Five Typefaces/families That I LOVE:

Left to Right: Gotham - Hoefler & Company, 2000 ///// Ratfink Heavy - House Industries, Circa mid-1990's ///// Memphis - Rudolpf Wolf, 1930 ///// SHAG Lounge - House Industries, Circa 2003 ///// Champion Gothic - Hoefler & Company, 1990

Five DESIGN HEROES (from yesteryear) that I LOVE:

R. Buckminster Fuller ///// Charles and Ray Eames ///// Paul Rand ///// Mary Blair ///// The WPA Poster Program

Five COLORS that I LOVE:

#00c878 ///// One-Shot 156-L ///// Pantone® 185 C Red ///// That brown on the TCHO packaging ///// Crayola “Dandelion” crayon color.

Five High-Tech “maker“ tools that I LOVE

CNCs such as ShoptBot ///// Printer/Cutter products such as those made by ROLAND ///// Vinyl cutters and plotters like those made from Graphtec ///// 3D printers such as the FormLabs line of 3D printers ///// the SawStop table saw.

Five CLASSIC JAZZ Albums That I LOVE:

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um ///// Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - A Night In Tunisia ///// Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch ///// John Coltrane - Giant Steps ///// The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out.

Five TED TALKS that I LOVE

Reggie Watts made me laugh my ass off. ///// Elizabeth Gilbert made me cry. ///// JJ Abrams reminded me about the importance of mystery. ///// Garrett Lisi made me want to take up a nomadic lifestyle, while doing work that is important to me. ///// Jane McGonigal made me want to play games… to maybe help save the world.

Five COOKBOOKS that make my mouth water

Salt Fat Acid Heat ///// Ad Hoc At Home. ///// The Hot Sauce Cookbook ///// Japanese Soul Cooking ///// Plenty

Five FILMS that I LOVE:

“Amelie” from Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ///// “2001: A Space Odyssey” from Director Stanley Kubrick ///// “O Brother, Where Art Thou?“ from Directors Joel and Ethan Coen ///// “Arrival“ from Director Denis Villeneuve ///// “The Royal Tenenbaums“ from Director Wes Anderson.

Five DESIGN BOOKS that I LOVE

There are only a scant few books of which I still keep physical, dead tree copies. Everything else is digital. These are the real deal.

Paul Rand ///// Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili ///// Pictoplasma: The Character Encyclopaedia ///// Marks of Excellence: The Function and Variety of Trademarks ///// House Industries: 10 Year Book

Five SIX EMERGING TECH TRENDS That I LOVE

Trends in technology which are poised to transform the lives of BILLIONS of people. Many of my technology interests are in sustainable/green industries. Some, as simple as abundant clean drinking (and farming) water, others are “Air Taxis” and Artificial Intelligence. Giant batteries (charged by renewable energy) to power neighborhoods without a centralized grid. “Meat” without the meat. Biotech should also be in there somewhere…

Microgrids ///// Desalination ///// Self-driving automobiles ///// Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft (eVTOL) ///// Artificial Intelligence ///// Synthetic or “Cultured” meats (or perhaps “meat analogues“)

Five TOYS that I LOVE

LEGO - A major influence on me, for my entire life. ///// Spirograph - My first exposure to the beauty of math, even though I didn’t know it at the time. ///// The Hoberman Sphere - An amazing feat of engineering, at which I still marvel. ///// 16 Animali Puzzle by Enzo Mari - The most beautiful “puzzle” that I’ve ever seen. ///// The original Frisbee Disc - This has been among my all time favorites, even BEFORE I headed up the Creative Department at Wham-O a decade ago.

Five DOCUMENTARIES that I LOVE - (More recent releases)

“Helvetica“ from Director Gary Hustwit ///// “Bill Cunningham: New York“ from Director Richard Press ///// “I Am Not Your Negro“ from Director Raoul Peck ///// “Exit Through the Gift Shop“ from Director “Banksy”…. whoever the hell he is. ///// “Particle Fever“ from Director Mark Levinson.

Five SPICES that I reach for, OFTEN!

I’m always trying new things in the kitchen, but these spice blends tend to get a LOT of use in the culinary messes that I tend to make.

Shichimi Togarashi ///// Chook Chicken Salt ///// Dukkah (Trader Joe's... don't LAUGH!!!) ///// Ras El Hanout ///// Herbes De Provence

Five Organizations that I LOVE - (8, actually…)

The ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union - Doing vital work for 100 years! This is perhaps, my favorite organization. ///// AMERICANS UNITED for Separation of Church and State - Now THERE’S a wall that we should build! ///// The EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation - I find the EFF to be a kindred spirit to the ACLU, but more in the digital realm. ///// The Long Now Foundation - Fostering long term thinking, building a 10,000 Year clock, and making GREAT cocktails at their headquarters. ///// The Sierra Club - Two words. John Muir….. nuff’ said. ///// The Rocky Mountain Institute - Their mission: >>>“To transform global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future.” ///// Council for Secular Humanism - A more recent addition to the list of organizations which I admire. >>>Representing a "comprehensive, non-religious lifestance incorporating - A naturalistic philosophy - A cosmic outlook rooted in science - A consequentialist ethical system." ///// The Southern Poverty Law Center - >>>”A catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.”

Five Children’s books that I LOVE

“Where the Wild Things Are“ (1964) - “The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend“ (2015) - “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel“ (1939) - “In the Night Kitchen” (Another Sendak selection… 1970) - “What Do You Do With An Idea“ (2015)

Five India Pale Ales that I LOVE - (Plus an extra…)

“Racer 5 IPA” from Bear Republic ///// Sierra Nevada’s “Dankful IPA” ///// Berkeley’s own Fieldwork Brewing: “Coconut Milk Double IPA” ///// Elysian’s “Space Dust IPA” from Washington State. ///// Alvarado Street Brewing’s “Mai Tai PA” - Locally brewed in Monterey. ///// “Tropicalia IPA” from Georgia based Creature Comforts. (With a brewery opening in Los Angeles next year!)

Five SIX EV companies that fill me with LUST

I want to see anything that moves, become electrified. (And perhaps, autonomous.) Here are a few that excite me…. Lilium GMBH and JOBY Aviation - Call them “FLYING CARS” or “AIR TAXIS” if you want to…. but we are on the verge of quiet, clean-energy, regional AIR travel. Like using Uber or Lyft, but in AIRCRAFT that are “quiet enough to land in your neighborhood.“ I’m OBSESSED with this nascent industry!!! ///// DJI Drones - In this case, I’ll make mine an Inspire 1, please! I’ve used DJI products on various photo and video shoots the last few years, and my inner 10 year old from 1980 STILL cannot believe that we have such COOL technology such as this!!! We’ve come a long way from “Estes model Rockets.” ///// TREK electric bicycles - This is perhaps, the MOST beautiful bicycle that I have ever seen… (for my tastes at least.) ///// ZERO Motorcycles - The DSR “Black Forest” Edition. ///// RIVIAN electric trucks - Trucks have always been my preferred mode of personal transit. (I like to make and build stuff, and I’ve always needed a truck bed to haul materials around.) Car and Driver Magazine recently published a quick look at the electric truck landscape (there are a bunch in the works, from the “Big Three,” down to much smaller startup companies.) Now, I don’t yet have a favorite “Electric Boat,” but am open to suggestions!

Five TREE BOOKS that I LOVE

Well, books that are mostly about trees. In some cases, these books actually deal more with humans, and the trees are a metaphor for understanding US. “The Hidden Life of Trees” ///// The aforementioned Pulitzer Prize winner “The Overstory.” ///// “The Wild Trees,” ///// “The Tree: An Environmental Fable,“ ///// Lastly, and not to be cheeky, “The Woodbook. The Complete Plates,” from the best coffee table book publisher in the world, TASCHEN!!! I cite this book, as one who loves woodworking and fine objects made from wood… but ONLY in a sustainable way. As Richard Powers, the Author of “The Overstory” wrote…. >>>“What you make from a tree should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down.”

Five HOT SAUCES that I LOVE

Okay, SEVEN hot sauces that I love. What can I say…. I slather EVERYTHING in hot sauce. I put Sriracha on my Sriracha. Huy Fong Foods makes the Sriracha for me. Accept no substitutes. ///// El Yucateco (Green) ///// Lucky Dog “Year of the Dog” ///// Yellowbird Ghost Pepper Condiment ///// Good ole’ standby, Tabasco ///// The aforementioned Huy Fong also makes SAMBAL OELEK chili paste! ///// Lastly, Kumana’s delicious Avocado Sauce!

Five PERFECT ALBUMS that I LOVE

Albums, as a GROUP of songs meant to be heard together, rather than cherry picking a couple of singles and discarding the rest. These albums are sheer perfection, from front to back. (No particular order or genre, and offered here without comment…. for now.) “OK Computer” by Radiohead - “AJA” by Steely Dan - “Summerteeth” by Wilco - “YES” by Morphine - “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye.

Five ROBOTS I love (from film)

Left to right, as if I have to tell you their names… The Iron Giant /// WALL-E /// Optimus Prime /// BB-8 /// HAL-9000 (Upper Right) One might argue that HAL was a sentient AI, rather than a robot. I submit that since HAL had complete control of the Discovery One, including all of it’s systems and moving parts, that makes HAL a ROBOT.

Five food writing books that are not cookbooks

Botany of Desire ///// Edible Selby ///// Fast Food Nation ///// Lucky Peach Magazine (RIP) ///// The Potlikker Papers

Five MEDIA COMPANIES that I LOVE

Technology, Journalism, Politics, and more Technology! Sites that get a lot of my daily online screen time. MIT’s Technology Review ///// The Atlantic ///// Longform.org ///// Politico ///// The Verge

Five(+2) California outdoorsy spots that I LOVE

As a fully naturalized Californian (almost 15 years now, since moving here) there are a few outdoorsy places that have captured my heart, and where I LOVE to spend my time! Point Lobos State Reserve ///// Indian Rock Park. ///// Monte Rio / Russian River Corridor. ///// Yosemite National Park. ///// Redwoods, ANYWHERE that they may be found. ///// NAPA Valley and the Norcal Wine Country. ///// Salinas and Central Valley Farm Lands. (I mean, hey… “Steinbeck Country” is right here in my back yard in Monterey!)

Five Art Mags/sites/etc that I LOVE

Squeezed in 6… no particular order…… High Fructose Magazine / This Is COLOSSAL / Spoke Art Gallery / Artforum Magazine / Pictoplasma / Juxtapoz Magazine

Five SCI-FI BOOKS that I LOVE

In no order here… 5 Sci-Fi books that walloped my little mind.

Five WINGED CREATURES that I LOVE

I suppose that it is somewhat revealing, that I would have 5 favorite winged creatures. Monarch Butterfly - (Danaus plexippus) ///// Western Honey Bee - (Apis mellifera) ///// Hummingbird - Blue Chinned Sapphire - (Chlorestes notata) ///// Firefly - (Pyractomena) ///// California Condor - (Gymnogyps californianus)

Five AUDIO DEVICES that I LOVE

I’m generally never more than a few feet from my tunes… Bose Soundlink Micro Bluetooth Speaker ///// Sennheiser HD450BT Noise Cancelling Headphones ///// Harman Kardon SoundSticks III (I included these in this list, for nostalgic purposes.) ///// Sennheiser CX 100 Earphones ///// Bose L1 Compact Portable Line Array System

Five 20th century artists whom i LOVE

Tough category. Going with my gut here….. Isamu Noguchi - 1904-1988 / Piet Mondrian - 1872-1944 / Ruth Asawa - 1926-2013 / Alexander Calder - 1898-1976 / Paul Klee - 1879-1940.

Five ROBOTICS COMPANIES I Dig

In no particular order... KUKA /// FANUC /// Boston Dynamics (You broke my heart, ‘cause I couldn’t dance) /// HONDA Robotics (R.I.P. Asimo!) /// TESLA (Ok, Tesla isn’t technically a “robotics company”... YET, they USE robotic technology in manufacturing in jaw dropping ways. Even though the "Tesla Bot" is vaporware and may never get built, I would never underestimate Elon Musk...)

Five Young-ish jazz artists who are giving me HOPE

Jazz is NOT dead. It is vibrant, evolving, and more inclusive than it has ever been. Here are a few relatively new voices on the scene, who delight me and give me hope that the fires will continue to burn. Kamasi Washington - Hands down, THE most exciting thing going in my own personal, contemporary Jazz world. ///// Julian Lage - Some file him under Jazz, although his style spans multiple genres. ///// Joel Ross - Vibraphonist out of Chicago… and only 25 years old. What will happen!!?? ///// Nubya Garcia - I just discovered her music in the last year, and what a TREAT!!! ///// Marius Neset - Stumbled across his music in 2019, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. His compositions are are all over the map, and have a frenetic energy that bounces off the walls.

Five ANIMATED tv series (for Grownups) that I LOVE

I really don’t have much of a taste for violence in entertainment… so it is strange to me that I loved these 5 animated series. (See my 5 favorite animated FILMS below, for a stark difference. I wish that I understood why.) The Midnight Gospel ///// Primal ///// Love Death and Robots ///// Samurai Jack ///// Hit Monkey.

Five SIx Contemporary illustrators who knock my socks off…

(In no particular order….) 01 - Ralph Steadman was the first illustrator I was exposed to back when I was first starting out in my career, and I’ve loved his work ever since. He’s been at it for longer than I’ve been alive, but he’s still rocking. GONZO! ///// 02 - Mark Ulriksen has produced countless New Yorker covers that I’ve admired for years, long before I met him. (Somehow by chance I met him socially in the Bay Area, and we actually ended up doing some work together.) His style is one of a kind. ///// 03 - Wendy MacNaughton is a self described “Graphic Journalist.” I only discovered her work in recent years, but she has already had an impact on the way I think about design and illustration. (And she’s a terrific person. Watch this TED talk and you’ll be smitten.) ///// 04 - Irene Chan is a friend of mine, whom I’ve known for 25 years. She can effortlessly shift from amazing motion graphics, web and print design, to her current passion of illustrating children’s books and various adorable consumer products. There’s nothing she can’t do. ///// 05 - METHANE STUDIOS - In my humble opinion, the greatest “Gig Poster” studio in the business. I don’t know where they get all of their ideas, but their posters are AMAZING!!! ///// 06 - Chris Ware has such a distinct style!! (And like Mark Ulriksen, he’s done a TON of New Yorker covers!) Clean, crisp and playful… even when it is melancholy or sad. I own one of his masterpiece books, which is a treasured possession!

Five Design / maker books that I love.

So much of what I do is in print and pixels, but I’ve also enjoyed a fair amount of MAKING physical objects in my career. (As I like to say… Pixels, Print and Powertools.) 01 - How to Wrap Five Eggs is an all-time classic. I’ve gifted a number of copies to Designers I’ve hired over the years. ///// 02 - Cradle to Cradle opened my mind over 20 years ago, to sustainability in design… in a way that I hadn’t considered before. ///// 03 - The Craftsman, by Richard Sennett. I adore this book, which is really a philosophical look at craftsmanship and the ethics of MAKING things. It’s only a little over a decade old, but I think it’ll be a genuine classic in the coming decades. ///// 04 - Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design - A fantastic primer on manufacturing methods and techniques. ///// 05 - Another modern classic… Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships. For a book that is largely for students, this is PACKED with profound concepts for “students” aged 19 to 99.

Five “Transgressive Fiction” Novels that I love.

Fight Club - By Chuck Pahlaniuk ///// Geek Love - By Katherine Dunn ///// The Contortionists Handbook - By Craig Clevenger ///// Jennifer Government - By Max Barry ///// The Last Orgy of the Divine Hermit - By Mark Leyner

Five WILCO SONGS that I love.

No possible way to narrow it down to 5 songs, from my favorite rock band of all time. Depends on my mood, what I might want from the Wilco catalogue on any given day… but these 5 songs are always ones that I can return to over and over and over again and never tire of them. In no particular order, except for “Impossible Germany,” from the 2007 album “Sky Blue Sky.” This song is not only my favorite WILCO song, but it is a strong candidate for my favorite song of all-time, from any genre. I was instantly in love with this song, when I first popped the CD into the player. Here are the other 4 songs…. “Jesus, Etc.” ///// “Hummingbird” ///// “When You Wake Up Feeling Old” ///// “Art of Almost.” (I may add some more notes on these songs at a later date. I just love them all…..)

Five QUOTES ABOUT AI that I Enjoy.

Shown here in reverse chronological order.

"Artificial Intelligence can drive cars, trade stocks and shares, learn to carry out complex skills simply by watching YouTube videos, translate across dozens of different languages, recognize human faces with more accuracy than we can, and create original hypotheses to help discover new drugs for curing disease. That’s just the beginning." - Luke Dormehl, "Thinking Machines," 2017

"Emerging as it does from many fields - philosophy, mathematics, psychology and even neurology - AI raises basic questions about human intelligence, memory, the mind/body problem, the origins of language, symbolic reasoning, information processing, and so forth. AI researchers are - like the alchemists of old who sought to create gold from base metal -seeking to create thinking machines from infinitesimally small bits of silicon oxide." - Daniel Crevier, "AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence," 1993

“Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.” - Arthur C. Clarke, "Odyssey Two," 1984

"An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. … For the present purpose the artificial intelligence problem is taken to be that of making a machine behave in ways that would be called intelligent if a human were so behaving. - John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon, "Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence," 1955

"Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain - that is, not only write it but know that it had written it. No mechanism could feel (and not merely artificially signal, an easy contrivance) pleasure at its successes, grief when its valves fuse, be warmed by flattery, be made miserable by its mistakes, be charmed by sex, be angry or depressed when it cannot get what it wants" - Professor Geoffrey Jefferson, "The Mind of Mechanical Man," 1949

Five SIX SUPERHERO FILMS that I LOVE.

3 animated films, 3 live-action films, no particular order… ///// Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Quite possibly my favorite Superhero film of all time. Certainly my favorite Spiderman film of all time. They broke all the rules of storytelling and what can be done with animation. ///// Unbreakable - My favorite Superhero “origin story.” The film is not an action movie per se, and is a slow-burn… but a masterpiece, with one of the great lines in Superhero films… ///// The Incredibles (1 & 2) - Director Brad Bird takes themes and tropes from comic books and supe’ films and blends them into something new. We had to wait 14 years from the 1st film to the sequel, but it was WORTH the wait. ///// Deadpool (1 & 2) - I wouldn't normally reach for films like this, but they were just so damned shocking and entertaining! Here’s hoping for a 3rd film in the franchise. ///// The Lego Batman Movie - SO MUCH humor and detail packed into this delightful film!!! ///// Chronicle - Perhaps the most realistic depiction of young people being transformed into Superheroes (or villains, as it happens) that I’ve ever seen. The f/x were simple and real, and the narrative device of video recording the transformation of the young men was very effective!