Slidedeck from Ryan Bigge’s March 11, 2013 talk at SXSW about analog souvenirs and physidigital objects: “Online and offline worlds are now melting together. But life in the cloud lacks the permanence of paper, which is why we’re starting to lose significant emotional moments in the digital ether. In response, artists and brands are creating analog souvenirs. Learn how to convert fleeting texts and tweets into physidigital keepsakes through a mix of research, design thinking and creative inspiration.” Audio for presentation available at http://schedule.sxsw.com/2013/events/event_IAP3500 Ryan Bigge is a Content Strategist at Nurun Toronto. He blogs about analog souvenirs at physidigital.com

1. HELLO, SXSW
Creating Great Analog
Souvenirs for a Digital Era
Ryan Bigge March 11, 2013
@biggeidea

2. Can I borrow a feeling?
Every great analog souvenir should evoke an
emotional response or meet an emotional need
Visit physidigital.com for image sources

3. Evan Roth solitaire.exe
Windows 98

4. Instaprint

5. Photoshop in real life

6. Alan Belcher

7. deaddrops.com

8. Let me clarify…
physidigital is a physical manifestation of
a digital experience

9. Let me clarify…
physidigital is a physical manifestation of
a digital experience
analog souvenirs are a specific type of
physidigital object or experience

10. Tom
Haverford’s
real life
Pinterest
board
(Season 5 Episode 4 of
Parks and Recreation)

11. old is the new new
“The future of interactivity involves a picture of a
hamburger on a corkboard.”
–Ryan Bigge

12. old is the new new
“The future of interactivity involves a picture of a
hamburger on a corkboard.”
–Ryan Bigge
“The next decade is going to be about healing the
digital-physical divide by pulling bits back into the
world of atoms.”
–Wired

13. The plan
• Why are analog souvenirs so popular?
• Philosophical and artistic motivations
• Personal tips and insights
• Using analog souvenirs to drive retail innovation

14. Analog souvenirs
Why so popular?

15. Pantone
calendar

16. fizzydigital
physidigital sounds like fizzy digital

17. fizzydigital
physidigital sounds like fizzy digital
fizzy digital
fuzzy digital

18. dematerialization
All that is solid melts into zeros and ones

19. rematerialization

20. Facebook’s
analog lab

21. Analog souvenirs
A bit of theory

22. Polaroid
Cacher

23. “Beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting
table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.”

24. Hybrid thoughts
• Dada collage
• Surrealism
• Druids vs. Engineers (Paul Saffro)
• Nathan Jurgenson vs. IRL Fetish
• Reverse skeuomorph

25. SXSW 2013 comrades
• The Paradox of the Cloud
• Digital Reality: Life in Two Worlds
• Re-imagining Toys: Merging the Physical and Digital
• Physical and Digital Collide: Retail Rewired
• Embracing Analog: Why Physical is Hot
• Are You a Digital Hoarder?
• Analogue Anonymous Meetup

26. Analog souvenirs
What I’ve learned

27. txt2hold.ca

28. tweet2hold.com

30. Maker
Faire
Toronto
2011

31. The Brototypes:
Ryan Bigge
Ron Wild Dylan Reibling
Edwin Lara

33. Lymbix emotes
• Affection
• Enjoyment
• Amusement
• Contentment
• Sadness
• Anger
• Fear
• Humiliation
Lymbix.com

34. physical manifestation of
digital experience 1.0
Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

35. physical manifestation of
digital experience 2.0
Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

36. behold txt2hold
Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

37. Lesson #1
Do your research

38. Sweet emotion
• Baby announcements
• Birthday wishes
• Romantic messages

39. Lesson #2
Test in the real world

42. tweet2hold
Nuit Blanche
2011
Toronto
Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

43. Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

44. Nuit
Blanche
2011
Toronto
Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

45. Lesson #3
Idea selects the technology

46. “Paper holds a memory.”
–John Guppy, Toronto Origami Society

47. Lesson #4
You are not your
target audience

48. Jake Barton is smart
“The broader you go with your work, the simpler it
needs to be.”
“People can be more interesting than technology.”
--Local Projects | vimeo.com/54561376

50. Lesson #5
Accumulation is a powerful
aesthetic tool
Video about tweet2hold’s physical data visualization
project for Social Media Week Toronto 2012:
vimeo.com/43832564

51. Lesson Recap
Do your research
Test in the real world
Idea selects the technology
You are not your target audience
Accumulation is a powerful aesthetic tool

52. Analog souvenirs
Enhancing in-store retail

53. Nurun digital in-store
www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

54. Improving in-store findability
www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

55. An app for that
www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

56. Evernote Smart Notebook
by Moleskine

57. Looking for inspiration?
physidigital.com
Includes links to all material referenced in this slidedeck

58. Resources
physidigital.com
txt2hold.ca
tweet2hold.com
nurun.com
new-aesthetic.tumblr.com
Robin Sloan, Dance the Flip-Flop
Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas
medium.com/xoxo-festival/2c9ea2927fb2
infovore.org/archives/2012/07/30/ghostcar/
edge.org/response-detail/2385
thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-irl-fetish/