I've been keeping my head down pretty rigorously at Giant Thinkwell, so much awesome going on! We released a new game with Sir Mix-A-Lot, got an absurd amount of great press, released a few more features and now are on to our next adventure... stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, check this short video I shot with Mix!
(This is my recap of the last year and of the event. I want to speak more to Design in my next post)
May 5th was one of the most defining and incredible nights in my existence to date. A few major things all came together in a split second for a poetic explosion of awesome. It started exactly one year earlier...
It was the 2010 Seattle 2.0 Awards and I was running around with Kevin Leneway and our baby Uncle Jesse on my iPad, still fresh to the Startup world just a few weeks after Startup Weekend. When we sat down for the ceremony, I listened in awe as Jonathan Sposato gave an incredible speech, followed by hearing nominees and names of people and companies I had never heard of before. Kevin was sitting next to me, pointing out each person, giving me a nutshell overview as he called out his speculation for who was taking home which award.. he only missed one! About half way through, the nominees for Best Startup Designer were read, and I instantly thought to myself, "holy s*#@, an awards show where Designers are recognized??" Before Jenny Lam's name was read to be the winner, I had a split second fantasy of my name being called and accepting the award. It was a silly fantasy that didn't last long for a few reasons. One, nobody knew who I was or had seen my work. Two, I wasn't a nominee and lastly, I fancied myself more of an Illustrator than a Designer. The night went on and I met a ton of great people that had all this buzz and excitement about them with being a part of this community.
It was at last year's event that Kevin and I spoke to Greg Gottesman of Madrona Venture Group and Andy Sack of the upcoming Seattle TechStars program and they convinced us to apply. Over the course of this last year, I got to collaborate and brand a number of organizations for Seattle's community, including Tech Cafe, Seattle TNT, Startup Weekend, a handful of TechStars teams, Brad Feld, Untitled Startup (now Simply Measured), DotORG, Geekwire and a few others.. it was with these projects that people got to know who I was and were excited to help me in my endeavors with Giant Thinkwell.
Fast forward to a month ago or so when nominations were open for Best Startup Designer 2011. My Co-Founders, being some of my biggest supporters, spread the word and tried to get me voted in. Shortly after nominations closed, the 5 selected nominees were named and I was blown away that I was amongst the other 4! Matt Shobe, Tony Wright, Aviel Ginzburg and Jay Dokken are super heavyweight hitters with the Designer's label and it felt really great to even be considered in the bunch. From knowing these guys, I quickly conceded and just looked forward to the event, especially because Giant Thinkwell was given a table to present our demo for our upcoming game, Mix 'n Match.
Kevin and I worked around the clock, cranking out a game that only existed on paper, as well as all of the design and production for the physical booth. I don't know if you've ever seen an installation or booth from me before, but it'll never just be a table and computer or white tent. I find myself obsessing over the tiniest details and cram in as much as humanly possible to create the best experience I can. This time it included a fully animated game, banners, a Wheel-of-Awesome where winners got to spin for extra swag, including plush squids, squid neck-ties, toys I made at Funko, silkscreened posters, art prints, cut vinyl decals of our new brand and "Think Ink - Squid brain juice". I branded my iMac, decked the crew out w/ custom ties and to top it all off, Colleen, the girlfriend of our newest hire Kav brainstormed with me and built an 8 foot squid mascot of the Giant Thinkwell squid!
The game got finished at 4:30pm, then we drove down to the space to set up at 5pm. The squid was getting the final hot glued pieces done in the back and I hadn't seen it since it was in armature phase.. When it came time for Danielle Morill of Twilio to present Best Startup Designer, she gave a fantastic and vital speech on the value of design in startups, which is only now starting to become a widely accepted practice amongst developers and business founders. She was opening the envelope and as my girlfriend Danielle was gripping my arm and then I heard it. It was this eery echoing call - "Kyle Kesterson!" ... My brain went cold and my eyes grew wide. I thought to myself, "ooooh man, I wish I planned on something to say..." It was a looong walk up to the front but nothing was coming to mind! I get about 2/3 the way up and I see thse creepy yellow glowing eyes start to sway to the front of the room. It was the squid! It was such an overwhelming moment trying to grasp that not only had I somehow achieved what I fantasized about a year earlier, but how every single piece of the puzzle all came together the second that I had seen the glowing eyes. I burst out and ran up to hug the squid! That was a moment of completeness.
If you were to ask me after the acceptance what I had said, I couldn't tell you. I was numb. I remember walking on stage and hearing a faint whisper of my voice echoing into a sea of dimly lit faces. Videos of the speeches were posted the next day, so I got to go back and relive it and see just what DID come out of my mouth. I'm glad I managed to capture my gratitude to the startup community, Startup Weekend, TechStars and definitely the support of my lady, Danielle, but I completely blanked on a few very important people.
I really want to say that meeting Kevin Leneway has changed my life. He is one of the most brilliant, talented and genuine people I've ever met and I'm so blessed to be working by his side every day. Adam Tratt has also an incredible friend, supporter and balance to my creative craziness. Without those two, Giant Thinkwell would not exist today. Donald DeSantis, one of my best friends, introduced .. no, dragged me kicking and screaming to Startup Weekend, dragged me from Kirkland to Greenlake to move and delivered my ransom notes to Andy Sack to get into TechStars. He is extremely perserverant, influential and obsessed with getting better.. I'm stoked that he is now working full time at Giant Thinkwell. Marcelo Calbucci, Andy Sack, all the TechStars teams, Greg Gottesman, Scott Jacobson, Mike Folden, Adam Doppelt and the other Spoons, Jason Hills and so many others! Also The Root 42 has been a decade of growth and without that community, would probably not be making stuff, let alone doing it for a living.
Lastly, I have gotten incalcuable love, support and inspiration from my parents, Steve and Tamera. My mother's story is one that'll leave you in tears, followed by inspiration to take ANY leap. My dad's work ethic, dependability and kind heart is of an era that many of us can learn from. I love my parents more than anything and I most definitely would not be doing at all what I am doing or be who I am if they hadn't taken the incredible risks they took to get my brother and I out of our old lives.
I feel overwhelmed with the blessings that I have received and aim to be a part of paying it forward. Thanks everyone!
Here are some more links about the event:
GeekWire: "A night at the Seattle 2.0 Awards: Watch the speeches of the 10 winners"
And finally, pictures!
Squid illustration by Ryan Tatum
This doodle is to brush off the thick dust that has settled on my blog. Lots of awesome updates coming shortly!
Really fun article written by James Ross Gardner about Giant Thinkwell in March's edition of the Seattle Met.
Photos by Michael Clinard (it was his idea to make me lose the pants...)
Read the full article here: This Product Will Change Your Life
Also featured in the magazine is Matthew Inman, the talented guy behind a little site known as TheOatmeal.com. Great interview here: Mr. Inappropriate
For a friend's stop motion film:
More Pantone lovin':
Had an illustration of mine printed in a Belgian magazine called 'Knack'. The article is titled: Technology in 2030 'DNA dating is quite normal'
Wish I could read the article!
I can't begin to tell you how productive 2011 has been! 5/3 of my days were spent working on Giant Thinkwell's new game, or doodling. Great start with lots of content for my blog to come this year..
You can see my daily submissions or view everyone's daily submissions here at The Daily 11.
Jan 8th
Jan 7th
Jan 6th
Jan 5th
Jan 4th
Jan 3rd
Jan 2nd
Banner by Adam Laurie
A resolution for 2011 was to doodle every single day. It turns out that 4 of my friends had that same resolution, so we decided to put together a blog called 'The Daily 11'.
In the past, it's been known that us creatives claim that we will do a daily contribution and keep up with it, but alas life gets in the way and we fail.
We need some accountability, harassment & encouragement!
That's why Dan Savage, Adam Laurie, Mihai Cernusca, Bryan Perozo and myself have made a blood oath that we will indeed do at least one doodle, zombie or take one new picture and post it here each day. 3 strikes and we fail. Last man standing gets everlasting life.
Please feel free to harass, encourage and crit to give us the juices to follow through to the end of the year!
I will post all of my week's submissions at the end of each week here, but you can see all of ours posted daily on the other blog.
Check it out at TheDaily11.com
Here was my Jan 1st doodle of the 4 of them haunting me to DRAW!
My mom is awesome. Last September she turned her passion for dogs and her house into a full blown dog rescue. I've been there with as many as 33 dogs all housed at once! It's insane and takes a special set of parents to take on such energy, but they are doing amazing things for these "Green Mile" dogs that have days, or sometimes only hours left before getting euthenized.
Since September, she has rescued, rehabilitated and housed 116 dogs!
For Christmas, I spent some time to brand her and make her some business cards and a new website. I'm terrible at coding, so I used Weeb.ly to help, which is just plain rad.
Please check out the new site, www.K9rr.org, and share via Facebook and Twitter. Sharing can save a life! :)
I don't normally chat about Giant Thinkwell related things on my blog, but life after TechStars has been a freakin' blast! If you don't know by now, Kevin and I co-founded a company called Giant Thinkwell. Our first product is called 'Raising Hollywood' and deals with celebrity-endorsed social gaming. We just got back from a trip to Hollywood where we sat down with Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster), Ashton Kutcher, JibJab's CEO Gregg Spiridellis and a handful more of really awesome people. It is way too damn exciting being an entrepreneur and there is just no way I could ever find myself clocking back in for somebody else. Oh and to answer the #1 received question that I've gotten since working on our first prototype game 'Raising Uncle Jesse', yes, we finally broke through and got to chat with John Stamos. (Thanks Nate!)
Kevin Leneway and I have been busting our asses on our new startup 'Giant Thinkwell' since March. It has been such an incredible journey up to this point and it's only gaining momentum. We've been blessed with the energy and support of our spouses, families, friends and the tech/investor communities in Seattle, LA and San Francisco. We truly appreciate each meeting, insight, introduction, investment, and support that each of them has given. Without it, Giant Thinkwell would not be doing close to what we're doing today. We have huge things on the horizon and are cranking away until our ideas are fully realized!
Thanks again for all of the love and support! Happy Thanksgiving.
Today a caricature of Brad Feld that I did ended up on the front page of Tech Crunch. I recently gave about an hour of my time to the amazing Techstars duo of Deal Co-Op to help with some branding and another hour to caricature the legendary Brad Feld. It's been fun watching these guys explode over the last 2 months, can't wait to see what next year looks like for them!
More info:
I went on Greg "Craola" Simkins site and noticed his awesome logo could use some sexy Illustrator blingin'. Spent a few mins and whipped this up. He's been a huge inspiration to me for half a decade now and it's been mind blowing to see his evolution into one of the greatest traditional pop-art genuises of our time!
Do your eyes a favor and check out his work.
One of the final things I worked on before leaving Funko was logo for their 'Jambot' line as well as Funkotronics. Robot and logo conception by the genius Rob Schwartz, rendering by me.
I worked with Derek Lapp of Vector This to create the branding for a Canadian Ice Hockey team called the 'Killer Seals'. I was responsible for the character development and Derek did the rest. I love collaborating with awesome people!
