Creativity, innovation & our responsibility to f*ck about

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Thanks for inviting me Thanks for turning up Let’s get to know each other a little...

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Who do we have out there this morning... Who considers themselves a designer?

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Whatever we do, I’m sure we all want to put our superpowers to good use, yeah? That’s why we’re here

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So I’m David & I work for Redweb, a digital agency in Bournemouth

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You can find me on Twitter, if you’d like to say ‘hi’

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My wardrobe homage to a favourite site of mine this year

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How do I describe myself? Well, ...I’m a kayaker

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OK, so I used to be a kayaker. It got a little too dangerous

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I’m a fly fisherman I got stuck in a bog & nearly died I fell in a crevasse & nearly died

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So I should probably stick to my best, & safest, sport

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I like messing about with cameras

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I’m a huge fan of duct tape. It can fix anything - apart from my code

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I’m a maker of prints, paintings, drawings & arty stuff too

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I’m an expert speed dobber. That means I draw rocket ships on other people’s work when they’re not looking People have said it’s not big or clever but...

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...this one’s quite big (me cleaning my driveway last weekend)

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And this one’s *quite* clever??? (a print I made for a local show last year)

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I’m an ex Flash guy I heart AS2

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& I’m a designer Here’s our latest work of which I can’t take much credit for...

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As I’m part of a big team, of little teams, all working together

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But @iamKeir has a very special surprise later on

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This is me....

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Which means I often get asked this...

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To which I reply this. Which really winds people up

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This is the mission statement of our Innovation Lab

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And this is written in our staff manifesto

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We’ve changed what we do & how we do it, & we’re proud of what we’ve achieved

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I’m going to talk about some of the things that have worked for us

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Any questions? OK, let’s start....

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The C word. We believe everyone is creative. Not just designers of those with creative in their job title Gartner said there were 5 creative outlooks/ windows.

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These people love research. Presented with a huge box of lego, they’d spend a lot of time on Google first

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These people like arranging & rearranging. They look for patterns & combinations. They may start sorting our lego into colour and shape

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These people will tip all the lego on the floor & make it up as they go along. They crave excitement & spontaneity, & are too impatient to follow instructions or constraints

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These guys want to know what we’re building & why. They search for meaning from the get go. This can be difficult & dangerous

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Mavericks want to know WTF we’re doing playing with lego? Useful for reality checks, but you need to explain ideas to them with care & structure

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Where do you fit? Where do your colleagues fit?

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We’ve found idea sessions work best if you have a mix of creative types

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Now a little about how our brains are wired...

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We rely heavily on experience. Like trains going down a track. Imagine if every time you saw your pants in the morning you had to work out what they were & what to do with them

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Our brains work like water flowing down a river bed, following its usual course, taking the path of least resistance. Let’s call these rivers of experience.

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New ideas happen when connections are made between different rivers

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The more rivers of experience we make, the more new ideas we’ll be capable of. Our experiences are unique to each of us. Our ideas will also be unique Make more rivers by doing things differently, trying new things, going to new places, taking risks, and leaving our comfort zones.

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A great work of art is a culmination of experiences

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Let’s park all that and move on to a new analogy: Ideas are like new shoots

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You can’t tell if a plant is a flower or a weed until its grown on a bit. We need to hold off judgement (at the early stages) with ideas too. We sometimes call our innovation lab our greenhouse

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Plants need light & water to grow. Ideas need energy & acceptance to grow We need to say ‘yes and’ in these early stages and save ‘no because’ for later

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We need to give ideas need time to grow & bloom. It’s good to disconnect, get some distance and let ideas develop & stew

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Here’s our simple definitions behaviour vs process inspiration vs perspiration One can be practiced & improved, the other is about dedication & determinations

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The further you can blow a situation apart with creative thinking, the more chance you have of finding a unique & suitable solution to focus down on

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Innovation is about focus & determination. Knowing when to listen & when not to. Knowing who to listen to and who not to.

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It’s not about past business models & proven case studies. Have the balls to make the calls

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Rephrasing Q’s to get new perspectives. Be like Columbo and don’t rest until you’ve found the right answer

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We could make a game with 1 ball & 1 iPad...

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But what if... we added more iPads, more balls, more race track

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We have to know how tech works, what it can do, and what that means to behaviours and cultures

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But we mustn’t be afraid to break the rules The best work comes from subversion, surpise & turning conventions n their head

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Freedom demands courage. Fear of failure can be very real...

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But failure is OK Especially if you’ve being trying your hardest, pushing for the right things & not giving up it’s also OK if you understand why, don’t repeat it and progress

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Innovation is about getting things done Prototypes, proofs of concept, diagrams & sketches help get things made Real so we can test, evaluate, improve or start again Get going, then get better

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Innovation is often more about the journey than the outcome Make sure you keep your eyes open & take everything in

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We’re still playing with multiple screens 8 monitors, 8 browsers, 8 smart phones, 8 paddles, 1 ball, 2 goals

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And we’re building our own 3D printer to embark on a new design & manufacturing adventure

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Serious face now, here comes the unfashionable bit...

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As makers of things we have responsibilities that we need to take seriously

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We have a responsibility to our employers, our clients & our end audiences - to deliver the best solutions possible

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We have responsibilities to our colleagues our collaborators and our industry communities - to help, support and push ourselves

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What will people want? What will people need? How will they access what we build? ...in 1 yr time? ...in 2 yrs ... in 10 yrs?

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Do we really need an iPhone app for every brand we interact with? Do we really need more data visualisations that aren’t pretty & don’t show us what the data means easily enough? Look at these peelers/ coreres/splitters. WTF? Just buy a knife!

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Don’t just follow trends. Make things that matter, that are not lazy or wasteful or clutter Make significant things

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In January, there were 8milliion people in the UK that had NEVER been online Think what they’ve missed out on - money savings, time savings, knowledge, learning, entertainment & socially We can help, we have responsibility to help

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Bill McDonough, in his book Cradle to Cradle urges us that we need to make things: “not just less bad, but more good” “...it’s the C20th & the best we can do is put wheels on our luggage”

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We also have a responsibility to ourselves: to our development, to our careers, to our happiness To our mastery

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& I think we have a responsibility to f*ck around Not in trivial, wasteful, annoying ways. But in ways that make us more innovative & creative I mean f*cking about in ways which..... [drum roll here]