RDQLUS Dropshots; 100226

RDQLUS Interview with The Bauhub

A few months back I did an interview with Scott Morrison of The Bauhub, a professional creative collective (of which I am now actually a member). Scott—whom I had met a couple years back at the Creative Freelancer Conference—had recently come across the book '100 Habits of Successful Freelance Designers' and had only recently realized that to his surprise he knew the author (hint: for those not good with riddles, that would be me). I was all too excited to fire up Skype and have a chat with him about some of the ins and outs of being a freelance creative, trying to do things I love… like turning on the heat and putting food on the table.

(click the pick or link below to peep the interview)

When Being Social in the AM for the Lincoln AMA Equals Brunch!

Thursday morning started with a jolt and a bolt! RDQLUS was graciously invited by the Lincoln chapter of the American Marketing Association (Lincoln AMA), to sit on a panel centered around best practices when using the still burgeoning realm of social media for marketing and communication. The "jolt-n-bolt" came in when I remembered that I was needed on point as the get-away driver for my good friend and social media maven herself—Megan Hunt, of Princess Lasertron fame, who was also invited to share her knowledge of blogging and being social in the name of business.





The event itself was surprisingly good as there were many questions—and hopefully some good answers and information given back—as the early AM did little to dull the excitement over the topic. Other fine media-savvy heads in the place were Danny Schreiber of siliconprairienews.com, Deb Averett of freshnestdesign.com and toolulu.com, Christy Nelson of christynelson.net and toolulu.com, Khara Plicanic – kabloomstudios.com/blog, Lori Havens - Social Media Guru at Ervin & Smith Advertising and Public Relations.

So here's the rub, if indeed there is one… with the drive from the "ONE" to the Star City being well under an hour and the event lasting just a little over an hour, Megan & I were left with a bit of time and a need to make the trip to another Nebraska city just that tad bit more worth it. With a look at the time on the wrist-clock… Brunch for munch!


Ahhh… 'Bread and Cup', Lincoln, NE

With co-pilot Megz on the Map app for the exact address, we quickly found ourselves face-to-face at a nice table, discussing the good events of the morning while gnawing a couple of homemade peanut butter sammies—hers the famed apple butter variety, while mine was my signature PB & honey steez—at 'Bread and Cup'(440 N 8th St Suite 150, Lincoln, NE).


Megan w/Kevin, proprietor of 'Bread and Cup'




In all a fine AM, in the name of the AMA. Thanks to all of the fine people of the Lincoln AMA for a warm welcome. RDQLUS will indeed return when the need arises. Just flash the crown signal!

--
Steve G

RDQLUS Stays So Complex

RDQLUS would like to thank Complex, who gave love for the third week (and 6 pairs) straight. Props to the crew over at Complex Magazine for the love. Keep doing what you do and I'll keep trying to come with the most RDQLUS style.

Dana College Gets RDQLUS

RDQLUS Designs a Custom Tee for the New "Follow the Viking" Campaign.

When Dana College called to discuss having a custom t-shirt designed for their upcoming "Follow the Viking" campaign, I was a little leery of designing a campus t-shirt. I remembered the first week on campus, passing by all the tables & getting glad-handed an awful, gaudy tees that end up being your gym shirt more than your wardrobe staple. So taking this as the challenge, I accepted the project and aimed for a minimal, graphic tee that was more wardrobe status than gym-rat fodder.

A few sketches:






Here's the full mockup:




RDQLUS Designs a Custom Tee for the New "Follow the Viking" Campaign.


Thanks to Nikki Kinsey & Dana College (@DanaCollege) for the opportunity.

Speed Wobble + 25mph + iPhone = Still Stoked!

I've gotten a few requests to repost the night that I owned Pacific Street here in "The ONE"… and then it owned me! But first, a little back story;



In the spring and summer, I routinely do night skates where—because of the time of night—traffic is slow to no, and I can carve way big on my Sector9 longboard. Well, on this particular night I had just finished an amazing run of the entire half-mile hill. I was full-on stoked and got the urge to record my next run… yyyyeah, here's the thing; When you're focused down on a 3" screen, you're not focused on the wide view in front of you and carving the road the right way. As I tried to restart my bigger sweeping carves, I realized I was already going to fast to correct. Any boarder or BMX'er knows what comes next… SPEED WOBBLES!



But, here's the thing, like any boarder or biker knows, after something like this you get "stoke" and even while you're hurting and bloodied, you're on a high. I scooped up my deck, walked home with the biggest smile on my face, cleaned up my wounds, and got right to posting this vid.

Ah, Spring… where have you gone and when are you coming back?!

--
Steve G.

RDQLUS Sneaks for Weeks!

Complex Magazine has tapped RDQLUS Stash again, making it four straight selections and two straight weeks of making their top pics nationally for the best sneakers being put on the grid. It seems a small, trivial or slightly sad thing, but for those who truly love the culture, this is dream status.

This weeks selection was a mix of a classic silhouette from Nike's "golden era", and a fresh (and so clean) profile from a more recent upstart young footwear company, Supra.






To all my heads; Hustle hard… Rock higher… Step lightly… and everyone else can kick rocks!

--
Steve G

Man Up!

Old Spice is at it again! Over the last couple years, Old Spice has had their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks with their cheeky brand of humor directed at lampooning stereotypes. Well they are back at it with the new "Manmercials".



Featuring a buff gent with a rapid fire delivery and an ultimately hyper-typical, manly persona. The result: belly laughter and a a strange urge to get my Old Spice product usage on, for sure!


--
Steve G.

Get Torqued Off.

After being in the creative field long enough you meet a lot of people and even become very good friends with a few very talented individuals. There even comes a time when it ticks you off a bit how damn good they are. Not fair. Get up off my cloud! Well my boy Eric Hines is just such an individual. His Honest Bros. Concept Mechanics creative imprint has done it again with 'Torque'—a premium distilled, small batch vodka with specialty packaging and Honest Bros. branding all design by the HB camp.



I cold tell you more, but I want his Google Analytics hits to go up, so bop on over to the Concept Mechanics blog and read more about the work and the process. It's truly an amazing work and a good story. Seriously, how does he come up with this stuff?! My friends are upsetting sometimes, but I roll with the best.

--
SG. the RDQLUS One

COMPLEX.COM Respects the RDQLUS Passion!

It's no mystery, to any who truly know me, that I have an affinity for fine footwear. Translation: I'm a sneakerhead. I've had good friends find, put on hold, alert me to, and even send me the choicest sneakers because I have stay consistent, authentic and true to my passion for wrangling of rare soles.

Well, a little validation can invigorate and reaffirm a passion.



Marc Ecko's COMPLEX Magazine is a staple with urban aesthetic, streetwear & fashion set. The magazine's website and blog recently began a twice-weekly feature highlighting the best in reader/tweeter footwear. This week RDQLUS was 2-for-2, getting props on both weekly installments for my daily sneaker choices out of supposed thousands that submit photos thru the COMPLEX Twitter feed. Now this might be because my feets is so fly, or it could b simply because I have monkey arms and can take shots of my own person, giving the illusion of fine photography… who's to say? But I do know that it's nice to get love for my commitment to my "thing" and shine a little love on my city, the ONE aka Omaha, NE, not really known as a bastion of style—high, street or otherwise. That's not true and it is changing.





;-)

Thanks to COMPLEX Magazine (Twitter: @ComplexMag) and love to all those sneakerheads out there. Walk lightly… all others can kick rocks!


---
Stevie G

RDQLUS Goes Clubbin'!

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I know… Drop shadows, lens flares and glowing effects aren't the high-minded, holy grails of design. All that goodness aside, every now and again it's fun to get your hands dirty with a little rule-breakin', happy-makin', booty-shakin', guilty pleasure fun work that shows Photoshop who's boss. So when a promoter pal called from NYC and needed a fly ass flyer fo' tha' ladeez, I felt compelled to rock it. Nuff said. Enjoy.

You Got No Game!

… at least not like this, you don't! Peep the techno freshy fresh and marvel at the fact that "gamer" is not a new term to the worldwide lexicon of video game play—a universal language that obviously went global long ago. This gear is tasty madness and the only thing more future retro techno logical is a Daft Punk helmet (which may be in this collection!)



CONSOLLECTION


But don't sleep on the cultural impact and future design skills. Take time to read the info on each of these amazing machines. How many do you remember? Which ones have you had? Which would you pick up even now? Check it all out, while I get back to my 9-volt powered LED football. Rec'a'nize!

Stevie G.