Everything you said… Made sense and touched me. I count on a degree – Telecommunications Engineering – that I hate. I don’t like the people working around me while feel inspired and attracted to the creative sphere – if I could turn back in time, I’d definitely go into Architecture.

I’m half depressed, being 24 without knowing how could I change this situation, this job, this 1/3 of my life where I don’t feel happy, where I don’t fit. Tried to learn branding, CS3, whatever… But nobody seems to give me the opportunity I crave for, sorry for spreading so much negativity but I just wanted to highlight the extent to which your talk enlightened my path.

I’m determined to fight, though I don’t know how.

At the extreme would be folks like: Frank Gehry, Marc Newson, Philippe Starck, Paul Frank.

Cheers, Alex

David Becker | President

PhilippeBecker
San Francisco, CA 94105

For instance, a job posting:

Design Intern
The internship will require packaging, identity, interactive and product design experience…

Who exactly is qualified for this? To have anything that qualifies you as having experience in all of these fields, would you really be looking for an internship?

I think creative people will be happy doing creative things. Of course everyone has preferences, but these days the range of opportunities for “visual thinkers” is vast.

I think there is something to be learned from all sorts of creative things, Just like I learned a lot from you all. But I think you want to make it seem like the designer is the hub of a wheel of all sorts of products, and while I think there is a sense that this will add all sorts of creativity to each of your products, I really think that a good designer will study subjects which surround their primary target, which makes the designer and their inspirations the wheel, and the final product the hub.

But really, that analogy does not hold up. To me its more of a venn diagram. Today’s designer must study all sorts of things so they can talk about, and advertise their products to all sorts of people who speak different languages; I am not talking about Chinese. I am talking about venture capitalists AND interior designers. So you can talk about the the light output and the volts, AND what makes people love objects. Then a strong idea of what their one product is, will emerge from a large field of knowledge, instead of a lot of products emerging from a small field of knowledge.

Does that help?
k.

Along more ‘obvious’ lines, it’s perhaps also worth considering the role of the multi-disciplinary design superstars, such as Marc Newson, among the broader group.

He seems an interesting example, particularly given the role he now plays with a company such as Qantas, while still maintaining independence to work on a diverse range of client projects (e.g. the Jaeger Le Coultre Atmos 561 & G-Star Raw clothing ranges) but also his private work (as exhibited in the Gagosian shows).

-created Pitch Engine, a social media site that clients can use for free distribution of press releases to clients
http://www.pitchengine.com

John Winsor

-author of Beyond the Brand and Spark, currently heads up “cultural radar” department at ad firm Crispin, Porter, Bogusky… co-created medai and brand building visionary http://www.johnwinsor.com

- Kristen Ulmer
one of the top, most influential female extreme skiers, now runs clinics that incorporate Zen-inpsired “Big Mind sessions that “blends western psychology and ancient non-dual wisdom traditions” with intense sessions on the hill.
http://www.skitolive.com

Then there’s me (ahem). I published my first book, Stoked, in 2006 which sold well (and won awards) and am now working on 3 new books. Also I patented a magnetic binding system for photo albums, portfolios, etc. which is going to market next year. Also we have about 5 other consumer products in the making…we’re moving to creator class! (starkdesignny.com)

Good luck in Singapore, sorry I can’t be there!

There are lots of examples in fashion often being driven by brands looking for high profile creative collaborators. Fashion designers these days are being asked to design laptops, phones, furniture, cars, bags, perfume, shoes… Sometimes this is a bit opportunistic but fashion designers seem to be the ultimate creative chameleons… Julien Macdonald for example seem to have done just about everything… Although thinking about it the designers are mostly just asked to provide the “vision” and a team of minions then goes off and actually makes it happen for them…

In the past week I’ve designed flyers, banners, screenprinted shirts, welded a homemade bakfiets (dutch cargo bike), organized a scavenger hunt, planned a freakbike booth at the Oregon Manifest, and applied for a bunch of design jobs.

None of which I got.

They’ve built what can only be called an empire out of a web comic they started in 1998. They have created and currently run:

-The most popular video game comic/blog (~2 million page views a day)
-Child’s Play, a charity that gives games and systems to hospitals around the world ($1.3 million raised in 2007)
-Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention that has been going on for 4 years (58,500 tickets sold for PAX2008)
- Plus merchandising, books, a video game, etc, etc

Check out wikipedia for more details.

They have created:
- The most popular video game webcomic/blog
- Child’s Play, a charity that gives video games and systems to hospitals all over the world ($1.3 million raised in 2007)
-Penny Arcade Expo, a video game convention that has been running for 4 years (58,500 tickets sold for PAX 2008)

Look them up on wikipedia for more details if you’re not familiar.