eugeneangelo retweeted
It was pointed out that I write an essay in support of creative directors in new types of organizations every year or so.
There’s 3 reasons for this.
1 - WHEN YOU BELIEVE IN AN IDEA, REPEAT IT. Too often folks are looking for the next idea. Push an idea to its extreme end to see how strong it actually is. That’s how ideas resonate, and that’s how you actually test your own conceptual ability
2 - I BELIEVE IN CREATIVES HAVING POSITIONS OF POWER. Bringing creatives into institutions they wouldn’t typically see themselves promoted the liberal arts belief of interdisciplinary thinking AND impact. The problem is that there’s a type of “creative technologist” that always wants to critique power and are comfortable with not having it. It keeps them and their practice “pure”. And allows for a sort of meta discourse outside of the organizations of consequence. This to me is a tragedy.
3 - I BELIEVE IN RICH CREATIVES AND THAT EVERY ORGANIZATION CAN BE MORE CREATIVE. with each of these pieces two things always happens. One, Creatives outside of tech reach out to see “is it true I can do a job like that”. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have helped outsiders change their economic lives forever. And two, organizations reach out to find the types of folks that can have creative impact.
1am in an office in downtown san francisco, blasting peezy on the syng speakers, reading about apple sold 450m ipods, and putting my best learnings into my best ideas, chains of pure logic
thinking a lot about virgil's childhood in suburban illinois and how much of his work was an attempt to reach back into that world, not just the elite circles in nyc/ldn/paris/etc. if you truly want to make work for the masses, the real challenge is in crossing those distances
growing up in a village of 200 people in remote france has become my core reference, the goal is to make the device and work that dents that world as much as inner city life
the only options were go into the military or become a farmer, I had the internet but few-to-no local barometers for taste or culture, london thankfully was that place in the end. but I always think about the version of myself that stayed there, and what that kid needs today
you can't do mass consumer electronics without thinking about the american highway and the car-first city -- completely different rhythms of life to london, tokyo, paris. just not sure if the next devices should equalise the experiences of these places or amplify their nuances
as we always imagined
to iterate on a new youth culture
we'd break the glass ceiling of making t-shirts and album covers
and start to drive change across the industries they'd rather keep us out of
it's now happening for real
new york
prototypes in hand
more prototypes at work in china
feeling more and more guided
let the supply chains & jet fuel take over
the best thing about all the tasteless products releasing at the moment is that I get to learn which investors don't know what they're doing