First of all, thank you for your patience. For six years, we held very loyally (and to many: stubbornly) to our signature Yellow-and-Black mega-metropolis interface that only just seems to get busier by the years.

Over the years, we have accumulated enough hate mails from the faint-hearted, generally blaming us for the tremendous overload of daily buzz going on within the network. However, through these same years, we have also made many very good friends, and in the pursuit of our belief, amassed a pool of loyal followers and partners who too believe in what we do.

It's important to know though that TAXI was started by creatives, for creatives. For a very simple reason -- we wanted to build a company that allows us to do what we love to, while making our lives in the process. So, if I can think of an 'official' explanation why we stayed so loyal to the Yellow-TAXI-madness, here goes -- 'TAXI was started because of a passion, not a purpose.'

So six years up, and tens of thousands of professional members later, we realized The Purpose is finally significant enough to match The Passion. And so, THE REDESIGN.

Inspired by the increasing volume of veteran designers, photographers, illustrators who signed up to our network over the past few months, the redesign began with the idea to combine the busy, contemporary, big-city urban vibe with the classic, old-school charm of traditional print media.

The design process began with an extensive research into the design philosophies of newspapers, magazines, galleries, and even product packaging, and then building and integrating these print elements with sophisticated, and cutting-edge technologies.

And if you're frustrated with the fact that almost Web 2.0 (which includes the tons of design portals) website out there look the same, trust us, we too. Also, not many of the old kids who we love to see hang out on our network, like the 'Web 2.0' look very much either. :)

Thus, the new edition of TAXI hope to provides our creative readership and membership a unique visual experience they can associate with creatively.

First, on the name -- yes, and no. We started as TAXI Design Network, a design-focused network. But over time, TAXI Design Network became the online home to the portfolios of many creative practitioners beyond the fields of design -- photographers, illustrators, artists, stylists, advertising creatives, artist reps, you name it. So to better cover the scope of our ever-growing network, the change to the new name "TAXI: The Global Creative Network" was almost inevitable.

The new logo did not happen overnight either. Over the years, even though we stayed true to our website grid, loyal followers of TAXI would have observed the progressive evolution of the TAXI branding. So this new logo, with the launch of the new website, came naturally to us. The new logo, the four giant characters T A X I, works in line with our drive to connect with creative practitioners around the world in a more easily-recognized, straightforward presentation, similar to how the word 'TAXI' works universally.

The website targets to serve our professional membership, our global network of established professionals, including photographers, illustrators, advertising art directors, designers and artists, a more efficient platform to promote their works, and a more user-friendly communication channel for clients and buyers to navigate and contact these professionals.

The new website also aims to provide our members with an efficient platform great enough to use as their primary website, with significant built-in convenience. For instance, by simply updating their portfolio works, they can immediately export their resume/portfolio into PDF, notify their base of contacts, as well as have the updated information translated into foreign languages Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. We even have your personal offline update assistant who'd help you update your portfolio based on your preferred sources for you! These features allow the members to market their works further, and with much more ease than ever before.

Before I end, I'd like to use this opportunity to thank my wonderful team members for putting this all together. You guys are simply wonderful. I hope you all enjoy the in-office 'bonding' sessions over lunch.

Also, to all the previous editors of TAXI who have helped craft the direction of TAXI over the years, friends, advertisers, our world-class partners, you have been great support.

Last, but definitely not least, thanks to our never-say-die programming crew who condensed the original 6-month production timeline to less than 30 days (We know the crazy schedule you guys are going through!), we look forward to building more ground-breaking projects with you.

So now, moving forward, we hope you'd enjoy the network now even more now as we work hard to build yet another important chapter for the multi-disciplinary creative industry.

Thank you.