For over a year now I have been doing my weekly online design show called SNBC, which stands for Signalnoise Broadcast. Every Thursday at 3pm EST I rig up my Rockband microphone to the laptop, switch on the webcam and discuss what I’ve been working on, upcoming projects and answer questions posed by the audience. Sometimes I do Photoshop or Illustrator breakdowns, discuss my process and show how I built some of my posters. I have topic-based broadcasts, and just design discussion in general. Sometimes there are special guests, but mostly it’s just me in my home office.
64 shows have been recorded, which means over 64 hours of SNBC in all it’s forms. That’s quite a pile of creative talk. No rock left unturned. Many topics, many laughs. Not only did the audience get to know me a bit better, but I got to know the viewers who show up week after week to participate. I even met a bunch of you through events and conferences. Amazing little tribe. I cherish the loyal viewers who drop in for every broadcast and those who wander in after seeing a tweet to see what’s going on. You have all made every episode an awesome time.
There are 2 main goals of my doing SNBC every week: 1) it’s good for me to analyze my own processes in order to clearly convey it to help others, and 2) I want every episode to be an engaging experience for the audience. That’s it, top goals. It’s really that simple. However, over the last few weeks I’ve found it a struggle to come up with new topics and noticed a lot of repetition in my dialogue and answers. In short, I feel the live content has been weakening a bit, and the last thing I want to do is give a loyal audience something I don’t put serious effort into producing.
So for now, what I’m going to do is take a little break from doing the weekly show. Call this the end of SNBC: Season 1. I need to step back and look at what worked, what didn’t and put some serious thought into a format that will be superior to what I have been doing and provide content that will vary from week to week. Something planned out ahead of time. Something cool. There’s no timeline in place yet, but I’ll keep you all in the loop on Twitter as to when Season 2 will kick off and you can still watch all 64 recorded episodes.
A huge thank-you to everyone who has tuned into SNBC for the last year. I can’t say how much it means to me that you’d take the time out of your busy afternoon to drop in and say hello. Your questions and comments mean the world to me, which is why I’m putting some effort to make this thing a bit stronger. Thanks so much, everyone.
We will return after these messages …
Groovy. Keep up the good work. It’s been fun watching these shows. I always like the live interaction that ustream gives. So great.
Thanks for an epic journey ^^ I cant actually watch the live streams but keep up with the recorded ones :) Love the talk gives a lot of insight on your work process.
Thanks James, for the fantastic hours!! Like a huge black hole, drawing people in from all over the world to come together, interact together, talking together, having a lot of fun together, meeting new people, making friends, AWESOME times. Keep them coming James!! Your enthusiasm is infectious!!
btw you showed some cool tricks on the last episode with popping in the images!!
Dano, I really appreciate your letting me know about Producer 2. Very nice program, certainly a giant leap forward and a pleasure to use. Big thanks for that.
Phantom, Season 2 will certainly still have the live interaction. Talking with people from all around the world once a week was my favorite part of the ‘casts.
Ben, meeting people through the broadcasts has been absolutely wonderful. FITC and OFFF was amazing because of those loyal viewers who I met and hung out with, and it’s great to see others becoming friends through the chat window. World is pretty small.
Are these streaming yet on Netflix? I’m waiting for the Blu-ray box set for all the outtakes and directors commentary :)
James, at the time I stumbled across your broadcast, I was a lost un-inspired soul working the typical 9-5 design job. You inspired me to get out there and create personal projects. I owe a lot of my recent success to you for inspiring me. Thanks again for the great inspiration and keep up the incredible work. As soon as I get my blog up, mad props are coming your way!
Arg! Just as my schedule was letting me tune in live! Seriously though, keep up the good work. Can’t wait to see what you have cooking up for Season 2.
I joined your live casts about 35 episodes in, by then I guess you would’ve really hit your stride. They were always a pleasure to watch. I got to join in the chat a couple times (until it got blocked at work). I too have become acquaintances with your viewers and thanks to you, my world of graphic design opened up.
Thanks from little Barbados!
Rasheed
I haven’t had time to watch it yet, but i will.
Thank you for taking the time to do this James!
Fulton, I think all of every episode can be considered one giant outtake.
Quest85, awesome to hear that the message is getting through. Pumped to hear that the ‘casts have been helping you out. Thanks for the note.
John, I’ll be back soon enough, man. Thanks for the kind words.
Rasheed, yeah I haven’t seen your name come up in a while. Too bad my content wasn’t safe for work. Ha! Thanks so much for tuning in, truly appreciated.
Breq, I dare you to watch all 64 back-to-back. That is my mission to you.
I always enjoy your show, its one of the two things I really look forward to every week, you and Nick Campbell’s show. the two of you should really do a live stream together.
I tune in every week, work just blocks the chat feature. I try to get in my questions with the #4SNBC hashtag :) .
“Keep the metal ALIVE” #notaMetalHead :)
Go figure. Just when my office moves and gets fibre installed, the broadcasts go on hiatus : P
From the very first broadcast back in 2009 to the last one this past week, it’s been such an amazing journey, James. SNBC for me was one of the biggest sources of inspiration and priceless knowledge, tons of fun, new friends (and old buddies already!) and so much more. It’s a shame that I couldn’t make it to Barcelona in June to meet the SNBC gang, but hopefully next year will bring us another international event.
Needless to day, I’m looking forward to SNBC Season 2!
And your Merchline storefront! ;)
Looking forward to the future James, we’ll see what happens next eh? =)
Wow I just stumbled upon these wonderful “broadcasts” after finding you on psdtuts. These are great for a young aspiring desinger like myself. So much material to learn from. Thanks!
Thanks for your dedication James! When I was able to catch a show, I greatly enjoyed your sense of humour and design insight. Looking forward to the Season 2 premiere!
Thanks James for taking the time to enrich/encourage/inspire a rag-tag bunch of heroes (/heroines)! I’ve really enjoyed watching and participating in the broadcasts – they have become an integral part of my Thursdays. I’m pretty sure I’m all caught up on them, so it’s time to take it to the streets!
Thanks for the inspiration and laughs. Can’t wait for SNBC 2 :)
Can’t wait for Season 2 of SNBC. Will be checking the tweets about it. Awesome time watching and hanging on SNBC.
Really loved your bc’s.
It got me connected with a lot of interesting people and your answers to my questions had a huge impact on the designer side of my brain.
Thank YOU sir and see you at S2 ;)
*pow*
No more SNBC? What can I say James…………..
CHICKEN! ;-)
(No Signalnoise Comment without some hidden Movie Quote HAHA)
Man, it´s great to see you workin things out and making sense of what you did in all these live shows. It was a pleasure for me to be part of it and a pleasure to meet so many talented and cool people!
What a great way to let US be part of your life.
See you in the upcoming SNBC Season 2 buddy!
Cheers,
DAN-O
PS: Wait a minute, will that double the people watchin Nick´s live show ? HAHA That would be a blast!
Hey James, it has been a pleasure to be part of these SNBC adventure !
Cool people, great community, excellent sharing moments !
It has been a weekly rendez-vous that i didn’t want to miss out !
Thank you for all those moments of inspiration/motivation/creativity/sharing/fun !
I can’t wait the next season of SNBC !
Have fun till then !
James I really appreciate you putting on SNBC for as long as you did – sharing your design knowledge, experience, and just goofing around. I always enjoyed the community of good natured designers that showed up every week to discuss our common passion. I will miss having SNBC every thursday, but look forward to the reboot.
cheers dude!