Over the past couple of weeks I’ve eluded to the fact that I will be participating on a panel at this year’s SXSWi called The Influence of Art in Design.
Here’s a description of the panel (straight from the horse’s mouth):
Fine arts have long held a subtle, yet influential grip on both information and design. From cartoons, illustrations, digital art, photography and more, you’ll hear firsthand from some of the best in their fields, have a chance to explore the past, present, and future of the techniques that you see around the web, and how it can improve your own work and get both sides of the brain working better together.
Turning Thoughts into Reality
To backpedal a bit, before I made the commitment to go to last year’s SXSW Interactive conference — my first visit — I made a promise to myself that come the next conference I would be on a panel. Certainly it’s fun to actively participate as an observer, but to present your thoughts to people, to engage them, to make them think and all said and done, if they can get something out of what you’re saying, well, that’s saying something.
I kept that thought in the back of my mind, that I would somehow, using some force of nature have the opportunity to be up there amongst a group of my peers and share something, even if at the time I hadn’t any idea of what that might be.
Months later during a late night IM conversation with Anton Peck he mentioned the concept of the panel to me and it didn’t take much convincing on his part, I was hooked..
The Dream Team
Next week I will be sharing meatspace with the following creative-minded people:
- Dan Rubin (our fearless moderator)
- Glenda Sims
- Anton Peck
- Dave Shea
- Patrick Haney
Come join us on Saturday, March 10th (11:30-12:30pm) and be sure to mark it on your SXSW calendar.
It’s a win-win; you’ll have a blast, learn a thing or two and I can genuinely promise your creativity will kick into overdrive.
I’ll be there - looking forward to it. :)
That’s great! From spectator to presenter. I’ve personally never attended any of these events but it is certainly exciting to read about it. Seems like all the heavy hitters will be attending this conference and so now you’re a part of it.
Matthew: Very cool Matthew. I wasn’t even aware that you would be in Austin - were you there last year too?
It’ll be great to meet you as well.
Jorge: If you’ve never been, you need to try to attend next year. Although, it becomes an addiction that’s hard to shake.
Being amongst like-minded people energizes you in more ways than I can describe.
I’m looking forward to the panel Erik! It sucks they have you guys going up against the similar “After the Brief” panel with Jason, Rob and Cameron. However, I pretty much know what two-thirds of that will be like, so the choice was easy ;)
Joshua: Well, thanks man! Yeah, as a group we discussed how “After the Brief” will be going on at the same time, but suffice to say, while the subject matter is similar it’s also very different.
The way I like to think of it is that there’s plenty of design love to spread around. Honestly, I just wish our panel was before and their panel after so we all could attend each other’s panels.
Regardless, it’s awesome that you plan on being there. Last year we only had a few moments to talk, so if you’d like, we can chill or walk around downtown Austin pretending we know what we’re doing.
So, how it was?… “The Influence of Art in Design” a subject I’m interested in it, too. My problem is that Texas is too far from where I live.
Respiro: It turned out well actually.
I need to set aside some time to write up my thoughts on this year’s SXSW and being on a panel, but it was fun.
Be on the lookout for the podcast to show up soon and we’ve got a site up for The Influence of Art in Design.
I didn’t get a chance to meet you at the Godbit dinner last month, but I was there, too! Good times… Anyway, just wanted to say hi. And sorry I didn’t make it to your panel!
Wasn’t the hammer or?