What is a creative technologist?
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I gave this talk to the agency I work at, as i'm the first 'creative technologist' there. My thoughts on what my job means, where I think the industry is going and some inspirational stuff in the back end. These slides are quite old - please see the latest version - http://www.slideshare.net/sermad1/what-is-a-creative-technologist @sermad
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What is a creative technologist?
- 1. What is a Creative Technologist? V1.0
- 2. Hello. I’m Sermad. A little bit about me.
- 3. Kerb | Holler | Glue London | Wieden + Kennedy | TBWA 11 Years experience in ‘digital’. Boom + Bust. Worked across lots of stuff - games, web builds, mobile applications, interactive installations...
- 8. So again, what is a Creative Technologist?
- 9. But before we try and answer that question.
- 10. What is advertising these days?
- 11. Whopper Sacrifice Chalkbot
- 12. Technology not for technologies’ sake. Technology was an enabler to these brand truths.
- 13. TwelpForce eco:Drive
- 14. Alcoholic Architecture Speed Of Light
- 15. Advertising can be ‘big’ telly. Advertising can be a utility. Advertising can be advertising the advertising. Advertising can be a game. Advertising can be an experience. Advertising can be a community. Advertising can be so many things that the rule book has gone out of the window.
- 16. To do all this amazing new stuff we have to change the way we work and think.
- 17. Welcome to the ‘Age of Execution’.
- 18. Telly and print can be faked. Things you use can’t.
- 20. The advertising is now the user experience.
- 21. Welcome to the ‘Age of Constraints’.
- 22. A lot of interactive ideas are just not possible - not in the not enough time / money way. But just not possible.
- 23. Welcome to the ‘Age of Collaboration’.
- 24. To even think creatively in these new interactive spaces takes a lot of different skills from outside of this agency.
- 25. So seriously, what is a Creative Technologist?
- 26. THINK CT MAKE BX
- 27. Think • Be briefed to originate ideas to solve communication problems for our clients. • Work with a creative platform - ‘the big thought’ and take it into different space. • Work with creative teams to make their ideas better. • See interesting bits of technology and translate it into new ideas. • Be a filter on new trends in technology, share it to right people to inspire and innovate.
- 28. Make • Create tests and prototypes that demonstrate creative ideas. • Play with technology to gain a deeper understanding.
- 30. Prototyping • When you make a prototype as part of the creative process, it unlocks a deeper understanding of the problems. • When you give a client a built prototype, it gives them enough of an impression of the type of experience they are buying into. • Prototyping can be coded, a filmed storyboard or simply scamps loaded onto a phone.
- 31. BX (Brand Experience) • Step back from the idea and ask common sense user experience questions. • What types of technology does the audience use? • How does the user find this idea, participate and share? • What are the barriers? context? time? place? • Are we asking too much? • Does this idea affect other parts of the brand? • How do all the touchpoints interplay? • Not about deep IA and UX.
- 33. A Creative Technologist is a lot of types of jobs rolled into one.
- 34. T Shaped Model Tech Director Producer Planner BX IA IxD Innovation Director ‘Creative' / Developer
- 35. Art Director Copywriter Creative Tech = = = Pictures Words Code Via @prindlescott
- 36. I use code to help express my creative ideas.
- 38. So that means any developer can be a creative technologist?
- 39. Well yes... But can they think up ideas that solve communication problems?
- 40. Maybe not.
- 41. Creative Technologist is also a bit of a rubbish job title.
- 42. It implies that not technologists are not creative.
- 43. You don’t have the title ‘creative art directors’...
- 44. The problem is that the definition of creativity is flawed.
- 45. Little ideas can lead to big things.
- 47. The concept of the ‘creative team’ really has to change to cope with making this new stuff.
- 48. Art Director Copywriter
- 49. Better team? CT Art Director Copywriter Comms Planner
- 50. Better team?? CT Art Director Copywriter Comms Planner Producer Client
- 51. Core Team Specialist CT Art Director Copywriter Comms Planner Specialist
- 52. So I hope I haven’t confused you all.
- 53. In summary.
- 54. Creative Technologists will make your awesome stuff awesomer.
- 55. Creative Technologists enable ways to say ‘yes’. Via @prindlescott
- 56. Creative Technology is this years Social Media Guru. P.S. Next year it will be ‘User Experience Professional’.
- 57. How to spot a good CT • Can they make stuff with code. • Can they originate and present their own ideas. • Can they inspire. • Can they collaborate. • Can they spot brand truths where technology can be applied. • Can they keep the ‘person’ at the heart of any solutions.
- 58. Play Time
- 60. Here are some examples of brilliant creative technology.
- 61. Chris O'Shea - Hand From Above http://vimeo.com/7042266
- 62. Inspired by Hand From Above? http://vimeo.com/12855619
- 63. Inspired by Hand From Above? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZG248mXkDk
- 67. Trends 2011
- 68. Rise Of The Backchannel Photo by Dan Taylor
- 69. High Street 3D Printing
- 71. Real World To Gaming Experiences The more you run in real life, the faster your game character.
- 72. Real World To Gaming Experiences The slower your heartbeat in real life, the better aim for your game character.
Editor's Notes
- How being a creative technologist relates to my work.\n
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- Inspired by films of the 80’s. Wanted to be a hacker after seeing War Games.\n
- Wanted to make special FX after seeing TRON.\n
- I wanted to be DARYL - A robot boy who can control computers with his mind - I want this super power.\n
- I LOVE transformers - I collected every issue and then my mum threw them all away.\n
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- Whopper Sacrifice came at a time where people were bored of Facebook and collecting ‘friends’. Unfriending people to gain a Whopper tapped into that zeitgeist.\n\nChalkbot was also based on a truth - people were writing on the roads for many years and technology enabled twitter messages to be placed on the road. It was rooted in ‘Livestrong’ as a platform not trainers - hence why it made sense.\n
- Twelpforce was about letting your employees become brand advocates.\n\neco:Drive was about taking a pre-existing technology already in the cars and wrapping a community on top of it.\n
- For Hendricks Gin, Bompass & Parr created a ‘cloud’ of gin and a totally new way of experiencing a cocktail.\n\nFor Virgin Media, UVA took the idea of ‘light’ inside optical cables and made these into stunning interactive art.\n
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- Ask yourself why apple is so great? Is it the advertising? The product? The user experience. Most people would say ‘beautifully designed products’.\n
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- You need to work around these constraints while coming up with ideas not come up with the idea and then figure it out.\n
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- This idea of augmented reality without a marker was brought to the creatives and then it was the spark of an idea for Burger King.\n
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- You can’t concept an idea without an understanding of technology and more than ever media. So understanding the media can give you new directions for creative thinking.\n
- Balance is key. Keeping the creative team small enough it isn’t bloated but skilled enough to handle the work.\n
- Maybe it’s about having a core team but pullling in specialists when needed.\n
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- We need time to play, muck about - get into the sandpit that is technology and see what we can do. Maybe it’ll spark an idea, a conversation that will lead somewhere else.\n
- I used to love taking things part when I was a kid. I still LOVE doing this. Figuring out how something was made so I can understand it - Never lose this. Everyone should be like this.\n\nGet your fingers burned.\n
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- Where does borrowing an idea move into theft?\n\nHow can we collaborate with people to take ideas they’ve worked on to our clients?\n\nHow can we protect our own ideas?\n
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- Taking a lifeless robot and giving it a material - cardboard. How this can create empathy between us and it.\n
- Open Sourcing things - Giving it away. Let the world work with you on a common goal. The crowd is smarter then the person.\n
- A great inspirational website - check it every week.\n
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- X Factor is no one without twitter. BBC have already started doing experiments with aggregating content from social media.\n\nLots of content providers are moving into this space and with the rise of the iPad and Google TV, this should hit the mainstream.\n
- 3D printing is still incredibly expensive - But some bright person will start to put these machines in photo printing places. You go in, design or choose your object from a template and a little while later you pick it up.\n\nCan objects that have memories associated with them still carry those memories when you copy them. What if you laser scanned your pet and then created a 3D model...\n
- In high end and bespoke fashion you are already seeing this - The imogen heap dress displayed ‘tweets’ while she was at an awards show.\n\nYou just need the tech to become robust and powered so you can throw it in a washing machine and not care about it.\n\nWhat if your phone was connected to the clothes you wear. When you are running it changes the colour of your jacket according to how fast you run. Or when a call comes in, your clothes change colour depending on the person. \n
- Everyone talks about ‘gamification’ but what about taking real world experiences and putting this back into a game.\n\nThe Mirrors Edge game is all about free running - what if your character ran faster or jumped further because you had completed a 5k run in a great time that week.\n
- The Killzone game is all about accurate shooting - what if your player had better aim because you had a slow heartbeat.\n\nIt just needs games designers to start playing with all these sensors.\n
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