#victor zaud

[artcenterstories]

From Steve Jobs to ArtCenter: Meet Designer Victor Zaud

ArtCenter: What are you working on right now? Victor Zaud (BFA 91 Graphic Design), Head of Marketing, IMVU: IMVU is a 3D, immersive social platform where users tap avatars to meet new people and build deeper friendships with those know. It’s also the largest community of 3D artists creating products (fashions, experiences and more) users can buy. This is the “second wave of social” — a new way to connect online, post-Facebook and other social “publishing” tools.

AC: Describe a moment in your childhood where you first identified as a designer. VZ: When I was in high school, everything changed when I saw the Macintosh. I saw the future, and saw myself doing something with a Mac. I couldn’t afford one, so I started visiting a nearby ComputerLand — the way you might visit a car dealership to stare at a shiny, new Mustang. The store manager encouraged me to “play on it” because it was good for business. Every day after school, I’d walk three miles from Monta Vista High School to the store to use it, and the Mac Gazette newsletter was born.

AC: How did this lead you to Steve Jobs and Apple? VZ: I sent a copy of my Macintosh Newsletter to Steve Jobs, who passed it along to Tom Hughes in Creative Services. Tom reached out and offered to meet with me. Soon after, I started visiting Tom at the office; he let me use the copy machine for my newsletter and one of the extra Mac’s, which was right across from Steve’s office. I was in heaven the summer of ’86 when I started my internship at Apple Creative Services. I met so many people who influenced me, including Cheryl Dalton Moreno, who introduced me to ArtCenter, and Clement Mok. After graduating, I worked for Clement, and his friendship and mentoring over the years has shaped my life.

AC: How do you define success? VZ: Success in business for me is something turning out the way I envisioned and has a measurable impact that creates an increase in revenue, brand awareness or simply joy for the audience.

AC: What’s the most unique thing you’ve designed? VZ:  There have been a lot of “firsts” — starting with the packaging for the Republic of Tea, but I think the most unique thing I’ve designed is the to-go box for Sugarfish. The goal was to design something that would feel as special and coveted as the sushi inside — plus, it needed to instantly communicate, like the Tiffany’s blue box. Functionally, I modeled it after origami from an old Japanese pattern book (with some modifications) and experimented tirelessly so it could be assembled without glue.

AC: What’s the design cliché you’re most tempted to use? VZ: Less is more.

AC: What’s your most prized possession? VZ: My Leica SL.

AC: If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day who would it be? VZ: Jony Ive — I’d just love to be in that mindset of defining experiences across hardware, software and environments at the scale of Apple.

AC: What book is on your bedside table? VZ: No More Mr. Nice Guy.

AC: Who are the most interesting designers working today? VZ: I’m sadly out of touch on this subject. I have my favorite artists and designers, but I can’t imagine I have a sense of who’s the most interesting. I love seeing Kevin Tachman’s photos in the fashion world; he always surprises me with interesting lighting and effects. I love being inspired by some of the original Disney animators and artists who shaped what would become the foundation of animation illustration, like ArtCenter instructor Bernyce Polifka. I have friends whose work I admire: Clement Mok, Robert Brunner, Rebecca Mendez and Kit Hinrichs. 

AC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be? VZ: Turn back time.

AC: What’s your most irrational or rational fear? VZ: That a client will be disappointed. It’s hard to sit with even if I know what we’ve done is right. In the end, I believe my job is about problem-solving, not satisfying my creative desires.

AC: Where is your happy place? VZ: At my simple home in the woods by the beach with my wife, Jessie McAnulty, (also an Art Center alum) and my two sons, listening to them play music. When I hear them all playing together, I just beam that I helped in a tiny way to make that happen.

AC: How would your closest friend describe you? VZ: A nerd and a foodie who loves cars, and jazz, and everything Japanese.

AC: What’s your best piece of advice for an ArtCenter student who’s interested in following your career path? VZ: Build your “creativity muscle” up as much as possible at ArtCenter. Come up with lots of ideas you think are great for a particular project — and then force yourself to go further and come up with one more. That’s the solution that’s often the best. Build that muscle up as much as you can now. It will really distinguish you later.

[generallystudying-blog]

Kik Brings Kin Crypto Tokens To Avatar-Based Social Network IMVU

kik friends Messaging large Kik has declared a brand new partnership with  IMVU, the world’s largest avatar-based social network.

Kik may be a traveller service that has over fifteen million monthly users as well as one in five U.S. teenagers, and also the project’s Kin cryptocurrency is meant to change users to earn Kin through platform engagement so pay it on connected services. 

Kik Friend Finder

The partnership can connect IMVU to different services victimization Kin, and permit IMVU users to earn on their platform wherever a median user spends virtually Associate in Nursing hour daily customizing avatars and interacting with different users.

The network can change users to earn Kin tokens on platforms like Kik and IMVU which might then be spent on services offered by different partners like Blackhawk Network, a serious e-giftcard vender giving users access to services like Netflix and Xbox Live, and Unity, the cross-platform game engine behind Kerbal programme and different in style games.

Kik initial discovered the potential to change their users to get product and services through currency earned  by partaking with the platform with the launch of Kik points. The points system allowed users to decide on to observe ads in exchange for points that can be changed for digital product like Stickers on the platform.

Like the IMVU Credits system, a points system permitting users to earn cash by making and marketing digital product on IMVU, Kik points operated in a very closed system that didn’t act with different platforms or services. The success of the project incontestable  the potential of employing a credits system at intervals the platform – Kik Director of Partner Success Sergio timberland mentioned the transition from Kik points to Kin with CCN:

“The vision was however can we produce a world that’s fairer, means} can we produce some way wherever most are fairly remunerated for his or her contributions in a very suburbanized way, in a very suburbanized system.”

The idea is to change users to pay and earn across totally different platforms, that light-emitting diode to the launch of Kin tokens, that raised $100 million last year. whereas IMVU permits users to exchange IMVU Credits for rescript currency at intervals the IMVU marketplace, the new partnership aims to open that closed system to a wider marketplace by connecting IMVU users to different apps and services connected to Kin. “One of the items that we glance at from the partnership is however will IMVU complement Kin’s system in a very important method, and the way will that partnership accelerate the usage of Kin and also the dealing volume of Kin. First, IMVU incorporates a terribly robust content creator userbase. We’ve got fifty,000 folks on IMVU earning a living making digital product,” the Kik government aforementioned, adding:

kik friends

“This provides U.S. the chance to unlock that earning potential and make a network result across digital services.”

Half of IMVU users interact on the IMVU platform monthly, and over 1/2 them already use Kik, a affiliation that the groups feel can produce a seamless transition into Kin adoption. whereas Associate in Nursing calculable ninetieth of cryptocurrency users square measure male, over seventieth of IMVU users square measure feminine which can additionally change Kin to succeed in Associate in Nursing untapped demographic of feminine content creators and community members.

IMVU users can activate wallets, permitting them to earn Kin tokens by taking part in polls and different services so pay the Kin on virtual product in IMVU or e-gift card offers and different services.

“We extremely look to our Creators’ success as a mark of the platform’s success,” says Victor Zaud, senior vice chairman of promoting at IMVU. “Our Creators square measure implausibly artistic, thus we have a tendency to strive exhausting to specialise in empowering them additional through content programs that reward their content creation.”

The Kik team believe that transfer a important use case for cryptocurrency permitting users to earn and pay crypto on the product they get pleasure from can facilitate accelerate the mass adoption of cryptocurrency as a full.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post electronic communication large Kik Brings Kin Crypto Tokens to Avatar-Based Social Network IMVU appeared initial on CCN.