JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

So, my good friend and partner in bike related crime, Sean from Vecchio’s had a sick nasty, old skool Bianchi time trial funny bike frame laying around the shop last week. I sort of have a thing for Bianchis and was ready to do whatever it took to ride that thing. After some serious negotiation it came down to a framed print of Josh Holland’s piece “Never Lose Your Sense of Wonder” for the fully built bike. I would say it was a win win for everybody involved and damn does that print look good framed… now you just have to finish up my bike Sean!

Turns out Ninja Nate is gonna be goin’ under the knife. He needs immediate Lasik!!! We’ve never heard of anyone having to undergo an immediate Lasik procedure. Have you? Ninja Nate says, “My opthamologist can’t believe it either, he’s not sure why, but I have to have Lasik, like yesterday. Weird, right?” Crazy. The Ninja himself sent over one last close-up of his beautiful eyeballs, “just in case something goes wrong,” he said. Remember these gorgeous eyeballs… cuz you never may see them again.

So… yesterday was Valentines Day. Some of us around JE headquarters had Valentines… some didn’t. The one thing though that we all have in common (every day) is iPhones. And, we take lots of photos (most of which are super whack!). Here’s what we feel are our 2 best and most intriguing Valentines Day photos. As you can tell, some of us had “better” evenings than others…

I thought I would share this with you all, I know it made my day brighter!

One of my all time favorite poster design studios Aesthetic Apparatus has an interview at You Work For Them.
View the interview here.

We’ve been so slammed lately that we’ve brought on a second intern. Meet Emma, she may look small, but when it comes to html/css/php/actionscript and hyper modern character illustration, she’ll smoke the best of ‘em!

 Watch this now! It’ll be the best 60 mins of your life. Hip hop documentary from 1986 featuring Biz Markie, Roxxane, and Doug E Fresh. Aahhh so fresh…

Thanks to our great intern, Casey, the $40,000 piece of equipment from Germany made its way to the photographer’s studio. Cypher13 will acquire the photos and design a catalog for LUM.

Musa and Lily were just up at the shop to rap about Shoe Shine, Pulse Arts (Musa’s non-profit, the promoting power-house behind Shoe Shine), and makin’ some really dope new moves.  They’ve got some fantastic ideas, and bring a wealth of experience to the table.  We’re gonna pull in the design savvy of Cypher13, and team up to help push some of Musa’s and Lily’s ideas forward.  All sorts of fresh shit is gonna start happenin’ quicklike, so stay tuned for more.  We’re stoked!!!

A few months ago I was thinking about the sad, painful death of album artwork. The digital download is becoming the standard in the world of music, and with that, the loss of amazing album art is soon to follow. I decided to talk to some of the design studios working primarily in the music field about their thoughts on the fact. Check out the first interview with Invisible Creature conducted for Indie HQ. Check the interview here.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the international work-in-progress, named the “Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America (SPP),” here’s an introduction. The program goal, according to a release by the White House Office of the Press Secretary, is “To enhance the competitive position of North American industries in the global-marketplace and to provide greater economic opportunity for all of our societies, while maintaining high standards of health and safety for our people, the United States, Mexico, and Canada will work together…”

The North American currency union is a proposal in which the three principal countries of North America, namely Canada, the United States and Mexico, would share a common currency. Implementation would probably involve the three countries giving up current currency units (Canadian dollar, US dollar and Mexican peso) and adopting a new one, created specifically for this purpose. The hypothetical currency for the union is sometimes referred to as the amero. The concept is modeled on the common European Union currency (the euro) and it is argued to be a natural extension of NAFTA. Conspiracy theorists contend that the governments of the US, Canada, and Mexico are already taking steps to implement such a currency.

The incredible part of this story is that JoyEngine has been invited to participate in the design of this new currency. The JoyEngine team has started a dialogue with officials involved in the transition.