The Bikoff

Definitely one of the coolest modes of Eco friendly transport we’ve seen. Sleek, stylish, and we’re sure its heavy enough to be used as a weapon. And it comes in a gouache pattern??!!!! AWESOME!!!

Lost Type Fiends!

We’re obssessed with fonts. We try to add to our collection each day. Then we heard about this site and we nearly had ourselves a myocardial infarction! Pay-what-you-want fonts?!!!! Let it rain people…Let. It. Rain.

I Still Have a Soul

Filming duo Contraband put together this spec promo for HBO Boxing After Dark. The story takes place in NYC and covers a homeless man working his way up to become a professional boxer. Beautiful cinematography and concept in a 2 minute spot. Great story. Great video.

The Best Swimming Pool for Playing Marco Polo

Back in the summer of 2010, Singapore introduced the Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort. This massive complex designed by Moshe Safdie was originally inspired by decks of cards. The best part of this resort? We would say the pool that sits 55 stories high with a 478ft vanishing edge. The sign that says “no running” around that area? We would probably abide by that in this particular case.

Strange…Yet Alluring…

This video for Sébastien Tellier’s Pepito Bleu is teeming with special effects. Don’t know what else to say about this. After you watch it, it’ll probably make you say “WTF?!”

Why Weird Is Wonderful

Forbes contributor, Jessica Hagy, uses simple but effective visuals to tell it like it is. A few weeks back, she posted why weird is more awesome than normal. Since we’re all a bunch of weirdos here at Pulse Creative, we figured this was very fitting and true.

Kate Beckinsale in All Her 3D Awesomeness

Kate Beckinsale. 3D. Nuff said.

My name is Teddy. I don’t know how it happened, but this NYU dropout (I’m on hiatus) scored an internship at Pulse Creative. I walked into their midtown office yesterday morning. I’ve been here before many times but never that early; The office was dark, quiet, and awkwardly calm.

I was greeted by Adrienne, a really friendly but really busy graphic designer.

I figured I should make a good impression on everyone before they got in, so I ran down to get coffee and donuts. By the time I got back, the lights were bright, the music was blasting, and the office was in full swing!

Instantly, I was given a project and my Photoshop skills were put to the test. I needed to design a microphone flag (the little box you see around microphones during interviews and press conferences) for Pulse. I didn’t fail thanks to the head of the video department, Mikey, who reminded me the difference between vector and raster graphics.

Before I even finished, Alex, production manager, already informed me about my next task. Halfway through revising text describing how Dance With Me’s upcoming Jan 27th event is benefitting St. Mary’s Hospital, Singer, Lulu Dahl, and Rapper, Kid Vicious, walk into the office. Lulu will be singing the National Anthem at Hammerstein Ballroom at Maks’s Birthday Bash, and came in for a promo shoot. Enter Todd, video editing extraordinaire, who gave me a crash course in operating a Nikon D7000 and the three ways of letting light into the lens; Manually, ISO, & F STOP. I shot B-ROLL footage of Lulu & Kid Vicious and proceeded to go around the office and get to know Pulse. I met Sal and Steve, who are creating an online game for Facebook, and Phillip, Pulse’s motion graphics designer. And then I came across a second Mikey, his nickname is “Juice,” but I’m still trying to figure out why.

I then sat in on my first production meeting and had to jet down to Dance With Me SoHo to meet Matt Hunter, and rehearse his performance.

This morning, Val, Tony, Nicole, myself and the Pulse team were back in DWM SoHo teaching the cast of “Elvis Duran & The Z Morning Zoo,” and Steve Sandberg from 1010 WINS, how to Salsa.

I got super excited on our cab ride back up to the office when I saw the ad for the Maks Birthday Bash play on Taxi TV,

An hour after we got back to the office, I was even more excited to see the event promoted during the “7 Secret Sales“ segment on ABC NEWS.

I know I’m barely scratching the surface, I haven’t even introduced you to everyone here, but I’m pretty sure I’m starting to understand. Pulse Creative moves at the speed of life, if not faster. Your pulse is your body’s clock, this place and these people bleed creativity…in a heartbeat.

Until next time, stay productive…because you know we are ::)

Jennifer Louise Martin

UK born and based artist Jennifer Louise Martin work infuses the allure of high fashion photography with the female psyche’s constant desire to obtain beauty and perfection. Within her paintings, a response is given about societal perception of where and how true beauty exists, creating a liberating journey away from the illusion of perfection. Take a look at her body of work here and a brief Q&A here.

Humans!

A great motion piece by Bl:nd, depicting the relationship between humans and Earth. This video gives us a funny, but serious, take on the role that humans play on earth. If more work for ‘being green’ were done like this, it might take on a bigger role.

The Obliteration Room

Ever wonder what would happen if you gave thousands of kids stickers and made your living room the canvas? The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art worked with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to create such an environment and this is what happened. Her exhibit is currently showing now until March 12.

The Power of the Internet

A friend of ours, Cesar Kuriyama, was recently tapped to be a speaker for TED talk. Our mutual friends decided to congratulate him the only way artists know how – Take his picture and place them in hilarious backgrounds. The joke that began amongst friends soon spread to the internet. Within 1 day, popular social news website, Reddit.com, caught wind of the joke and it started to trend in the top 5 news stories for the day. There are now over a hundred entries after 2 days and its still going strong.

John Galliano for Claridge’s London

Yes. We know. Christmas has been over for a few weeks now. But when we caught wind of fashion designer John Galliano collaborating with luxury London Hotel Claridge’s, we couldn’t help but share it with you all! Here’s how it turned out.

Ian Eastwood x Drake

Chicago native Ian Eastwood started dancing at the wee age of 10 and is now an up-and-coming choreographer changing the game. Check out what he did with Kubskoutz and Quick crews for Drake’s “Dreams Money can Buy”.

Chiddy Bang – Thruth

Just a great video from one of our favorite artists, Chiddy Bang’s “Truth”.

The Pulse-Creative-Needs-an-Office-Pet Fund

And finally…we here at Pulse Creative have been lobbying hard for a new office pet. We’ll take this one. If you find her, please walk her straight to our office. Thank you.

See you there!

1. Photobooths are really fun…I mean REALLY FUN. Just ask Allison. She’s basically in almost every one of the photos that were taken at the booth.

2. Give Allison a few drinks and she goes from Ms. Camera Shy to Ms. Superstar/Model/Spotlight is on Me B*tch!

3. There are only 2 types of drunk people in this world: Happy, Lovey-Dovey Ones vs. Very, Very Belligerent Ones

And finally…

To everyone we’ve worked with this past year, we want to wish you A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AND HOPE THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO COLLABORATE AND BUILD ON WHAT WE’VE STARTED!!!

Enjoy the photos!

Is it really the holidays already?! Well I guess we have to give you a quick recap of what we’ve been doing.

Client meetings. Web projects. Eating. Design projects.  Show/Event production. Recipe development. Drinking. Heavy Drinking. New business pitches. Videoshoots. Photoshoots. Video editing. Crying. Laughing. Yelling at each other. Hugging each other. Apologizing to each other. Bathroom breaks…There, I think we’re caught up now.

And now back to where we’re at – the holidays. As usual, this place is a pig sty / warehouse as we put together our holiday gifts to give appreciation to everyone we’ve worked with. This year, we decided to put together a Office Survival Kit. This included tshirts, snacks, notepads, excuse coupons and much more. If you weren’t lucky enough to get one, hit us up and we might be nice enough to send one out to you

Tees with one of our office mottos…

Our idea pad…

Excuse coupons for when your tardy…

Can’t forget the alcohol…

Definitely running out of room…

“Find out what I have to do to become an astronaut.”

That was the first thing ever told to me at Pulse Creative. Before joining Pulse Creative however, I did a brief stint at a relationship/celeb blog. As a creative writing major from Central Florida, I was thrilled to get an internship at a relationship/celebrity blog in New York. Based on the phone calls between my boss and myself, I would be writing blog posts on celebrities and how us “normal people” could find relationship advice out of what they did in their high society romances. I could not wait to get started in Long Island. However, when I actually started working there, my job did not include writing.  I was looking at hundreds of blogs each day and writing what ads they had on their sites. I would come home from work and I would hear my twin sister, Jess, tell me how amazing her internship at the Pulse Creative was.

That evening I emailed Monica, my sister’s boss, saying that if there was ever a need for a writer in the future, I was offering my candidacy. Within ten minutes of sending the email I had received a response saying that Pulse would be honored if I join. Just like that, I quit my internship and joined a new family!

I started my first day on a Thursday, which wasn’t too shabby, if I do say so myself. When we arrived, my sister went off to her desk, and I awkwardly sat on the couch next to her desk. Then from a voice in the back room Jess was called back. I followed her to the back room and when I got there a man in an awesome Captain America shirt looked me right in the eye and told me, in a no-nonsense voice, to find out how he could become an astronaut. I went right to my sister’s laptop and learned everything I could get my hands on. After I presented Dhare (the man who wanted to become a spaceman) with the packet of information that I had printed out, he then turned to Jess and myself and said he had another task for us – to come up with mini games for an online game idea that he was developing and to pitch to him names for the game. It was so much fun to be creative – to be free from excel spreadsheets!!!

When Monica arrived at the office in the late afternoon returning from a meeting, she introduced me to the group and informed us that I would be writing for the company’s blog and to become familiar with my new family by interviewing each of them. Just so you know, when I interview people I don’t know I am the most awkward person who has ever existed. I interviewed three of the four guys who worked with me at Pulse Creative and I forgot to ask them who they were, (which is kind of the whole point of the interview). So, instead of asking them the proper questions I ended up asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up (Dhare: astronaut; reTodd: music video director; Mikey: lawyer) and what they did during the day (Dhare: pretend to look busy; reTodd: edit videos and render them; Mikey: TBA. He left before I could get to him). The guys were really relaxed and gave the office a fun, whimsical feel to it.

At the time, Pulse Creative was working on a huge event with Dance With Me dance studios. “All the Right Moves! Summer Invitational 2011” was that Sunday (June 5^th) and everyone was busy. The day event was a competition between the three branches of the studios and at night was the main event with Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy. But before this event could get started Team Pulse had to get everything ready. JHud, as my sister is called to distinguish her from the other Jessica in the office, and I were given a list of items that we needed and a credit card and thus the Twintern’s  (twins + intern) adventure across Manhattan began.

Once that was all said and done we had a team meeting to discuss the next few days’ schedules. This would be one of Pulse’s larger projects and everything had to work properly. There was a schedule that we called the “Bible”; it had everything about the event in it, from contact numbers to what was for lunch. So if, by any chance, Monica, Allison, Alex, Jason, or reTodd died in a freak cab accident, anyone who found the “Bible” would be able to run the show and no one would know anything was wrong. JHud and I were given the task of waiting for chocolates and little shampoo bottles to put in the swag bags. The delivery would come to the office at 9:30AM on Saturday, so we had to be at the office at 9AM. Once we had the promotional items in the office we could go about our day. However not everything went according to plan. Some of the items never showed up, so we ended up staying until 7PM.  And on Sunday we were supposed to go to the Manhattan Center, the venue for the event, at 5PM but we ended up arriving at 8AM. We were more than a little sleepy, but we had a job to do, dammit! Our personal tiredness had to be put aside for the greater good. We had a show to put on. Most people don’t work huge celebrity events on their third day of work, but this wasn’t a normal internship that I had gotten myself into.

This was something more…

It was an amazing event due to the grand visions of the Chmerkovskiy and Volynets families, who were great to work with as always. But behind the scenes our little team of idiot savants wind down and give me the inside scoop to how intense and challenging the project was. Here are some of the perspectives from the Pulse team:

Jason, lead designer and director of photography on the project, explained, “The production was very intense and challenging. From the moment I arrived at the Manhattan Center I was busy working doing everything from setting up tables to getting ice. I shot footage all day and at the end of the event I helped put everything away just as I had helped build it. Anyone who puts together an event needs to know that sh*t is never going to go the way you planned. Never.  No matter how long you’ve been planning … whether it is months or days. You have to adapt and keeping moving forward.”

Todd, one of our videographers who was working three cameras at the same time at one point said, “It was crazy getting the different angles, trying not to run out of film and making everything look stunning at the same time. Twelve hours of continuous filming is exhausting, not to mention that I was fighting against 100 other cameramen for the same shot. But over all it was so much fun and everything turned out amazing.”

Dhare, our resident creative zombie had a very unique take on the Dance With Me event. “Failure was not an option. For me the day did not begin on Sunday but on the previous Monday. I remember longing to feel the warm sunlight on my cheeks but instead they were bathed in the light from my laptop. When D-Day finally arrived, I entered the Manhattan Center unsure if I would ever come out alive.” He did, I can assure everyone.  He added, “I walked into a sea of beautiful Amazonian women. The air smelled like hair spray and a little too much cologne. My job was to record the day’s events through photographs but I mainly spent the day trying to survive. The music was booming and the lights were blinding, but I had to finish my mission. I remember another photographer next to me, but I don’t think he made it out of there. I never learned his name but I will never forget him.”

Allison, the production manager of the event could not have done a better job. The event planning gods were smiling upon her on June 5^th. “The main challenge was timing. This was a huge event and we only had a few days to pull it together. Using every resource we had we made it work. It was both physically and emotionally demanding but we all pulled through. The Dance With Me family insists on excellence and we provided them a team of knowledgeable, hardworking individuals and we gave them everything we had and more. Pulse Creative handled everything from food to lights to security. To put it simply, if it was at the event, Pulse had something to do with it.”

Alex, the production coordinator, like the rest of us dedicated her entire week to the Dance With Me event. “There was so much to be done for the event, I don’t even know all that we did. I made sure the we had everything we needed for the event, ordered balloons, table clothes, items for the gift bags, made sure everything was delivered on time and set up properly. It definitely took a toll on all of us but it was well worth it. I can’t wait till we do the next one!”

By the end of the day over 3,000 pictures had been taken, 360 gigabytes of footage were recorded. Everything came together beautifully. You would have never known that all this blood, sweat and tears had gone into this seemingly flawless event. Who could have known that each badge of the 300 badges was printed, hand cut and laminated in our offices. That the programs were designed the night before at 2AM and sent to a printer by 3AM to have them done within hours of the doors opening.  And that the venue had been changed just 2 days before the day of the event.

And just like with any production, every second of hard work and all the stress that the team faced whilst creating this extravaganza, was completely forgotten for a few hours when the show began and Maks & Tony danced out onto the stage until the show stopping Kirstie Alley & Maks dance. Our video and photo teams stealthily, calmly and inconspicuously fanned out around the entire theatre and dance floor edges capturing every conceivable angle of the amazing event.

And then came the last dance, when the Pulse Production team went back into hyper drive because we were back in the limelight. Team Pulse took over again to close down the show…cross the T’s, dot the I’s…figure out the bills…shut down the lights… And the projects still went on back into our offices with online banners to update, press to promote, and more. We have been editing and retouching thousands of photos, working on video teasers and actual feature performance video, updating all the social networks/sites and just doing what we do. Idiot Savants that rely on each other to just get through this grind, the ups and downs, and finish the job.

The Boss lady shooed me away when I tried to ask her about her experience with the event. She said that the whole team did the work and they are the heroes in this story. She takes center stage of the Pulse Office and simply says” Great Job, Team Pulse. But it’s time to move onto the next big thing.”  As the curtains close for us another project begins…

To see other pictures of this amazing event by clicking here.

There’s so much going on in your head when you have no idea where you are. It might be scary…but at the same time, there are so many doors open to you.

I was lucky enough to have taken a couple weeks off to visit my parents’ as well as my in-laws’ motherlands: Taiwan and the Philippines. And even though I have been back there once before (Taiwan), it had been 25 years since my first and only visit to the little island (in addition to this being my first trip to the Philippine Islands). So you could say much has changed. And that I was plucking myself off the concrete of NYC and into “Oh Sh*t! Where the Hell Am I?!”

As a creative, its always great to get away when you get a chance. I’m not talking about getting away so that you can sit yourself in front of a TV or perhaps go to the beach and soak in the sun. I’m talking about the type of getaway where you leave something familiar and go some place where you’ve never been…where every corner you turn, there’s this feeling that you’re totally lost. Culture shock. It can be frustrating at times and you’ll find yourself outside of your comfort zone more often than you’d like. But at the same time, there’s this feeling of freedom…as in “I’ve never been down this road, so let’s just keep walking and see what’s up ahead” …that type of freedom where no one’s there to tell you that you can’t go there. In the end, it gives you a fresh perspective and a new angle at approaching things. Whether you’re a creative or not, you should at least do this once in your life. Scratch that. Once each year.

Enjoy some of the images I was lucky enough to grab.