While roaming the halls of CES this year we were blown away by the plethora of products, gadgets, and identities designed by Astro Studios. From the uber-current Boxee Box, Ooma Telo, Zune HD and Intel Moorestown, to the brand identity extension of Kodak Slice and the still kicking Xbox 360, Astro was in the house!
Wowing the crowds at this year’s CES was the Boxee Box designed by Astro Studios. In classic championship style, Boxee was crowned CNN’s prestigious “Last Gadget Standing” award, in addition to being awarded a finalist slot in C-NET’S “Best of Show.”
Hats off to Boxee and D-Link!
No two words in the English language snuggle and spoon each other quite like the words free and time. I believe it is impossible to say "free time" aloud without smiling. Whether or not you have an exciting day-gig, like the many happy folk of Astro Studios, free time is never to be taken lightly, frittered away or wasted.
No two words in the English language snuggle and spoon each other quite like the words free and time. I believe it is impossible to say "free time" aloud without smiling. Whether or not you have an exciting day-gig, like the many happy folk of Astro Studios, free time is never to be taken lightly, frittered away or wasted. "How was your weekend?" can quickly turn into bravado and probable fish tales, but the following is true, and none of the photos have been doctored.
Jeff Nebolini, Astro lead graphic designer and cyclocross racer, just wrapped up his 2009 competitive season. The new year couldn't have come sooner for Jeff, who's body is thrashed after 15 intense races around Northern California and the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships in Portland, OR. It's no wonder that his bones need some patching.
Cyclocross races are dirty, dangerous, and as Jeff puts it, "BRUTAL." The courses are rife with a myriad of obstacles such as steps, barriers, ravines, steep slopes and deep mud or sand that require carrying the bike while running. The competitions, usually consisting of multiple laps around a short-ish track, are "always flat out sprints that last around 45 minutes to an hour."
Although "Work Hard, Play Hard", might be cringe-inducing bumper sticker rhetoric, it is appropriate for this hard working, harder riding cyclocrosser.
Jeff, we salute you.
Please check back for our future installments of "Free Time" to see what the Astro crew does for kicks and giggles.
Astro Studios recently mentored a group of students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for the Fall 2009 semester. Lending his 20+ years in the design consultancy field, Kyle Swen, VP at Astro, had a lot to offer the students looking for credits in the course entitled Product Design IV taught by Jim Shook.
Astro Studios recently mentored a group of students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for the Fall 2009 semester. Lending his 20+ years in the design consultancy field, Kyle Swen, VP at Astro, had a lot to offer the students looking for credits in the course entitled Product Design IV taught by Jim Shook.
The goal of Astro sponsoring this class was to bring real-world expertise and process to the classroom. Kyle tasked the students with a project that required them to design a timepiece for a brand of their choosing. Kyle proposed the timepiece theme due to its natural blend of technology, style, and fashion. Believing that he could push the students even further, Kyle had them design the out-of-box experiences for the products as well. Kyle wanted the students to fully understand the brands and clients they were designing for, and pushed the students to define the demographic groups that the brand was trying to reach. For their finals, the students showed their presentations here at the studio, pitching their ideas to the Astro crew for critical review.
The class thrived on the invaluable “in the trenches" point-of-view from Kyle, and in return Kyle gleaned fresh zeal from the students. "It's always inspiring to see young enthusiastic talent excited about design. As working designers it re-sparks our creative engines as well”, stated Kyle.
It was truly a pleasure working with the Academy of Art University and their students. We look forward to expanded mentoring and educational collaboration in the future.
Feasting on Northern Chinese Street food prepared in a semi-fancy manner sounds great, right? Well we thought so too, so Chris, ViLO and I made our way over to Heaven's Dog for a nicer-than-usual lunch South of Market.
Feasting on Northern Chinese Street food prepared in a semi-fancy manner sounds great, right? Well we thought so too, so Chris, ViLO and I made our way over to Heaven's Dog for a nicer-than-usual lunch South of Market (SOMA). Nestled in the bottom of The SOMA Grand, Heaven's Dog is an inviting spot from the moment you walk in: nice host, nice staff, and a gorgeous bar erected out of a 30ft long piece of a Cypress tree that begs to draw you deeper into the main dining room. The space was designed by Lundberg Design, coincidentally the same architecture firm that designed the new luxurious first floor of Astro Studios.
We were seated instantly without prior reservations. I was wearing my “confuse them every time” Groucho glasses disguise, so I'm sure they didn't recognize me as the famous food critic restaurants all over the SOMA area have come to fear and love. We checked out the menu and ordered. I had an elderflower spritzer, and my buddies drank some Concubine oolong tea. Elderflower is delicious and makes a naturally sweet and light soda. The starters came, and we commenced to grind. The shanghai dumplings (xiaolongbao) were filled with pork, rice vinegar and ginger. These flavor vessels were delicate and scrumptious, the soup-like mixture of the ginger and vinegar softly explode into your gullet. The organic brussels sprouts came sauteed in ginger and were accompanied by thin slices of Chinese lap xuong sausage. I love brussels sprouts; I always have, I always will. The braised pork belly in steamed clam-shell bun is the dish of love. An upscale version of the best pork bun from a Chinese bakery you could ever hope to face. I could eat 15 of these and be good, but that wouldn't be a very balanced meal, now would it?
Something started to slightly annoy me before the main dishes came, and I quickly pinpointed it: overplayed classic rock. Now I don't have a huge grudge against CCR like most of my friends do, but "Proud Mary" started to clash with the modern-yet-authentic Asian cuisine, and I sadly wondered how many more times would I have to hear that song in my lifetime. Some old Bowie came next; of course it was the over-aired song "Changes," but it's at least that leaned more to my musical taste. Regardless, it was still annoying in that room at that time.
The main dishes came, Chris received Timmy’s Beef, which was flavored with ginger, scallion, jalapeno and served atop egg noodles. Chris liked the dish, but thought the jalapeños could be hotter and he gave a little shrug. Vincent ordered the pan-fried crispy noodles with scallop, ling cod, shrimp, squid and baby shiitakes. Vincent can't deny this dish is pretty bitchin', and believes it almost ties Tu Lan's #20. Good for you Heaven's Dog, that isn't easy. My chicken noodle soup came: free-range chicken, fried shallots, and wide rice noodles. Wow, what a vacant bowl of soup. My guess is that it was fat-free and sodium light because it tasted like it. Good for my heart, not so much for my taste buds.
Overall the food is superb at Heaven's Dog, but I believe during lunch the smaller dishes slay the larger ones. Go check it out, and maybe if you’re lucky "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger won’t be your munching soundtrack.
Recap: Cool-looking and feeling bar, good oolong tea, great pork belly bun, bad soundtrack.
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