We interviewed Eric Zimmerman on a cold day in January, and chatted about the birth of indie gaming. He’s was an incredibly insightful person, and one who we’re excited to have met. He created the game Sissyfight back in 2000, started Gamelab, wrote the book “Rules of Play” (the game designer’s bible), teaches classes at NYU to this day, and designs games in just about every medium possible. He’s an innovator, a thinker, and someone who wants to challenge the world’s preconceived notions of what games are. Pure West is proud to present this piece we did for VBS.

He may be associated with bratty, hair-pulling sadism, but Eric Zimmerman is just playing around. And yet, as an accomplished game designer, artist, and philosopher of gaming, Eric doesn’t take play lightly. Zoning into a screen with a joystick in hand isn’t mindless or mind-melting, he argues. It helps us pick through the sort of complex systems that run the world, the kind of systems that lead to massive crises like poverty and climate change. Good thing the era of the moving image is wrapping up, he says in this episode of Oral History of Gaming. Welcome to the Century of Play.

Eric’s been exploring innovative video game design since the 1990s, first hitting the internet in a big way with the surprise online success of SiSSYFiGHT 2000. The browser game looked simple and mindless on the surface: asexual cartoon girls tease, taunt and scratch each other on a playground. But requiring careful strategy and drawing inspiration from the work of outsider artist Henry Darger, illustrator Edward Gorey, Japanese anime, and early, 8-bit video games of the 1980s, the underground game was a pioneer. With its community-building via chat, message boards and social points, SiSSYFiGHT helped introduce America to the world of online multiplayer gaming.

That success and subsequent ones landed Eric in the pages of magazines and earned him a “VIP Award” by the International Game Developers Association. In the decade since, he’s run Gamelab, a game development company based in New York City that has racked up awards and spun off other companies, including Gamestar Mechanic, a site that lets kids create games. With one of his latest projects, a nonprofit called the Institute of Play, he’s preparing to launch a school in New York City that puts play at the center of learning. It’s not yet clear if sissy fighting will be permitted.

MYD brought Pure West on to photograph there most recent event with the Caucus of Color. The work we do in the non-profit sector is some of the most gratifying, and we’re always excited to be meeting the best and brightest minds in politics.

We’re excited to be quoted in the most recent press release from Adobe celebrating 20 years of service from Pure West.

Our quote is as follows:
“I don’t know what I would do without Photoshop and the
flexibility it allows me to have in creating motion graphics for my projects. Congratulations on 20 years of impeccable service to us, the artists, who thrive using the software.”
~ Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza, chief executive officer, Pure West Films

We’re alongside a few other incredible companies we admire and are honored to be included with.

AgencyNet
“Congratulations on two decades of empowering creators to create. To this day, Photoshop is as relevant and essential to our success as any tool in our arsenal.”
~ Rich Lent, chief executive officer, AgencyNet

Big Spaceship
“At Big Spaceship, we’ve spent countless hours, weeks, months and years working inside of Photoshop; now almost a decade. What amazes me is that even the most seasoned pros are still learning, every day. It’s boundless. And that empowers us to innovate. Though I lived in one, I can no longer imagine a world without Photoshop. Its impact has literally changed the way we see the world.”
~ Michael Lebowitz, founder & chief executive officer, Big Spaceship

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We’ve been working on a facelift for the Belgrave Trust over the last couple months – last week, it went live!  Check out the site here:  BelgraveTrust.com.  Pure West has been working with the Belgrave Trust, a personal voluntary carbon offset service, for over a year now.  We provided both web design and marketing services – and these days all the hard work is paying off!  The Belgrave Trust was recently featured hy Inc. and Treehugger – and make sure to check out the CNBC spot they’re showing on the site.

Green is in, we all know this. So, while the wealthier folks may have a lot of green in their pockets, their luxuries might not be as eco-friendly as the rest of society would like. This is where Belgrave Trust enters, flashing it’s big, green smile. Belgrave Trust is an ingenious firm that provides a green image for the rich by offering carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality balances fossil fuel usage by turning funds into environmentally friendly possibilities. In a sense, what a Belgrave client gets is carbon compensation for the emissions of their luxury lifestyle. What you take out, Belgrave will put back in.

Pure West has provided Belgrave a content-rich, user-friendly site. The functionality of BelgraveTrust.com allows Belgrave’s clients to completely immerse themselves in carbon neutrality by offering users an array of profile options, each completely adjustable, to calculate their carbon emissions faster than any other service. This website is just another example of the dynamic functionality that Pure West provides, not to mention the aesthetically-pleasing interface surrounding each and every user’s experience.

Pure West is an awesome digital creative agency. Over the years we’ve collaborated with a number of great brands, including Vice Magazine/VBS TV, Second Life, Barneys New York, Shore Fire Media, and Big Spaceship. Most importantly you get a great commission, get to work on your own schedule (often from home), a bunch of great talented people to work with and exciting clients to work for. Please send a resume and cover letter to jobs@purewest.us (.pdf preferred)

Position: Director of Marketing

Location: Long Island City (Queens), NY
Hours: Full Time
Type: Employee
Department: Sales

Responsibilities:
The Director of Marketing works directly with the Partners to assist with sales and marketing of development, production and design services. This position includes overall sales strategizing – seeking new markets and monitoring existing relationships. This position is also responsible for management of consulting projects, both for communications strategy and site planning. The Director of Marketing works closely with the CEO to assist with capacity planning.

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At the very beginning of each year our company meets to discuss our goals past, present, and future. Where we’ve come to since last year, how we’ve succeeded, what we’ve learned from our missteps, and where we’re going this year.  This year the 3rd annual Pure West meeting was held either Jan 9th. It was hosted in our brand new office in Long Island City, Queens.

Three new members who joined the group Anthony, Laurie, and Trevor. It was fantastic to grow our core by that many new faces in one year. Each has been instrumental in helping shape Pure West since 2006 until today. Suffice to say that everyone at the company has contributed immensely to our success, and have made us a much stronger corporation.

This year the focus is on real world success, honing our offerings, and continuing to build a strong base for our company to stand on.

Labeled as ‘an emporium of style and gorgeous products’, Barney’s New York is a confident yet self-conscious luxury brand with a dash of humor. Their choices exemplify a keen eye for design, and are more commonly creating new trends than following others.

Barneys came to Pure West to create a commercial and web campaign for their 2009 holiday season. They were looking for a taxi cab spot that would call attention, and a supplementary online video gift guide that would attract views. We utilized the catalog’s original colors, textures, fonts, and overall feeling as a guide for their entire video campaign.

It was a lot of fun running around Barneys’ offices and store. The fact that Simon Doonan is hysterical and great at ad-libbing certainly helped.

This is the second of the two videos Pure West made for them. It was an incredible experience to work with Barneys and glean why they are a cut above the rest.

Labeled as ‘an emporium of style and gorgeous products’, Barney’s New York is a confident yet self-conscious luxury brand with a dash of humor. Their choices exemplify a keen eye for design, and are more commonly creating new trends than following others.

Barneys came to Pure West to create a commercial and web campaign for their 2009 holiday season. They were looking for a taxi cab spot that would call attention, and a supplementary online video gift guide that would attract views. We utilized the catalog’s original colors, textures, fonts, and overall feeling as a guide for their entire video campaign.

Skip Hop is a New York City company devoted to designing groundbreaking products for a new generation of parents. Skip Hop is a New York City company devoted to designing groundbreaking products for a new generation of parents. They came to Pure West to create a set of seven product demonstration videos.

Skip Hop strives to create products that are smarter, more innovative and safer. Products that appeal not only to one’s heart but to a modern sense of design. Iconic objects that beautify the living space, simplify parenting and make day-to-day living easier as a new mom or dad.

We decided to make the style of the videos crisp, clean, and have a completely white background that allowed for the products to be the center of attention. Our goal in making these pieces was to create a seamless transition of their company’s aesthetic to video.

In 2003, Skip Hop designed the world’s first diaper bag that converts into a stroller bag. Ever since, they have been creating new parenting products that are original and transformational.

Their team continues to bring design to life, introducing exciting, innovative essentials for new moms and dads all over the world. Our team made sure their message was never lost.

Barneys New York asked Pure West to create two holiday themed videos to show off some of their most luxurious items. This is the second of the two videos we made for them. It was an incredible experience to work with a legend like Simon Doonan, and glean what makes Barneys a cut above the rest.

Great news from Adobe came today in the form of a case study they did on ‘Second Skin’. Now on top of having an Adobe Max Award “Honorable Mention” Pure West is also part of their customer showcase.

The case study below:

Real-world success

Indie filmmakers unveil fascinating story of virtual worlds in documentary Second Skin, created using Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium software

Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza was born to tell stories. He began making short family films as a child, charting a course that led him to a degree in filmmaking from the New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. He ultimately co-founded Pure West, a digital creative agency, along with Writer and COO Victor Pineiro; Producer and CFO Peter Brauer; and Designer and Chief Strategy Officer Chris Baily.

Pure West’s latest stellar accomplishment is Second Skin, a feature-length documentary directed by Pineiro Escoriaza about computer gamers and the virtual worlds they inhabit. The film won rave reviews during the opening night slot at the famed South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

Read the whole story here.