yesterday...

There were two events I attended yesterday: Creativity by Design at U of T @ St. George and the Alumni Speaker Night at York. Since this is a rather long entry (took me 45 mins to write), click the Expand link to read the whole thing.

On my way to the first event, I took the RT to Kennedy station and then to St. George station. I was really annoyed on the RT because it was already 9am, the event started at 9:30 and the train stayed for 5 minutes at each stop on the way because of some maintenance issues. Then, when I finally got to Kennedy, the operator said in a very depressing voice over the speakers, "Have a nice day. Have a nice, cold, winter day." It was -19 outside with the windchill. And boy, was it windy.

So I got off at St. George, walked east to Queen's Park, south towards Charles St (in the -19, extremely windy weather) and found that Museum Station was right infront of the hall where the conference was.

The topics were, for the most part, pretty interesting. There was a panel of four speakers and the basic theme of the event was about bringing creativity, imagination and innovation in to your work. (As the last speaker said, those three things are very different from each other).

To quickly give a jist of what the speakers covered:
Sam Harrison
explore freedom, embrace life.
know what your creativity is.
listen to what's being said and not being said. (he got the whole audience to do an exercise where pairs speak to each other at the same time - one as a rock star and the other as royalty - and then asked us to repeat what the other had said, which we couldn't because we were all talking over each other)
another point, are you bringing your work into your life, or your life into your world?
get out of your environment to bring in new ideas.

Then the next speaker, spoke about how crucial it is for companies to "design-think" so they can come up with new ideas so they can make more money and sustain their business. Put simply, more creativity = more ideas = more products = more money. No offense to her as a person, but as for her presentation: thanks for stating the obvious.

Since she finished a half hour early, we broke for lunch. Now, when I last checked on the map, Spadina & College didn't seem too far from where we were, so I thought I'd walk over to Popeyes. After about 20 minutes of walking (again, -19 windy weather) I finally got there --with a runny nose. I felt even worse for making a friend from school walk there with me.

Next up was Johnson Chou
I don't know what to say about his talk, since he basically just showcased the projects he's worked on (had outstanding work, and a very cool business card)

The highlight of the conference was when Alexander Manu came up. His points included..
imagination = seeing things you normall don't.
sometimes the future is right infront of you, but you don't recognize it.
you have to believe it to see it.
every culture has a dreamcatcher -> belief in the power of an object that has no power.
without play, imagination dies; without imagination, creativity dies.
possiblity incubates creativity.
the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
there are no weak signals, but only weak receivers.
the hardest thing to see is what's infront of your eyes.
questions need imagination.
He was really amazing, and took a humorous approach to his speech. All in all, he stressed being fun and playful with coming up with ideas.


Next...
Travelled to York for the Alumni Speaker Night (7pm-9pm).
It was a sort of relaxing end to the evening because all the speakers were down-to-earth and really connected with the students.
Speakers included: Gigi Lau, Dan Suria, Shahin Edalati (here, here and here), and Sam Javanrouh (here and here)

There isn't a whole lot to say about this event, because although it was amazing, the speakers basically discussed their school and work experiences (and I didn't really take any notes). I really connected with Shahin's experiences... He came up with a chart to illustrate his "personal satisfaction, workload, and creative mojo" and when he discussed his ups and downs, I saw a lot of similiarities with where I find myself now. He said he had a "wake up call" in third year, and that's what I've had as well. I only wish I hadn't taken three years to get it. He also took up photography and that really helped him to get back his "creative mojo". Seeing his work, as well as Aref's, and being really amazed with it, I'm planning on taking photography courses next year and just playing around with my digital camera more than I have been recently. (Another promo for my photography, incase any of you haven't seen it already)

The night ended late, at about 10pm... I took the bus (which I haven't done in maybe 3 years) from York to Downsview, and then took the subway back home. I got home around midnight, which explains why I was so tired to blog yesterday. And although my feet were killing me from all the walking, and my hands were frozen (because I thought I'd be fine without gloves) and I was hungry, it was a really good experience. I really need to start going to more events and just being involved a lot more with Design instead of just going to class and coming home. I spoke to another friend about helping out with Verso (even though there are only a few months left in the school year) so hopefully they'll let me.

This semester has given me a fresh look on life. I've been able to define more clearly where I stand right now, and where I'd like to be. I've started realizing my priorities and responsiblities that I have as a designer. I feel good.