CreativeMornings Video: Kelli Anderson

Our speaker at the July 2012 CreativeMornings here in New York was the charming and incredibly talented Kelli Anderson. She is an artist/designer and tinkerer who is always experimenting with new means of making images and experiences. You might have seen her TED talk, or maybe her paper record player? She is one of my all-time favorite designers. And she makes amazing fudge.

A big thank you to XO Group for hosting us in their beautiful office space. And a big thank you to Ben Hallman for filming + editing the video.

PhotoShelter / Luminance

Photoshelter is putting on a conference here in NYC called Luminance on September 12-13. The 2-day conference will feature speakers that help create, consume and define photography in a myriad of ways. Photographers, technologists, designers and those who care about the direction of photography should attend.

The speaker roster is nothing short of impressive. I am definitely going to try to attend. And yay, it’s affordable!

Please Support My CreativeMornings Kickstarter

I am just so excited to be able to share our Kickstarter Campaign with you, that literally JUST launched!

After attending several conferences over the past few years, I felt like there had to be a more accessible event that was really just about bringing likeminded people together. So, I started CreativeMornings. One Friday morning a month, people in the creative community gather to hear a speaker share their story. The best part is that the coffee, the breakfast, the lecture — everything is free.

CreativeMornings was in four cities only a year ago. Now we are at 34 chapters and span six continents, thanks to our hard working hosts all around the world.

So here’s the problem. 34 chapters means 34 talks every month. We never planned for CreativeMornings to grow like this. We’ve been taping these talks all along, but as of now they are spread across the internet. It kills us that there are videos from hundreds of leading designers, artists, chefs, entrepreneurs, and no good place to see them all.

Here’s why I am turning to Kickstarter. We have the potential to create a growing archive of stories, ideas and advice from remarkable creative minds across 34 cities, but we need to start building it now.

Your support, no matter how big or little, will help us build a new home for all of the CreativeMornings content.

Please consider supporting my Kickstarter Campaign and help me make CreativeMornings better.

pssst: Check out our rewards, they are quite something.

CreativeMornings Video: Jonathan Harris

I am thrilled to share our latest CreativeMornings/NewYork talk by the wonderfully thoughtful Jonathan Harris.

In this talk, appropriately given during CreativeMornings’ Arts + Tech themed month done in partnership with RISD, Jonathan revisits different phases of his life and the medium that marked them in his work as an artist. Starting with paint, Jonathan speaks on data, life, himself, and tool(s) — addressing both the positives and negatives of each medium as well as what he hopes for the future of arts and technology.

About Jonathan Harris:
Jonathan makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, his projects range from building the world’s largest time capsule (with Yahoo!) to documenting an Alaskan Eskimo whale hunt on the Arctic Ocean (with a warm hat). He is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, which continuously measures the emotional temperature of the human world through large-scale blog analysis, and has made other projects about online dating, modern mythology, happiness, anonymity, news, and language. His latest project is Cowbird, a community of storytellers working to build a public library of human experience.

A big thank you to Jacob Krupnick for filming the talk, Ben Hallman for editing the video, and Katherine Miles Jones for event photos.

Paola Antonelli on the Evolution of Design

In this talk, the charming MoMA Senior Curator of Architecture and Design Paola Antonelli offers a look at the evolution of design over the past few decades, and the past few years in particular.

(via Brain Pickings)

Jonah Lehrer: The Origins of Creative Insight & Why You Need Grit

“The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it,” says bestselling author Jonah Lehrer. Examining recent research into what drives creative insights, Lehrer breaks down how and why we have “aha!” moments, using examples that range from Bob Dylan writing “Like A Rolling Stone” to a Tibetan monk’s zen puzzle-solving powers.

But insight isn’t everything. Those who achieve great things in the long-term also have another important quality: Grit, a single-minded persistence that helps them keep their eye on the prize and pushing ever-forward even when the “aha!” moments aren’t around.

More about this fantastic The 99% Conference Talk.

What your designs say about you

What does your chair say about what you value? In this TED Talk, designer Sebastian Deterding shows how our visions of morality and what the good life is are reflected in the design of objects around us.

The World’s Largest Global Dinner Party

My friends behind the Feast Conference are cooking up something big: The World’s Largest Global Dinner Party.

They’re inviting innovators and instigators everywhere, doers and entrepreneurs of all ages to host a literal Feast of their own for six or more friends at 7pm local time on October 5, 2012. (That’s the final day of The Feast Conference.)

The goal is simple: By the end of dinner, collectively decide on one thing you all can collaborate on to improve the world (whether it’s renovating the park or supporting an effort to redefine an industry!)

Now here’s the kicker. Akin to the original World’s Fair, they want to then host a giant public pavilion in NYC the very next day (October 6) to cap off this roaming dinner. Kids, families, and anyone from the creative community will be able to explore your ideas, enjoy food, music, performance, and get inspired by some of today’s most amazing innovations.

Dream big. Execute Small: The World’s Fare

CreativeMornings Video: Bre Pettis

Last week’s CreativeMornings/NewYork was with Bre Pettis, co-founder and CEO of Makerbot, a company that produces robots that make things. He spoke on his passion of all things DIY and how you simply can’t say no when your friends say “Let’s quit our jobs and make robots!”

A big giant thank you to Ben Hallman for filming and editing the talks. We heart your intros!

Nourishing Habits for Nourishing Design

Wonderful talk by Craig Mod on how great design is born from nourishing habits.

The best designer is an aware designer. The best design solutions are found by deconstructing problems as they arise in our own lives. What habits can we as designers form to provide us with a more objective clarity in answering these problems? How can we apply these solutions to existing products? When is it time to build new products? There is an intersection between the cultivation of habit, personal experience and design application – it is nourishing and magic and something we should all strive to evoke.

Organized Wonder

Organized Wonder is a new way to share and discover the best talks, documentaries, interviews, short films and various other videos scattered across the web. Fantastic!

You can follow my collection here.

David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence

Absolutely wonderful TED talk by David Kelley, founder of IDEO, in which he is telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, offering ways to build the confidence to create.

The Illustrated 99% Conference 2012

The wonderfully talented Wendy MacNaughton was brought in to illustrate the most recent 99% Conference, just a few weeks ago. It was lovely seeing her throughout the conference, with her notepad, sketching and documenting.

For those who don’t know 99% is Behance’s annual conference about “making ideas happen” – its name inspired by the Thomas Edison quotation, “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”

Below is a selection of Wendy’s visual observations:

See all sketches here.

TYPO SF: The Importance of Side Projects

I had the huge honor to kick off the TYPO conference in San Francisco a few weeks back, and this is my talk. I am speaking on the importance of taking your side projects seriously and share 8 lessons I am going to teach my children.

Other TYPO SF videos currently available are by Mike Monteiro and Joshua Davis.

TYPO conferences take place in Berlin, London and San Francisco. I highly recommend attending one.

Cool Hunting Video: Photobooth

At last Friday’s 99% Conference, I had the pleasure to experience the magic of old Tintype Portrait Photography. Michael Shindler brought his tintype studio set up all the way from SF to the 99% conference and set up shop.

In this Cool Hunting video they talk to Michael, co-founder of Photobooth. If you are in SF, make sure to go by and have one of these Tintype Portraits taken. Nothing really compares.

Also check out the piece about Photobooth at 99% on the conference website.

Make People Click Ads

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” – Jeff Hammerbacher, Early Facebook Employee

(via @alexismadrigal‘s #99conf talk)

Jonathan Harris’ PSFK Talk

I had the pleasure to see Jonathan Harris’ PSFK talk a few weeks ago. It is a moving talk and one that will make you think. Jonathan Harris is a new media artist and in this presentation talks to the audience about how he walked away from success and notoriety and was inspired to counter current trends to build Cowbird.com. Watch it!

CreativeMornings Video: Simon Sinek

I am extremely excited to share last week’s CreativeMornings talk by Simon Sinek. His talk was a touching one, definitely getting under my skin. Simon’s message is an important one and I can assure you that watching his talk is 20minutes well spent. Simon believes in a world in which the vast majority of people go home everyday feeling fulfilled by their work. Amen to that.

A big giant thank you to our videographer Ben Hallman.

Visual Notes

Eva-Lotta Lamm just tweeted a link to the visual notes she took during my and Khoi’s TYPOSF talk yesterday. #mademesmile

Collaboration

“Collaboration is a good way to step away from ego.”
– Joshua Davis

(A quote from Joshua Davis‘ lively talk at TYPOSF, which I am currently attending)

TYPOSF Livestream Today

I have the huge, crazy honor to open the TYPOSF conference at 10am, here in San Francisco today. I was told that they are going to livestream some of the talks, and mine is one of them. YAY! Here’s the link where the live stream will be.

You can also watch: Khoi Vinh at 2pm, Joshua Davis at 6pm and Mike Monteiro’s talk tomorrow, friday, at 6pm. Remember, this is all on west coast time! Here’s a timezone converter if you’re not sure what time that will be where you are in the world.

Typotalks livestream

CreativeMornings Video: Aaron James Draplin

Portland/CreativeMornings – Aaron James Draplin from CreativeMornings/Portland on Vimeo.

The speaker at the March 2012 Portland/CreativeMornings was Aaron James Draplin.

Many thanks to Pro Photo Supply for lending the Portland chapter the gear to capture the talk and to Paul Searle for shooting and editing this video.

Brooklyn Beta/Summer Camp

It’s a pretty special day for my studiomates Chris and Cameron, forces behind Brooklyn Beta, the friendliest conference I have every attended. With today’s launch of Summer Camp they are moving beyond just being a conference.

Chris and Cameron were inspired by what Y Combinator has done for developers and hope to show some of the same love for designers. Not at the expense of developers, though. Their ideal team has both a designer and a developer working together.

With Summer Camp they aim to help “designer-developer teams” build the next generation of web products and change the world.

With the Brooklyn Beta conference, Chris and Cameron try to help spread big ideas and connect designers and developers together. With Summer Camp, they want to take it a step further and remove what is quite possibly the biggest barrier of all, money.

It’s a 12-week program in the summer leading up to the conference. They invest $25,000 in your company for a 6% stake, and give you a lot more help along the way.

Summer Camp is part of the Brooklyn Beta nonprofit, so any gains made in this year’s investments will go right back into the community and hopefully fund the next round of Summer Campers.

And lucky me, I have the honor to be one of the Summer Camp advisors. At the ready to offer advice and experience. Check out the impressive advisor list:

Here’s what Chris and Cameron are hoping Summer Camp will fund:

“We are hoping to back big ideas looking to make a real impact. Don’t just make something for your peers. Build something that fixes the insanity of modern education. Or helps people weather the upcoming financial crises and rise in unemployment. Or improves the health of people around the world. Or brings neighbors closer together. Or helps people run small businesses. Or strengthens the bonds of families. Or puts existing abusive, mammoth institutions out of business (pretty please).”

Chris and Cameron deserve an internet hug for pulling this off.

More: Brooklyn Beta / Summer Camp

CreativeMornings video: Jessi Arrington

Co-founder of WORKSHOP and all-around Rainbow Queen, Jessi Arrington spoke at a recent CreativeMornings/NewYork about creativity and turning the dial up to 11. (This memorable talk even ended in a Rainbow Birthday Parade which my daughter and I got to lead!)

A big thank you to Sy J. Abudu for filming and editing the talk.

(via CreativeMornings.Tumblr.com)