VP of Creative at frog design (NYC)
"Mission-driven Innovation"
- good design is good, celebrated
- i.e. Twitter is loved, valued because of its simplicity
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Airman's Odyssey
"People shouldn't really have to think about an object when they are using it. Not having to think about it makes the relationship between a person and an object run more smoothly... design dissolving in behaviour..." -Naoto Fukasawa
- frog design's Collective Action Toolkit
- booklet for people in developing nations to create their own change
- learn to solve problems, build new skills, gain knowledge WITHOUT being told how
- quote from participant "the ideas were in our head all along..."
- *challenge assumptions of HOW you work - embrace new mindset
- partners do not = clients (create good will!)
- seek problem spaces
- align your interests with the project/client
- be patient
- be explicit about your values, objectives - transparency
- strive to find the intersection of social value and business value
- never underestimate the power of your craft
2) Michael Gough
VP of Experience Design, Adobe
"If You Have a Brain, You're Creative"
- "we are ALL creative"
- liabilities of creative class:
- never comfortable with one answer
- never "done"
- often focus on "insignificant details"
- benefits of creative class
- ask awkward questions
- ability to empathize
- give form to ideas
- made connections
- *can visualize potential outcomes
- Gough on creative process:
- Deduction - process of reasoning from one or more general statements
- Induction - process of reasoning in which the premises seek evidence (inherently uncertain)
- *Abduction - creatives look for ways to MAKE it true
- Gough on analog vs. digital
- true creativity does not happen in the tools / on the computer
- "drawing makes imagination tangible"
- drawn idea / picture is literally worth a thousand words
3) Lara McCormick
School of Visual Arts (NYC), Cooper Type, author of Playing with Type (Rockport, 2013)
Hand-lettering workshop
My sketches from the hand-lettering exercise:
And a more refined version:
4) Cyrus Highsmith
Senior Designer at Font Bureau
"Similar, but Different"
- good reminder - final usage of type is out of type designer's control
- get the "idea" into every letter - tell a story with your typeface
- -the better your story, the better your typeface
- draw, draw, draw - figure out stuff by drawing
- -blind contours - draw the shape of SPACE
- drawing letters informs drawing everything else
- your work is like a river - always there, changing, flowing - similar, but different.
5) Peter Mendelsund
Associate Art Director of Alfred A. Knopf Books, Art Director of Pantheon Books, Art Director of Vertical Press
"Cover: The Art of the Jacket Designer"
- *Mendelsund was a classical pianist until age 30 (!)
- on book jacket design
- should evolve while reading
- should act as a pnemonic device, a souvenir of the journey
- advocates self-initiated projects - complete creative control
- how to subvert the approval process
- earn & demand respect
- stand up for yourself and your ideas
- don't be afraid to prod people a little
- Final thoughts:
- "it has to be beautiful (whatever that means to you)"
- things should look different than the rest - stand out
- *"Design less."
- do your best work from comp #1
- Triage your work and manage your time accordingly
- YOU CAN SAY NO!
6) Morag Myerscough
Studio Myerscough (UK)
- do you what you believe in - do what you really like
- allow personality into your work (you don't have to keep reinventing yourself)
- embrace where you came from - use it!
- don't be afraid of colour!
- do work that makes people feel better
- SHOW the possibilities
- Love what you do.
7) Karin Fong
Co-founder, Imaginary Forces
"Heroes: Super, Design, Real and Imaginary"
- referred to Joan Ganz Cooney, co-creator of Sesame Street - "edu-tainment"
- education + entertainment
- teach through stories
- the art of film titles
- connect disparate ideas in a memorable way
- create a bridge from the everyday to the story
- don't get too committed to an idea
- get to the core and work outwards
- *Make the new thing - do what hasn't been done before.
Day 1 here.
Thanks again to Janine at UPPERCASE for this amazing opportunity. You can also check out the blog post over on the UPPERCASE blog.
All photos property of Christopher Rouleau - please request permission to repost. Thanks!
