15 minute lightning presentation for Digital Shoreditch 2015.

Video of presentation available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=agZYtFOTpdc

Sometimes my mind drifts when writing emails. A while back I

wrote an email and misspelt a word.

Without thinking about it, I painfully selected

the wrong letter…

…and moved it to the right position.

I caught myself doing this and thought it was a rather curious thing to do. After all it would have been faster to delete and rewrite. Or use auto-correct!

But who was I to condemn the letter to deletion? After all I had

summoned it into my services, it wasn’t the letters fault I’d

misplaced it.

Surely it was my responsibility to fix any mistyping in an ethical way

without bringing harm upon any typographical elements.

Obviously, that’s a silly thought…

…because the letter is not a singular digital entity.

The letter is a combination of pixels, which means it would be the pixels I wouldn’t be respecting if

I had deleted the letter.

I no doubt spent too long thinking about this issue. But I kept

thinking.

What if there was only a limited amount of pixels? We would have to be more careful in our use of them.

What if each pixel costs a penny?

£10,005.00

A single iPhone 6 screen would cost around £10k.

How would that affect the way Digital Designers work?

I decided to ask an artist friend, Phuc Van Dang, aka Phucisme, about

his process creating physical products.

Phuc produces art on anything from paintings and drawings to porcelain and photography to fullsize wall

art and performa art.

A lot of surprising insight came out of that conversation. I’ve

captured three core ideas that can inspire Creatives in Digital space

to work differently.

1.Limitations Focus

the Mind on the Idea, not the Execution

Phuc never starts the process with the material and tools he will

ultimately use to create the final product. It would be too expensive

and too time consuming.

That means Phuc gets the freedom to focus on the idea in the early

stages, free of limitations by the tools and materials.

Think about it: How often are you asked to do a website or a mobile

app, rather than focus on the business outcome first and then

determine the channel?

Using the tools that will deliver the final digital product, such as

Photoshop or Sketch, presents scamps with a degree of finish, ultimately reinforceing the direction too early

on in the process.

Moving away from the tools that will deliver the final digital designs, gives you freedom to explore the problem beyond the

direction given.

2.Simple Tools

Enables Creation.

Being unable to use the tools and materials that will deliver the

final art piece during the initial concepting stage means Phuc don’t have to worry about choosing the

right tools or materials.

So he reverts to just pencil and paper. This means he is very competent with a pencil and

it is a natural extension of his hand and mind.

He doesn’t have to focus on using the tool.

He can focus on the idea and let his mind’s intention flow freely through the pencil in his hand.

Using computers and software you inevitably adds layers of

restrictions:

First there’s the mouse-to-screen disconnect. Then choosing the right software. Then there’s the set-up of the document Choosing colours,

fonts, filters, functions…

Not to mention by using software you are already being limited by the choices made by the software

designers.

As soon as you sit down by your computer, your mind is already

shifting to execution mode because you are reliant on the tool, not

your skills + experience.

Your tools are getting in the way of your creativity.

3.Limited Resources Nurture

and Mature Ideas.

In the Digital space we have the freedom to create as many concepts as we want as we are not using any

physical material.

Layers after layers of Photoshop we churn through countless ideas, one

erasing the previous one.

The risk is we discount ideas too fast and end up with a deadline

forcing us to select one idea out of too many.

We just pick an idea without fully understanding the potential of the other ideas that has come and gone

and gone forever.

Talking to Phuc it became apparent that working through early concepts in physical space produces fewer

ideas, but they are worked through more.

They are taken a certain maturity level, simply because you can’t

keep drawing on a piece of paper. At some point you have to take a

new piece.

But this process has two benefits: it leaves a trail of progression

and the maturity of ideas explores the potential better.

So when selecting the final idea, it is based on understanding the

potential of all the ideas that has been worked on.

The Road Ahead…1. When generating ideas, step away from

tools you plan to use for the execution to gain a higher view point.

2. Master a few, simple tools to allow you to generate concepts without the tools getting in the way.

3. Spend more time on evolving fewer ideas, so you understand their potential and choose the right one.

I will shut up now.Any questions or comments please

feel free to reach out. I am “Fransgaard” everywhere on the web.