV that plays two blurry channels throughout the workday. It serves as an good-luck omen for Parachute Creative. Reynolds found it on the side of the road while driving home from his final day at his last design firm. Anaya and he had discussed how cool it’d be to have a vintage TV that played skateboarding videos in their new office all day. A few minutes later, on his way home, he found exactly what he was looking for on the side of Seabright Avenue. A tiny 13-inch black and white TV. And it worked.
“It seemed like a real clear sign,” Reynolds said. “I knew I was ready to take the risk.”
Creative Parachute’s launch comes in the midst of a number of burgeoning campaigns like Keep Santa Cruz Weird, NextSpace and cheap housing for artists at the Tannery Arts Center to keep local talent and encourage new talent to come to Santa Cruz. It finally seems to be working.
“The economy is moving more and more towards design,” Coonerty said. “Manufacturing can be outsourced, but communities that can attract companies in need of good design and innovation or, even better, grow our own companies, will be the sustainable communities of the future.”
As for the future, Anaya and Reynolds hope to branch off and do design work in the industries that interest them. Most notably, action sports like surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding and t-shirt design.
“We’re going to start an apparel line with limited runs,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to try to get consignment in O’Neill’s, Pacific Wave and Krate.”
But really, they just want to provide quality illustrations with a personal connection and beat an economic storm that had them up to their heads just a month ago.
“For us, it’s not just another paycheck,” Reynolds said. “And I genuinely mean that. Two hundred dollars or $10,000, they’re going to get the same level of personal attention.”
The Legend of Captain Groggy Swagger
April 21, 2009
SANTA CRUZ — Captain Groggy Swagger was visible through a break in the metal fencing at the Santa Cruz North Harbor parking lot. He stood at the helm of a sailboat with Rock and Roll painted in block letters across the stern. He wore a floppy hat, loose breeches and a crimson coat that reached around his healthy paunch. By his side were two men — one dressed in a white button-up that fell to his knees and the other in an “I workout” t-shirt that had a picture of a Wii controller. His motley crew.
He barked orders at the two. “Grab that line,” he said. “Pull it this way.”
The two stumbled around the 27-foot sailboat trying to keep up with his orders. Together the men had logged only a couple of hours at sea.
“Keep pulling,” Swagger continued with a matter-of-fact look on his face.
Little did I know that for the next four hours I would join this disjointed crew as we raced and sometimes inched along the California coast on one of the first beautiful spring days of the year.
Thus beginning my introduction to modern day piracy. No Somalis, hostages, tankers or ransoms though. Only a lot of booze, bad pirate jokes and inexperienced sailing.
But let me back up for a second. Swagger the pirate is actually a 33-year-old native Santa Cruzan named Aaron Rhodes. By day he hovers over a computer and consults for an IT company on the East Coast. But when he’s on his boat, he’s a pirate. And so is everyone else. As he wrote on his blog in January, “The first rule on my boat is, if we go sailing you must be in full pirate regalia.”
Luckily, he made an exception for this unprepared reporter.
A Schooling in Modern Day Piracy
Rhodes didn’t seriously adopt his ulterior identity, Captain Groggy Swagger, until last November when he bought and began living on the sailboat. He founded the Santa Cruz Pirate Fest, an annual celebration of everything pirate, earlier that summer, but had never given serious thought to living at sea.
Back then, he didn’t have any clue that he’d like sailing or that he’d live on a sailboat one day. He knew almost nothing about it. He was hoping to buy a home at the time, but couldn’t find a banker who’d give him a reasonable loan.
“I made more than a lot of couples combined, but that didn’t matter to them,” he said. “They didn’t want to take a risk with someone who is single.”
So in an odd way, one might say he has the mortgage crisis to thank for his current living situation.
Regardless, one day while driving by the North Harbor after weeks of failed attempts to get a loan, he got an idea.
“I realized I could just live on a boat,” he said. “No rent.”
Thus began a serious journey to do exactly that. He started by reading books on the basics of sailing and shopping around for a boat. He had absolutely no experience, so he had to learn everything from scratch. Think learning where the stern, bow, starboard and port sides of a boat are.
“I setup an appointment with some guy who was going to teach me the basics, but he never showed up,” Rhodes said. “So I decided to just learn it all on my own.”
When he got word from a broker that a sailboat in his price range was available, he jumped on the opportunity. Before he knew it, he was the proud owner of a 1982 Catalina 27.
“I like it,” he said with a grin. “It’s my first boat.”
And the first home he’s ever owned. His mortgage on the sea.
He gave up his studio apartment and most his furniture and moved onto the $17,000 sailboat in November. He traded a bed for a mattress stuffed in a closet-sized room at the front end of the sailboat.
He was obviously willing to give up a lot of the luxuries of living on land, but he wasn’t about to leave behind his technology. He might be the only pirate in the history of the world to have his schooner outfitted with a flat screen TV, Xbox 360 and wireless Internet.
Beyond technology, the living side of the bargain has been a breeze.
“There have been no major issues,” he said about the transition.
During the winter months when temperatures can dip into the 40s at night he just hooks up a space heater. Electric and water access are included in a $500 a month slip fee (the rent to keep his boat in the harbor). Slip fee and a $250 loan payment for his boat means his monthly living expenses amount to $750. That’s dramatically lower than before when his studio apartment alone cost him $1,200 a month.
The sailboat is setup for cooking as well. “I eat lots of shish kabobs,” he said. “They’re easy.”
He showers and gets his laundry done at NextSpace, a co-working office space in downtown Santa Cruz where he also telecommutes for work. It also provides him with a mailing address. They allow him to use the office address as his home address when necessary.
“NextSpace filled in all the missing pieces,” Rhodes said.
Though the transition was seemingly easy, he hadn’t overcome his largest hurdle.
Learning to Sail
Rhodes bought his sailboat without knowing how to use it.
“I couldn’t get the boat home on my own,” he admitted.
Though he had spent hours reading books on sailing, he still didn’t feel confident enough to dive into by himself. Luckily his grandfather had owned a sailboat years earlier and volunteered to guide him for his first sailing trip.
“He answered all the questions I couldn’t answer with books,” he said.
In return, he allowed his grandparents on the boat without sporting the required pirate attire.
“My grandmother wouldn’t have been happy if I had asked her to dress like a wench,” he said.
After that inaugural trip, he has slowly been getting a feel for proper sailing. He still insists on having other people with him. He made one trip out on his own, but was a bit overwhelmed.
“I don’t want to do that again anytime soon,” he said.
Joining the Crew for the Day
When I joined the crew for the day, it was Captain Groggy Swagger’s sixth outing. We found ourselves trying to escape the choppiest waters he’d ever been in (about 5-foot waves), caught in a kelp field, making absurdly slow and clumsy maneuvers and caught deep in the wallows of inebriation. Swagger never lost his composure, but at points it was questionable whether any of us knew what we were doing.
At one point, we found ourselves with dwindling rum supplies — “A captain’s worst nightmare,” Swagger proclaimed with an empty bottle in his hand — caught in a kelp field with no wind. As other sailboats raced by riding on an ostensibly endless supply of wind, we inched closer and closer towards the shore.
“What did pirates do in the past when there was no wind,” asked one of the shipmates.
“They waited and they got drunk,” Swagger said.
In response, another shipmate popped his head out from within the hull of the boat and brandished a fresh bottle of red wine. Soon enough, we found ourselves back in the grace of the wind. Excluding a close call involving the main sail and a low bridge, we eventually found ourselves back at the dock.
After a few remaining orders from Groggy to clean up the deck and a quick dinner, the crew returned to their cars to trek back to their terrestrial lives. But Captain Groggy Swagger disappeared back towards the dock — a modern day pirate.
Read more of Daniel Wilkinson’s work at his blog.
Writing Contest!
March 2, 2009
The Cournalist has been at it for almost four months now. We thought in honor of all of those who’ve participated – read, written, commented or spread the word – we’d give a little something back.
So for the month of March any written submission to the site will automatically be entered into a $175 contest. It’s not much, but represents are appreciation for everyone who has joined us for this awesome journey. On March 31, Graham and I will take the day off and begin sorting through all of the submissions. On April 1, we’ll announce the top three articles. First place will receive $100. Second place will receive $50. Third place will receive $25. Also, as an added bonus to everyone, we’ll buy a set of business cards for any cournalist who submits more than three articles over 400 words this month.
Graham and I will grade each submission based on its timeliness, accuracy, fairness to both sides and depth. If you want a good idea of the kind of articles we’re looking for we encourage you to take a look around the site. Anything that has to do with life in Santa Cruz fits the bill. Here are a couple of solid examples of what we’re looking for: NextSpace at the Crossroads of Santa Cruz History, Face of Education Cuts: What They Actually Mean for One Local School and Groundation at the Catalyst.
Unfortunately, these are dark times for the news business and business as a whole. People are losing jobs they’ve held for years and traditional newspapers are getting thinner by the day. We hope the Cournalist can continue to provide an alternative and viable resource for Santa Cruz. We’re still learning ourselves and encourage everyone to continue passing on their questions, comments, suggestions and stories. Feel free to email us at cournalist@gmail.com.
Best and good luck!
Daniel & Graham
Editors
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