I've just attended Reasons.to. An "Award winning, international 3 day conference with a festival vibe" mostly single track conference set in the wonderful city of Brighton.
Although I'm still processing the huge amount of info, I'm already feeling like it's done me, and my near future exploits, the world of good. I've acquired a stack of thinking upgrades from some A-List Thought Leaders and made a bunch of new friends. Phew, I nearly used the word 'associates' then. That was close.
They identify themselves as Designers. As coders. Architects. As digital artists. Hardware hackers. Technologists. Photographers. Front, back and full stack developers. Founders, CEO's. MD's Technologists. Scientists. Activists.
They work for Web, Social, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Science and Research companies. The LA thing. The SF thing. The 5 miles down the road thing. Charities. PR, Design, Microsoft, Twitter, Atomic. Fares Williams. Nasa. The Super Bowl. Pepsi. BBC.
They use Pixels and vectors. Ink. Paint. Baby talc. Numbers. Light. Photography. Time. An incredibly diverse list of code, frameworks, environments and disciplines. They use Video. Wood + lasers combo. Plasticine. Ink. API's. Hot Glue. Service Worker. Virtual. AI. Processing. Squirrels.
Trust me - that's That's the short version.
They are creative.
They talked about their methods of working - the technical, the spiritual, the emotional.
Whilst the stories everyone told was different, A LOT of the themes and patterns were trending. Interestingly one, was conflicting.
To paraphrase;
A: Plan.
B: Don't plan.
Another theme was - remember beauty. Stephan Segmeister's Monday evening lecture was on how beauty in design seems to be out of vogue at that moment and how that's totally stupid. There's a thought around how it's a pointless luxury. Wake up call moment. Over the last few years, I've shunned beauty. Measuring the success of design on qualities such as it's functionality. Asking questions such as - is it friction free. intuitive. Fast. Removing cognitive load is a big thing I've been proudly crafting. But - perhaps I can still do that, but make someone's life more delightful then I should. Another fantastic speaker - Genevieve Gauckler said "Creativity is about making life easier, or more comfortable. Sometimes." So, she put the slant on the stuff I do day in, day out. I / we should remember the other stuff. Beauty. Stephan told us that beauty, can also be a function. Boom.
This really challenged me. My current work as an experience architect is in some ways the opposite end of the spectrum to what you'd describe as aesthetically pleasing or artistic. It is creative, but. I use science, theory and observation as a functional process. I talk to people to find out their wants and need. I think they might want and need beauty.
The single most common gem of wisdom that I heard was. KEEP MAKING STUFF. It's a privilege peek inside the minds of some of these great thinkers and makers. Make stuff that you want to make not just the stuff your contract / job / boss / deadline tells you to. I think the secret is - if you've got a gift, it's on you to use it. The other observation was around veracity. All of the speakers without shadow of a doubt has a drive and some kind of creative hunger to push the envelope. Former president of AD&D, Laura Jordan-Bambach. (Who's company motto is 'Question Bravely, Answer Boldly') Said she only hires people who have a creative pursuit outside of work. It's a good rule of thumb.
They inspired me.
They made me laugh.
They brought a tear to my eye particularly hearing about 96elephants.co and watching Seb Lester.
I've got a long list of connections I want to make, things I want to try and make. They affirmed and polished stuff I knew. They taught me stuff I didn't. They armed me with factual backup, gave me a new reasons (dot) to.
In the conference booklet, John the organiser states that his vision for the conference has always been to broaden the mind. Box ticket.
Thank you to everyone involved in the making of reasons.to
I can't wait for reasons.three
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