Unanimously hailed across the hip-hop landscape as one of the best to ever do it, Alan Maman has made a large impression on hip-hop during his career as The Alchemist.
Regularly overlooked are how deep his roots travel, embedded in collaborations with a long list of hip-hop’s greats.
A humble figurehead of hip-hop production, he has always remained in the shadows, crafting potent classics quietly in his dimly-lit studio while keeping to himself.
Dapped by the man himself at 3:43AM KST, October 30, 2020.
Thank you for the all beats, Al.
Seba “Nujabes” Jun was a record shop owner and producer, though most know him for the latter.
Above anything else, however, he was a student of hip-hop.
Guinness Records and Sweet Sticky Thing
Jun grew up in eastern Tokyo, Japan. Drawn to music from a young age, he would go on to own Guinness Records in Shibuya, investing himself into the business side of music.
The physical shop was closed in 2011, a year after Jun’s passing. However, it continued to operate digitally through Tribe, the shop underneath Guinness Records on the third floor, which managed Hydeout Productions’ record sales.
Pase Rock, one of Jun’s closest…
Six years and some change after the platform launched, Discord has established itself as a dominant force within the chat app ecosystem.
Hundreds of millions of monthly active users, tens of billions of messages, it has achieved scaling successfully.
With an established brand identity, a loyal cult-like following, and more growth than anyone ever expected, there’s really only one question outside of the looming acquisition/IPO that remains — what is its future?
Here are some thoughts, critiques, and insight about what I’ve learned since 2015.
Uphill Both Ways
When Discord was unknown to most, it was a rough app. Anyone who used it…
Since 2015, Discord has grown from a gaming-centric replacement of Skype & TeamSpeak, to a more mainstream go-to catch-all for chatting.
The application’s interface has gone through many stages throughout the years, while the Spotify integration is a facet which never got much love.
The features are presented in chronological order of which I designed first.
Below is my vision of what it could be.
Programs used:
- Figma
- Adobe Photoshop CC 2019
- Adobe Illustrator
- Vectary
- Lottie / Lottie Files / Lottieflow
- Font Awesome (vector icons)
DISCLAIMER: No copyright infringement intended; all applicable images belong to their rightful owners. …
In 2012, I broke down Valve’s rendering techniques. Five years later, I’m on an adventure to briefly peel back a few more layers.
Valve Corporation, an internationally-renowned game developer based out of Bellevue, Washington, has innovated modern game design in numerous ways.
In 2007, they introduced how illustrative rendering pertained to Team Fortress 2’s development — an approach that would forever change the perception of a video game character’s recognition and identity complexity.
A decade later, DotA2 utilizes these techniques, alongside others, in a more refined fashion. Focusing mainly on hero creation, with a sprinkle or two of additional coverage, we’re going to look at what makes the game beautiful.
Illustrative Rendering: Real Recognize Real
A critical component to Valve’s game design(s) that never got due recognition. Illustrative…
Jeff Kaplan and the Overwatch team lead the charge for inclusivity within the gaming industry. How did Blizzard pull this off?
Crafted from the broken pieces of Titan, Overwatch is a brave approach that became the most successful video game release of 2016. Inclusivity and giving hope for a better, more welcoming atmosphere within a virtual game universe were the main underlying goals of Overwatch, says Jeff Kaplan.
I think diversity is a beautiful end result that you get when you embrace inclusivity and open mindedness.
Kaplan’s quote above is the observation of a masterpiece in modern gaming that resulted…
