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m ss ng p eces + thehappycorp = Cool Hunting Video
| by your friendm ss ng happiness happy happy, joy joy
Maverick creative company works with progressive filmmakers to produce video podcast for top website and culturally savvy collective Cool Hunting
Ari Kuschnir and Scott Thrift of m ss ng p eces
December 22, 2005, NEW YORK — Cool Hunting's new video podcast, Cool Hunting Video, debuted this past week with three exploratory episodes that provide unique visual insights into contemporary art and design. The podcast is the result of collaboration between the inventive and imaginative minds of missing pieces and thehappycorp global — a welcome addition to the consistently varied and interesting content for whichCool Hunting has developed a trend-forecasting reputation.
The forward-thinking website, founded in February 2003 by designer Josh Rubin, boasts a daily average of 30,000 unique visitors. Cool Hunting Video is showing similarly rapid growth in its first week on the charts, receiving 500 subscribers on the day of its debut, doubling to 1000 subscribers the following day, and hitting the 2500 mark on its third day, when the podcast was added to the iTunes Music Store's “New and Notable” list and soared to the Arts & Entertainment genre's Top 10. By the fourth day, it joined the Top 100 Podcasts in the iTunes Music Store. Rubin remarks on the runaway success of Cool Hunting teaming with missing pieces and thehappycorp, calling it “brilliant, because they totally get what we're all about. I wanted to approach video podcasting as a way to extend the quick-hit dense content format we use on the web to a new medium that helps our readers experience even more.”
Greg Foley of Visionaire explains the concept of Visionaire 47, “Taste,” in which abstract notions (such as guilt and youth) are paired with corresponding tastes that the reader can actually sample.
Video podcasts are making waves as the latest form of content delivery. It is hardly surprising, then, that this team of unconventional creative operatives would join forces in applying their different perspectives to this emerging format. Douglas Jaeger, founder of thehappycorp global, specifically views missing pieces' involvement as a natural occurrence, “Ari [Kuschnir] and Scott [Thrift] bring so much energy to their work. It's not a surprise that they're on the forefront of what's happening in video today,” he explains. Scott Thrift, co-founder of missing pieces, gives credence to Jaeger's observation, stating simply that, “Ari and I have put a lot of effort into working with people that inspire us. It doesn't get much more exciting than collaborating with leaders like Doug and Josh.”
According to Ari Kuschnir, co-founder of missing pieces, Cool Hunting Video came about when two parallel ideas spontaneously turned to intersect at a common point. “We were going to pitch the idea to Josh [Rubin] and he was thinking about starting video podcasting and was inspired by the Semi-Permanent video. So we were thinking of the same idea at the same time,” says Kuschnir on the podcast's origins. When Rubin solidified an arrangement with the innovative duo, missing pieces was concurrently working with thehappycorp on a number of video projects, including coverage of the Semi-Permanent design conference's US debut. It followed that thehappycorp would contribute design and motion graphics work for the video podcasting project, with missing pieces working out of thehappycorp's SoHo office. Of thehappycorp's involvement, Jaeger says that they “are excited to see what develops in the area of niche video podcasting, as well as its potential as a powerful marketing medium.”
Danish artist Jeppe Hein shares his thinking behind “Distance,” showcased at the design.05 conference in Miami (December 1-5, 2005).
The missing pieces-thehappycorp collaboration promises to be a fertile partnership. Kuschnir credits thehappycorp with conceiving of client-specific approach, which propelled them towards Cool Hunting Video, while helping develop the identity of the filmmaking collective. Jaeger, on the part of thehappycorp, feels certain that, “It is through collaborations like these that the businesses of the future will be built,” and adds, “Cool Hunting Video is one of many exciting successes missing pieces is sure to have in the coming year.”
Cool Hunting Video will be updated by missing pieces on a weekly basis, adding new visual insights as a supplement to Cool Hunting's ever-expanding collection of things seen, heard of, and worth knowing about. The first three episodes — “Art Basel Recap,” “Visionaire 47″, “Taste”, and “Jeppe Hein, Distance,” — are currently available on CoolHunting.com and the iTunes Music Store.
A bird’s eye view of the acclaimed Art Basel show at Miami Beach this winter (December 7-10, 2005). Subscribe to see more through the eyes of Cool Hunting Video — just open the Podcast directory in iTunes or use http://www.coolhunting.com/video.xml in your feed reader.
