Future of Design, Sat. Apr 22, 11:30 a.m. - NOTES
Robert Peters, moderating, icograda.org
Matthew Richmond, choppingblock.com
Geoff McFetridge, championsdontstop.com
Peter Moller, mtv.ca
RP: issues identified in the introductions:
design comes first, searching the fringe, working for the beast
polls audience for age, most under 40, half of those under 30
since you were born the population of the world has doubled
in the last 100 years we have 10 of the hottest years ever recorded
the lakes didn't freeze in the North of Canada enough this year for them to be used as winter roads, a life line for remote communities
we have global military instability
...
so in this environment, panelists do you have ideas about this?
GM: I've only recently become aware of these things, I was always really just focussed on my work, I wasn't making work that was political but that was positive and cerebral... and I believed that if you are pushing people to think, to have positive experience, then that is doing some good
but then I realized that is not enough, that I've started questioning what we are doing at a more fundamental level... I feel I'm behind one part of the pack but for a whole school of design, I'm ahead
MR: there aren't really any ethics in art, there are but they aren't the mainstream... we wonder about technology, when does the barrage of tv and advertising stop? i discovered that i like old photos because there are no logos, we dont' have an opportunity to ask a client whether they really need a product like a bag, but we can ask how to treat the user with more respect
PM: technology is becoming more and more accessible... the world is overbranded,,, which isn't such a bad thing, there's no uniform, the public can choose... the question is whether we really have choice or is that only an illusion?
in a way, we are all teachers, we have to be really responsible... many more people have the ability to be creative, to express themselves, but we have to be responsible at the same time
GM: your intent as a designer is totally transparent... in design we have a clear language and a pretty educated public... but when you see people covered in graphics, what you see is the intent, sports, go for it, kill everybody, and that's the bottom for me
RP: so you saying "Just don't do it."
GM: no, not at all, it's just that it is so predictable, every logo is like a leaf growing out of something, it's all about change and improving
RP: is everyone a designer now? we were trained in the secret arts, like using "wax" and "camera-ready artwork", but now anybody can download design applications and go to work in an afternoon... Napolean tried to stop the spread of the printing press because he knew literacy would lead to revolution... Gutenberg made everyone literate... Kodak made everyone a photographer... Xerox made everyone a publisher... what is MTV making us?
PM: the world is growing up with MTV, it's a colourful world, people say they have been influenced by it, inspired to go into animation or whatever, and that's a good thing... I feel like what we do is making the world a little funnier, cool, grotesque, whatever... if you have a creative brand, you are helping things change and that's a good thing
after television there will be so many more options/outlets.... technologies will grow together that give people more choice... perception changes
MR: i am a child of MTV, no attention span (laughter), things are changing faster and faster, when we started we couldn't decide our identity, so we took a walk and stopped at a magazine shop and saw a NASCAR magazine and liked the look, so the idea became let's do that until we get tired of it and then change up...
GM: people complains abut pay but they do the work anyway, and there's so much independent stuff and people find out about it, which is great... but with MTV there was this concern about how to get your stuff on it... but now, a younger generation don't even care or even don't actually want to be on MTV... the whole structure of the industry is changing... and you could parallel this with design; maybe industry is chasing us and we don't have to chase
RP: fast twitch muscles are being developed, you need stimulation?
MR: yep! you work for 10 minutes then get up, you grab stuff and mass it up and keep doing that until you like it... it's about the machine producing the design
RP: so is it about the machine taking over the process
MR: no, it's about searching for something that hasn't been done yet
RP: ok, so can we talk for a minute about time and speed... in N.A. native culture decisions were supposed to be considered for seven generations... our model of the world is very different... politics has changed
63000 transnational corporations hold the balance of power in the world
it's reported in quarterly returns and daily in stock reports... accountability has changed; Oppenheimer said technology makes us faster and more powerful but not smarter... are we driving beyond our high beams?
PM: technology helps us all to get information faster and digest it faster... there is no one linear track anymore, you can stick in the 80s, or the 70s, it's a potpourri, which gives us creative types a lot of freedom; we never had this at such an extreme; there is nothing new; so you try to be clever and to educate people
MR: everything you say is true for design too, somethings always work, always look good, we look back on it, change it up
GM: part of the design the client wants is always something that looks like something else, and I always want to get past that and ask a different question, directed at the substance of it, what is going on here, and especially how can we slow things down, make less happen...
lets' take it out of the corporate structure... I work alone, I don't have employees, I focus on one thing at a time... business comes to me because I don't think like them...
RP: value is moving upstream... ways to be useful that involve passion, intellect, more than corporations have... to be corporate dreamers, not to be so practical, to be more experimental... there's real value in that
you've all touched on the issue of moreand more stuff: it seems to me that's always been the case, it's because we are part of nature, it's a cycle... so do you have some positive notions:
GM: yeah, in skateboarding you can one kid in totally loose clothes and on the next page in skin tight pants... and these things can co-exist comfortably there
RP: what are your dreams? what will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now?
MR: well, it would be nice to be in the position of being consulted for your ideas, for corporations to listen to what you have to say... if you do good stuff for yourself, then they might want to know what think.... and they want you to be honest;
maybe because things are moving so fast, it becomes more about them wanting to find some sense in it
GM: nobody can capitalize on a "look" anymore, it's going to be this wierd void, people will talk about it, make documentaries about it, but it will be intangible...
PM: there is so much change; we are getting more and more, so much you can't possibly keep on top of it; but we are all part of that... big money makers maybe are starting to ask
RP: thank you, Marshall McLuhan predicted somethings we are seeing now... we filter the past through the present;
(it's ok if you can't concentrate as long as somebody is listening, laughter)
it will be unmarketable void that the kids will own
the future is creative, its a sweet spot for designers
designers make thoughts visible and there's a lot of strength in that
questions:
DIY culture is the fad, everyone is a designer, there's a lot of ownership, people are self-branding... what about it?
GM: like the graphic material for this conference, it's talking in grocery language. I could talk in skateboard logos... and that's what's happening
RM: about branding... because the Web has no boundaries and no corporate ownership, this is great... everybody has the same amount of room
PM: branding is no longer a logo, you don't need to have that for people to know you, what you do, your product
question:
I'm really interested in the tools; not that we should turn back but I love to draw with pen and paper; with digital tools you never have to work that hard
GM: my first tools were Director and AfterEffects; you learn the tools and in each case you ask what can we do with it
PM: for us, the technology is our slave to make things happen; my first animations were done on Photoshop... I learned a lot
at MTV, we had a camera that we smashed to get a different picture... the designer can't be the slave to the technology
MR: e-paper is not going to fail, people are looking forward to that, stopping cutting down trees, I love to be able to zoom digitally, I can't do that with a real drawing... eventually digital drawing will be, maybe not as good, but certainly acceptable
question: there is just as much alienation and messiness and things breaking down as ever... I don't buy that we are going faster and that that's better... I think it's a conceit: human beings value what's rare and that has not changed
RP: I think time is rare, stepping back and just being, instead of doing all the time
GM: I think what you do is how you live, you have to create things that you can live in
RP: leave you with one thought
Fridgof Capra - the stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones, somebody came up with something better
(61+) permanent link
Matthew Richmond, choppingblock.com
Geoff McFetridge, championsdontstop.com
Peter Moller, mtv.ca
RP: issues identified in the introductions:
design comes first, searching the fringe, working for the beast
polls audience for age, most under 40, half of those under 30
since you were born the population of the world has doubled
in the last 100 years we have 10 of the hottest years ever recorded
the lakes didn't freeze in the North of Canada enough this year for them to be used as winter roads, a life line for remote communities
we have global military instability
...
so in this environment, panelists do you have ideas about this?
GM: I've only recently become aware of these things, I was always really just focussed on my work, I wasn't making work that was political but that was positive and cerebral... and I believed that if you are pushing people to think, to have positive experience, then that is doing some good
but then I realized that is not enough, that I've started questioning what we are doing at a more fundamental level... I feel I'm behind one part of the pack but for a whole school of design, I'm ahead
MR: there aren't really any ethics in art, there are but they aren't the mainstream... we wonder about technology, when does the barrage of tv and advertising stop? i discovered that i like old photos because there are no logos, we dont' have an opportunity to ask a client whether they really need a product like a bag, but we can ask how to treat the user with more respect
PM: technology is becoming more and more accessible... the world is overbranded,,, which isn't such a bad thing, there's no uniform, the public can choose... the question is whether we really have choice or is that only an illusion?
in a way, we are all teachers, we have to be really responsible... many more people have the ability to be creative, to express themselves, but we have to be responsible at the same time
GM: your intent as a designer is totally transparent... in design we have a clear language and a pretty educated public... but when you see people covered in graphics, what you see is the intent, sports, go for it, kill everybody, and that's the bottom for me
RP: so you saying "Just don't do it."
GM: no, not at all, it's just that it is so predictable, every logo is like a leaf growing out of something, it's all about change and improving
RP: is everyone a designer now? we were trained in the secret arts, like using "wax" and "camera-ready artwork", but now anybody can download design applications and go to work in an afternoon... Napolean tried to stop the spread of the printing press because he knew literacy would lead to revolution... Gutenberg made everyone literate... Kodak made everyone a photographer... Xerox made everyone a publisher... what is MTV making us?
PM: the world is growing up with MTV, it's a colourful world, people say they have been influenced by it, inspired to go into animation or whatever, and that's a good thing... I feel like what we do is making the world a little funnier, cool, grotesque, whatever... if you have a creative brand, you are helping things change and that's a good thing
after television there will be so many more options/outlets.... technologies will grow together that give people more choice... perception changes
MR: i am a child of MTV, no attention span (laughter), things are changing faster and faster, when we started we couldn't decide our identity, so we took a walk and stopped at a magazine shop and saw a NASCAR magazine and liked the look, so the idea became let's do that until we get tired of it and then change up...
GM: people complains abut pay but they do the work anyway, and there's so much independent stuff and people find out about it, which is great... but with MTV there was this concern about how to get your stuff on it... but now, a younger generation don't even care or even don't actually want to be on MTV... the whole structure of the industry is changing... and you could parallel this with design; maybe industry is chasing us and we don't have to chase
RP: fast twitch muscles are being developed, you need stimulation?
MR: yep! you work for 10 minutes then get up, you grab stuff and mass it up and keep doing that until you like it... it's about the machine producing the design
RP: so is it about the machine taking over the process
MR: no, it's about searching for something that hasn't been done yet
RP: ok, so can we talk for a minute about time and speed... in N.A. native culture decisions were supposed to be considered for seven generations... our model of the world is very different... politics has changed
63000 transnational corporations hold the balance of power in the world
it's reported in quarterly returns and daily in stock reports... accountability has changed; Oppenheimer said technology makes us faster and more powerful but not smarter... are we driving beyond our high beams?
PM: technology helps us all to get information faster and digest it faster... there is no one linear track anymore, you can stick in the 80s, or the 70s, it's a potpourri, which gives us creative types a lot of freedom; we never had this at such an extreme; there is nothing new; so you try to be clever and to educate people
MR: everything you say is true for design too, somethings always work, always look good, we look back on it, change it up
GM: part of the design the client wants is always something that looks like something else, and I always want to get past that and ask a different question, directed at the substance of it, what is going on here, and especially how can we slow things down, make less happen...
lets' take it out of the corporate structure... I work alone, I don't have employees, I focus on one thing at a time... business comes to me because I don't think like them...
RP: value is moving upstream... ways to be useful that involve passion, intellect, more than corporations have... to be corporate dreamers, not to be so practical, to be more experimental... there's real value in that
you've all touched on the issue of moreand more stuff: it seems to me that's always been the case, it's because we are part of nature, it's a cycle... so do you have some positive notions:
GM: yeah, in skateboarding you can one kid in totally loose clothes and on the next page in skin tight pants... and these things can co-exist comfortably there
RP: what are your dreams? what will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now?
MR: well, it would be nice to be in the position of being consulted for your ideas, for corporations to listen to what you have to say... if you do good stuff for yourself, then they might want to know what think.... and they want you to be honest;
maybe because things are moving so fast, it becomes more about them wanting to find some sense in it
GM: nobody can capitalize on a "look" anymore, it's going to be this wierd void, people will talk about it, make documentaries about it, but it will be intangible...
PM: there is so much change; we are getting more and more, so much you can't possibly keep on top of it; but we are all part of that... big money makers maybe are starting to ask
RP: thank you, Marshall McLuhan predicted somethings we are seeing now... we filter the past through the present;
(it's ok if you can't concentrate as long as somebody is listening, laughter)
it will be unmarketable void that the kids will own
the future is creative, its a sweet spot for designers
designers make thoughts visible and there's a lot of strength in that
questions:
DIY culture is the fad, everyone is a designer, there's a lot of ownership, people are self-branding... what about it?
GM: like the graphic material for this conference, it's talking in grocery language. I could talk in skateboard logos... and that's what's happening
RM: about branding... because the Web has no boundaries and no corporate ownership, this is great... everybody has the same amount of room
PM: branding is no longer a logo, you don't need to have that for people to know you, what you do, your product
question:
I'm really interested in the tools; not that we should turn back but I love to draw with pen and paper; with digital tools you never have to work that hard
GM: my first tools were Director and AfterEffects; you learn the tools and in each case you ask what can we do with it
PM: for us, the technology is our slave to make things happen; my first animations were done on Photoshop... I learned a lot
at MTV, we had a camera that we smashed to get a different picture... the designer can't be the slave to the technology
MR: e-paper is not going to fail, people are looking forward to that, stopping cutting down trees, I love to be able to zoom digitally, I can't do that with a real drawing... eventually digital drawing will be, maybe not as good, but certainly acceptable
question: there is just as much alienation and messiness and things breaking down as ever... I don't buy that we are going faster and that that's better... I think it's a conceit: human beings value what's rare and that has not changed
RP: I think time is rare, stepping back and just being, instead of doing all the time
GM: I think what you do is how you live, you have to create things that you can live in
RP: leave you with one thought
Fridgof Capra - the stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones, somebody came up with something better
(61+) permanent link
Posted by howboy at 11:31 AM.
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