#NOBEL4ISS Homepage Redesign: Space Games Federation

The Space Games Federation® (SGF) & Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentoring Alliance (EIPMA) partnered with member organizations, like the Vaughan International Film Festival, AVID, Claremont High School, Harman, SMPTE and volunteers, for the 2021 #NOBEL4ISS Equal Space Challenge. The SGF team needed a redesign of the campaign homepage to mark the 2021 edition of the competition.

In the Equal Space Challenge, participants create a public service announcement for a grassroots campaign to foster public support for awarding The Nobel Peace Prize to the International Space Station (ISS).

Working with the SGF team and integrating their copy and required elements, I created a scroll-friendly homepage using their WordPress site and template.

Read on to experience the design or visit the #NOBEL4ISS Equal Space Challenge via the button below.

UnStruktured, Ep. 6: Lenise Bent, Audio Engineering Blondie's Autoamerican

Michelle Rose, visionary apparel designer and music tastemaker behind STRUKTUR and the UnStruktured Podcast, invited the legendary Lenise Bent to share her memories of recording Blondie’s Autoamerican.

Accolades aside, both women happen to be two dear friends from the pro audio world. So when Michelle shared that she’d interviewed Lenise and needed an extra pair of hands to edit the footage, I felt lucky to have a front row seat to the conversation.

The first half of the interview was a straightforward conversation-style edit, full of great nuggets of wisdom from Lenise’s memories of getting her start as an engineer. The second half was where the uniqueness began; together, Michelle and Lenise went song by song, listening to each track and breaking down the process. I cut the bits of each track that meant the most for their discussion to create a cohesive experience for the listener to experience the play-by-play of Lenise’s memories of recording the classic album Autoamerican.

You can find more of Michelle’s work with UnStruktured on her Substack.

One Minute Academy's Chasing the Light Podcast: Ukraine

I had the immense privilege of documenting a storytelling workshop serving the American Embassy in Kyiv by the One Minute Academy.

One Minute Academy's mission is to spread video literacy around the world. Working with both teachers and institutions to provide students and employees with new opportunities for self-expression, they have created online video education strategies for some of the world’s largest institutions, such as Adobe and National Geographic. To date, they have collaborated with 75 US embassies on projects ranging from drug violence prevention and economic empowerment, to countering violent extremism and training for diplomats (you can learn more at oneminuteacademy.com).

One Minute Academy’s founder, Christoph Geiseler, and I collaborated to create this project documenting the Ukraine workshop. Classes took place over Zoom over the course of a week, and while Christoph and his intrepid team of teachers did their thing, I recorded each day, pulling students ‘aside’ into breakout rooms to interview them on their experience within the class, during the war, and about the stories they were hoping to tell.

Meeting these students and watching their creativity unfold was a transformative experience; then, combing through a week’s worth of footage to create a narrative podcast was another! Christoph and I went back and forth on the perfect voice for the podcast before settling on me as the observer. From there, I dove into sound designing and soundtracking, and what emerged is I hope a truly immersive look into this experience.

Formal copy here (also written by me):

8 months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a storytelling workshop takes place in partnership with America House in Kyiv. Joined by guests Professor Nick Cull, from the USC Center of Public Diplomacy, and Ed Bice, CEO of Meedan, follow along and meet the students as they learn the skills they need to capture their experiences in a one minute documentary-style format. Whether documenting Russian war crimes in Kharkiv, creating artist communities among refugees in Zurich, or working to preserve their culture under threat at home in Kyiv, everyone has a story to tell.

Mary McLaughlin Music: Bandcamp Release of A Gaelic Christmas

Irish singer-songwriter Mary McLaughlin’s first Bandcamp re-release from her catalogue was her album A Gaelic Christmas; I had the privilege of being part of the campaign.

Taking inspiration from the gorgeous album art created originally by Rachel Arbuckle, I built out a family of assets to fit a promotional campaign across Mary’s most-used platforms of MailChimp and Facebook. I collaborated on a gorgeous promotional video (titles and lower thirds) with the brilliant Catherine Finn, who edited and produced the video.

Along with these, I created her Bandcamp page, designing a header, transcribing album notes and summaries, uploading each song, and attaching the PDF of the “A Gaelic Christmas Songbook” as an add-on for the album + songbook deluxe edition.

In partnership with Catherine who tackled the sheet music, I also made formatting updates to the original “A Gaelic Christmas Songbook” to create the finished PDF.

Much love to Mary and give it a listen, it’s a gorgeous piece of work!

Recording Industry Golf & Poker Tournament 2024: Marketing Creative Design

For their 2024 Recording Industry Golf & Poker Tournament, I worked with pro audio event producer KMD Productions to create a design that subtly called back to a playful, retro style while keeping things suitably modern.

Assets included a robust sponsorship deck, promotional assets for use across MailChimp, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and stickers for event day. We utilized photos from past years’ RIGT’s and location imagery to tease this year’s action. Across the board, creative was cohesive and embodied the energizing, familial atmosphere KMD Productions creates at their yearly RIGT.

TRAKTIVIST: AAPI’S IN COUNTRY MUSIC

With the Country Music Awards (CMA’s) taking place on November 8, we got inspired to uplift some Country music artists with Asian American & Pacific Islander heritage.

From the witty social media savvy of Alison Nichols and Samica to the genre-bending charm of acts like Gabe Lee and Maoli, here are just a few of the artists putting their unique stamp on the ever-evolving genre of country music.

Ep. 46: Piper Payne: Forging the Future of Audio with Vinyl Pressing, Mastering, and Plug-In Design

What do running a mastering business and vinyl pressing plant have in common? Audiophiles and business/product nerds alike will be fascinated as Piper Payne, Owner, Operator, and Chief Record Maker at Physical Music Products (PMP) and Chief Mastering Engineer at Neato Mastering, teaches Natalie and Steph what she's learned on her path of fearless dedication to pushing the boundaries of audio recording and product production.

Women of NAMM Episode 44: How to Advocate for Yourself with True Peak Hour's Jennifer Ortiz & Crystal Jerez

In this crossover conversation, the teams behind the music industry podcasts True Peak Hour and ReVoicing the Future sit down to discuss the nuances of self advocacy, what the independent and in-house sides of the music business can learn from each other, and how we all met, all thanks to the renaissance of resources for women in music today.

WIMN Interview: Meet Izzy Kay of West Coast Rock and Roll Band, Jane Doe

By breathing new life into their genre while remaining faithful to its most beloved elements, Jane Doe is living proof rock and roll is most definitely not “dead”.

They’re fresh off of a new single release, “First and Last”, and a music video for their track “Bullseye” earlier in 2023. After a slew of singles over the years, their Sophomore album is in the works for a 2024 release. We caught up with frontwoman Izzy Kay from afar to learn more about her and her band, and get a front seat to what it’s like as a female-fronted rock band in 2023.

Meet Izzy and Jane Doe

The WIMN: It’s great to meet you, Izzy, and congrats to you and the rest of the band on the release of “First & Last”! Tell us about the track and what you hope listeners take away from it.
Izzy Kay: As with a number of our songs on this upcoming album, we really feel that it shows the growth of the band from a music writing aspect and the uniqueness of our style. “First and Last” isn’t your typical verse chorus template. There’s more of a linear storyline, with not only the lyrics but the actual composition itself.

You’ve been hard at work on the Sophomore album. Are there any styles or themes you’re digging into especially with this one? What should we be looking forward to?
Expanding on the first question, look for this next album to show a larger breadth of composition. Not necessarily different genres but taking from different genres and adding it to our bouillabaisse of rock n roll if you would 🙂

NextShark x Traktist Interview: DJ Shortkut joins LL Cool J’s F.O.R.C.E. Tour in celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary

DJ SHORTKUT IS driven by his passion for every genre of music. A member of three of the arguably most-influential DJ crews in history — the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies and Triple Threat DJs — Shortkut, born Jonathan Cruz, began his career in the mobile DJ sound system scene in San Francisco in 1987 before he started competing in international DJ championships in 1994.

As a seasoned veteran in battle DJ competitions, Shortkut is known for creating new techniques and constantly innovating in the turntablist culture while maintaining dance floors internationally and playing music that spans countless genres. Now, he’s joining The F.O.R.C.E. (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy) Tour, presented by Rock The Bells & Live Nation Urban and headlined and curated by legendary rapper LL COOL J, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

Traktivist writer Stephanie Lamond caught up with Shortkut to talk about his memories of the early years of Bay Area DJing, the power of the community around the genre and what he’s looking forward to the most about the upcoming tour.

Traktivist: Since this tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and has gathered such an impressive lineup from the community, let’s go back in time for a moment to when you were just starting out. Give us a snapshot of what it was like in the Bay Area underground scene at the time — where were you playing, who were you often playing with, and what was special about this particular corner of the world of hip-hop?

Shortkut: I started in 1987 when the Bay Area had a deep mobile DJ sound system scene where the pro dominant music was Miami bass and freestyle music. This was definitely a special era for me as I was influenced heavy from the scratching I heard from records I played during the time and trying to mimic what I heard. This eventually led me to entering local DJ battles and taking it further to national and world championships.

For some growing up Filipino in the Bay Area, their experience and love of hip-hop and turntablism was intrinsically tied with pride in identity and place. For others like my husband, growing up mixed Filipino in Chicago, what made it special to him was that it was such a diverse community overall, gathering around their shared love of this art form as an equalizer. What have you loved most about being part of hip-hop, and what has the community meant to you over the years as it’s evolved?

I love that hip-hop gave me a way to express myself creatively and keep me out of trouble and focused on my passion for DJing.  It’s brought me around the world to make friends with people where we shared a common language of the music and its culture, even though we didn’t speak the same native language. And to be able to make a living off something I love doing is one of the biggest blessings from being a hip-hop DJ.