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Smuggler's Cove graphic design

Hanford Lemoore — 2010-03-02 16:41:55

If you're looking for a great place to drink in San Francisco, look no further than the newly opened Smuggler's Cove. It's a Tiki bar -- and dare I say it -- The Greatest Rum Bar In The World, opened by my good friend Martin Cate (The same man who co-created the Alameda tiki bar Forbidden Island, and helped me with my Rickrolling of Dr. Tiki). It's getting rave reviews from all over the place. Here's a quote from the SFGate:

"Tiki is where Cate made his bones, and it dominates two pages of an extensive menu of about 80 drinks .... But the promise of Smuggler's Cove was always to move beyond tiki and proclaim the full glories of rum. So the menu includes a lineup of traditional Caribbean drinks, sorted by geography, plus a historic roster that stretches back into Colonial times and beyond — an echo of the mashup decor. There is grog, of course, but also more obscure fare. " [read more]

It is a fantastic bar, and I'm really couldn't be prouder of Martin. If you stop by, prepare for a great time ... and tell them Hanford sent you.

My hand in Smuggler's Cove

It truly is a wonderful place, even though I am kinda biased. In addition to being a friend of Martin's, I also did a bit of work on various snippets of Smuggler's Cove.

Barrel logo and logotype

Back when the Cove was still a smuggler's secret, Martin asked me to come up with a logo for the bar. His original concept was a rum barrel surrounded by spirits with the logo below it:

Here's the barrel image itself. It was done in woodcut/scrimshaw style:

Smuggler's Cove icon

While working on the Barrel logo, I started brainstorming a Smuggler's insignia; something I imagined old time smugglers might use as a kind of secret identifier for their loot. Martin could use it for lower-profile things and in places where the full logo wouldn't work. Martin liked the idea and we kicked designs around until I finalized this one, which represents looking down at the top of barrel:

As it turns out, this icon gets used a whole lot more than the full logo, which I'm perfectly happy with. Anyone down for a SC tattoo?

Swizzle stick

I also worked with Martin on the design of the swizzle sticks. You know, those little plastic drink stirrers that feature the bar's logo. I drew up a rope and driftwood design that was sculpted and produced by a genuine swizzle factory:

Smuggler's Cove menu

And who could forget the menu. Martin envisioned a 10 page, oversized menu featuring detailed illustrations on every page. It was a challenge, but I kicked it out in a week. You really need to see it in real life to get the full effect, as the illustrations are all done in a style similar to the barrel logo. Here's a preview of a single page:

Smuggler's Cove preview site and game

Last but not least, I did the Smuggler's Cove preview site (before the full site launched) and the secret "Where is Smuggler's Cove" game that was hidden in that site. I hope to post about those in the future!

Summary

Wow! I didn't think I had contributed too much to Smuggler's Cove, but I guess it does add up. And I hope it complements the amazing work that Martin and the crew puts into the bar every day. Next time you're in San Francisco, you definitely need to make it out to Smuggler's Cove. Swizzle Photo credit: Erick Wong/The Chronicle

Attempting to watch the iPad video on Apple's site

Hanford Lemoore — 2010-02-01 16:44:31

Just went to watch the iPad video on Apple's site. This is what I got:
No error message. No "do you want to upgrade?" message. No indication of what's wrong. Clicking on it does nothing. I don't even know how to download a new version of Quicktime. So much for the whole "Flash is dying" thing*. If this is the user experience people get -- something out of the RealVideo playbook -- Flash video isn't going to go away anytime soon. * Not officially endorsed by Apple, by the way. Just unofficially.

How Hanford saved New Year

Hanford Lemoore — 2010-01-02 14:19:44

If you remember (or still watch) any of the classic animated Christmas TV specials like Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer then you know how, year after year, Christmas comes this close to not happening -- until someone saves it. It's a timeless plot line that we see again and again. However, this year, in real life, Happy New Year came this close to not happening for a crowd of ~~drunk~~ merry revelers in a San Francisco bar. And it was I who saved it. We were all gathered at Smuggler's Cove for the big celebration. People had their champagne flutes in hand, and were packed shoulder to shoulder in the bar, waiting for the big event. Party hats were doned, and noisemakers were at the ready. The place was abuzz in excitement. Then I heard someone say "my cellphone says it's midnight already." Hmmmm. I went to get mine out. Megan beat me to it, and hers said midnight too. I pulled out my iPhone and mine read 12:01!! Thoughts ran through my head -- It's New Year already and we missed it? Where's the big Hazzah and "Happy New Year!"? I feared that a people throughout the bar, a few at a time, were going to check their watches, acknowledge it was past midnight, and quietly say to their friends "Happy New Year" in a muted voice. What else could they do? Look at their clock, see it's 12:02, and just yell at the top of their lungs "HAPPY NEW YEAR" without warning? Of course not. This New Year was doomed to come in with a whimper. Without a big to-do. Without all the noise, merriment, and excitement of your friends and strangers experiencing it together (See: everyone who was at home for NYE). At this point, I heard someone else mention that it was already past New Year's as well. Things were looking bad. I knew I had to do something. Like I mentioned above, I couldn't just blurt out "Happy New Year" because no one would yell it with me. Everyone would be caught off guard; it would be a few seconds before anyone else could acknowledge it, and then the moment would be lost. I couldn't announce it without warning. Without warning .... WITHOUT WARNING! THAT'S IT!* In a burst of inspiration, I said something like "Okay, here comes the countdown" and then just started yelling at the top of my lungs "FIVE! ... FOUR! ... THREE! ..." By the time I got to Three, most of the people around me had joined in. Mind you, this countdown wasn't synced to a clock or anything. I wasn't even looking at my watch. I was just hoping it would give everyone enough warning to say "Happy New Year!" when I got to zero, and start celebrating all at the same time. It worked. Everyone chimed in, and everyone in Smuggler's Cove celebrated the New Year together with a lot of hooping, hollaring, and merriment. Two or three minutes after everyone else in San Francisco. Happy New Year everyone! *No, that's not exactly how the countdown idea actually popped in my head, but that's how it happens in Christmas TV specials. And I know, this whole story could have been a four sentence post. So much for my resolution of blogging smaller, to-the-point posts.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year: Father Time's Song

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-31 03:39:00

To celebrate I thought I'd share Father Time's Song from the classic holiday special Rudolph's Shiny New Year. Unless you're a hardcore Rankin/Bass fan like myself, chances are the last time you saw Shiny New Year (if ever) was either 20+ years ago, or recently on the ABC Family channel. But ABC Family cuts this song out completely to make room for commercials. But I actually think this is right up there with some of the best Rankin/Bass tunes they made, has a message appropriate to its theme, and is worth sharing here. Although Rudolph's Shiny New Year has a completely contrived and absurd plot* it's actually one of my favorite Rankin/Bass specials. It kind of has a video-game-like plot to it -- a lot of weird stuff happening simply to give Rudolph a quest. In fact, for quite a while now I've had an idea for an RPG set in the Rankin-Bassiverse. Oh, someday.

Happy New Year Everyone!

*Among other weirdness, it is acknowledged that this happens after Rudolph saved Christmas with his shiny nose, but in this special he somehow has reverted to a fawn, complete with undeveloped antlers)

Prediction: the Apple Tablet will flop

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-26 03:00:16

There's been a lot of rumors going around about the fabled Apple Tablet. For the longest time I've been a skeptic of it ever appearing, but now the rumors are just too loud and too frequent to ignore. I'm skeptical of the Apple Tablet taking off. And after the jump I'll list my reasons why.

Size

According to the rumors it's not going to fit in a pocket. So everywhere this tablet is going to be, a laptop might as well be there instead. If you're going to lug something around, why not a full fledged laptop? This is why the iPhone works: The iphone is only amazing because it fits in my pocket. I only use my iPhone's smartphone features when I don't have my computer nearby (and even then, I often give up using my iphone due to just how slow it is) If my computer is with me, I'm always using it instead of my phone.

No keyboard

This is a big deal. I've owned two tablet PCs, mainly for art, and I love them. But I love them for drawing and doing pen-like things with them. And even then, I find myself dying to have keyboard all the time. For typing. For keyboard shortcuts. For simple file management. You may argue that an on-screen keyboard could fix that. But trust me -- from someone who has used drawing tablets for over a decade and owned two tablet PCs: Try using Photoshop with only an on-screen keyboard. It sucks.

Summary

Combine those two points above and you have the anti-synergy (entropy?) of my flop theory: People will always prefer using they keyboard laptops and computers when they can. And due to the tablet's size, it's rarely going to be anywhere where your laptop's not, because if you're going to choose to carry something that doesn't fit in your pocket, why not grab the one with the keyboard? I'd love to see Apple prove me wrong. Apple seems like the kind of company who can create markets where none existed before, simply due to their image and marketing. I understand the concepts of Apple's previous revolutions: iPod's "1000 songs in your pocket" and the iPhone's "internet in your pocket", but I don't see what the tablet fulfills. Note: There are a lot of conflicting rumors, But for the purposes of this post I'm assuming the tablet has no real keyboard, and is too big to fit in your pocket. Perhaps the size of a kindle, or bigger. If the tablet turns out to not fit this description, all bets are off. Oh, and by flop, I mean adoption levels like Apple TV or the Macbook Air.

App idea: Foursquare for hipsters

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-22 14:48:03

Instead of "checking in" to places when you arrive, you "check out" when you're leaving and post a snarky comment about how it's not cool anymore. ... [more]

Microsoft Intellimouse Precision Booster

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-19 20:50:19

I just discovered Microsoft Intellimouse control panel has a "Precision Booster" mode. you can set up your mouse so that when you hold down a specific button, the mouse slows down, allowing you to make pixel accurate positioning of your mouse with ease. Very cool, and quite useful for photoshopping and other precise controls. To enabled it, go to Control Panel -> mouse, then change one of the button assignments to Precision Booster. If you don't see that, you either don't have a Microsoft Intellimouse , or you didn't install the special drivers for it. BTW, Back in the early 90s I paid a guy to write a driver just like that for the Amiga.

2009: The year I finally started using web browsers maximized to full screen on my desktop machine.

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-10 22:49:09

... [more]

Status, and minor blog update

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-12-06 23:14:44

Hi y'all. Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. But it's been even longer since you commented. Unless you're selling Ugg boots -- I got hammered with 8,000 spam comments for them in two days. So I had to implement a spam filter/turing test on comments. Sorry about that. For what it's worth, I don't think it's that big of a pain in the ass. In fact, I made a game out of it! Kind of. I plan on blogging more soon. ~Hanford

Unity 3D subreddit on reddit.com

Hanford Lemoore — 2009-09-10 21:34:23

Unity has it's own Subreddit on reddit.com. Not a lot of activity yet ... but let's change that! Check it out at http://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/.