I am currently at a small Summit in Colorado, organized by Simon Sinek, force behind the Start With Why Movement. If you haven’t seen his TEDx talk, you should take a few minutes to do so:
I am sure some interesting blog posts will come out of these two days. The attendees are humbling to say the least. Just take Ping Fu for example, her story is the most inspiring I’ve ever heard. Inc Magazine called her entrepreneur of the year. Read the article here. More to come!
I recommend you watch the below video if you’re interested in the issue of scale in the world of design. Taped at a recent Smart Design Salon.
Last month we launched our first Canadian CreativeMornings chapter! Hooray! Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr kicked off the series in Vancouver.
The Vancouver team, led by Mark Busse, is doing a phenomenal job! A big giant thanks goes to Ryan Mah, Mahyar Saeedi and Jake Hermiston for filming and editing the talk. Here’s the video:
Check out the photos of this event over on Flickr. To see if there’s a CreativeMornings happening near you, go to creativemornings.com
Last week we kicked off the Sweden chapter of CreativeMornings. Richard Feigin and his team organized the first CreativeMornings/Stockholm at the supercool looking Bianchi Cafe & Cycles with Nicke Bergström, Creative Director of VICE, as the speaker. Richard and his team are breaking all video speed limits as they already uploaded the talk on vimeo, English subtitles included. A big thank you to Nisse Emil Forest Axman and Oskar Törnros for the fantastic work on documenting this event! Hat tip off to Team Stockholm!
Joe Gebbia is a designer and entrepreneur who co-founded Airbnb, a community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique spaces around the world. In this inspiring PSFK Conference talk he shares the process and story behind Airbnb.
(via @brainpicker)
Do you live somewhat close to London? Then you should consider attending TYPO London, a broad inter-disciplinary design conference for professionals and students, based on the hugely influential TYPO Berlin Conference.
I was invited to speak and am heartbroken that I can’t go. The speaker line up is fantastic and the organizers are wonderful people. You should get your ticket before august 31st if you’re thinking about going, cause that’s when the discounted price ends.
In this 99% Conference talk, photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman shares the lessons learned from his iconic WISDOM project, in which he interviewed “elders” around the world, including Chuck Close, Bill Withers, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Massimo Vignelli, and many more. Zuckerman talks about the anxiety we feel as we start a new project, how fear can help us get things done, and the importance of honesty and good, old-fashioned hard work.
Our speaker at the June 2011 CreativeMornings/NewYork was Yancey Strickler co-founder of Kickstarter. A big thank you to Sy J. Abudu for filming and editing the talk:
CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!
You can see photos of the Yancey Strickler CreativeMornings over on Flickr. And you can now follow us on Tumblr!
If there’s ONE conference I dream to attend one day, It’s The Do Lectures. Here’s a lovely 3minute trailer about what Do Lectures is all about:
Our speaker at the May 2011 CreativeMornings/NewYork was Maria Popova of Brain Pickings. The event was generously hosted by General Assembly. A big thank you to Sy J. Abudu (/) for filming and editing the talk.
UPDATE: Maria wrote a fantastic post about her talk over on BrainPickings.
The folks at the99percent.com just uploaded Simon Sinek’s recent talk in which he discusses the importance of trust, authenticity, and meaning. Sinek argues that as individuals and companies, everything that we say and do is a symbol of who we are. And it is only when we communicate our beliefs authentically that we can attract others to our cause, and form the bonds that will empower us to achieve truly great things.
(Wow, I just noticed that the 2012 99% conference is already sold out!)
How algorithms shape our world – Kevin Slavin’s wildly thought-provoking talk at last week’s TEDGlobal.
(via curiositycounts)
Our speaker at the March 2011 CreativeMornings/NewYork was Ji Lee, at the time Creative Director Google Labs, now Creative Director at Facebook. The event was generously hosted by Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
A big thank you to Sy J. Abudu for filming and editing the talk.
Last month we kicked off our first Chicago/CreativeMornings with a fantastic talk by Jim Coudal. GravityTank was generously hosting the event and Mig Reyes did an absolutely fantastic job as the host. Thanks to everyone in involved. I am thrilled to have Chicago on the map!
And a big thank you to the team over at Coudal, Steve Delahoyde in particular for taping and editing the event!
Our speaker at the April 2011 San Francisco/CreativeMornings was Craig Mod, a writer, designer, publisher and developer concerned with the future of publishing and storytelling in the iPad and Kindle era.
A big giant thank you to Chris Whitmore for offering to shoot and edit the video. Photos were graciously provided by Richard Something.
I have the honor to be moderating an AIGA/NY panel with iconic Swiss Book Designers Joost Hochuli and Roland Stieger next week. Together, they will look back at sixty years of beautiful book design in the Swiss town of St. Gallen as well as discuss the future of design.
As special guests we’ll have Aswin Sadha and Paul Shaw join the discussion.
In this TED talk, Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.
(via Brain Picker)
“One is considered stupid until proven creative.” Armin Vit presents the case for stupidity. Instead of avoiding the stupid, we should embrace it, chase it and execute stupid ideas as often as possible.
Our speaker at the April 2011 CreativeMornings/NewYork was Berlin based Illustrator and Designer Christoph Niemann. I think it’s safe to say that Christoph’s talk was one of the funniest we’ve ever had. See for yourself, watch the video below and share a giggle.
A big giant thank you to Sy Abudu for so generously filming and editing our talks. (We realize the sound quality is a little off in the beginning but gets better mid-way through the talk. Our apologies!)
The event was generously hosted by Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!
Artist Aaron Koblin takes vast amounts of data — and at times vast numbers of people — and weaves them into stunning visualizations. From elegant lines tracing airline flights to landscapes of cell phone data, from a Johnny Cash video assembled from crowd-sourced drawings to the “Wilderness Downtown” video that customizes for the user, his works brilliantly explore how modern technology can make us more human. Watch his TED Talk below.
(via Brain Pickings)
My lovely studiomate Jessi just pointed me to an intriguing AIGA/NY event this coming Tuesday: It will be a talk with the two ladies who founded Blue Marble Ice Cream. They were bold enough to start an ice cream business without prior experience! The evening will include a short preview of the documentary about the work Blue Marble is doing in Rwanda.
Can you imagine a place in the world where people have never heard of ice cream? Then can you imagine going there to help people start their own ice cream shop? In Jessi’s word: Crazy and inspiring.
Get your ticket for this AIGA event here.
More about the Documentary
More about Blue Marble Ice Cream.
Sweet Dreams – trailer from Thunderfull Films on Vimeo.
Image: Julian Mackler / MACKME.COM
Last week’s 99% Conference was fantastic. Inspiring and insightful, as always. The folks over at Behance know what they’re doing. And now they just uploaded a massive (!) recap of the conference.
Here are some of my favorite quotes of the day:
“What gets projects done for me is not inspiration. It’s curiosity and rigor.”
– Andrew Zuckerman
“The ‘Ok Plateau’ is the point when we turn on autopilot and stop getting better at a certain thing.”
– Joshua Foer
“Geeking out is extraordinarily useful.”
– Joshua Foer
“If you find something that you feel you belong to, become a groupie and a fan, and then a critic.”
– Starlee Kine
Read the full conference recap here.
Our speaker at the february 2011 CreativeMornings was wonderful Debbie Millman. Debbie’s talk is a must see for any student about to enter the world of design. Her talk is titled: The Top 10 Things I wish I Knew When I Graduated College.
A big giant thank you to Sy Abudu for filming and editing the talk.
In case you’re wondering about Debbie’s comment about going by Denim Millbabe in the very beginning, here’s why.
About Debbie Millman:
Debbie Millman is a partner and president of the design division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country. Millman is president of AIGA, and chair of the School of Visual Arts’ master’s program in Branding. She is a contributing editor to Print magazine and host of the podcast “Design Matters.” She is the author of How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, 2007), The Essential Principles Of Graphic Design (Rotovision, 2008) and Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design (How Books, 2009).
Our speaker at the *second* San Francisco CreativeMornings was Mike Monteiro, Design Director, and co-founder of Mule Design Studio. This event took place on March 25, 2011 and was generously sponsored by Happy Cog and Typekit (who also hosted the event at their office in the Mission).
A big giant thank you to Chris Whitmore for offering to shoot and edit the video. Photos were graciously provided by Rawle Anders.
See who’s upcoming and watch recorded talks over on creativemornings.com.