SXSW 2010 Creative Inspiration

SXSW 2010 Creative Inspiration Greg Arvanitakis | Critical Mass April 9, 2010

Agenda
Austin is pretty cool
Creative inspiration is EVERYWHERE at SXSW
3 best creative presentations I saw
Link goodness
Questions
Note: Some of this content including images comes directly from the presenters. See the links section for all referenced work.

Austin is pretty cool

Creative Inspiration is EVERYWHERE at SXSW

From Friday to Tuesday we were able to hit sessions from 9:30 AM to 6 PM each day. Particularly cool was the fact that they had crossover sessions with the Film panels as well. Therefore, I was able to see presentations from:
Interactive Designers/Art Directors/Creative Directors
Feature Film and Documentary Film Directors (Robert Rodriguez, Philip Bloom)
Social Media and Entrepreneurial Experts (Gary Vaynerchuk)
People doing awesome stuff with Type Kit and CSS3 (SXSW Beercamp)
Usability Experts (Cennydd Bowles)
Problem Solvers (Dan Roam)
People who are creating the “Next Big Thing”
And porn star Nina Hartley. I shit you not.

In addition, the convention center is packed with people doing creative stuff. Examples…
The Art Department – a career driven art school by industry artists that was having live sketching and life drawing in the Screen Burn Arcade
ConceptArt.org art gallery – celebrating the best concept artists and their work
Lego, lego, lego
Hip hop artist SaulPaul, who would do “rap ups” live after each keynote speech
Gallery of movie posters to all the SXSW films
Trade show with everyone from Google to Veer to the Las Vegas Film Commission
SXSW Web Awards – I sent you the links already. Check ‘em all out.

Good times! But, what did I learn?

Make your ideas vivid .

Make your ideas vivid
This was a session called “Why Words Don’t Work” by Dan Roam. He is a problem solver who gets people to bridge the gap between their left and right brain to get the most out of their thinking and ideas.
Example: Get someone to the Sears Tower from in
front of our office building:
Narrative
Checklist
Map
Landmark
Verbose to wholly visual – what if all 4 are combined?

If an idea is vivid enough, there is no debate – just intelligent discussion.
You have not explored an idea until you have talked about it and looked at it
People are not going to believe you know what you are talking about unless you can talk about the idea and visualize the idea
Business Week voted his presentation on Health Care Reform as “The Best Presentation of 2009” – check it out here: www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all

So, how do you make an idea vivid?
A vivid idea has shape – people identify stuff by shape (maps, graphs, paintings, XYZ, etc)
Who, What, When, Where, Why
Add How and How Much to this

Do something awesome RIGHT NOW .

Do something awesome right NOW
I went to a film session by a British documentary filmmaker named Philip Bloom. Here is a piece he showed us to open his session.
Monarchs “Miles Away”

Pretty nice, until you know the following:
He shoots all his stuff on HDSLR cameras
He shot this on a Canon 5DmkII with a single 50mm lens
He shot this in 1 hour and 40 minutes over 2 days before his presentation
There was no crew – just him and the singer
He used a $90 mic hooked into the camera
Edited in Final Cut Pro
Now, it’s pretty F#ckin’ Awesome and possible for ANYONE.

Most of the creative panels were people talking about ideas - Philip’s panel was pretty much him showing work and answering questions about his techniques. You can go to Best Buy, pick up a Canon Rebel T2i, and film a movie this weekend if you really want to.
This panel was really inspiring because it really was an eye opener to “you can create cool things like this too” – all you really need is the motivation.

Be reflective to
be beautiful .

Be reflective to be BEAUTIFUL
This was a session called “Beauty in Web Design” by British User Experience Designer Cennydd Bowles.
Beauty comes in 3 ways:
Universal – ideal, symmetric, Rule of 3
Socio-cultural – Renaissance to Runway
Subjective – wholly personal; your tastes
Subjective overrules Socio-cultural.

Be reflective to be BEAUTIFUL Universal Socio-Cultural Subjective

3 Modes of Design:
Visceral – aimed at your gut. Feel, not think. Attraction over usability
Behavioral – about use. Is it easy, sustain flow? Cads vs. Dads theory
Reflective – how does it improve your life? What does it say about you?
Reflective is highly subjective. If you really like it, it will change how you think.

How to make Beautiful sites: think on an emotional level. What makes people think/tick. How do you make their lives better?
Get emotional – content is HUGE here
Think BIGGER – user and business + whole ecosystem of design
Lead – Da Vinci and Michelangelo worked alone. Have vision. Auteur theory.
Think long term – sustain it. Provide surprises, make them come back.
Broaden horizons – beautiful stuff is everywhere. Get offline.
Be brave – lots of talk on technique, not as much on design.

Reflective design should be used where appropriate
Check your ego at the door – hero design is narcissism
Serve clients
Solve the problem

Link goodness

Link goodness
Dan Roam – www.thebackofthenapkin.com , www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all
Philip Bloom – vimeo.com/philipbloom , philipbloom.co.uk
Cennydd Bowles – www.cennydd.co.uk/2010/beauty-in-web-design-part-1
SXSW Beer Camp – sxsw.beercamp.com
Type Kit – http://typekit.com
SXSW Web Awards Nominees – sxsw.com/interactive/webawards/finalists
SXSW Web Awards Winners – sxsw.com/interactive/webawards/winners
SXSW Video+Podcasts - sxsw.com/interactive/news/videos_and_podcasts
Pictory - www.pictorymag.com
Samantha Warren - badassideas.com
ConceptArt.org - conceptart.org
Gary Vaynerchuk - garyvaynerchuk.com/ , tv.winelibrary.com/
SaulPaul - reroutemagazine.com/online/
Stubbs - www.stubbsaustin.com/

Thank You.

Questions?

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SXSW 2010 Creative Inspiration

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SXSW 2010 Creative Inspiration — Presentation Transcript