DesignThinkers 2009 Notes {4}

Warren Berger - Glimmer

Everyone can learn from the way designers solve problems
Outside > Question > Fresh solutions and perspectives
Brian Collins, “Design is hope made visible”

Design to solve problems
Cheetah prosthetic vs. High heels
Seek the story of the Cheetah creator

Lateral thinking… outside influences to change existing reality
*intention, planning & make things better
Check these out: X02 Laptop, Luke arm, Deborah Adler, OXO tools, Tim Brown of –IDEO. Rewatch TED video

Design Thinking… How designers solve problems

Designers – hoard, huddle together, communal
Attack each other & caring

How Designers Work: Open possibility, will find a better way & challenge assumptions
1. Ask stupid questions – guts to ask why?
2. ?
3. Jumping fences
4. Make hope visible
5. Embrace constraints
6. Begin anywhere

Optimism – still possible to solve BIG problems1
Immerse yourself & go deep
Become a student of human behaviour
Understand audiences, be empathetic
Ask isn’t there a better way?

Lateral thinking – jumping fields, brining it back
Smart recombinations
A+ B = C
Connect things in new ways
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Don’t be afaid to imitate – put your spin on it
Don’t look in the usual places

Reread Edward De Bono’s Thinking Course book on Lateral thinking (I have it somewhere)

Ok to failure – Fail forward
Basement problem solvers
Example: Taxi’s Homeless jacket. Designer asked himself to solve the problem
Experience, empathize, question > solve the problems

Seek problems & solve them!!!

Redesign behaviour i.e. Pedigree – integrated so people could believe in you

Dog breeding > design?

More DT http://ping.fm/o2ghP & Roger Martin on CBC for the drive home. Think I've found my passion to "Crush"!

DesignThinkers 2009 - Notes {3}

Shanky

Trends – The chocolate room (poetics of space)
Looking how people behave
Be in a non-safe place to do work
10-20% time is charity work
No gambling
No cigarettes
No fast food
RFid Chips (know where they are when entering a building)
10 languages die every year
Evidence based design “ “ provide the framework with the brackets
Others put the stuff in the “ “
Bathroom stall graffiti
There is no free time, you have to make it


John Bredenfoerder – Colour strategy

Fridge magnet for pizza – where the customer makes the decision
Anticipate colour trends
Proof in final environment where its going to be seen

Tints – colour + white
Tone – colour + grey
Shade – colour + black

Medamerism – things look different in different lights
Red has physical effect
Colour phsycology – graph of influences & forecasts
But test context in context
Fads, trends and cycles influences > forecasting what direction is it 2010?

Facebook, United Nations bluc – community, earth light blue white
Mylife beige John Lennon’s imagine

Reread Jobs on dots (while on break) http://ping.fm/22RLJ waiting for my dots to connect 1 day

DesignThinkers 2009 - Notes {2}

Dana Arnett

Shop class as Soulcraft – M. Crawford


Ben Blumenfeld – Facebook

3 approaches:
1. Ship & Interate (Beta) good enough
2. Data Informed – not driven
A-B Test
It’s all about the tease
3. Leverage (most important)
Using existing tools or building new ones
“I voted” button during election w/counter

Pixelcloud (Skitch) screen shot: working on…
Camp fire – collaborate
Crowdsourcing: translation tool – available
Find basketball games > map to bring people together

Facebook – YouTube – GooleDocs
Huge impact to effect change & make world a better place
Light version (paired down)

Wish I lived in Toronto. Roger Martin live twice on Integrated Thinking http://ping.fm/cF1Qc

Posted last part of my Roger Martin on Integrated Thinking posts. find it here: http://ping.fm/gLlMq

Roger Martin & Integrated Thinking... (Part 3)

Integrated Thinking (continued...)

See the value of validity AND reliability. Bring the two together. Obey the 5 rules on either side.

Strategies are about shortening your odds - not perfection. If you try to be right (perfect), you will never have a good strategy.

The tension b/w validity & reliability is important - especially in business sustainability.

Business can help edit out the designer's vision of the future. Use the power of the paradox. Caught between a rock and a hard place, create a new model. The relationship may at times seem like oil & water.

You have no choice. These ideas are at the root of great solutions.

Reject the notion that existing models = reality. Fight against such notions and ignore the status quo. Look for ways to build better and newer models!

Use cues from existing models to build a better model still. Embrace the paradox & change the world.

Let the idea kill itself... and this works only with deep conversations.

Learn more about Roger Martin's ideas. I have ordered his books and will review them in the future. :)

Awesome day with my eldest daughter. Great conversation on the train 2 T. Then saw the friggin amazing "August: Osage County" - What acting!

Posting notes for DesignThinkers 2009. 4th time together with Jared & Iles http://ping.fm/kmJju Anyone else go? What u think?

DesignThinkers 2009 - Notes {1}

Will be posting notes (sometimes really rough) from this year's DesignThinkers that I attended with Jared & Iles...

Micheal Beruit:

1. Keep it simple
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel, rotate the tires
4. Do as you’re told (like limitations)
5. Steal (what else is this like?)
6. Once you come up with something, never let it go…
7. Make other people do the work i.e. Kids library

The easy way out IS fun.

Stepping up to the plate...

I've been working on my step outline for a project I've been drawn to lately. I can't stop. But it's not glamourous. It's using a pencil and writing on index cards. Thinking about how each event in the story builds and turns. Making sure each scene's initial value finishes with the opposite value. As McKee says, it's not impossible but it's not easy either.

I've begun to transfer the contents to Final Draft index cards. I'm not about to begin the treatment yet but I think its making me really look at the cards. I'll be rearranging them and trying to put in more. For example, I've begun the script with a cross-cutting scene that includes symbolism.

Once I have the step outline in a solid shape, I'll write up a 10 page synopsis and pitch it around. If I get the interest in others, I'll then write a full treatment.

I'm enjoying the process so far. It's included lots of research because its a docudrama of course.

On another topic. I had the thought yesterday that perhaps instead of yearbooks for highschools I could help in develop yeardvds. Instead of images - video. I think it has interesting connotations. What do you think?

Blogging for work..

Man, another tough week. First post here in a bit. Reading Docudrama book. Have a great story that should be told. Has all the makings of something cool if I don't screw it up.

What a week... now I'm weak.

Well, after a week with a really sick kid and my parnter and oldest in Montreal I'm beat. I feel burnt and have had a headache for a few days including today.

All is not lost though. I've watched Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and (rewatched) Crumb. Oh and most of Adaptation. More importantly, I took the week off from my course which I could and set into developing 'Sam Parks'. I've read and reread a number of chapters and newspapers articles. I have written out all my receipe cards through the whole thing which came out to about 45. A good start I think. I've also made it through 1/2 the articles and have highlighted dialogue or key concepts.

I continue to listen to McKee's story. I'm on the 3rd go through and about to start the 4th. Watched his interview on The Hour again as it appears on YouTube.

I'll be getting back to my course this week and put the 'Parks' project in the background again. I'll let the ideas germinate as I apply the story to my listening of Story. :)

Finally, I've purchased Alan Rosenthals book on writing Docudrama. Interesting.

What does this all mean? I think it means. Don't despair. Just keep pluggin' away and make the most of the time you have even if it's crappy. Work on and off and do the hard stuff non-glamorous stuff. Perhaps this is a lesson about how to work in these difficult financial times. Just keep sluggin' away with an eye on a few goals and see where it leads... I've heard it could be 10-20 years! Who is prepared for it? You?

A thin line...

I did watch a Thin Blue line. Very good and colourful (Cdn. spelling). I had my mom and Milt watch it. Very interesting comments - they both liked but thought too much repetition of the incident. Not sure why Morris choose to repeat so many times. 

I read about Randall Adams on wikipedia and talks about Morris and his conflict about who owns his life story. Fascinating!!! Would love to discuss this with others... problem is - not one reads my blog yet LOL!!!

Way too busy lately

Man between, work, my course and home life I've had my hands full. I miss not having time to check in daily. I continue to read High Steel by Jim Rasenberger. I'm really enjoying it. I found a great story about Sam Parks that I'd love to screen write. I think I'll reread a few times and later investigate how I can go about it. Does anyone know? Still listening to Story and it's being ingrained into my brain. He suggests rereading the piece your adapting - hence. 

My course is going well. Instructor said I have the most animated and entertaining posts in the group but relevant. I think this blog my 3/4 yr journaling and posting to the course have really been enriching. 

I'm really at a crossroads though. Want to teach, want to make documentaries, want to blog and earn a living. Surely to God I can make something work. I'm worried I'm not focused enough. I'm not sure how to do this. 

I'll keep you posted.

Ironing out ideas...

I've began reading book on Iron Workers. I've always be curious about them. I like the Native Canadian connection too. The fear of heights and danger. I hope to get ideas from it.

I'm listening a second time to Story by Robert McKee on my commutes. I may have one. I have the index cards to start one day.

Rosenblum, Jeffery Jarvis, Jay Rosen... etc. All predicting the demise of the television networks and newspapers. I'm meeting with an Illustrator buddy tomorrow night. I want to find out how he is doing and what to make of these things. He's best friend with a old highschool buddy that works at our local newspaper. Look forward to the discussion. I'll share what comes out of it.

Checkin in between School work! Okay after really...

Finished Hillman Curtis' book. Not bad. Inspiring. He appropriates a lot of his work and relies on music to save his bacon at times. Easy read though with some good advice.

Watched The Producers doc about the cast recording featuring Mel Brooks. Fun but pretty straight forward.

Lots of school work this weekend. Watched a number of Errol Morris' First Person- The Complete Series while running on the treadmill an hour at a time.

Recovering Reality...and QTV.

Found this recent Errol Morris video on YouTube today. Also found this 25 minutes > more Errol.

A bit about Seeing and Listening

I finished Documentary Storytelling. I enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I particularily liked the interviews. I hope to discuss all my notes on it.

Watched Herzog's Land of Silence and Darkness. Really well done. At first I thought it was going to be hard to watch but then suddenly i was hooked in. The protagonist was amazing! The video really brought you into a whole different world and it became very touching not over the top though. I just can't imagine what their lives would be like but Herzog sure gave us a glimpse. These are amazing people.

I'm listening to Story on my commutes to and from work. I will listen a few times and hope to internal a lot of the concepts. Although, the principles are for fiction, I think that a good understanding of them will definitely make one more aware of finding the story elements in a piece of non-fiction.

I've now been reading Hillman Curtis' book called On Creating Short Films for the Web. Less scholarly and technical, more cerebral and personal. Should be a good inspiration.

My mom wants to invest in my video career. She wants to help me get set up. She's always been big on the arts and very supportive of them. Now she wants to support me. I've very lucky. I now have to investigate what I really need to get going. I love you mom!