no style victim

digital sketch by george

this jotter has a New York-based batch mate from college (University of the Philippines, Diliman) who has a very interesting blog called Project 365: Draw the Line (draw365.blogspot.com) you’d be interested to read this blog if you actually or virtually sketch. I remember George to be the best illustrator in our class; I was particularly amazed at his skills in figure drawing. He had very confident lines and made his process of drawing look spontaneous and deceivingly easy.

comification of photographed images

george moved to New York in 1994 and became creative director for ROM Antics INC. New York. The very next year, he moved to Muffin-Head, Inc./DVCi Technologies implementing creative and usability standards for clients, internet multimedia, video and print projects, from pitches to finished projects. He designed and maintained company brand image, including corporate identity kits & website. He also managed client relationships with Prada, The Lancaster Group, Revlon, Estee Lauder, Breitling, Oxford, and Visionaire.

ads for RAFE

he went through other companies such as Digital Pulp, hip O, Nu Run that completely honed his skills and decided to go freelance as Art Director in 1992. From then to the present, he is the Branding Design Director for RAFE Studio Limited, New York, a bag and shoes company owned by Rafe Totengco. His clients now include Peter Som, AnnTaylor.com, Sony Music, Sointu USA, Russ Berrie & Co., and Grey Interactive

artist's self portrait (COPYRIGHT George G, all illustrations)

i remember george as a t-shirt and jeans guy in college and was pleasantly surprised to see him turn out to be a fashionphyle who, to this style jotter , was the chicest guy on fifth avenue. seemingly he has the chutzpah to wear Rick Owens and Mcqueen together without looking like a victim.

a thing of beauty is a joy...for now

I acquired a white Macbook last July for my birthday since my old one conked out and as soon as I’ve gotten used to the Leopard operating system, immediately upgraded to the new, uni-body aluminum Macbook. I wouldn’t have been able to upgrade sooner had I not purchased from e-Central. I usually get my tech toys from this store, and my friend Joy gave me a good deal (hint: it included a trade in). Still, I was wondering if I should have just stuck to the white one.

The new MB is cast from a single aluminum block and has the high style of the sleek MacBook Air with a more reasonable price, while providing much better performance, accessibility and capacity. The new Nvidia video chip is a great improvement on the previous model, delivering performance you can feel in ordinary use and according to some technical reviews, also nearly matching last year's MacBook Pro.

Despite the luxury feel and build quality, the new MB isn’t professional-grade hardware however. The loss of FireWire is a big deal since I have a video cam that uses this port; this machine will not be useful for video, music and visual creative professionals. Also, the new MB has a bright and visually striking LED-backlit display which is bane not boon because it is apparently more reflective than my previous white MacBook outdoors and in less than ideal environments.

I love the new minimalist, glass trackpad , which incorporates "multitouch" technology from the iPhone platform however. There are no extraneous buttons; the entire surface is the button. The huge trackpad is hinged at the top and depresses at the bottom with a precise, satisfying click. The surface is smoother than a traditional trackpad's, with a matte finish that provides an excellent mix of slip and stick. It supports pinch, stretch and rotate gestures; three-finger navigation in Safari and Finder; two-finger scrolling and secondary click; and optional tap-lock. You can swipe all four fingers up or down to activate Expose (up to push all windows off the screen, or down to view all windows). Left and right four-finger swipes trigger the application switcher (normally accessed via Command-Tab key combo). This was initially a little confusing but a couple of hours of practicing and playing turned your jotter from klutz to virtuoso.

The aluminum MacBook is a great laptop with its pro styling at a consumer pricing and in terms of pure design. The new MacBook is a big step forward with its faster speed and I’m glad I upgraded. Thus, I give this device nine grosgrain ribbons. 

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