Our Ten-Year Anniversary

Two weeks ago, I turned 32-years-old. I’ve barely come to terms with the fact that half my life ago, I already owned a driver’s license and could legally drive in the State of Michigan. And now I’ve come to realize that next week marks the 10-year anniversary (the “tin” anniversary) of the date I threw everything into a U-haul and moved to New York City. Within the span of a week, I accepted a dot-com job offer, graduated from college, said goodbye to my friends and family, drove through the night and slept in a truck on the streets of Polish Brooklyn until I leased an apartment and began my new job days later. It was exactly 800 miles from my alma mater, five states away from the rest of my family and the longest week of my life.

Three years ago, I wrote a list of accomplishments to mark my 29th birthday. I won’t do that today as I’m afraid the undoing of some of those milestones would only depress me. And today isn’t a day to contemplate my own achievements, but rather to reflect on what New York City has done for me in the past decade. Read more

Joshua Ferris’s “The Unnamed”

 

A few weeks ago, I alluded to a web site ERA404 was creating for an author that involved original video footage from Grand Central Station (shot by the inimitable Greg Stadnik) and motion tracking movie clips with Flash video smoothing. I’m proud to say that the site for Joshua Ferris’s “The Unnamed (Reagan Arthur, 2010) is now live. Pop on by to see the final result. I think it came out pretty nicely…but maybe I’m biased. What do you think?

» Visit The Unnamed
» Visit ERA404’s Portfolio

Special Thanks to: Amanda Tobier, Greg Stadnik, Zeh Fernando and the author, himself, for all the original/beautiful content in the site.

[d]online Up[d]ates

Two quick things in reference to my new [d]online typeface.

1. American Typographers: According to this site, put together by Luc Devroye, of the School of Computer Science at the esteemed McGill University in Montreal, I’m part of the American Type Scene and featured (less than prominently) on his New York City page:
devroye(by the way, the French example translates to “On the lap of the sorceress”)

2. MyFonts: I’m now listed on myfonts.com:

ERA404 Relaunches ArthurAshe.org

arthurashe

Back in February of 2007,  I worked with Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe to create the introduction and site tour for the Official Site of tennis legend, Arthur Ashe (“Honoring Ashe”). Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of designing/developing her personal photography site, a promotional video for Barack Obama, and other work. But this Spring, Ms. Moutoussamy-Ashe returned to request we redesign the complete ArthurAshe.org site (which was originally designed by Sean Lightner and the good folks at Merrill Lynch).

Take a look at the new site, here: www.arthurashe.org

And our 2007 press release: ERA404 Hired to Design Site for Tennis Legend, Arthur Ashe:
“ERA404’s team is young and energetic. They were good listeners and had the ability to grasp the needs of the client,” said Moutoussamy-Ashe. “I had a very pleasant experience.”

Charles Bock Credited Me

Charles Bock acknowledgements

Charles Bock acknowledgementsOne of my favorite authors and good friends, Charles Bock, mentioned me and my studio in the acknowledgements for his New York Times bestselling novel, Beautiful Children.

From Publishers Weekly: 

A wide-ranging portrait of an almost mythically depraved Las Vegas, this sweeping debut takes in everything from the bland misery of suburban Nevada to the exploitative Vegas sex industry. At the nexus of this Dickensian universe is Newell Ewing, a hyperactive 12-year-old boy with a comic-book obsession. One Saturday night, Newell disappears after going out with his socially awkward, considerably older friend. Orbiting around that central mystery are a web of sufferers: Newell’s distraught parents, clinging onto a fraught but tender marriage; a growth-stunted comic book illustrator; a stripper who sacrifices bodily integrity for success; and a gang of street kids. Into their varying Vegas tableaux, Bock stuffs an overwhelming amount of evocative detail and brutally revealing dialogue (sometimes in the form of online chats). The story occasionally gets lost in amateur skin flicks, unmentionable body alterations and tattoos, and the greasy cruelty of adolescents, all of which are given unflinching and often deft closeups. The bleak, orgiastic final sequence, drawing together the disparate plot threads, feels contrived, but Bock’s Vegas has hope, compassion and humor, and his set pieces are sharp and accomplished.

I definitely recommend you pick up a copy:

The Complex

This is a novel I wrote when I moved to New York City. As with all hobby-novelists, its only in its second draft and far from being complete. All of the characters in this manuscript are fictional (though some of the names are close to friends of mine). If anything, the central character is loosely based on my dealings with relationships from high school to the time I met my girlfriend. In fact, unknown to her, she changed me so much that she actually changed the ending.

The Premise
A Midwesterner leaves her family and friends to try to find love in the Big Apple. She finds herself managing a three-story-building, a coffee house and a crisis of feelings, all of which she struggles to understand.

Download The Complex (PDF)
Includes: PDF of The Complex, a novel by Don Citarella.