CreativeMornings/Vancouver

Profile and Q&A: Jeff Hamada

Jeff Hamada is a Japanese Canadian artist living and working in Vancouver. In 2008 he created Booooooom.com which has become one of the largest art blogs on the Internet. He has created things for Native Shoes, Converse, Oakley, Endeavor Snowboards, Electronic Arts, and Livestock.

CMV: How do you define creativity and apply it in your career?

JH: Creativity is not really answering someone’s question the way they expect you to.

CMV: Where do you find your best creative inspiration?

JH: Watching anything Jim Henson created, or meeting someone I don’t know for coffee or lunch (I try to do this at least once a week).

CMV: What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

JH: Later in life you will not find any use whatsoever for Chemistry 11.

CMV: Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings/Vancouver?

JH: It would be pretty incredible to hear a dog speak at Creative Mornings, or anywhere really. Imagine it - a talking dog! If in the future this is possible, I would choose Puff Daddy (that sheep dog from the PNE Superdogs show).

CMV: What is the best spontaneous decision you’ve made?

JH: After having just gone to bed, I convinced myself to get back out of bed to go downstairs and register the URL ‘Booooooom.com’ for no apparent reason.

CMV: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

JH: Last February in Hawaii, I jumped off a 60 ft cliff into the ocean on a day with pretty big waves. I am afraid of heights and I can’t swim very well. After I climbed out of the water onto some jagged rocks (of course) my friend, who had jumped just before me, was nice enough to show me several crosses for people who had died there. The whole thing was kind of crazy but also fairly logical because as I stood at top my fear of heights and my fear of drowning were both eclipsed by the fear I would never know what it felt like to jump. I am way more afraid of something like “life-long regret”.