2013: September 11th, 2001

We at Future Boy Productions are New Yorkers, born and raised. While we do work all over the country, New York is our home. As much as I personally am frustrated at times by the City, I do love it overall. I love the history, the culture, the energy. As a designer, I find so much inspiration in this place, with every single street providing endless photo opportunities or visual brainstorms. So much of what Future Boy creates can be traced to the city blocks of Manhattan. And of course our apparel line, Villain Inc, lives and breathes New York completely.

Anyone in this city can give you their account of 9/11. Mine is not enormously different. It was terrifying. Apocalyptic. A day where you honestly felt that you could die in any moment. It was that bad.

So on this day, I and all of Future Boy Productions would like to salute the City of New York, the firefighters, policemen, and anyone who risked their lives on that day. We would also like to acknowledge the leaders of the city and country back then who kept us safe, and wish all the best to those with the burdens of responsibility on them now.

We will never forget.

Justin Negard
Future Boy Productions  

Cool Website Time: KitKat.com

Kit Kat 4.4. Now in red.

Oddly enough, the Kit Kat website - um yeah, www.kitkat.com - is a pretty cool design. It's minimalism magic, with simple pictures surrounded by pure white and red. Clean fonts and images back everything up. The icing on the cake is the sarcasm in presenting the chocolate wafer candy as a cutting edge techie gadget, featuring specs and all the usual "c-netics" (patent pending.) One final feature of coolness is that the whole presentation responds directly with your mouse scroll, animating everything to your own speed both forward and reverse.

And yeah, the mobile version is equally cool.

We tip our cool hats to you, Kit Kat, for thinking outside the box and making something really special and unique from a rather uninteresting product. Proof that great design can be made at any time. Then again, I can't forgive the jingle. Let's call it even.

Future Boy

"You're one idea away from greatness."

Immerse Yourself in your work

Immerse yourself in your work. Whatever that work is, whatever you're passionate about, become it. Read about it. Learn about it. Surround yourself with people involved in that field. Embody the subject.

Trade Facebook for online magazines and books. Trade reality TV for documentaries and YouTube discussions. Sketch, write, and research. Discover new people in your field and learn about their work. Simply walk and think. You'd be surprised where your own mind can take you.

Maintaining your motivation and focus is not an easy thing. We all fail at it often. But the greatest people throughout history learned the skill of building and maintaining their energy long enough to accomplish incredible things. And the more they maintained that energy, the more they became that subject.

Think of this concept as a diet plan. If Facebook and television are junk food, reading and learning about your field is the healthy part. And much like a diet, the healthier you eat the less you'll want the junk. It's that simple.

There is genius within us all if we take the necessary steps to find it.

Future Boy

...a brief video to back me up.

Designer's Block

It is inevitable when designing to favor some projects over others. Sometimes the work flows like a beautiful song, effortless, with every piece fitting right into place. These are the projects that get the blood flowing and the inspiration growing. These are the ones that remind the designer why he does what he does. 

But then there are the stubborn designs. The designs that never seem to look quite right, never feel the way they should. They frustrate and depress, and leave the designer wondering why he ever took up a vocation that makes him miserable. It's a sure-fire case of designer's block.

The truth is, anything can be great. Any design can be art. As soon as a design fails to inspire, that's exactly when the designer needs to rethink the vision. It might be a simple twist. It might be a complete overhaul of the project. Whatever needs to be done must be done, both for the design and the designer himself. If there is no passion, there will be no greatness. 

Future Boy