The Refinery

RESULTS:

Viewers’ Choice Award = Team 4 (Robert & Co.)
Nice Effort Award = Team 3 (Trinkel, Martin, Eric & Tarek)

dodgey ball. from gas creative on Vimeo.

Last Wednesday was the Earth Day drum circle. At noon hour, Gas’ very own Chris and Mike Martinez stepped away from the computer’s WPMs and made some BPMs.

-Eric C.

It’s been a few weekends since five of us headed down to San Diego to attend the 14th annual AIGA Y Conference, and the thoughts that were instilled in me are still swirling in my mind.

This year’s theme was Energy. This originally struck me as ambiguous if not a little cliche, but Debbie Millman set a tone that not only gave meaning to the theme but also generated a sort of energy that lasted through the weekend and then some.

Andrea and I were the two full time staff accompanying 3 of our most seasoned Gas designers: Art Meier, Jenny Amagrande and Eric Au. This was their first time, so I will let them get into the details of their experience there in their own posts.

Now – Debbie Millman. National President of AIGA and perhaps the most well-spoken human there (although there was definitely competition). She delivered a great keynote on the subject of energy, and moderated the entire event with enthusiasm and charm. She tied it all together so nicely, and apparently recorded a special Y Conference episode of Design Matters during one of the breaks (look for it on iTunes!).

Every single speaker there brought something different, from Nikolai Cornell’s presentations of innovative interactivity in design to Roshi Givechi’s shout-whisper design ideas at IDEO.

Two of the stand-outs, to me, were Dan Formosa and Yolanda Santosa. It’s only coincidental that their names rhyme, but their brilliance, charm, and overall mastery of their presentations were inspiring and enlightening. Dan was one of the original designers of IBM’s first PC, and Yolanda is the branding force behind Pinkberry. What would we do without either?

I got the opportunity to speak a little bit with Roshi Givechi during one of the breaks, which was both humbling and emboldening. She was optimistic about the current economic situation and what that can mean for passionate and driven designers. She was also amused by my illustration of her and took pictures of it on her iPhone. Nice.

Of course, spending time with the other four Gassers was equally worth it. Our brief visit to the awesome Old Town area, the awkward experience at Ra, our fantastic meal in Little Italy, a crazy experience at the legendary Phil’s BBQ and all the traveling in between were a good chance for all of us to enjoy each other’s company outside of the office.

Maybe we’ll get into Harney Sushi next time. Y15, I’ve got my sights on you.

The AIGA San Diego Y Conference

After a slightly bumpy but much needed 3 hour nap, I awoke to the sounds of the city. Horns honking, engines reving, cyclists cycling and finally a silhoutted figure telling me “we’re here.” The Bristol accomated to all our travelers needs’, complete with eco-friendly corn based soaps and shampoos. It wasn’t long before we headed out to University of San Diego. The two toned Y stood out like a sore thumb as we approached the front of our destination. We grabbed some seats and came prepared with all the essentials: pens, pencils, erasers, various types of paper and of course, open minds.

The theme of the 2009 AIGA Y-Conference was “energy.” Our wonderful hose, Debbie Millman, stressed that one of the most important natural resources we have in the world is creative energy. Without creative thinkers (like us) our future is going to be a hard one. So, it’s up to us to ignite the change we wish to see. Two quotes in particular resonated throughout the duration of the presentations and still do till this day.

“Any form of energy can be transformed into another form but the total amount of energy always remains the same.”

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

And with that energizing introduction, the speakers began to fill our heads with inspiring and thought provoking knowledge…

Shel Perkins
- fabulous talent needs operational success
- begin your transformation by picturing yourself three years from now: You’ve made it through the fire by reinventing your business
- a crisis is an opportunity
- who are your competitors?
- what’s your advantage?
don’t say its “low prices.” that’s not sustainable over the         long haul. and technology is always changing, you can’t
rely on it
- Promote yourself!
-Keep workload high and stay on your clients radar
-Show your case studies to clients. ex: how you analyzed
a project/problem and the execution for the final solution
-use direct mail and mailing lists
-press releases
-publish your own articles and books
-give speeches and seminars
-memberships and networking
-Need Advice?
-Seek out people with more experience
-ask clients how you can improve service
-work with a banker that handles small businesses
-independent agent
“Observe how all things are reborn with change”
-How can you get beyond fear?
-“Do things you fear.” Dive in! You cant navigate around         it. Go through the fire, especially in this economy
-Provide services that clients really need. Find out which publications people/clients are reading.
-Have an answer for the question: “What do you do?”
What makes you different from everyone else?
Figure that out.

Dan Formosa Ph.D.
Smart Design

- Focus on People
- Keep the content interesting
- Explain things simply
- Can design have a social impact?
(1980) Design is about people
(1990) Design for Everybody
- Explorations - Concept - Development - Prototypes

Nikolai Cornell
Obscura Digital

“Life is to be lived on the edge, see everyday as a true challenge and then you live your life on the high wire.”

Yolanda Santosa

Motion Graphics:
Desparate Housewives
Ugly Betty
300

Branding:
Pinkberry

Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey
Sterile white with a splash of that beautiful red

“Swirly Goodness”
swirly = the look
goodness = the taste
the term “swirly” is incorporated in the marketing several times

The yogurt is your canvas.
The toppings are your tools.
It’s your art, your design, your masterpiece!

“Branding is storytelling. It’s everything that comes together. It’s what makes you fall in love with a company.”

Good design starts with good communication and good ideas

Look for potential in a product

Passion and Inspiration

Bennett Peji
Gawad Kalinga

“Form Follows Culture”

Gawad Kalinga = means “to give care” in Tagalog

You must immerse yourself in any project

5 Factors of Cultural Modeling:

1. Power distance - Every culture has different symbols that it must reflect
2. Collectivism vs. Individualism
3. Feminity vs. Masculinity
4. Uncertainty Avoidance
5. Time Orientation

Roshi Givechi
IDEO

“It’s about feeling good.”

“The Shout” - Need to visually see energy and message fast

“The Whisper” - Subtle message/medium

TENSIONS ARE GOOD
embrace tensions.

Lorraine Wild
Green Dragon

Work towards intelligence and visuality
Repetition of ability will help train your body for craft
Worked on Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution

Shel’s Workshop

Growing Your Business in a Down Economy
by Shel Perkins

6 Smart Strategies

1. Get Back to Basics
-Do work that draws upon your key strengths and produces profits. What can you produce well? Don’t do static design.

2. Pump Up New Business
-Land new clients and projects within your areas of strength
-Don’t just take jobs desparately, that will take you into areas where you are less competitive and you won’t get a challenge
-Give current clients new services
-Or take certain services and find new clients
-New clients have better potential
-DON’T offer new services with new clients
-Develop a compelling website with fresh content
-Use direct mail and have a new postcard ready for mailing to potential clients
-Participate in client industry events as a speaker
-Be careful/selecive with mailing lists

Which clients should you be going after?

-Search government sites for active industries
-Find clients with potential and look into them
-During a recession, large companies market MORE while smaller companies cut back on money or go bankrupt
-Nurture ongoing relationships and drop dysfunctional clients
- Be proactive in offering solutions and ask for referrals to friends of clients
-Landing new work is not like turning on a tap, some require a long sell cycle

3. Cut Labor Costs
-The largest expense is labor
-Start by releasing any freelancers
-Shortening a work week
-If money is still too tight, permanent layoffs may be necessary
- Cut once and cut deep to avoide drop in morale
-Prune things that are not core and drop duplicates of jobs
-Eliminate things that can easily be replaced
ex: liasons; they aren’t trained in design
-Reassure employees who are leaving to maintain morale

4. Cut Other Expenses
-Budget and track costs with current clients. Bill with full markup

5. Manage Cash
-Don’t operate in the dark. Prepare a weekly projection of incoming funds and outgoing payments
-This will help you set priorities and avoid overdrafts
-Most money comes from clients
-Get a deposit before work starts
-Do a series of progress billings
-Cautious about new clients, run credit checks
-Check credit history
-Set limits on credit you extend
-Develop relationships in more than on industry
-Sell off business assets (equipment, chairs, art, etc.)
-Don’t take out a new bank loan

6. Rethink
“A crisis is an opportunity”
-Easier to grow in a new direction
-New goals

Lessons Learned
-Recession is a cycle, it will fix itself
-Build reserves, diversify clients, run credit checks and set limits, hire cautiously, and constantly update projections
-Watch business trends!

Resources:
www.talentisnotenough.com
www.aiga.org
contact - shelperkins.com

*Have a compelling story
-You need a broad range of skill, exposure and intellect
ex: be presentable, prepared and professional
-What does your client need? Can you do that?
-Design is a business based on relationships

Liz Danzico

“Energy is in real-time activity. We find it in the behavior of people.”

References:
Christopher Alexander
The Oregon Experiment

“The challenge is not shifting real-time, but making it an opportunity to be creative and make it happen.”

Facebook and Twitter:
These programs are for real-time communication.
Framework built by designers to allow realtime content to be inserted by users of the programs.
Another Example: GENI.com - build your family tree

History of Real-time Composition
-Millman Parry (1902-1935)
went to [former] Yugoslavia and found that they had no writing system. People “performed” stories through memorization of form. Stories were improvised in real-time. Had loose structure. The people told stories based on real time situations and could alter and change them easily.

-Miles Davis
-Jazz is highly structured form with improvisation
-Modal jazz is highly improvisation
“You will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances.”
-Compare classical music to jazz

Trend toward Sketching
Users = Storytellers
Designers roles’ = Frame composition of those stories

“In a world that’s not predictable, improvisation and evolution are more than a luxury; they are a necessity.”

“You already know everything you need to know to design the future.”

Over the course of three nights and two very full days I can view design from a new perspective. We are the link between imagination and reality. We create the aesthetic of all things, and with that we have the power to give the world our visions as well.

New edit style of an image I shot awhile back for intramural sports. Mask on top of mask, on top of mask were all blended together.

Juggling a soccer ball never looked so fierce. This probably got Zack Snyder giggling like a school girl to want to make a movie about 300 soccer players.

-Eric C.

This photo was from last Thursday’s homecoming pep rally for the 2009 NCAA Division II Mens Basketball finalist. Yeah, it was loud & wild, like the Lakers parade…minus the flaming cars and rubber bullets.

-Eric C.