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TEKNIDERMY
- ISSUE 7: November/December 2001 As Long as They
Spell my Name Right editor's note: of course i edited out anything that made me look like an idiot...i am the editor, after all! Just over a year ago, someone I barely knew from an underground computer interface website suggested we start writing a magazine. Only a handful of people volunteered, but with a lot of hard work and a good deal of faith, he managed to have an online magazine live in less than two months. His moniker on this site was Kenray. The magazine was the one you're reading now. Tek: I think the best place to start off this evening would be a look at what brought you to skinning. How were you first exposed to it? Kenray: Believe it or not, it was Music Match Jukebox. I found the "change theme" button, then I figured out what it was doing, then I figured out how to dig in there and start making it do what I wanted it to. Once I made my first hotwired MMJB skin, I was hooked, and once I found out that the concept went beyond music players, well… it was all over from there. Tek: Were you already experienced with computer graphics? Kenray: Yeah, I started messing with Corel and the Adobe Suite in 1991 (along with Raydream Studio.) It was kinda forced on me by my uncle, who runs a recording studio. He needed someone to do cover art for this band's CD, and it fell to me. He gave me the manuals for Photoshop, Illustrator and Corel Draw, and told me I had two weeks. It was hellacious, but I pulled it off. Tek: Fascinating.. many people work toward doing cover art, but you started there :) Kenray: And it paid;) hehehhe - Necessity is the mother of invention...or something like that. Of course, once you see your work printed out and shrink wrapped, it just makes you want to do more. Tek: Have you continued to do CD covers? Kenray: Oh, yes, for all sorts of people... Chapel Hill NC has a busy music scene. I also get to do the "interactive" portion of some CD's ... that is really fun work, and really fun to look at when it is complete. Tek: What is the interactive portion like when you're done with it? Kenray: Like an autorun flash movie, full of band propaganda, links to websites, special music not included on the CD, screensavers, skins, the like of that. Tek: Sounds very work intensive, but very rewarding.. do you work closely with the bands themselves? Kenray: Yes, when I do one of those projects, about the only way to get the info you need is from the bands...especially the "special music content" - hehehhehe - and of course, they are all terribly vain, so you have to make sure you have good photos to start with. Then try and make them look "cooler" - hehehe. Tek: lol.. Do you have a history in music yourself? Kenray: Well, my family has always had music in it, my cousin plays bass for Collective Soul, my dad once wrote a song that made it to the top 40 country charts, and i can play anything that doesn't have cymbals - hehehehhehe - and i used to be in punk bands in Atlanta in the 80s and 90s. Tek: So you have quite a few famous family members? Kenray: Yeah, in some circles. Tek: Other than working with bands on CD projects, what other work keeps you going on a daily basis? Kenray: Well, websites, large format print jobs, and doing logos for new companies...which has got to be the hardest job in the world. Tek: What makes logo work difficult? Kenray: People's ideas about what really represents their company can change from day to day, or hour to hour - locking them in on a visual is like giving them a lobotomy. Seriously, in a big company there can be as many as 20 people involved in a decision like that, and everything has to go through this parliamentary process. You can wait ten days for some cat to come back and say "Yeah, its great, but can we see it in a lighter blue?" And then you go back to the drawing board, and to insult you further they come back and say "no we like that first thing better." You gotta charge 'em hard ;-) Tek: I imagine the print jobs and websites don't go much differently, except when you're dealing with fewer people. Kenray: Well, if a company comes to me and they already have a logo or some art, and they want, like one of those 50ft posters you'd see in the mall, or some big thing for a corporate function, I can really get on top of that and make it happen fast. And they usually take my advice, which is great, cuz then they are happy and they keep coming back for more. I got one company that thinks I am on their staff or something...hehehehe. I let 'em use my prototype copy and sh!t. Tek: Do you produce the end product yourself? the 50 foot poster? Kenray: Oh, no, I send stuff to the Service Bureau of the clients choosing, or I recommend one I know I can trust. I do have some years experience in the industry, but I don't have any giant plotters or stuff, and wouldn't want to do any of that stuff anyway. You will never meet a printer with more than 8 fingers - hehehehehhehehe. Tek: lol.. Yep, i know what you mean. Do you find yourself doing more web work than anything else? Or is your forté still more in the physical realm? Kenray: Well, the money is still in the physical realm for me. Things that wind up as products... the real money on the web is in databases, not design (in my opinion), and I can hardly even spell "database", much less run one. Besides, outside the industry there is a lot of mystique to the big print stuff. Most everyone who can get a copy of PSP for 90 bucks will end up being capable of doing some sort of web art in short order. The physical world of print is a maze of CMYK color shifting, and vector art, etc... Every one of us is our own little gold mine. I often get "recruited" by service bureaus saying things like "When are you moving to our city," but I like my own thing, and waking up at 11 am and working in my undies all day, so I will have to stay independent. Tek: It's true. many web designers don't realize how really easy they have it compared to print. Kenray: No shit. And how frustrating they are to print pros. Like when they send over some 72dpi RGB image to the Bureau and expect quality print! I have heard grown men about to cry and scream - hehehe - "Why can't you guys just print my Word Document?" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGHHHHHH - hehehe. Tek: Is your apparent love
of print a part of your driving force behind Tek? Tek: What would an issue look like, as opposed to the random articles? Kenray: Well, we have 6 issues online right now... perhaps i don't get the question? Tek: :) Above you speak of pushing for an 'issue'.. what would the 'special thing' look like? Kenray: Well, the special thing is when an issue of Tek has been completed, and I run it up and tell the old printer to print it all. Then I stick it all together and staple it together, and then I sit there and kinda read it, even though I read it all during the editing process anyway - hehehe. I think many would like to see Tek be like the skin sites, you know - like DA, LOS, WC, posting news to their front page.. Tek: ..sure.. constantly updated.. Kenray: ..and we will start to have a lot of that with the new site, but I still want us to have an issue. Something special, the collaborative work of the staff and the members of the community who chose to participate, wrapped up into this special thing, this "Edition," like a great big specialized birthday present every two months. Tek: I want to talk more about the new site in a bit, but what would an eventual print version of Tek be like? Kenray: Well, I think the most realistic thing would be to take our lead from 2600 magazine. Basically an 8.5 x 11 fold-over, color as we could afford it, and eventually leading up to having a DVD insert, but realistically, it would have to start off modestly and then work it's way up. The magazine would probably be a lot like the site zines - articles, interviews, etc. I think though, in order to pay for print, we would need the insert, CD, DVD or something to contain special content, to make it really worth plopping out the bucks for it. I can't tell you how much I would have loved to have been able to offer the "Tek Suite" Treetog made for us to a much wider public, uninitiated in the world of skins. That would have slammed! Tek: It would have been a great way to introduce it to more people. How many people do you think know about skinning? Kenray: Well from the numbers I see, I think there are around 2000 active English speaking skin artists, and somewhere in the ten thousands of "just downloaders." That is in the English speaking world, and before the release of XP. Taka tells me it is much more advanced in Asia, where skinning and anime have crossed over. Tek: Is it more commonplace there? Kenray: That is what I have been told. I know for sure that the Japanese love to "customize things." Tek: The Japanese, as a nation, seem to have a preference for Macs. Do you think this is related? Kenray: (kenray chews "hello kitty" pencil) I don't really know, to be honest - hehe. I know that the push is for small things. Real estate is at a premium. Everything you own needs to be tiny. You should see their cell phones. Sometimes, you will see Japanese websites that are built to be viewed on the tiny screens of cell phones - unreal. That's what is up with the "04" fonts. You gotta have tiny fonts for tiny pages. Tek: Incredible.. designed specifically for phones.. Kenray: Absolutely. They have a whole "sub-internet" for the phones. It is big business. Also, it is considered incredibly rude to actually "speak" on a phone in public, so there is a lot of packet switching going on. Tek: And is it skinned? Kenray: Skinned, in the sense that any webpage is skinned (which I believe is true..anything past text is skinning the page.) And to be honest, I have never seen it, only read about and been told about. Tek: Let's go back a bit to your interest in print.. Kenray: Ok. Tek: Do you have a history
in journalism that mirrors your history in graphic art? Tek: :) How did the idea of a skinning magazine first come to you? Kenray: Well, it was the two pieces I saw in "wired" magazine. The first was about skinning characters in some game, and the second was the one where they featured the sites, Thredz, Dangeruss, et al. It made me yearn for more, and I had hoped to throw up a flag and watch someone else run with it, but it fell to me to do it, if I wanted it. So I did. Tek: Do you think seeing skinning in a print magazine helped to fully 'validate' it for you as a serious pursuit? Kenray: Well, I know that seeing it in the magazine, along with being interviewed by the Baltimore Sun a few weeks later, was really motivating. I think "just sharing" is validation. If only one person ever downloaded one thing that I made available, it would be valid - at least to me. Tek: Has the first year of Tek been what you expected or hoped it might be? Kenray: Actually, it has been far more enjoyable than I had ever imagined it would be. It has been a trip. Also, there is no pressure about it. We have no corporate sponsors to answer to, and we are not "money motivated" …so it is all an enjoyable experience with no bad side to it at all. Plus, we get to meet interesting people, help develop new programs, and every now and then we get some kewl new art - hehehe. And I must say, we have the best staff in the world. Tek: Now that Tek is a year old, we're introducing a new site. Is it a new look, a new addition, or a whole new direction? Kenray: Well.... I think it is more like a new "branch" than a new direction. There have always been cries from within (and without) to make Tek a more "day-to-day" kind of website than "just" a bi-monthly publication. I believe that, with the site Jumbles has put together, and with the proper focus, we can "have our cake and eat it too." And the ability to publish timely news will be a positive thing that won't distract from the magazine proper. And also, I think the new "look
and feel" of Tek allows for some helpful community things like hosting
orphan apps, and things like that. Just being a positive influence, and
creating good public service - good karma, y'know? And now I won't have to try and figure out if a press release has been worn out in the two months since i received it, and with the capabilities of the new site format, I can at least know that we put it up when it came in. And if we want to dig deeper, well, we are a magazine - hehehhee. Tek: two things you mention are things you've long been a champion of - orphaned apps and 'smallware.' what do you see these terms as describing? Kenray: Well, smallware is any program that serves a specialized function (like colorpad,) and occupies very little space and memory. And smallware is almost always free, like Coolplayer. Orphaned apps are projects that the developer has either given up on or run out of funding to support, but for which there is still interest or support in the world. And sometimes that state of orphanage is just temporary - like the lowdimension apps or the 545 stuff - they were off the net for a while but then they're back. But the fact is, people were looking for them every day. Would you know to go look on Attila's website to get Greybook? I wouldn't. herefore, someone needs to create some sort of permanent place where these apps can always be found, like a "safe deposit box" for brilliance - hehehhe. Tek: What can be done for orphaned apps when the situation is permanent? Kenray: Well if the developer
is into it, the Tek site can keep the app forever available, and hope
that some user or fan will support it. In fact, most freeware applications
have, written into their help or read me files, a little notice that says
anyone is free to re-distribute the app, as long as they don't mess with
it. That is why I feel comfy with the apps on the Orphanage we're running at the moment. Permission to do so is in every programs zip file ;-) Also with orphan apps, the plain fact is any author could write and say "Hey, take that offa there" and Tek would. So, it is cool ;-) Tek: In the last year of Tek, there have been many changes and much progress. What do you see for the coming year? Kenray: hmmmmmm.. Well, we are always looking for new ways to see the world around us, and by that I mean: new reporters, new interviewers, fresh meat. hehhehee. We have a great staff, but we are always open to more. Also, there will be a full Japanese Edition, compiled from the first year's editions, and also there will be a translation into Croatian, which is being done by Daniel Bernazza, over in Croatia. I would love to see the magazine (or some portion of it) go to even more languages, and I would love to have a couple of really, really technical people on staff, programmers and the like, who could take ideas and make them reality. That would kick ass ;) Tek: That would be fantastic. Kenray: Also, more Mac stuff. I don't want anyone to think we are PC-centric by choice. It's just that you have to take what you can get, and ya'll Mac users are a pretty close knit and tight lipped crew - hehehhehehehehe. Tek: lol There are actually a lot of people working to customize the new os, OS-X (ten.) Kenray: Well, we are here for any Mac customizer who wants to write and share something. I take all my e-mail! Also, for me personally, being able to come off with a new program that helps artists is the BOMB. I would love to do more of that. Tek: :) Excellent.. In closing, I wanted to get your opinion of something going on right now, relating to world events. Kenray: Ok. Tek: There have been many skins, and especially wallpapers, relating to September 11th. How do you feel about that? Should they be there? Kenray: Well, I think for many of us, all over the world, there is a real "Drive to Do Something," and for many people, sharing this kind of art is "The Thing They Can Do." And for many others, displaying that art is "The Thing They Can Do". It is natural for people to have those urges, and if doing that helps anyone to deal with something or to feel like they have "Done Their Part", then more power to them. So far, I have not seen much
"Hate" art on the sites I visit, and I doubt the community would
accept a wallpaper of Osama Bin Laden hanging from a street lamp, but
I am fairly sure that someone out there has probably submitted that wallpaper,
feeling that that was "The Thing They Could Do" to deal with
it. My partner and I have worked on two benefits for the Red Cross since the attacks, and that was "The Thing I Could Do." Everybody reacts in their own way, and that is mine... don't take me as "unpatriotic" if I don't rush to put an American Flag on my websites or my art. I support anyone who does, or who wants to. That's what Freedom is all about, right? The one other thing I would
say about American Patriotism is this: Anyone who has not served in the armed forces, and wants to own and display the flag should visit http://www.usflag.org/us.code36.html#173. Be responsible with it peeps! |
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