Thought The medium is the message. Iran's uprise through Twitter
On Wednesday, the AIGA Seattle co-sponsored a screening of Gary Hustwit’s (Helvetica) new film Objectified. The turnout was huge. Nearly the entire Cinerama theater in downtown Seattle was packed with design nerds of every flavor. The film itself was quite good, though some of the criticisms on the content originality are valid. I felt as if I’d heard a number of the stories recounted before (i.e., IDEO and their toothbrush, OXO and the potato peeler, etc). The film’s true champion was less the content and moreso about revealing the bizarre social manners of some of the world’s most well known designers - I’m talking about Dieter Rams and the like.
Opinion of the film aside, what really got to me was the piss-poor quality of the Q&A following the screening. People were asking questions like “How did you get Jonathon Ive to do an interview with you?” Inquired with all the unwarranted nerd glamor one might expect the ID crowd to project on Ive. Yes, the man has done beautiful work, but he’s not curing cancer. Another gem of a question asked to Gary was “Why did you neglect Italian design in your film?” Which, by the nature of large audience Q&A is a really bad question, but even better was Gary’s stumbling response to why he couldn’t be all inclusive with his 90 minute documentary. The proper answer might have been “Fuck off. Does anyone have a real question for me?”
Looking forward to his next, currently unannounced, documentary. I’m hoping for a mockumentary. Something about designers saving the world.
I’m proud to announce that I’ll be joining the Seattle AIGA board of directors for the upcoming term as the Experience Design Community Director. Over the last 18 months, my involvement with the AIGA has increased dramatically, from designing event materials to helping plan events like HIVE. I’m excited to take it further by joining the board.
The role of the Experience Design Director is one of the newer board positions and aims to both broaden and unite the interactive and experience community. I’m beginning my work by defining parameters around the role I’ll be serving, focusing mainly on how we can continue to grow a number of events (namely HIVE) into becoming more than standard symposium format - perhaps something interactive?
I’ll be actively looking for inspiration, suggestions, and commentary on how to achieve a stronger interactive community beneath the wings of the AIGA, so if you have any thoughts, please share your voice.
Board announcements coming soon. In the meantime, check out the Seattle AIGA.
What better way to kick off the summer months than have our very own Hornall Anderson open the doors to a new space dedicated to R&D, Experimentation, and technology showcasing. For over a year now I’ve watched dedicated members of our team fight what seemed to be an uphill battle against both procedures and economy in securing the funding and location of the new Hornall Anderson Experience Lab – my hat goes off to them.
For a company responsible for numerous works of spatial, environmental, and technological installations, having a physical space to test and innovate within is an absolute milestone to our growing fluency in experience design. Talk of exciting charter projects, as well as a possible special opening for Seattle’s Thursday art walk has us all abuzz.
The “Lab”, which is tentatively (and perhaps permanently) titled HAX, will be located at street level on 3rd avenue in downtown Seattle, directly under our Dexter Horton office building.
Expect to hear more about the space and projects within (when appropriate) here on ThoughtSpoken.
(credits to above photo @drewpickard)
Thought A new blog from Under Consideration FPO
On the eve of accepting a soon-to-be-announced board position for a certain non profit, I decided it would be fitting to see what kind of dirt came up when I Googled myself. Quite to my disappointment nothing career limiting arose (kidding), but what did surface was the realization that my virtual persona has become totally overextended.
As I count, I come up in the following forms: Tonydev.com (undergraduate portfolio), ThoughtSpoken.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, something called “Plaxo”, Flickr, Vimeo, and a newly created Google Profile. I’ve become associated with networks within networks and all the while I’m only, if ever, using 1 or 2 of them. Being fairly certain that the conversations around managing your online identity are pertinent as ever (Twitter, etc), I decided to do a little tidying up surrounding the many ways I exist online. For starters, all of my previous portfolio work has been taken down. Tonydev.com now messages to visit Thoughtspoken.com. I’ve discontinued my Myspace account, and made certain that all of my personal information (Facebook, Flickr, Vimeo, etc) remain private and accessable only by my personal friends.
Finally, I went and set up a Google Alert with a few key words (like my full name) to let me know anytime something related to myself pops up. When the time comes to repost an updated portfolio. I’ll likely do so as a sub page of my journal here at ThoughtSpoken. I’m hoping this helps keep things manageable.
Thought More of our recent logo work noted @ identityworks
We’ve been semi-candidly video taping meetings & brainstorms lately with a flipHD camera in preperation for a series of University of Washignton student engadgements. Watching it reminds me about how awkward it can feel to see your own mannerisms, akin to the sound of your own voice. Note to self: Stop playing with hair every 5 minutes. Awkward.
Thought A great colophon showcase @ designobserver
Moleskine has teamed up with I.D. Magazine and sent out individual Moleskin sketchbooks to capture one week of sketches/thoughts/ideas from a handful of well known designers. The event titled “A Week in Your Life” intends to celebrate the launch of their new folio collection. I’m a pretty big fan of Moleskin and personally know a number of designers who swear by them. I’m still stuck with the first 15 pages of about 30 different binders, notebooks, and notepads - a testiment to my sporadic behavior. The above video is taken the Pentagram blog and features the sketchbook of James Biber.
