Its July 4th and since I’m in the US for a few months and its a holiday for me, consider this some random holiday content from yours truly…

A little piece to ponder on from my homeboy and designer extraordinaire Calvin Yu who asked me the following question yesterday….

So now you may ask yourself the same: Is it Hipster…or is it Hanks ?

Tom Hanks to be specific. In Cast Away to be even more specific….LOL.

For more of my man’s works, check out R3SP3CT.com

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s been a year since we first launched. My cousin said that I should say a few words and talk about the struggles of our first year, so here goes. We launched the site last year at this time. Van and I were the only writers, and to be honest, we were still trying to figure out the approach and how we wanted to come up in the game. Van had recruited some peeps to write, but we still had no structure and I was still trying to figure out that path for us. It wasn’t until a trip out to NYC that it all became fuckin’ clear as day: A site that specializes in music, fashion and art. Seriously, how many cats were killin’ it on that level? Not very many - don’t get me wrong, there are lots of peeps in the game that do work such as Format magazine. From there, we had our gameplan on, but unfortunately, we lost some soldiers along the way, only to regain them again recently. But the team grew quickly to an additional four more writers, pushing our numbers to six writers. Now, we’re sitting at eight writers, and we’re all bringing heaters for all y’all, whom I consider the Killahbeez Fam.

The constant uphill battle that I personally face is that, and this is soooo cliché but it’s true: There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to grind and work on Killahbeez.com. From writing, to coding, to selling advertising space, to contacting PR agencies to setting up interviews, I’m basically that first point of contact. The pressure of doing it all can be overwhelming, no doubt. That’s real talk. I ain’t gonna sugar coat nothin’. This shit is straight up hard, but hell is it fun.

So with that said, we want thank all you Killahbeez Fams for supporting and spreading the word. We at Killahbeez look forward to continuing to bring y’all some more hot shit for years to come.

Peace and one love.

DT aka Lex Diamonds.

And now a few words from the other guy…

If I recall correctly, Dave had approached me about starting a lifestyle blog that featured music, street wear, gadgets, etc. But we didn’t want to just be another information hub. That would be boring right? And although we didn’t have a “system” in place, the one common denominator was whatever we posted, we genuinely liked. And thats how it all began.

Along the way, we definitely had some struggles because no guidelines were set. Who would’ve thought blog posting required just as much left brain thinking as right? Dave with his marketing management background was all about deadlines, brand marketing, the whole “Do it right, do it tight.” attitude. The end result speaks for itself. From our bangin’ logo (thanks Calvin), snazzy business cards (another thanks to Calvin), a few version changes and of course our stickers. And here we are a year later with some new friends made along the way spanning locally in DC, NY or Vancouver all the way to the rest of the globe.

Thanks for reading.
Van

The new and amazingly good Cut Copy album “In Ghost Colours” drops in North American stores today. These cats from Melbourne, Australia have put together a masterpeice.

If you’re into synths, electronic, new wave/80’s steez or just plain feel good music go scoop up a copy. “Hearts on Fire” has been tearing up dancefloors internationally and “Lights and Music” is bound to do the same as the next single.

I can’t get enough of the album, theres too many good tracks to even pick a favorite..buuut if I had to, my joint would be “Strangers in the Wind”.

Also, Vancouverites, Cut Copy will be hitting town on April 29th for a performance and Dj set at Richards on Richards and Caprice respectively. Tix are available at ticketmaster now.

Check em out at their website and myspace page.

**UPDATE** - I just went to HMV and apparently it doesn’t drop in some Canadian stores until next Tuesday. You can still get it on itunes though. Also, shout out to my man Calvin Yu from R3SP3CT.com for putting me on to them.

So as you folks may have noticed, Killahbeez.com has gone through some changes, in particular we got two different logo treatments, which has allowed us to start printing stickers and some business cards up as well as pushing the site through various channels. Recently I had the pleasure to sit down with Calvin Yu from R3SP3Ct.com and designer of the logos to talk about his background, inspirations and art. Check the interview out and make sure you visit R3SP3CT.com and hit him up for any upcoming work you may need done.

Killahbeez.com: Yo Calvin, what’s up man. Let’s get straight to the interview. So What’s your design background?
Calvin Yu: I used to write graffitti in the the early ’90s. My love of simple lettering and characters naturally transitioned into graphic design. I started out doing tee shirt illustrations and progressed from there once i learned to use the computer as a tool. I have worked in video games, youth marketing firms, advertising agencies, newspapers, a snowboard outerwear company, club event promotions. I have quite a range from corporate to street. I love brand identity and art direction. I have no formal schooling.

KB: So how long have you been in the game?
CY: 10 years at a professional level capacity.

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