Zamchick, the Blog

Playful Thought Leadership

2011-12-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

Some rough sketches describing the use of large play pieces for kids. These drawings were then linked to the skills required for some newly emerging work domains.

IT IS WRITTEN (on a heel of bread)

2011-12-11T21:46:00.001-08:00

Roughs for an animated vision concept for a beverage company

Collaboration as career driver

2011-12-05T12:37:00.001-08:00

Some follow a grand plan. Some are driven by a strong, singular focus. Some by profit.

I try to find the right people to work with.

My Dad: A Tribute

2011-11-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

With my 93 year old dad in the hospital for his first-ever broken bone (hip), and after listening to him speak unintelligibly but with all the conviction that a teacher living with Alzheimer's can muster, I've decided to write down some of what I attribute to him.

Disclaimer: Writing was my father's domain. And while my kids humor me about the remarkable breadth of my vocal range, I have wisely chosen drawing pictures over singing for my supper.

Thought 1: I am a hybrid person. The dad I knew growing up, the one that was an English Teacher at my high school for 35 years, was anything but at home. His attic library ("Ivory Tower"), while filled with books on Shakespeare and Drama, had a large section dedicated to Science and Archeology. It was at the intersection of these domains that he aspired to write the true story of the Middle East; one that properly mapped the eruption of Krakatoa east of Java to the manna that fell from heaven in the deserts of Egypt. The axe that divided my dad between literature and science passed cleanly through him and into me. Throughout college I was a visiting artist to my science classes and a scientist-in-residence in my art classes. And later when I taught what could be called "cartooning" to students at the Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences, or illustrated a french language book for Cats, I found myself most comfortable straddling domains.

Thought 2: I am comfortable with ignorance. My dad embellished the Jewish holidays with illuminating observations and scholarly asides, almost all of which went completely over my head. While I dutifully tried to decode what he was saying, my rebellious siblings offered moans and a dismissive roll-of-the-eyes. (Note: Despite apparent inattention, Alan, my brother absorbed every word in that steel-trap mind of his). I would later leverage this acceptance-of-my-own-ignorance' during "interrogazione" at the Tartini Conservatorio di Musica, the school I attended in Trieste, Italy during one of my father's Fulbright years abroad. In class I was often forced to answer questions I didn't understand, about things I hardly knew, in a language I could hardly speak. This skill had great currency years later at AT&T Labs Research where I was dubbed, "Principal Non-Technical Staff Cartoonist".

Thought 3: Avoid the obvious. My dad went to preposterous lengths to avoid saying things in a cliche way. Calling my brother and I down to dinner became a strange and twisted phrase; something like: "Boys, the plates are in place, and there's chicken and your mother at the table." Both my brother and I have avoided cliche's like the plagu...like scurvy ever since. Later, in my cartooning class with Peter Paul Porges (of Mad magazine fame), we were encouraged to "violate cliches." Piece of cake! (jk) I have since developed a quasi-scientific theory about this of the rod and cone variety: Just as we see things better in the dark if we look indirectly at them, we see things in a fresher way if we "look" at them indirectly. This is a requisite habit of mind for anyone in the business of generating new ideas.

Thought 4: Between dreamers and doers, there is room for play. My dad has a poetic soul, evident in the countless and poetic letters he wrote home to his fiance from Hawaii during WW2. My mother was a self-proclaimed efficiency expert and organization hound that could run the affairs of the Superintendent of the Great Neck School System, type 80 wpm, and capture a conversation in Gregg Shorthand long after she too succumbed to Alzheimer's. Dreaming and Doing was the great duality of my childhood - right up there with Solids and Gases. And I learned that for my life to flourish, and to provide adequate entertainment to both of my parents, I needed to be a Liquid that lapped up on the shores of both. This was a great space to occupy and one that I've found myself in ever since. There are always people who have amazing vision and Big ideas and there are always people who make things concrete. I am happiest mixing things up in the space between.

Thought 5: Don't put your thing on others. Alzheimer's works in strange ways; it's meanest trick is stealing the nouns out from the language of it's sufferers. To hear my dad tell stories is like a perpetual episode of that Seinfeld, the one where the couple knows each other too well. He'll say things like, "So I went in there and it was good. It brought them to the front and before you know it, I was walking into something else and there it was." But far more interesting to me, is what he's still got: A tone of authority that transcends the need for content. A pride in having instilled something in others that had nothing to do with him. Something they own for themselves. This may be the greatest lesson he's shared with me. In the words of Gershwin, "They can't take that away from him."

Thought 6: It's the process. This is in the spirit of "Ready, Fire! Aim." In other words, even though my dad's still nursing his hip and eating soft mac and cheese at Englewood Hospital, I'm jumping the gun with something I've always imagined reading at his funeral. My dad's favorite poem is "Ithaca" by Cavafy. It's got just the right mix of obscurity and poetry to sum up this posting. I remember when he read it slowly, with knowing and authority, at the 60th reunion of the first class of Newark Arts High School. My dad would sum the poem up with: "Know where you are going, but more importantly, enjoy the process of getting there." I'll include the poem here in it's entirety...

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Thought 7: When in doubt, say it with heart

On important occasions, my dad liked to say a few words. This could be to deliver something like the poem above, or it could be little poems that struck to the core. He wrote one such poem on the day his sister died,

"My sister

My sister with the

My sister with the slender hands

My sister with

is gone...

....grieving time

And another for the loss of his father that happened to coincide with the wedding day of Princess Margaret in England. I'll let his words frame it:

"Losing parents is not remarkable. What is remarkable is that we often forget to tell them what we should have told them when they were alive. So I've tried to catch moments when I've missed the boat and should have been more aware of time passing and tomorrows gone. I liked my father. What I didn't know until too late was that I loved him too."

The Day is Full

The Princess Meg is wed

And day is full.

The sunbursts warm the sky,

The birds trill and twitter,

The lilacs press their scent

And cherry blossoms scatter soft

To earth.

The Princess Meg is wed...

One common heartbeat later,

My gentle king and father

Is no more.

Passion Map

2011-08-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

a useful exercise for those who rely on serendipity and connecting with like-minded collaborators for the next new new thing we'll do. I worked this one up for a meeting with Chris Anderson of TED.

Change Artist - Part 2 of 2

2011-07-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

New aspects of pond life came into view: animation, immersion in the experience of others, and a love for an infinite variety of forms. Tadpoles were in the clocks I animated around Andy Warhol in his Interview TV opening. They were in the random movement of words in an electronic poster at the World Financial Center. They triangulated to provide "situational awareness" in kiosks designed for a geospatial-intelligence agency. They were in experiences designed for hotel guests and store customers, and in the programming of museums and harbor festivals. In the warm light of the pond, all of my career moves - from humor to new media to telecommunications to intelligence to education to architecture - felt organic.

Here are seven moments from the side of the pond that have helped propel me through murky waters.

Look for lively bits -- Loose squiggly lines create a character, a few more express an idea. My boss, a cartoonist, stamps his foot in frustration. One of his squiggles, the lower of two defining an outstretched arm, lacks spontaneity. He draws another, puts a little glue on it, and pastes it over the lifeless line. "Ah! Better!" Later, he does the same with a couple of the teeny-weeny letters in his signature.

Things go bump -- I come brimming with ideas but I'm told I've missed the point. I was thinking, "Aristotle's elements." My client, a renowned designer says, "No. Plato's cave." (I look up "Plato's cave" when I get home.) I toss my ideas aside and we proceed to create a "quantum fishbowl" - of words and effects in motion - on displays throughout the World Financial Center in NY.

Let things go -- The book purports to teach cats French. An illustrator, I've been invited in on a brainstorm session with the author and packager. What ensues is a mix of smart and some of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard. But in this room, ideas fly by and nothing is held onto. Later the book is pulled together with remarkable wit and humor. It becomes a huge bestseller.

Keep looking forward -- An editor for an online service is trying to put me inside a neat little box. He says, "You were hired to produce Sports." But I know little or nothing about Sports. I know about designing experiences. I work on Sports and experience design. Even the most inflexible managers want you to do what you are most passionate about. I am soon freed up to prototype the entire broadband service experience...design games...and a 3D world.

Use different strokes I enter through gates, past marines with machine guns, into the windowless building. It's my first download on geospatial-intelligence. My team proposes a future scenario that shows how technology can support an exit strategy for non-combatants in a war zone. This is "Data support for Warfighters". I don't mention "French for Cats".

Wiggle and swim -- My first interview at an experiential architectural firm. "Can you design a parade?" I tell them "I've never designed a parade." But I think I can. In the next two weeks I draw seven floats, each representing a different Pixar movie. The floats will stop, a hundred and twenty five performers will put on a show, and then the parade will turn into a giant car wash. This is the first real-world experience I design. Before this, I had only designed some Halloween costumes.

Act as if -- I am hired by a world class industrial lab and partnered with a researcher. He speaks in acronyms like NLP, PAD, and YOIX. When I ask him what they mean, he says, "You should know that." He doesn't suffer fools gladly. I am a fool. We work on a patent presentation for the CTO of the Labs: A thin client that will bring status from a multitude of services to a single GUI. I present ideas I barely understand, in a language I don't know, fielding questions that are over my head. It goes well. I am freed up to collaborate broadly throughout the Lab.

Now pardon me while I pull in my arms and legs and wiggle off to someplace I've never imagined.

Change Artist - Part 1 of 2

2011-07-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Can an immersive childhood experience dictate a highly varied and fulfilling career path?

No doubt we all have early defining moments - moments that predispose us to careers academic or commercial, strategic or managerial, creative or operational. Kids who assemble TV sets with their dads might become electrical engineers. But recently, a former colleague endorsed me on Linked-in as an "amazing generalist!" In a career that's been more "open field running" than strategic plan, I've developed a knack for going in altogether new directions when the going gets tough. Where and when did downturns become springboards for new and unexpected opportunities?

Hawaii, 1960. Four years old. My parents leave me alone for... minutes?...hours?... in a little palm grove. No bossy older siblings. Just a cup and a pond teeming with tadpoles...millions of them swimming in the murky waters. I see them outlined against the white of the Styrofoam cup in my hand. Tiny wiggling bodies with bulging eyes, morphing, some with a single leg popping out from one side. A world in my hand. All in the process of becoming…

This had everything: spectacle, sublime mystery, and monstrous "IT CAME FROM THE DEPTHS!" appeal. My emergence from that pond was reluctant and transformative. I morphed from tadpole to frog to lizard to tree-shrew to chimp to experience-altered human being. I held tightly to this thread as best I could when I returned to suburban life: looking under rocks, reading "How and Why" books, loving high school and then college Biology, doing microbial research with cockroaches as the host organism, and filling sketchbooks with morphological drawings.

College was science and art in equal measure. But craft helped me decide between medical illustration and cartooning. I was simply more adept at doing whimsical drawings than rendering organs and bone. I illustrated newspapers, magazines and books for several years until a small turn of mind changed everything. Instead of being someone with ideas that illustrate stories, I became someone who "comes up with ideas."

This thought had legs. I became a "concept developer", or "experience designer". And I was again knee-deep in the pond.

Part two

It's not who you know, it's how well you know them

2011-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

At 15, I began what has become a lifelong focus on the "experiences" of others. My poster at a local Great Neck library book fair said, "This is your Life" portraits and included some rough examples noteworthy for their lack of faces. Just a crisp oval stood in their place.

With several commissions in hand, I dived into the psyche of the people of my hometown. I heard all about the lives of local businessmen, lawyers, educators, dentists, gallery owners, bankers from the people that knew them best, their wives or husbands. The challenge was to set the gift giver at ease, so they would share the most telling details.

When I look at what differentiates my work from others in the user experience space, it's an appreciation for how details of a life come together in a compelling whole.

Light Snack

2010-10-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

The description of how text-to-scene rendering works includes things like "language-based control of spatial relations, textured and colored surfaces, collections and cardinality..." But the beauty of the tool is when it's put to lyrical use. Here is a rendering by Richard Sproat, the chief language scientist behind the Wordseye technology and someone who professes a complete lack of artistic ability.

Generated from text: croissant is two feet above large turquoise plate. the balloon is above the croissant. the balloon of the balloon is salmon.

Bassackwards

2010-09-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Identify a problem (e.g. the country is going in the wrong direction.) Step 2: Put the problem into words ( the american fish is facing back. the fish is 10 inches wide. The fish is 5 inches long. the sky is water. the ground is water. the light blue illuminator is 1 foot above the fish. the light blue illuminator is to the left of the fish.) Step 3: Communicate the problem in a captivating way.

Generated from text: The american fish is facing back. the fish is 10 inches wide. The fish is 5 inches long. the sky is water. the ground is water. the light blue illuminator is 1 foot above the fish. the light blue illuminator is to the left of the fish.

A Team of One

2010-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

It would be nice if we could have a more tangible relationship with the agencies that Marvin Minsky described so eloquently in his "Society of Minds". Then again, it's nice not knowing who is doing the motherlode of work.

Show me the honey

2010-09-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

The importance of context to experience design: I saw a waitress sorting a pile of money on a table nearby. I asked my waitress for it. She said, "Oh, sure!" Guess what she brought me?

The Space Between Things

2010-08-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

A vertical intervention between floors in a department store can be functional, experiential, playful, social, informational, or interactive. Best to put all options on the table.

Sketches for Macy's Department Store of the Future

(Worked performed with Rockwell Group)

Mapping Emotions

2010-08-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

Drawings can help get inside the emotional landscape of a customer and give a picture of the mechanisms they use to cope. These can be distilled further into a platform for fruitful brainstorming.

Beauty ideation triggers for a CPG company

The Future is Here, and it isn't...Teletext!

2010-08-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

I found this old ad promoting the fledgling (for 1982) Teletext service that I and 90 or so fellow artists, writers, and editors created as a service for Time Inc. I borrowed the title above from Lev Grossman (now novelist and book reviewer for Time) when he interviewed Editor Cliff Avery and me about the false start that didn't take America by storm. Dire Straits was an onboard POV adventure game with hidden numerical clues embedded in very clever ways. Kind-of like a lo-tech Qin or Myst. The ship game concept was, I believe the brilliant David Rollert's idea.

It was imagined that by now, we'd all be sitting around our TVs eating popcorn.

a formula for accelerating innovation

2009-11-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

Zamchick Group's new web page (www.zamchickgroup.com) prompted me to search for a way to represent Rapid Visualization's impact on innovation. Two rough iterations on the same idea:

The Birth of Teletext

2009-06-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

This drawing from 1981 (a very rare Zamchick) is the first time I got inside the experience of an emerging technology. I worked it up and put it in the mailbox of all 108 employees of Time Inc. first multimedia effort, Time Video Information services. One wonderful thing about this effort was the inability to migrate content from existing sources (i.e. other Time magazines), so we had to develop all content from scratch - everything from "How to truss a chicken" to an "Outerspace Zoo."As we all know, the future came and went and it wasn't "Teletext". Each of us - Editors, writers, artists- saved our work daily to 8" floppy disks (note the motif along the top of the drawing.

A short, personal rumination on career change

2009-06-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Mouth:
uh…sorry Hand, it's this damned economy. I have to let you go.

Hand:
Wha…I'm, like…flabbergasted! You can't be serious! For God sakes, I stuffed you with food when you were a baby.

Mouth:

The economy is beastly. Budgets are bad. Everyone wants their design work, like last week! That's if they want it at all. We need to cutback. Any outstanding vacation time?

Hand:
What are you talking about? You're an artist man! What are you going to do, sing for your supper?

Mouth:
At the risk of making this more difficult, yes, I've got other gifts! Talents pushed aside when I decided to rely too much on you.

(Mouth sucks air wistfully from the void…)

Remember when I got the part of "Turtle" in the second grade play?

Hand:
Sure, crawling on all fours didn't exactly show off MY talents.

Mouth:
It was a spectacular role; transporting the brave Japanese prince across the stage on my back! Well, I didn't actually get to play "Turtle." I was passed over for the turtle part. I found myself sitting in the audience watching someone else play "Turtle." I remember wheezing in my seat and making funny little noises:

ah……..ah………eh, ah……….ah……………eh……

Those little gasps hit home! People in the audience actually started looking at me instead of the play! I didn't give this much thought at the time…

Hand: [covers Mouth in mock astonishment] "You're gonna be BIG, man!"

Mouth: [Moves out from behind Hand]

Then, when we were in Italy for 5th grade. The teacher put us in front of class for "interrogatione." I stood with my arms at my side, answering questions I didn't understand, about something I didn't know, in a language I didn't speak. My classmates thought I was a riot!

Hand: They thought you were an idiot! Tell me something to draw; it always makes you feel better.

Mouth: (gaining momentum)
Remember in 9th grade when we did "stand up" in front of Nobel Prize winning scientists. Our precocious 13 year old Lab partner presented his paper on the parasitological lifecycle of a bacterium. I spoke about the care and feeding of the host organism.

Hand:
You talked about how to feed cockroaches!

Mouth:
I got three standing ovations!

Hand:
The scientists stood up to leave! They only stayed because I held myself together mimicking prayer. You think you're a comedian? That you've got some kind of comedy equivalency degree in the school of life?"

Mouth:
A way with words, yes! I'm thinking I got off to a wrong start. A career aptitude exam in college labeled my goals "completely unrealistic." They thought "Bricklayer" was my most likely occupation.

Hand:
Believe me; laying bricks is a whole lot easier than putting down words. Besides, I was the one with the number 2 pencil. I was trying to give you a trade, man!

Mouth:

I was frantic and you were grabbing for straws! So, while I opened wide in surprise, you reached up, took a drawing pen and dangled from it like Harold Lloyd in his famous clock scene. We became a cartoonist!

Hand: That was all me, man! How do you spell "hand?" H – E – R – O! You're not gonna give up on all that?

Mouth: (with a nostalgic air)
True, we've had a pretty good run of it. But times are changing. Say something today, and seconds later it's in everybody's TwitterFeed. You're too slow for the bitstream. Um, please pack up your stuff. I'll have some forms for you to sign.

Hand: You can't be serious! They pay us to visualize things! Without me you can't visualize a thing!

Mouth:
Uh, well…I've been meaning to talk to you about that. See…some former research colleagues have been doing a cool thing with words and pictures.

Hand (meekly): words and pictures?

Mouth:
They've figured out how to make amazing 3D pictures simply by describing them with words.

Hand: Ignore him ladies and gentlemen! He's just rambling! It takes a good hand to make a great picture!

Mouth:
Really it's quite easy! Look, I'll sum up what we've just discussed. You just type: "There is a huge cockroach. The huge Japanese turtle is on the cockroach. A prince is on the turtle.

Hand:
People, the guy needs help! He thinks he's Franz Kafka! Is there a medic in the house?

Mouth:
"...The pink slip is in the Hand. The boy is on the pink slip."

Hand:
You're…heartless!

Mouth:
Steady....I can offer you six months of Cobra.

the game changer

2009-05-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

it came to change the game

the Long Tail

2009-05-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

it's hard to beat the elite to a tweet - illustrating Dave Winer's post on Twitter

Tweet (a cat jumps up on a bar...)!

2009-05-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

Enticing people (with thousands of followers) to RT contextualized visuals might be a meaningful (i.e. less annoying) vehicle to promote/support their causes. Not to mention reframing the image with a twist of their own.

Illumination

2009-05-15T06:15:00.001-07:00

Then Now

celebrity

2009-05-14T22:11:00.001-07:00

Then Now

Visual Banter

2009-04-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

Repartee has always been the exclusive domain of language. New tools are now enabling other forms of expression to partake. In this case, WordsEye, a text-to-scene application, let's someone quickly throw stones at an old adage using language to generate pictures in a conversational time frame.

WordsEye scene on left by information designer Dmitry Krasny. Retort on right by Gary Zamchick.

People-Centric Twitter

2009-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

140 Characters

See the language that generated this image here.

Vaudeville of the Sublime

2009-04-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

one of several riffs on the geological setting for a casino in the Catskills

Concept sketch for hospitality industry. Work performed for Rockwell Group

Adventures in Telephony!

2009-04-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

One of the first prototypes I helped develop the experience for at AT&T Labs Research. A desktop telephony manager. Imbuing it with super powers was fun and relevant. It had some great features like sorting through spontaneous notes for important numbers, click to dial, visual management of multiple calls...

In-progress sketch of application designed by Donnie Henderson.

Thresholds

2009-04-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

translation of cultural context into experiential touchpoints.

hospitality sketches that represent ways of building anticipation for what's to come.

Drawing Inspiration

2009-04-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

the factors that inform a design are both material and conceptual. Inspiration for crafting experiences can be drawn from both words and images associated with a site.

Verbal/Visual Brainstorm for a cultural corridor in the city of Syracuse. Work performed for Rockwell Group (www.rockwellgroup.com).

Dog and Pony - Part 2

2009-04-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

work performed for IBM Center for Advanced Learning

Dog and Pony - Part 1

2009-04-02T06:33:00.000-07:00

Corporate learning vaudeville style. Wordplay to help teams grapple with complex issues in fresh ways.

work performed for IBM Center for Advanced Learning

"Octopus Discovers Land Creature that Morphs to Match Surroundings" -- NYTimes

2009-04-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

David Gallo's amazing TED talk. See the text that generated this image here.

Water Music

2009-03-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Sketch for a water feature that bridged Seussian whimsicality, music, the material properties of water, and guest interaction/immersion to bring this concept by David Rockwell alive.

Concept for a Hotel on Sentosa Island, Singapore. Rockwell Group, www.rockwellgroup.com.

It's a Cars Life!

2009-03-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

A redesign of the Disney World parade timed to coincide with the release of the Pixar movie Cars. After our first meeting, Barry Richards, head of Studio D at Rockwell Group, asked if I could design a parade. These drawings served as my entry ticket to the three years I spent with the company.

The concept Barry had was a set of two-car garages, each designed in the style of one of the Pixar films. This is a rough sketch for the "A Bug's Life" float. Once the parade arrived in final position, the entire set of floats were to transform into a giant car wash. Visit Rockwell Group at http://www.rockwellgroup.com.

Let's be Tweets!

2009-03-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

rumination on the symmetric verses asymmetric nature of communication on FB vs Twitter.

See the text that generated this image here.

Brownian Movement

2009-03-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

In response to a recent RFP from the dairy industry, we looked for a way to distinguish our submission from others received. Besides offering a a rapid visualization tool set, we also generated a set of salient visual images to capture the need for transformation of the brand and attracting a new set of customers. "Brownian" movement references the random behavior of milk molecules.

See the text that generated this image here.

Mysteries of Experience Design (revealed!)

2009-03-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

playful positioning of my role within Rockwell Group

Which Came First?

2009-03-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

whimsical idea published in the Animals issue of Push Pin Graphic. These single topic magazines were an advertising vehicle for a design studio recognized world-wide for bringing a new, witty, highly conceptual twist to visual communications.

Talking too loud on a train, resulted in the opportunity to apprentice for almost a year with Seymour Chwast, founder of Push Pin Studios. Note: Not a Zamchick drawing (Artist TBD)

you are what you blog

2009-03-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

The "Wordle" application (www.wordle.net) automatically pulls keywords from a blog and sizes them according to frequency of appearance. One can imagine a time not too long from now, when a summary of a person's thoughts are transparent to people in physical spaces.

Wordle texture from "Zamchicktheblog" mapped onto a WordsEye head model. See the text that generated this image here.

The Long Tail of Language

2009-03-23T08:52:00.001-07:00

See the text that generated this image here.

Senior Moments and Sales

2009-03-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

To secure new advertisers to it's magazine, Modern Maturity ran a series of ads in the Wall Street Journal and NYTimes Magazine. A gag cartoon campaign was launched that looked at the intersection of seniors and vibrant healthy lifestyles. There was a lot of fun to be had with this, from people getting in touch with their inner selves ("I'm at one with myself, and 53 with everyone else") to the senior-reliving-their-adolescence representation below.

The cartoon concepts were delivered independent of the copy-writing. So it was great to see how Saachi's copy complimented my humorous takes. The copy for the drawing above talked to the sale of tires to this demographic. In all, there were over twenty cartoons brainstormed to attract travel, consumer good, wine, and automotive clientele.

The Plasticity of Ideas

2009-03-20T07:35:00.001-07:00

Method by which the geographically dispersed can collaborate on design. The key thing is mapping this process to how people like to work. A "throw a pot" model gives maximum flexibility to shaping the whole idea, from problem to applications, with spontaneous messaging and consensus building (voting). The creation of an appropriate armature is central to this idea.

How might one transform the nature of a university or fix an ailing economy? What kind of useful "bits" can be brought passively to the attention of designers?

Part 4: Roach Hotel

2009-03-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

Summer of 9th grade. My 7th grade lab partner is doing parasitology research. I am caring for the host organism. Cockroaches are the host organism (Periplaneta Americana). I'm feeding the bugs.

I assemble little five story hotels for them (hospitality design!) They adhere their egg cases to the bottom of the small wood slats. My partner is focused on the microscopic organism (Tetrahymena Pyriformis) we are injecting into the belly of the roaches. Sometimes we inject too much.

We present our findings to Nobel Prize winning scientists. I talk about F&B, house-keeping, bathroom amenities, and childcare. My partner sacrifices the guests in the name of science. Here is the Waldemar Science Research project in which we took part. See the text that generated this image here.

Facebook

2009-03-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

As recent comments attest, the FB redesign is presenting a real challenge to people with hundreds of friends. Scrolling linearly through an updating list is not going to cut it. Something much more customizable/flexible will be required. I'll call it a people-centric desktop for now ( a phrase bandied about at AT&T Labs Research in 2001) - a nodal, map-based thing that helps people see what's new, visualize relationships and archive interactions.

See the text that generated this image here.

Einstein's Hair

2009-03-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

One of several false start children's books. This one focused on awkward kids that grow up to be scientists. Albert Einstein gave kids with excitable tertiary proteins the permission to let their hair go wild. Descartes (anagram:Deter Sacs) framed our hair as an outgrowth of frizzy thoughts.

Learning by Osmosis

2009-03-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

Many critical processes depend on the movement of things (data, molecules, light...) through membranes or thresholds. These sketches suggest ways kids can learn through active physical engagement.

unpublished museum sketches

Words that Hurt

2009-03-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

One of the most vital uses for speech to text is analyzing thousands of broadcast sources for potential threat. The automatic translation of modes enables text search to be executed on spoken reports...

rapid gui prototyping around this idea.

First Audition

2009-03-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

More than a few times, I've been asked to do a few quick sketches to gauge whether I'm the right artist to work on a project. Once, I faxed a single sheet of cats to secure my role illustrating "French for Cats" and another time worked up sketches for a Disney parade to secure my job at Rockwell Group.

Edna Cars for the DisneyWorld parade (Rockwell Group, www.rockwellgroup.com).
This is akin to auditions at some of Manhattan's best music schools. Student vocalist CD's are often given a 5-7 second listen to determine if the student moves forward in the approval process. Visual perception being what it is, a 300th of a second, the time a visual message travels from eye to brain, may be all that is required for determining stylistic fit.

Extreme Character-Counting

2009-03-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

newspaper hawking in the age of twitter

Acting

2009-03-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

an image dedicated to our comfort with uncertainty. Thanks to Sofie for her commitment to this craft and her humorous use of "as if" as a non-sequitur/rejoinder. Here is the text that generated this picture.

Augmented Reality

2009-03-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

I began each semester of my Rapid Visualizaton class at NYU with a challenge. In this case I asked, how can the wizard be conjuring an image for the townspeople to see?

Click here to see one answer to this challenge. When I first asked this (2003), augmenting reality was far from most people's minds. Now, it's starting to percolate into popular use. The most recent example being this GE Smart Grid advertisement.

Heartache in the time of SARS - cont.

2009-03-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

Making a scary story palpable

Storyboard created in collaboration with Author Howard Bloom

Heartache in the time of SARS

2009-03-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

making a scary subject "palatable" to a wide audience

Storyboards (Part 1) for a bio-political animated cartoon created in collaboration with author Howard Bloom

Ode to Facebook Memes

2009-03-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Fortunately, I have not yet been reduced to an inane bit of clipart (The Geeky Artist?)

I've paid tribute to the first of these I saw distributed within the Sarah Lawrence College community (and thus the mascot Gargoyle).

Childhood Monuments

2009-03-09T05:41:00.001-07:00

where do kids find scientific inspiration?

how do you translate these moments into experiential touch points?
unpublished hospitality concepts

Part 3: How the Turtle Lost it’s Voice

2009-03-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

I get the part of “Turtle” in my second grade play. It’s an important role: Crawling majestically across the stage with the Japanese prince on my back.

Well, I don’t actually get to play “Turtle.” For some reason (hesitation? anxiety? a cold?) I was passed over for the part and found myself in the audience watching someone else play the “Turtle”. I remember starting to making little, wheezing noises:

ah………..…..eh……..…eh, eh…………….ah……….…………eh……ah…………..

I asked my brother why I was making little noises. He said, “Quiet down and stop making those little noises.” I made those little noises on and off for years.

Drawings by Students in "Rapid Visualization", NYU's Computer Science Dept. (2004)
I lost my voice but found another on the first day of third grade in Ms. Shanley’s class at Lakeville School. The kids have gathered around Randy Rodrigous. Randy is drawing a Batmobile. I can’t take my eyes off of it. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Drawing is cool. I wouldn’t “act” again until 40 years later in my “Rapid Visualization” masters class at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. I acted like I knew what I was talking about.

Note: When I told Dean Dennis Shasha, that I was kind-of making it up as I went along, he said that was "a good thing". It showed empathy for the anxiety students might feel when approaching the blank page.

Next: the Care and Feeding of Cockroaches

Cultured Pearls

2009-03-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

how do you get under the surface of a culture? try a deep dive into it's mythology, icons, characters, pop culture, innovative ideas and rituals. insure design solutions are of a place and not slapped into place.

unpublished design research sketches for a luxury hotel

A Matter of Words

2009-03-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

word matter can occupy the same place at the same time

Generated from text: the green dog is on the ground. the blue dog is 20 inches in the green dog. the blue dog is facing the southeast. the orange dog is 20 inches in the blue dog. the orange dog is facing east. the purple dog is 10 inches in the orange dog. the purple dog is facing the northeast. the yellow dog is 20 inches in the purple dog. the yellow dog is facing north. the red dog is 25 inches in the yellow dog. the red dog is facing the northwest. it is cloudy. the ground is silver.

Part 2: On becoming a....frog.

2009-03-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

Hawaii, 1960. Four years old. My parents leave me alone (for minutes? hours?) in a little palm grove. No bossy older siblings. Just a cup and a pond teeming with tadpoles...

The Zamchicks on the S.S. President Cleveland near Hawaii, 1960 (Gary in Center)
...millions of them swimming in the murky waters. I see them outlined against the white of the Styrofoam cup in my hand. Tiny wriggling things with bulging eyes, morphing, some with a single leg popping out from one side. A world in my hand. All in the process of becoming…frogs.

I let go of the edge. Time stops. I enter the warm, particulate haze. Light streams in ribbons. Plump animate forms bump in and out of focus. They take me in with casual acceptance. It is gurgle-y quiet and I am immeasurably happy.

And completely consumed. I'm given an open invitation to perch at the edge of things, to search for immersion, transformation, and surprise. To revel in serendipitous encounters and vacation near swamps, and tidal pools.

The tadpole pond surprised me with what I hoped to become.

Next: How the Turtle Lost it's Voice

God's Country

2009-03-05T05:22:00.001-08:00

Nothing brings innovative ideas alive as vividly or informs usefulness as quickly as acting out an interaction (or "body-storming" as James Tichenor would call it at Rockwell Group). It wasn't until IDEO had designers lie in hospital beds, that they realized the endless hours patients spend staring up at the ceiling. User Experience scenarios, unlike more narrowly focused use-case scenerios, take the whole experience of a person into consideration.

at 13, Zach played the role of "Boy" in Steven Dietz's God's Country off-off Broadway. I saw the power of drama in action as he transformed from suburban bar mitzvah boy to a hate-spewing member of the Aryan race. Apologies to Art Spiegelman.

zamchick: an autoblography in 20 parts

2009-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

A career aptitude test I took in college could have saved me a lot of trouble with a simple question:

“What would you rather do?

a. Teach cats French
b. Create a TV opening for the world's most famous pop artist.
c. Fill the windows of FAO Schwartz with a game.
d. Help people create pictures just by describing them with words
e. Design technology that helps stop terrorists from blowing up cars in Baghdad
f. Design a spectacle for the most important city in the world
g. Turn people’s personalities into art
h. Secure a patent in the "Method and System for Personalized TV"
i. All of the above
a. "French for Cats" b. Andy Warhol c. BigAppleopoly d. WordsEye e. VideoNet/ Sarnoff f. NYC g. Lifetoons h. AT&T Labs Research i. Correct.

Instead, a set of generic questions labeled my career goals “Completely Unrealistic” and recommended I become a bricklayer. In retrospect, instead of filling the neatly dotted slots with #2 pencil marks, I should have doodled all over the page.

Artists are an odd lot. Searching for meaningful work, we wiggle passionately, curiously, and blindly from place to place to find...what? Joseph Campbell would say something like “looking back on it, it will all make sense.” That may be true, but on the way we can only look into some quiet, splendid, usually anxious corners of our childhoods for clues to where we are going.

Part 2: On becoming a…frog

H2OTEL

2009-03-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

some concepts that maximize the aesthetic use of water in luxury hotel settings

unpublished experience sketches

From A to B

2009-03-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

getting to innovative ideas... Few of us teleport from problem to solution. And few of us meander all over creation. Today might require the quickest, but most interesting path from Point A to B.

My dad had a favorite poem called Ithaca that he returned to time and again. It speaks to the journey we all are on. Thanks to Saul Steinberg for so elegantly representing this.

Mirror Writing

2009-03-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

To create this art, Da Vinci would have needed to describe a scene in Italian. Use translation software to get to an exact facsimile in English*. Submit the text description to the WordsEye (www.wordseye.com) server in the workspace. Scan and upload a notebook drawing to his portfolio to use as a texture on the bull. Upload a "painting" of himself to use on the cube. Let the parser do it's work of creating a semantic representation of the sentences and arranging the objects accordingly. Use the camera to get the right view. And finally submit the scene to be rendered. Estimated time (*ignoring the fact that the program is unforgiving of bad Italian/English translation), 7-8 minutes.

Self Portrait #1: hand drawn sketch on bull object in text generated scene. See the text that made this image here.

Influential Protozoa

2009-03-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Unpublished sketch of potential architectural and branding collaborators on a Singapore casino project. Gehry, Arnell, Rockwell and Linn.

Child's Play

2009-03-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

envisioning services on top of a robust 3D world

Sensory agents (ear, eye, nose...) wander the world soliciting queries and playing them back to others. Adhoc collaborative art projects spring up. A bouncing ball was the currency of communication. (AT&T LABs Research, 2001)

Snow Day

2009-03-02T06:30:00.001-08:00

Sketches for a constantly animating events display (1986). Among other ideas outlined by Ed, was a "quantum fishbowl" concept where words would "form and unform" out of a dynamic ground (akin to the snow on a TV screen).

Created for Edwin Schlossberg Inc. (Currently ESIDESIGN) and installed in 32 locations throughout Cesar Pelli's World Financial Center in NY.

Status Seeking Missiles

2009-03-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

Author Howard Bloom (The Global Brain) wrote an editorial piece that equated the Iraq war with it's loss of status from the glory days of Babylon 5000 years ago.

We also storyboarded what he called the first "Bio-Political Cartoon" on this subject. As Howard put it, nobody likes being 2nd or third in the world, much less 33rd or 70th.

Anti-Social Media

2009-03-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

I met with sperlingreene recently, a great PR agency focused on Food, Sustainability, and Healthcare (www.sperlingreene.com) They are advocates for using social media in the service of creating "Powerful Conversations". Steven Greene spoke to the "anti-social" aspects of social media - leveraging remote tools only as is needed before connecting in more tangible ways. I carry this a bit further above with a representation of a Personal Net: data exchanged through the weak electrical forces of the body (Strap a hardrive on your ankle today!)

the nature of language

2009-03-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

ambiguity and oxymoronic instances abound in language, complicating the translation of simple phrases into imagery. For instance, here's an example Bob Coyne uses frequently: "The man is watching the cat on the skateboard." Think about the three different depictions that might result. See the text that generated this image here.

Augmented Reality (revealed)

2009-02-28T21:38:00.000-08:00

here is one of several possible ways to conjure things in thin air:

(answer to Rapid Viz class challenge posted here.)

Who r u?

2009-02-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

Before friends and buddy lists made the presence of our "friends" explicit, there was a lot of uncertainty about who "they" were.

Transformation Begins at Om

2009-02-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

At 16, I started working up personality portraits of people in my home town.

Institutions have an intuitive, sometimes sub-conscious knowledge of where they want to go. My role is typically to listen and make that vision explicit and actionable.

Air Grafitti

2009-02-27T05:20:00.000-08:00

Steve Crandall at AT&T Labs Research (http://tingilinde.typepad.com/) rigged the labs with location-based services (2001). Content would pop up on our PDAs. Messages were left outside our doors. The New York Times appeared when sitting out on the balcony. He called it "Air Grafitti". We looked at the teen market for these kinds of services.

Somewhere

2009-02-27T05:06:00.000-08:00

storms (and inspiration?) come in on little cats feet

This was around the time that Bob Coyne enabled the words "row" and "column" in Wordseye. I didn't know if "a column of 9 small rainbow unreflective cats" would work. "Unreflective" removes the shininess from the cats. See the text that generated this image here.

War Toys

2009-02-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

how to communicate visually over moderate distances on the battlefield

Ideas becomes relevant in new ways in different domains. Here, a popular give-away at a children's parties could support the needs of soldiers on the ground.

Coming Soon

2009-02-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

In his best-selling humor book "French for Cats", Henry Beard constrained the concepts tightly to the little stupid things cats do. In "Advanced French for Exceptional Cats", he expanded the constraints to include historical and metaphorical associations. VR for Cats will one day, I suppose, fit into the first category.

Nostalgia

2009-02-26T06:53:00.000-08:00

Pre-internet, some cute notions about how information would be shared. Drawings from the "Executive Computing" column in the New York Times (Late 80's).

Tipping Point, the Game

2009-02-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

strategy concept #1: Keep in mind the role luck plays and plan for it. This can be as small as a serendipitous encounter or as large as the catastrophic failure of a banking system.

Getting to New

2009-02-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

Process concept #1: Assessing risks, jumping hurdles, breaking barriers

Son, the User Study

2009-02-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

The best experience design stems from a clear understanding of users, guests, shoppers, learners and, in this case, one's own 11 year old (created 2002).

POV (Prisoners Of Vision)

2009-02-25T07:31:00.000-08:00

Collaboration imperative #1: helping teams see eye to eye

Please Parse the Salt

2009-02-25T04:40:00.000-08:00

hotel concept #3: micro-processing the F&B experience

It's all bubblegum, isn't it.

2009-02-24T21:33:00.000-08:00

Barefoot in the parking lot

See the text that generated this image at: http://www.wordseye.com/view-picture?sid=12457

Deconstructing a Two-Wheeler

2009-02-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

Learning concept #2: exploring the underpinnings of a learning model through a common experience

the world is exhausted and ready for ted

2009-02-24T01:19:00.000-08:00

a shout out to the TED conference: www.ted.com.
See the text that generated this WordsEye image here.

Twice Around (the Urban Park)

2009-02-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

hotel concept #2: novel ways to provide recreation

Feature Creeper

2009-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

The Perils of Personalization (or why we design for the 89%)

A Brain Grows in Brooklyn - 2

2009-02-21T12:29:00.001-08:00

Polytechnic Institute of NYU (2009)

See the text that generated this image at: http://www.wordseye.com/view-picture?sid=12392

Underwater "Fireworks"

2009-02-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

Wizard Ring Toss meets Live Theatre

hotel concept #1: water feature (blue ballpoint pen on napkin)

Seeing is Believing

2009-02-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Glasses, and 3D Word Pictures...

If you can write a believable press release or ad, you just may have something....http://www.wordseye.com

Department Store of the Future - 2

2009-02-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

Vertical Interventions - the useful, atmospheric, iconic, data-rich, responsive, witty and seasonal

rough sketch created for Rockwell Group (www.rockwellgroup.com)

Literary Paranoia

2009-02-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to (and title modified from "Literary Panorama" by) humor writer Andy Caploe...

I learned the importance of salient visual imagery from speaking with Peter Orton, Program Director of Special Projects at IBM. He has written extensively and wonderfully on the subject.
See the text that generated this picture at: http://www.wordseye.com/view-picture?sid=12375

Electronic Cheese Doodles - Part 2

2009-02-20T04:01:00.000-08:00

(If you recall, the GUI had been hijacked by the teenage son)

You regain control, with an authorative "Yo!"
and the system reconfigures, to what YOU need to know

Now there's THREE of those blips, one RED, BLUE and GREEN,
each one a different, noodle-using machine.
As new data arrives, it's packaged and labeled
and sent back in space, where it's ACCESS-ENABLED:
for cellphones, and palms, and beepers and more
and placed in a VIRTUAL, MAILBOX HUB-CORE.
(Once it's gone THIS far, you can head out the door!)

So you do...you go out....you go out to your car,
that's been THINKING of you, and knows where you are.
All the data upstairs, is now in your trunk,
in a terrabyte drive, in a heap of car junk.
NOW as you drive, YOU appear as a blip,
one that knows FULLY, where to go on a trip
And it knows all your tastes, and your home mortgage rate,
and where in Poughkeepsie, it was you last ate.)

And all this information, Is for YOUR EYES ALONE,
It responds to YOUR voice, it responds to YOUR tone,
And there's a pip-squeaky chip, keeping your data intact,
(so NO prying eyes, can hack out a fact!)

Just then there's a call, from your spouse in NY.
She's walking down Fifth, and she's come to a fork.

"Which way is that shop, where we spent on a lark,
all the money we've got, was it Madison or Park?"

You say "tsk, tsk, tsk", (she's just ACTING needy,)
There's no guessing game, she's got Air Grafitti
She just has to look, down each block in the air,
and she'll KNOW what she scribbled, when last she was there.

A small, diamond brooch, on your wife's right lapel,
is sending some pics, to your Thing-ga-ma-TEL.

Her cellphone, her visor, Her pricey broach pin,
Are all in cahoots, with a bluetoothy grin.
And what you see in your car, makes your smile turn thin
She's buying 10 items from, the most priciest bin.

Just then you arrive, At your place of employment,
where a new kind of gizmo, offers a new kind of enjoyment.

Instead of your office, Your room, desk and chair
You can now do your work, from most everywhere.

And this WORKING class gizmo, knows your WORKING persona,
The one that sells toasters, To folks in Katona.

And the first thing it does, after learning your name,
Is tie in your calls to the, one and the same,
NETWORKED COMM CENTER
that you talk to at home, (and all OTHER places
you happen to roam.)

So you do what every other, self-Cleaning, toast-salesman would do,
You head for a spot, that's just right for you.

And from that quaint, quiet place, near a bush, tree and stream,
You manage your NEW, net-based data management team.

A Brain Grows in Brooklyn - 1

2009-02-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

Long before there was the novel by Betty Smith (1943) there was the Polytechnic University (1854)

Now the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, it is poised for change:
http://www.poly.edu/. WordsEye image w/2D old photo
effect: http://www.wordseye.com/view-picture?sid=4990

My Life as a Lab Rat

2009-02-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

Some of the visual identities developed over three years time helping business units recognize the value in AT&T Labs Research technologies

Among other names they called me, I liked "Principal Non-technical Staff Cartoonist" the most.

Walt's Marceline Living Room

2009-02-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

object theatre space responsive to multiple story lines...

reserved exhibit sketch for the Walt Disney Family Museum (created for Rockwell Group, www.rockwellgroup.com)

escalating experiences

2009-02-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

tapping the willingness of shoppers to let go of control

rough sketch (created for Rockwell Group, www.rockwellgroup.com)

The Status Junkie #2: Analytics in the Time of Sisyphus

2009-02-19T03:52:00.001-08:00

Actual visit data for zamchicktheblog, day 1 through the start of day 5
using Google Analytics and WordsEye (www.wordseye.com).

Department Store of the Future

2009-02-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

surprise at every corner...

rough concept sketch (created for Rockwell Group, www.rockwellgroup.com)