web design magazine!
Hawken King (July 3, 2008)
Last month I received a call out of the blue. Unsure as to who was calling me and exactly what they wanted (the conversation was in Japanese) I took the time to find out. Eventually during the conversation I somehow deduced that I was in fact being called by an editor wanting to feature a 6 page article about me in a Tokyo based web design magazine.
Web magazines are thin on the ground these days, since the bubble burst most publications went out of print. Therefore Web design note is a strange one, being virtually the only web design mag out on stands. A quick flick through the mag also reveals they have no advertising in the magazine it’s self — how they keep the magazine afloat financially is a bit of a mystery.
Later that month they came to interview me at eat’s office. Always good for a photoshoot, this office holds it’s own. The dangerously happy profile picture of me is another matter entirely. The article is only in Japanese, and as such we had to use a translator for the interview. Without translation (as they wanted to do at first) I’m sure they would have made me sound like an otaku. Actually this something to be wary of. As soon as you mention something like “akira” unfortunately you can be branded with the gaijin brush, although this is not to blame the people interviewing you as Japanese people have a reasonable interest of how their culture permeates in the minds of others. Just choosing my words carefully!
If you have time, pick up a copy. The magazine is out from today until September or so. My friend Carsten and his company Less Rain is also profiled, with their award winning work. The magazine is interesting, insightful and a sort of enigma in this age of web magazine drought.
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