I finally had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Frank Chimero. It was a fun conversation and you can see why he’s a good writer — he’s simply a good communicator. He has the ability to articulate his thoughts in speech as well as the written word. Enjoy the show.
http://creatiplicity.com/2011/a-chat-with-frank-chimero-episode-24/
Tagged with creativity simplicity design writing publishing twitter:user=fchimero
Ethan Marcotte talks with Dan Benjamin about writing, design, creativity, being an entrepreneur vs. a corporate stooge, responsive web design, and more.
In this Meanland lecture, Cory Doctorow discusses how writers can seize the possibilities of the digital future.
The internet and digital technology is challenging traditional notions of copyright, but many authors are finding new and innovative ways to circulate their work — and to make a living while doing so. Acclaimed SF writer, blogger and commentator Cory Doctorow looks at the perils and opportunities of this brave new world.
http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/meanland-copyright-vs-creativity-with-cory-doctorow/
Jaron Lanier, pioneering computer scientist, musician, visual artist, and author, discusses his book, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. Lanier discusses effects of the web becoming “regularized” and dangers he sees with “hive mind” production, which he claims leads to “crummy design.” He also explains why he thinks advertising is a misnomer, contending that modern advertising is more about access to potential consumers than expressive or creative form. Lanier also advocates for more peer-to-peer rather than hub-and-spoke transactions, discusses why he’s worried about the disappearance of the middle class, claims that “free” isn’t really free, talks about libertarian ideals, and explains why he’s ultimately hopeful about the future.
If the term sample reminds you more of a cheese tasting than music making, this video is for you. DJ, music producer and clothing designer Aaron LaCrate walks us through Sampling 101—taking a snippet of a song and repurposing it in another work. LaCrate explains the process but doesn’t sample in his own music — to "clear" a lifted beat for use is complicated, and expensive.
Musicians have always borrowed from others — tunings, vocal styles, distinctive phrasings. But the advent of the sampler in the 80s brought borrowing into the digital age. Today, "sampling," or lifting a snippet of someone else’s work — anything from a horn hit to a drum beat — is mainstream. But how to credit and pay those earlier artists for their contribution is where things get thorny. How much of someone else’s work should artists be able to use? How much should they pay for it? Is copyright law stuck in the age of analog?
People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch to today’s high-velocity web.
Steven Johnson has spent twenty years immersed in creative industries, was active at the dawn of the internet and has a unique perspective that draws on his fluency in fields ranging from neurobiology to new media. In his new book, he identifies the key principles to the genesis of great ideas, from the cultivation of hunches to the importance of connectivity and how best to make use of new technologies. By recognising where and how patterns of creativity occur – whether within a school, a software platform or a social movement – he shows how we can make more of our ideas good ones. This event celebrates the publication of his latest book Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation.
From: http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm
The book "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation" explores why certain environments seem to disproportionately spark the generation and sharing of good ideas. Author Steven Johnson joins us.
Web typography has come a long way, but how do you find inspiration to push your designs forward online? Letters can say far more than the words they spell.
In her session, Samantha will look at the lettering surrounding us everyday, tapping into the way it makes us feel. If you don’t already get emotional about which font to use, you will, looking at letters in a whole new way and learning how to translate those feelings into your web designs.
http://2010.dconstruct.org/speakers/samantha-warren
Samantha Warren loves big concepts as much as she loves badass typography and thrives on telling interesting stories through usable interfaces. She has written articles for .net Magazine, regularly speaks at industry events and is on the Board of the Art Directors Club of Washington DC. When she is not doing any of the above you can find her enthusiastically teaching typography and web design at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University.
Freud popularised the term, “The Narcissism of Minor Differences”, to describe how adjacent villages—identical for all practical purposes—would struggle to amplify their tiniest distinctions in order to justify how much they despised one other. So you have to guess how much he would have enjoyed design mailing lists. And, Perl.
Truth is, to the untrained (un-washed, un-nuanced, un-Paul-Rand’d, and un-Helvetica’d) outsider, discourse in the design community can sometimes look a lot like a cluster of tightly-wound Freudian villages.
So, how is the role of design perceived by the people who are using the stuff you make? What role (if any) should users expect in the process of how their world is made and remade? What contexts might be useful in helping us turn all of our obsessions into useful and beautiful work?
Can an Aeron chair ever be truly ‘Black’? Will there ever be a way to get Marketing people to stop calling typefaces ‘fonts’? And, when, at last, will the international community finally speak as one regarding the overuse of Mistral and stock photos of foreshortened Asian women?
By leveraging his uniquely unqualified understanding of design, Merlin will propose some promising patterns for fording the gap between end-users and the unhappy-looking people in costly European eyeglasses who are designing their world.
Is there hope? Come to Brighton, pull up a flawlessly-executed mid-century-Modern seating affordance, and we’ll see what we can figure out together. One village to another.
http://2010.dconstruct.org/speakers/merlin-mann
Merlin Mann is best known as the creator of 43folders.com, a popular American website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.