JoshSpear.com emerged in 2004 from the back of a Journalism 1001 class. Josh was disappointed with the way major academics ignored the blog-phenomena as a credible form of media. This blog began as a place to catalog those things he saw from a wide range of sectors both online as he surfed the web and offline as he traveled around the globe; he began writing daily about things he liked, reviewing products, ideas, people or places that inspired him. Today, the blog is a daily source of inspiration for marketers, brand managers, advertising executives, and a wide range of everyday people from around the world who love to stay ahead of the curve.
Josh Spear, Publisher, Editor In Chief
As one of the youngest marketing strategists in the world, Josh is regularly sought out for his fresh perspective and no-holds-barred style of consulting on everything from design and gadgets to authenticity and word-of-mouth. His recent focus has been the power of the blogosphere, technology, and the impact this new media is having on the world. In addition to JoshSpear.com, his internationally recognized trend-spotting blog, he is a Founding Partner of Undercurrent, a digital think-tank focused on exploring new ways to reach young people without interrupting them. Undercurrent currently has offices in New York City, London, and Boulder. Josh has appeared in Time Magazine, the New York Times, Flair Italy, Chicago Tribune, Inc and many other major media outlets. A passionate and well received speaker, Josh has presented for such diverse clients as McDonald's, Leo Burnett, Columbia College, NBC, Pepsi, Virgin, The American Advertising Federation, The Google Zeitgeist conference, The International Advertising Bureau conference, and as an active participant at the 2008 and 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos. He is also a member of the Global Agenda Council at The World Economic Forum, and was recently nominated a Young Global Leader.
If you’re interested to have Josh Spear speak to your agency or event, or if you’d like to hear more about his speaking topics and what people have said about his presentaitons, please contact us. You can also drop by the press page to learn more.
Past Contributors:
Jonathan Stern, Contributor
Jonathan is a native Bostonian, non-native Floridian, lad mag survivor, fount of pop culture trivia, and unlikely trend blogger. For the past seven years he's been privileged to occupy various cubicles as a writer and editor for the Boston Phoenix, Stuff, Time Inc., Conde Nast and a nice round satin bed at Penthouse. As the new Editorial Director of JoshSpear.com Jonathan thinks that he can settle down and become a one blog kinda guy. He current lives in Cobble Hill with his wife and a dog that looks like a tiny fox.
Carmel Hagen, Contributor
Carmel Hagen began her writing career in Boulder, Colorado, as Josh Spear’s very own intern. When it became apparent that her capabilities exceeded chai runs and hotel bookings, Josh extended her the invitation to write, giving her the first assignment of a short post on a line of women’s underwear. Carmel found the assignment thrilling, and soon was writing several posts a day, normally from the back of University of Colorado classrooms, where she was in pursuit of an advertising degree.
Today, Carmel writes features for a variety of urban culture focused blogs and online magazines, and is lucky enough to have interviewed many of today’s most significant graphic designers, urban artists, and webbies. Her interests range from bad weather, coffee shops and pretty fonts, to Jesus beards and training for long runs in pretty places. If your name happens to be Steve Jobs, please contact her – she wants to chat.
Heather Ann Snodgrass, Contributor
In 2005, Heather Ann Snodgrass bid adieu to her brief stint in San Diego and waved hello to Brooklyn, NY. After her sharp wit and well-composed sentences landed her a few stints at major gossip and media blogs, the Queensland, Australia native went forth to the more serious side of writing: JoshSpear.com.
Today, Heather holds the reins on several of the Internet’s well-adored websites, and spends the rest of the time holding on to the leash of her newly rescued pit bull, Piper. When she can manage to free up one of her hands, Heather enjoys Brooklyn’s lovely male specimens, cheese, and gadgetry. Heather can also be found at likeomg.org
Evan Kessler, Contributor
Evan Kessler is a journalism legend in the making. After spending his formidable years in the rustic mountain majesty of Rockland County, New York, Evan graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He then embarked on a career in television production where he worked on such noted programs as VH1’s Top 20 Video Countdown and their smash hit series’ I Love the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, as well as various other productions for WE, The History Channel, and Soapnet.
Despite his production credentials, this current Brooklyn resident longs to succeed in the realm of the written word, and with various blogjects (that’s “blogging projects”) under his belt he has taken the Internets by storm. The most successful of his endeavors, If I Blog It They Will Come, began with the sole purpose of getting Kevin Costner to send photographic evidence that he had visited a blog focused on himself, but has since become so much more.
The Evan Kessler family of blogs is forever growing, and one day Mr. Kessler hopes to transform his love of writing into an actual thing available at a bookstore. That way he’ll eventually be able to feed his 5 loving Pomeranians Aiffer, Biffer, Ciffer, Differ, and Eiffer. They’re very hungry.
Jeremy Elder, Contributor
Making it after all in the big city of Toronto, Canada, Jeremy Elder started his “adult” life as a graduate of the Music Theatre Performance program at Sheridan College. After tap-dancing in sequins and acting in commercials for 6 years, he realized that there were more people making the ads than acting in them, and that led him to become an advertising copywriter. Blogging for Josh Spear allows him to put his never-ending quest for inspiration and beautiful things to good use.
Jeremy’s interests include goldfish, wineglasses, mint, freshly mown grass, crayons, sunsets in other places, airplane food, Benadryl, Tori Amos, Helvetica, cupcakes, vodka, CMYK, noodles, high thread counts, Adidas Adicolor, cereal, Douglas Coupland, Super Mario 3, grey wool, fighting to have matching cover art for every single track in his iTunes, plants, and Lucite.
In addition to writing here, Jeremy tries to lure people to check out his portfolio at his own advertising and culture blog shape + colour
Rob Schuham, Contributor
Robert Schuham is a strategist and creative writer whose career in marketing has taken him around the world. Rob started the agency AMG 15 years ago to “do what has never been done before” for brands in the interactive + experiential space including adidas, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co, Pepsi, Izze, Toyota, Ford, NBA, BRP, American Express, TNT, ESPN and many others. Rob also happens to be Josh Spear’s better half in co-founding Undercurrent, a digital think-tank focused on exploring new ways to reach ‘born digitals’ and ‘re-born digitals’ alike without interrupting them. Rob was also a Marketing Director at Schwinn Cycling & Fitness for several years, but really grew up in advertising at (TBWA)/Chiat/Day in San Francisco and Ayer Chicago and New York. He currently lives between Boulder, New York and the various hotels he writes on for Joshspear.com.
He is currently on his sixth iPhone, four of which were replaced under warranty.
Bill Chenevert, Contributor
Bill Chenevert grew up in the town of Red Hook, NY – a place not renowned for its size, but appreciated for its respectable proximity to the big city. After graduating from Hamilton College, he moved on to the University of Oregon in pursuit of a masters in Magazine Journalism. Previous experience in writing, editing, and media boards soon landed the aspiring writer a music internship at the Willamette Week, where he opened mail, transcribed interviews, and attended all the free shows he could handle.
After leaving Oregon, Bill put in time at the Poughkeepsie Journal. Not long after, he did the one thing boys with a love of music and fixed gear bicycles do best: Move to Brooklyn. These days, Bill fills his time listening to tunes (particularly those with female vocalists), getting tattoos, trying to fit into his small apartment, and working to achieve his penultimate goal in life – getting to Paris.
Jamie Starr, Contributor
Jamie Starr was raised in the skiing Mecca of Crested Butte, a laid-back town in the middle of the Colorado Rockies. Skiing has always been at the center of Jamie’s life—however, in 1998, he stopped skiing competitively and moved to Boulder, CO, to get economics and business degrees. Armed with those degrees, he moved to San Diego, CA in 2002 to trade the mountains for the beach, and find a job where he could utilize his degrees; he took a job with one of the premiere event planning firms in the U.S.—that position exposed him to a plethora of musicians, actors, designers, celebs, and professional athletes. His experience in Southern California was not exactly what he had expected, but he gained great insight into the worlds of music, popular culture, and the like. In 2003 he accepted an invitation to attend the University Of Colorado School Of Law and returned to Boulder. During his three years in law school, he focused on natural resources legal issues in the American West, worked as an editor on an international environmental law journal, and became deeply interested in music, writing, fashion, and food (lots of study time equals lots of iPod time!). Jamie wants to explore his interests more at home and abroad—first on his list are maiden voyages to London (to visit the Naked Chef) and South Africa (to visit his mom). A law degree arms Jamie with a special skill-set and a unique perspective into how the world works, as does his eye for new trends and his passion for music and fashion.
David Vo, Contributor
David Vo was born and raised in Monterey Park, CA, a city renowned for its incredible Chinese food, which certainly has left him spoiled and planted the seed for his culinary interests. In 1999 he moved 112 miles north to attend the University of California, Santa Barbara. Interning at a local technology startup fed his hunger for fast paced environments and innovation. His addictive personality is never satisfied until he has exhausted all information about a particular “flavor of the week” hobby. The ones that have stuck around include the following varied interests: hiking, geocaching, watches, audio, biking, and sneakers. Seven years later, he is fortunate to still be living in this American Riviera. When he isn’t writing about his interesting finds for our site, he is updating his personal blog.
Emily Goligoski, Contributor
Emily Goligoski got an early start in trends reporting while writing a monthly newsletter, the Gollie’s Follies, in grade school in the cultural hotbed of Toledo, Ohio. After publishing a plethora of eyewitness reports from family vacations and quizzes about pet health, she covered theater and arts for the student-run publication NYou during journalism school at Northwestern University. She worked as a health reporter for the daily newspaper Cape Times in South Africa before producing sustainable online and offline communication for a San Francisco advertising agency. She now works as a digital strategist helping brands grow their communities online and helping herself afford more pairs of aviators than any one person actually needs. She volunteers for the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival when she’s not attempting to make more ironic titles out of her last name on the SF arts and culture blog Goliblogski.
Abdullah Saeed, Contributor
Abdullah is a slim young fellow with a knack for words. He began his writing career as a reviewer for Foundation Magazine. Before long, he was writing features for the music pub and compiling and editing the entire review section. Following this, he began covering music, design, fashion, and news for various magazines and websites. In addition to his writing he is a producer, MC and DJ under the moniker Blame the Kid, performing in several capacities all over the Northeast. Abdullah resides in Philadelphia and is an avid collector of music.
Jeremy Brautman, Contributor
Jeremy first began writing about toys for a Japanese toy portal in 1999. That ignited a passion for collecting that had been dormant since the days of Smurfs. A desk job, a large computer screen and a T1 line seemingly straight to eBay were the crucial ingredients to discovering his now-favorite artists through toys.. Coming face to face with a KAWS Chum at the Beautiful Losers show in San Francisco in 2004 was the point at which there was no turning back. From 2008-2009, Jeremy was Editor-in-Chief of ToyCyte. He now postulates and pontificates on toys and trends for a variety of blogs while listening to music of the early 80s from his home in the Bay Area. You can find his recent writing aggregated here.
Matt Gierhart, Contributor
Matt is a Texan. More specifically he is from small town Texas town called Levelland. He grew up riding a horse every where he went, having shootouts with bank robbers and spitting tobacco. Then he found out about frequent flyer programs and decided to take up traveling. Now he's collected enough passport stamps that he goes to a special room that scans his eyeballs to prove his identity when at immigration control. Very James Bond. He also has an history of working with artists, from curating to publishing a book in the Tate Modern. He now has a company called The New Celebrity that works with artists and small businesses to connect with audiences over the Internet and other special projects. He lives in London (mostly) but keeps the number of objects he owns to a maximum of what can fit inside two large suitcases.
Past Contributors
Kyle DuPont
Kyle grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, a Mecca for hip-hop, soul food and cold drinks. While cherishing the slow life of his upbringing, Kyle also embraces the rapid life of the modern world. Upon graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology, he worked for the Japanese government in Japan and then the United States, but his love for Tokyo led him back in 2006. Eternally dissatisfied with the status quo, he is presently starting out on a new trajectory at graduate school at Waseda University in Tokyo until at least late 2008. While in Japan he will indulge his passion for all things beautiful, bewitching and breathtaking in order to provide this website with a smattering of stock from the land of the rising sun. So keep reading on to find out all about the latest from Tokyo’s 23-ku and beyond.
Ian Silverstein
Born and bred in the UK, Ian now travels the globe in pursuit of great things. He is the founder of UK based International Design consultancy, Creative Action Design. Ian has worked in the creative industry for over 10 years and has experience in the design community, the commercial sector and the greater world of the consumer. Ian prides himself on knowing about the latest technology, being constantly challenged by change, and interested by things around him.Following his instincts for doing good business with good people, Ian's maxim for life: ‘we are here for a good time, not a long time’. Keep your eyes peeled for great contributions from Ian in London and beyond.
Scott Kobayashi
Scott Kobayashi, of Kobayashi 5 was born and raised in Cupertino, California not far from Apple Computer headquarters. Scott grew up in the middle of the technological revolution that continues to shape our lives today. After high school, he attended UC Berkeley. It was during his time there and on frequent trips across the bay to San Francisco that he became fascinated with the urban scene and modern aesthetic that is reflected in this blog. After graduating in 2003 with a degree in Sociology, Scott moved to San Diego for a short while before returning to the Bay Area. Now 24, he currently resides in San Francisco with his wonderful girlfriend and works as an independent consultant in the Biotech industry.
Andrea Enright
Andrea Enright, entrepreneur and writer from Denver, CO, is a Peace Corps volunteer living with her husband in Sofia, Bulgaria. She works with Habitat for Humanity and Traditzia, a foundation that helps socially disadvantaged artisans to help themselves through art therapy and direct market access. There, she provides marketing, volunteer management, organizational development (lets try staff meetings!) and coordinates private-public partnership. She also travels plenty and writes for the local English newspaper, a Bulgarian travel magazine, her own blog and to aid foundations for grants. While she’s not living in a hut, her Peace Corps experience has its own challenges, like sifting through the thick and grim post-communist dust of a repressed nation. After this goodwill gig, she'll be traveling around the world for six months and landing a stellar job in development. Look for her pieces on hostels, East-meets-West destinations and evolving traveler technology.
Aron Branam
Aron is originally from Houston, TX but has managed to travel around the world for most of his life which, conveniently enough, is his favorite thing to do. He's proud to say that he has travelled to every continent except Antartica, but he’ll surely explore that one soon. He lived in Sydney in ‘02, and spent the summer traveling through Japan, China, Thailand, and much of Asia. Right now, Aron is employed as an Aersospace Engineer– whatever that means (space ships anyone?) He's a savvy 20-something-year-old and plans on pursuing media consulting and marketing strategy. We’re rooting for him to join our team full time and hand in that engineer cap soon! Keep your eye out for his posts on pre-fab, green technology, fashion, travel and the art and music scene of Austin, aka the ‘live music capital of the world.'
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