Cool Hunting

With a couple trips to Brazil, the first in our word-of-mouth city tours and plenty documented at home in NYC, 2009 marked yet another banner year for our video series.

Grafica Fidalga
Since we aired this at the first 99% conference (a joint production of yours truly and Behance) in April, we go to this portrait of three printmakers in São Paulo as our default favorite and best example of what we do. These kinds of subjects really almost make the video themselves, but our contributor Phuong Cac (who literally wrote the book on cultural São Paulo today) deserves a shout out for making the connection and coming along on the shoot.

Cool Hunting's Oakland: A Word-of-Mouth Guide
After a little media controversy over our snapshot of Oakland—while we welcome the criticism—it didn't change the fact that we really like our experimental portrait of the city. Here's to a 2010 with a lot more videos covering places in the U.S. and abroad this way.

Sergio Rodrigues
We not only had the tremendous opportunity to shoot in Brazil this year, but caught up with one of the nation's most illustrious designers Sergio Rodrigues when he visited NYC to promote the reissue of his fabulous Cornuto chair. His charm and wit shows not just in his furniture but in his personality too.

Sunpie Barnes
I first met the musician Sunpie Barnes coincidentally when visiting Jean Lafitte National Park where he was a park ranger. When we were looking for musicians to shoot in New Orleans, I remembered his easygoing demeanor and unexpected day job. The resulting video, shot at a benefit concert and burial ground on the banks of the Mississippi, makes a nice little portrait of Sunpie and shows off another side of the Crescent City.

São Paulo Fashion Week Summer 2010: The Bikini
For our second trip to check out São Paulo's fashion week, we decided to just focus on the definitive item of Brazilian fashion, the bikini. With plenty of runway footage documenting the latest designs, we also get some thoughts on the subject from attendees, models and editors.