On a Wednesday evening at 111 Princess Avenue, you’ll hear the hallways of the 3rd floor chattering with laughter as the Railyard Internship Cohort revels at the sight of Intern Edwy throwing his pool stick around an amenity room with a certain lack of finesse. Love you Edwy.
We made a friend this summer. His name is “Bo Wong” – Ball King, more formally known as Dennis. The name suits him; Dennis is a king.
Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to get to attend the first Fuel Vancouver. For those that are unfamiliar, Fuel provides an avenue to generate public dialogue around social, technological, and environmental shifts that are happening around us. There was a ton to absorb throughout the day: the keynote speakers spoke about some great ideas, a number of panelists provided snippets of anecdotal insight, and future forecasts were a glimpse into what our world was headed towards.
While I’d love to give a full account on what the day looked like, I’ll keep it brief and summarize and reflect on some of the points I thought were interesting.
This week Taylor and I attended the Seattle Interactive Conference. It was three days long and full of a diverse number of talks focused around design, digital, and development outlooks on the theme of transparency. Multiple points of views were shared, but there were some common trends that were apparent. Those that resonated the most with me discussed creative value and the ease of transferability across creative mediums. Here is what I gathered:
Creative value comes from what makes you different from your peers.
A person’s background and experiences whether related to design or not contribute to their creative value, their own unique perspective to a problem. Of course, no matter how enthralling a journey may be, collaboration is key. Without interacting with other creatives, one would only be able to produce fragments and replications of what they have already seen. This ties into the idea that the formula for success cannot be repeated. When designing from solely what you already know or have already seen, you won’t be able to create a unique result. Forcing yourself to interact with the unfamiliar, making yourself uncomfortable, embracing disagreement, and a thirst for learning are requirements for fresh, intriguing work.
Values that we learn from creative problem solving and storytelling are transferable.
In Keith Frankel’s talk he spoke to his background in philosophy and how the foundation behind it’s information structure guided him through his journey in various creative fields. He mentioned that the basic unit of philosophy is argument and that all arguments are made up of premises and conclusions. He believes that this same notion is also applicable to design, film, etc. and when utilized appropriately results in fluid narratives. I like the thought that designers are able to change hats and not constrain themselves to one medium of speciality. It’s important to explore and expand your knowledge base, while still recognizing the limits to your skill sets and thus when to seek help.
All in all it was a pretty interesting conference. We both enjoyed our time there and left with new perspectives on creative process and what it means to be transparent. A parting thought from HUSH’s David Schwarz - There is always room for a poetic experience.
