July 22, 2009
When I thought all was gone.
Click / Roll over image to view title. Illustrations by Everett Ching
July 22, 2009
Around the hood.
Click / Roll over image to view title. Illustrations by Everett Ching
June 3, 2009
Before Haring
So since I got this blog going I’d figure that I’d share a piece I did back when I was at Art Center.
Here is an installation I did in 2005 that juxtaposed Keith Haring’s mural at Art Center College of Design that he painted in 1989. The title of the piece is called Before Haring and it represented the graffiti artists who were not only the pioneers to the game but major influences in street art during his chalk art movement in New York City. I lifted the text from Steven Hager’s article ‘GRAFFITI: the formative years, 1969-74, as recalled by Phase 2 ‘First Pase’ that was found in Waxpoetics describing the pioneers of hand styles and marks. Graffiti artist included were JUILO 204/TRACY 168/TAKI 183/PHASE 2/LEE 163/ PISTOL/RIFF 170/BABY FACE 86/ JAPAN/SUPER KOOL 223/
-CHING.E
March 27, 2009
Poe Museum. :30 Spot
Visual Storytelling student spot at VCU Brandcenter
AD: Everett Ching AD: Julia Veinberg CW: David Canavan CW: Oliver Adriance
more about "Poe Museum. :30 Spot", posted with vodpod
March 27, 2009
We hear you. :30 Spot
Visual Storytelling student spot at VCU Brandcenter
AD: Everett Ching AD: Lauren Geisler AD: Tiffany Lam
more about "We hear you. :30 Spot ", posted with vodpod
March 23, 2009
Listen to Steve Berra > From the berrics
Have you ever estimated the costs of launching a new way of promoting skateboarding into the world, how to keep it going, how to keep it fun, how to get people involved and how to deliver it for free? I have, and boy were my initial estimates grossly incorrect. As our ideas for the Berrics grow so does the amount of money and manpower it takes to keep everything running. Some of you have wondered and even emailed to ask who pays for the building, who pays for the lights, who does the graphic design, who films and edits, and who pays them to do it. I’ve responded to a few of you through personal correspondence or did what I could to best answer some of these questions on EMOTW, but not everyone reads EMOTW and not everyone will even read this, but in the future, if they were ever to ask the question, either to you or me, we can always point them to this piece here.
Eric and I created the Berrics for many reasons but I’ll save the telling of those for a later time and focus this writing today solely on advertising and how it pertains to the aforementioned costs not only for the Berrics but for all sites, magazines and companies in the skateboard industry.
Let’s first start with the skateboard brands you know and love. No, let’s start with the professional skateboarder. The professional started the same way you did. They got a board for their birthday or Christmas or because their friends in the neighborhood or at school had one and they wanted one too and finally got one, got on it and started to push. No more, no less. They stuck with it. They got better. They did what it took to be noticed. They got sponsored. They kept doing what it took to be noticed. They turned pro and they were given that thing they dreamed of when they started skateboarding; a board with their name on it.
In this process the company that manufacturers that board takes out tens of thousands of dollars of ads in magazines. They spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, to put him out on the road to film for videos. They spend tens of thousands of dollars manufacturing his board hoping that his time on the road filming, doing demos, and shooting photos for ads they bought in magazines will pay off and then some in sales enough to not only pay him a decent wage for wrecking his body, but to pay their bills so that they may stay in business and do it all over again.
Why do they do all of this? There are many reasons. They do it for themselves, they do it for the continual expansion and progression of skateboarding and they do it for you because none of it would be possible if you didn’t show your appreciation by way of purchasing what they’re selling. It’s a circle and for how much you may sometimes think you’re outside of the circle because you’re not pro or sponsored, you are in fact the key component to the circle because you lay down your hard earned cash and that gives you more power than you may hitherto realized. Pretty incredible, right?
None of the companies you see today are evil corporate giants concerned about only one thing, your money. That may have been true in the late 80s but it certainly is not true today. Of course there are always exceptions, but the majority of brands out there are all owned and operated and were started by, and I hate to use this somewhat tired phrase, real skateboarders, for skateboarders. These are guys that began exactly how you did. They got a board for their birthday or at Christmas or because the kids in their neighborhood or school had one and they got on it and started to push. That was it. What they turned it into was up to them, just like it’s up to you, no matter what your circumstance because I can assure you, we’re all subjected to the vagaries of this planet.
I realize what I’ve said will not sit well with some and it will only be so because they’ve misunderstood what I’ve said. I’m not condemning one person for riding the board they can afford, because the problem does not lie in you more than it does us and our ability to make a product you want and our willingness to educate you as to where the money goes that you’re laying down. The purpose of this writing is so that you may understand better how important you are but also how important the companies and the professionals are as well, and that we form a symbiotic relationship that continues to take skateboarding to new heights. I’ve seen both sides of the coin. I know what it’s like to not have a dollar in your pocket, holes in your shoes and no food in the fridge. I also know that many professional skateboarders today have been there and that the chasm between us is not as wide and gaping as one might think. In fact, it’s not a chasm at all. The only gap between where you are and where your favorite pro is could be as simple as time. Time that you’ve not had to develop into that person you are going to eventually be.
The first time I went to Czechoslovakia was just a year after it had split into two independent countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was still very poor. This was just after the Velvet Revolution had brought an end to communism. Communism had not allowed the importation of skateboards so people would smuggle them in any way they could and as often as possible which was hardly ever. Most of the boards the kids had when I arrived were relics from the 80s and despite how bad they were these antiques kept them going. The locals told me that before the end of communism people drove the same clunky cars, wore the same clothes and ate the same dismal food. As a young man, I had no idea but from then on I had always thought that’s what skateboarding would be like if the companies that make it so would cease to exist. We’ve come dangerously close to this reality, but I don’t think it’s too late.
So what does all of this have to do with the Berrics and advertising? Well, it boils down to this, for us (and any other site and magazine for that matter) to stay in business we have to support those brands who manufacture those boards, wheels, trucks and shoes that you may or may not buy, but we’re hoping you do because it puts a future there for all of us, and we have to support them by way of letting them buy banner ads and commercials on the Berrics so that we may continue to feature their riders and provide you with the content you have grown to love. It’s all a part of the circle. You’re in it. We’re in it. They’re in it. Whether or not these new ads sit well with you is neither here nor there as it is you who created the demand for it. If you didn’t make the Berrics the most popular skateboarding site in the world there would be no one wanting to advertise. But you did, you liked what we were doing, you liked the people on it, you told your friends who told their friends who told their friends and so on and as a result we have become something that had not existed until now. All because of you. Now that’s a tremendous amount of power isn’t it? I can only thank you and hope that you use your new found power wisely in the future and remember that without you we’re nothing so please, may you have mercy on our soul.
– steve berra
