A big part of our job is coming up with names and designs for things...

Usually we do not start by pulling down the old sign...

...to sift through the big pile of letters....


..but that's how we're going to name PUNY Gallery..because it's cheap...

and could have a Minnesota Flavor...

or...different...flavor.

Is this the name?

Do you have anything? Cheat by going to this Anagramgenerator for L I E N S B O O K S H O P and help us decide on something good. Hobo Sin, Honky Op Slobs, Ooh Kelp, Elk Snob?

We can only use nine of the letters...ten if it's one word.

Move was smooootttththhhh. No problems and only a day of downtime. We have some computers to hook-up on Monday morning but the network and all of the essentials are good to go.

Everyone packs up their desk and gets the bulk of the studio packed up in less than two hours.

Cardboard replaces everyone. Stop recycling, start rehabilitation. Put cardboard to work for you.

Yui washing dishes.

Mike Owens cleaning out the closet.


And everything into the new space.

Curtis networks.

...and goodnight 507 E.

There is plenty to blog about...buy it's all been put aside as we frantically prepare our new nest. We're moving this Friday and are under the gun to get it ready. It's gone fairly smoothly as everyone has been chipping in after hours to get things done. There were only a few Money Pit moments including tearing down layers of walls on a whim and then realizing we needed to put cover them back up, our first builders ditching out without telling us, and finding out that most of the electrical had been cut in a 1990s remodel. It's looking like it'll all come together Friday morning.

Our new main address is:

PUNY 507 Hennepin Ave E, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

The new location is great, it was formerly Lien's Bookshop. It's only a few blocks from the Mississippi river and near plenty of restaurants and bars. (including a PUNY fave..Industrial Bar) We have four times the square footage of our three previous suites under one roof!





I'll post more photos after we fix it all up, here is one of Mitch. Hey Mitch.


And Tim and Ashley laying in the new gallery space flooring.

Guess what hit newstands this past week ~


An issue of the New Yorker with a PUNY illustration.

Hot on the heels of the Akon Calls T-Pain cartoon, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote an article on the use of Auto-Tune and the New Yorker asked us to do the illustration for it.


Here are some initial thumbnails for the concept:


... and stages of the chosen concept inspired by constructivism and Rodchenko:


Get out and buy one!

PUNYites will be all over Flashbelt and the after-parties over the next three days. If you see one of us, say hello! We'll have a table at the event where you can pick up a poster or t-shirt or just chat.

Shad (me) will be on the panel TOP SHELF: DESIGN at 10:15 am on Wednesday with pal Jeremy Thorp / Blprnt and Julian Dolce from Fuel.

It'll be a talk about what sort of design excites us and if you know me...I get excited. I know what I'm going to talk about but if you have any design projects that you think maybe we haven't seen and would blow some minds, let me know...

The Aquabats just put up a teaser of "The Aquabats Super-Show" pilot that we worked on:



http://theaquabats.com/supershow/intro.html
Watch it..tell your friends to watch it!

The pilot is an action and music packed mix of live action, concert bits, and animation by PUNY..with some help by Tony Christopherson on composite and Kevin Cannon doing the fantasy world backgrounds and Aquabats artist PEY designing heroes.

This was a lot of fun and we're working on our second pilot with The Magic Store now...we love those guys. This was all animated in Flash and then composited with After Effects.

Here are some caps from the Quicktime version:


MC Bat Commander is tense..what could be happening? Vincent did some scans from rock poster test prints and screen print mess-ups.


Julia's unicorn fires a magical beam thing in front of a Curtis painting..and her hair needs some purple dye.



Victor's creatures have the Aquabats in trouble.


Here's some of Kevin's magical fantasy land background...

When Curtis Square-Briggs isn't painting, designing, coding, or recording music for PUNY he is slaving away in his studio on original graphic novels. An exclusive preview of his first book "Aces: Curse of the Red Baron" from AiT/Planet Lar is featured on Myspace's Comic Page:


http://www.myspace.com/comicbooks


WW1 Bi-Plane fighting action!

Check it out then order the book:

Aces at Amazon.com

Word has it that Curtis is working on his second book now...!

We updated our Flash Animation Demo Reel on our site, here's a direct link for you those of you who think navigation is badigation:

http://punyentertainment.com/demoreel/

Mary O'Regan got me VIP tickets to Saturday's REVEAL art auction at Midway Contemporary Arts here in Minneapolis. There were lots of free food and drinks, and a sneak peak at the art that would be auctioned later in the evening.


Local actress Katie Jorgenson was seen moving too quickly to be photographed properly.


Brett VonSchlosser was there looking serious, along with Patricia Rosenberg and Patrick Koziol.


Cory Newbiggin and Mary O'Regan.




One of the event's fine sponsors was METRO magazine. Thanks for the drinks METRO!








The weather was insane. Hail, lightning, and beautiful sunsets!

Last Friday we recorded test audio in the audio studio. The results of the tests are secret in nature, but I will say that we wanted to see what kind of characters PUNY employees could conjure.

Flash Belt Site

We are only seven days away from the best three days of the year...Flashbelt! It's the best tech conference for anyone interested in interactive. Attendance is limited to 400 so you get a lot of face time with creators unlike the mega-conferences, and they always bring in the best presenters from the around the world who come back year after year to their favorite cozy show. This is where we met Disney. It looks like the party scene is going to be great again this year..with mixers and sponsored parties every night.

PUNY will be be there this year with a artisan table featuring hand made and random stuff on artisan table day, and will probably have a regular booth one day as well....

Register before June 6th when the price goes up..you won't regret it.