Panic Blog

Really important news. Our founder’s Cabel and Steven LINE stickers were released on LINE Creators Market! 重要なお知らせです。 LINE Creators MarketにPanic Inc創始者コンビ、CabelとStevenのスタンプが登場しました！

Check out our stickers on LINE Store.

LINE is an amazingly successful, and free, instant messages + voice + video calls service in Japan and Asia in recent years. You can attach some stamps called LINE Stickers to your chats. It’s a really fun and cute feature.  LINEは日本で爆発的に普及しているインスタントメッセージや音声通話、ビデオ通話をスマートフォンや携帯電話、タブレットやパーソナルコンピュータで利用可能にする無料のサービスです。メッセージにスタンプと呼ばれるイラスト画像を貼り付けて送ることができるのが特長です。

Cabel always asks for me — what’s new in Japan? So, I told Japan’s latest news, serveces, persons, fashions, snacks and etc etc. Recently, I had told about LINE, and in June, I introduced the LINE Creators Market — where people can make and sell own stickers — had just started. Also, I introduced popular stickers like Sushiyuki — Sushi motif stickers. Cabel and Steven are surprised,  laugh (for a while), and are very much pleased.  Cabelはいつもこう尋ねます — いま何が日本で流行ってるの？なので私はその時に流行っていることや面白い人、ニュースなどについて伝えます。ここ最近は日本でのLINE人気について伝えていましたが、今年6月に会ったとき、私はちょうど始まったばかりのLINE Creators Marketについて紹介しました。その中でもお寿司のキャラクター「寿司ゆき」にCabelとStevenは食いつき、しばらく笑い続け、とても気に入ったようでした。

Then Kenichi made a fateful joke — let’s make Panic combination stickers, you guys are the characters!  同席していたケンイチがPanicでもスタンプを作ることを提案し、CabelとStevenの創業者コンビをキャラクターにしようと言い出しました。

With a skeptical air, sure, who can make 40 stickers? Our designers Neven and Kenichi were working hard because of Transmit iOS, Prompt 2 and Coda 2.5. Cabel said, “Who is the designer of this sushi?” Noby: “Awayuki-san” Cabel: “Where does she live?” Noby: “Neighboring town. My friend.” Cabel: “Let’s ask her. It’s cool.” All: “!!!”  半信半疑な空気のなか会議は進み、では40個のスタンプを誰がデザインするのか？秋のリリースを目指してTransmit iOSやPrompt 2、Coda 2.5の開発が佳境の中、手の空いたデザイナーはいません。Cabelが言いました –「このお寿司のデザイナーは誰なの？」俺:「あわゆきさん」Cabel:「どこの人？」俺:「近所。おともだち。」Cabel:「彼女に頼もうよ、クールだし。」みんな:「！！！」

We offered design of our founder’s stickers to Awayuki-san. She consented to our offer readily! We were super lucky!! Then, the Panic founder’s stickers were completed.  帰国後、私はあわゆきさんに連絡し、CabelとStevenをキャラクターとしたLINEスタンプ製作のお願いをしました。幸運なことに快諾いただき、あわゆきさんテイスト溢れるクールなスタンプができました！

Probably, the characters of this stickers are strange, and confusing, for many people! But they are Panic founders! Our software product icons are also included. Let’s use our stickers for your LINE message with your friends! CabelとSteven、多くの人にとって誰？というのが正直な感想と思いますが、彼らがPanicの創始者 — パニック・ファウンダーズです！所々にPanic製品のアイコンが散りばめられたパニック・ファウンダーズのLINEスタンプで、あなたの気持ちを伝えてみませんか？

Panic founder’s Stickers is $0.99, available on LINE Creators Market.  パニックのLINEスタンプはLINE Creators Marketにて、100円または50LINEコインで発売中です。

—Nobuhiro Hasegawa, Panic Japan

It’s time.

Now, technically, Panic Inc. started in Steve’s bedroom. Then we shared an apartment, then another apartment, then moved into a small office. Finally, a few years ago, we landed in the newest Panic Office — one we got to design and build out from scratch, from empty raw shell to finished product. I’ve been promising a photo tour of our office forever, and I think I’ve held off because I secretly wanted this space to keep feeling “special” — our space, a space that could surprise guests, not just a long-scrolling page on the internet. But, it’s been a while, and it’s hard to invite the entire internet over for lunch.

So, let’s do this. Please join me on a complete photo tour of the Panic Office.

The History.

Our building was once part of Portland’s Auto Row on Burnside. We confirmed this when the concrete guys stripped the paint from our floors — they found (and were very concerned by) perfectly spaced rows of permanent oil stains. There could be no doubt we’re sitting in a once-garage. So awesome.

The Planning.

We knew a few things. We wanted an open space for everyone to share. (Open space? Sure. We’re usually really quiet. And when we do talk, it’s often something important where it’s nice to have team input. Or we’re workshopping jokes for Twitter.) We knew we needed a conference room for discussion. We needed a nice kitchen. And I loved the view from the roof.

But what does Panic look or feel like? It’s hard to express the “Panic Feeling” to others.

Our architect, Chris, eventually whittled everything I told him down to three key thoughts:  we want to be ‘cool’ without being austere, we want to be ‘fun’ without being zany, and we want to exude an air of importance, but with a wink. With some inspiration from Louis Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery (and, personally, Epcot Center) we got to dreaming. And sketching. And rendering.

The Buildout.

I couldn’t help myself. I walked over every day to check on the construction. I’m sure they hated it. But as an added bonus, I got to correct the odd annoying wall-mounted conduit or poorly-planned light before it was too late.

The Grand Opening.

Finally, almost a year later, it was done.

We moved in, and it felt good — like we were maybe, finally, a real deal.

Here it is, day one:

The Signage

Neven and I couldn’t resist getting 8-bit-nerdy with the office signage. Maybe someday we can use our own game characters.

The Living Room.

It’s done. We’re moved in. But we didn’t stop there. (We’re certainly not short on ideas.)

With the help of our interior designer, Andee, we first decided to spice up our “Living Room” area with a little more life, so we commissioned a pattern. And that pattern beget a rug. And pillows. And tables. And a curtain…

(If you look very closely at the pattern, you might recognize some old friends.)

Then, The Planning of Something Interesting.

We had a little phone closet, for the occasional (rare) phone call. A tiny corner, three ceiling lights, a nice window.

We thought we could dream up something a little more special. So, with Andee, we got to work.

The Founders Room

So now, behind this secret wall…

…we have something rather special:

(That amazing oil painting of myself and Steve as creepy old retired businessmen — why is Steve in a naval uniform, we’re not sure — came from a digital photo we took, sent to to Dafen, China, and turned into hand-painted magic. And there’s a hidden booze cabinet you’ll have to find on your own…)

The New Carpet and The New Wall.

We also later decided that the green checkerboard carpet lacked a little life, a certain energy. So we replaced it — and in the process wrapped it right onto the plain back wall.

The Rooftop Hills

Finally, our rooftop deck was a great way to breathe fresh air, but we had a serious glare problem during sunny days. We solved it in the only way we know how: artificial, astroturf, Super Mario 3-styled hills.

The Guests.

The most rewarding part of building something like this is seeing how other people view our space, when we have guests or (rare) open houses and then check Instagram.

And Finally, The Bonus: Panoramas.

Here are some amazing 360° panoramas of our office, during and after construction!

Thank you for visiting our office.

Credits

Principal Architect: Chris Hodney, Holst Architecture
Interiors, Founders Room, Hills: Andee Hess, Osmose Design
General Contractor: R&H Construction
Founders Room Contractor: GRADA Inc.
Living Room Pattern: Pattern People
Ridiculous Oil Painting: QPaintings.com
Panoramas: Matt D. Smith
Photo Credits: Chris Hodney, Buzz Andersen, Andee Hess, Instagram

You can finally read Panic’s blog in Japanese! I was unsure what to write for the longest time, but since I’m not good at talking like Cabel, I decided to make and show off some icons. Today, I’m revealing a disk icon with a Japanese pattern design.

The pattern is from a book on “Japanese Patterns” I found in the library purely by accident about half a year ago. The book was interesting, so I decided I wanted to make an icon using one of these patterns.

This collection contains 20 icons with beautiful Retina Display for Mac OS X. I’d be really happy if this icon could spark just a little bit of interest for our culture. Enjoy! :)

Look, I’ll be honest, the selection wasn’t super great this year.

But I’m not going let that stop this critical annual tradition of me sharing my favorite fireworks packaging. If you haven’t, get up to speed with 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011!

This year’s crop includes:

Confusing Euphemisms

Awkward Typos

…Shore?

An Eerily Accurate Look at Sandboxing (including the “Flaming Balls”)

Questionable Concepts

The formula for Barium Nitrate used as a decorative element? Why not

Old-Fashioned Copyright Infingement

To be fair, they did ‘shop out the nose ring

Low-Grade Racism

The Two Greatest Words Ever Combined Together

Advanced Irony

Elaborate Attempts to Capture Julian Assange

And Finally, the Most Brutally Honest Fireworks Packaging Image, Ever

Enjoy your 4th, everybody!

We just pushed out a quiet little update to our homepage. Nothing world-changing, just a nice refresh to help establish what Panic is all about for first-time visitors.

(I had far more elaborate plans for the homepage — at one point involving building actual sets, no joke — but after so many years of “I’m sure we can get to it next week!”, and after building up so much internal pressure that everything we do has to be earth-shattering, it felt great for me to sit down and do something quick, simple, and fun. Lesson learned.)

In prepping the new page, I moved the old images out of the way. And that’s when I realized we had something interesting:

A collection of little rotating “tout” graphics we had at the top of the old site.

The oldest modification date? 2002 — 10 years ago.

Through these touts, you can basically see everything we’ve done over the last 10 years. The passage of time generally freaks me out, so it’s a little overwhelming for me to see these all in one place, but it’s also kind of nice and comforting to see that, man, we’ve done a lot of stuff.

So here’s my life in 560 × 91. I hope you enjoy it. What’s next?