I was recently asked to be a presenter at PechaKucha Toronto. Of course it was an honour and, telling myself that these sort of challenges lead to discovery and reward, I happily agreed. As the day grew near I started to fret—OK, I was freaking out a little. Not only was I struggling to find a topic suitable for the evening’s theme of “Design + Think + Passion”, but I hadn’t ever done a PechaKucha talk before and found the format surprisingly challenging. I was nervous.

For anyone unfamiliar with PechaKucha, it’s a presentation format where each speaker is permitted exactly 20 slides, and allowed to speak for 20 seconds per slide before it automatically advances to the next—whether you’re ready or not. It’s a terrific platform which forces speakers to make their point quickly, resulting in succinct, on point presentations the audience can digest easily.

I’ve done plenty of public speaking in my career, and I love challenges that scare me (it forces growth), but I found the restrictive parameters of PechaKucha uncomfortable. Anyone who knows me can attest to how much I enjoy talking and storytelling, but when you have less than seven minutes to take a crowded room full of strangers from “Hi my name is Mark…” through an entire story arc leading to an intelligent final point the audience will remember is a hard thing indeed. But beyond the confines of the format, I still had no clear topic idea and needed help. That help came from an unexpected source.

The week before my presentation, I joined my friend Ryan for a drink one evening. As we hadn’t seen each other in a while, he asked how life and business were these days. I described my PechaKucha woes briefly, but then found myself surprisingly whining a little about worries over the economy, sales and revenues at work, my income and poorly performing investments. One of my smartest and more successful chums, Ryan neither suffers fools nor tolerates whining, so it wasn’t out of character when he brazenly told me to “Give your head a shake!” But I was caught off guard when he leaned forward and asked, “What did you invest in last year?”

Not seeing an obvious connection to our previous conversation about my presentation, I thought for a minute and struggled to form an answer. Between the umms and awws, I said something about a GIC, RRSP and TFSA contributions, and was starting to bitch about crappy mutual funds and the insane real estate market in Vancouver when he stopped me abruptly, shook his head, and said he wasn’t talking about money at all. What the what now?

He then told me about a friend of his who, after a particularly good year with his business, instead of putting a chunk of money into savings or investment vehicles like real estate or the stock market, decided to invest in friends, relationships and community this year. To his accountant’s chagrin and disbelief, he had chosen five people he believed in and was spending his money to go visit them, travel with them to conferences and seminars, and set up meetings with influential people and potential mentors. His theory being that these people were on career trajectories that he could not only positively influence, but benefit from in the long term. He believed that spending his time, energy and money on them would open doors otherwise not opened and be far more profitable (for both parties) than conventional investments. A fascinating story leaving me feel a bit humbled, but I was still confused about the connection to my PechaKuchasituation.

“It’s simple,” Ryan continued, “you may not have the financial means to invest thousands of dollars the way my friend did, but you’ve been making similar investments all year long—and these pursuits will be profitable for years to come. You have significant reach and influence via social media, you volunteer for various community groups doing excellent work, you’re an active member and leader of various industry associations, and you frequently either attend, host, or speak at events and conferences each year. There’s your PechaKucha topic—a new way of looking at investments that others can consider and be inspired by.”

These certainly cost me money, but that wasn’t what he was driving at. As I sat there and listened to a friend’s objective perception of me and my activities, I started to understand. He was arguing that where I spent my time and energy was as (or more) important than where I invested my money, and could equally produce profits in social currency and capital. I started feeling mildly foolish and arrogant for whining about money, but also better about myself as I considered this line of thinking.

Ryan continued, pointing out the various industry events I’ve helped produce or host in the recent past, such as Salazar student design awards, Practivism sustainability speaker series, Graphex national design awards, and Icograda Design Week Vancouver.

He asked me how many pro bono or charity projects I’d participated in, bringing to mind many examples, such as Canstruction (benefitting Vancouver  Food Bank), Half The Sky Foundation (helping orphaned children in China), Dodson Neighbourhood House (providing safe, affordable housing for DTES) and Room To Read (building libraries in developing countries). I hadn’t really considered how participating in charity work could be viewed as a profitable investment.

Ryan went on talking about the leadership and organization skills I lend organizations like DOXA, SIGGRAPH, and Barcamp Vancouver, reminding me also of the various informative articles I’d published, the teaching and lecturing I do for various design programs and professional associations, and the mentoring I provide for students and young design professionals. He complimented me for being the driving force behind inclusive business networking groups such as Likemind Vancouver, which brings creatives together for coffee once a month, Interesting Vancouver, an annual “unconference” featuring interesting people talking about their hobbies, passions and obsessions, and Foodists, a collective of like-minded food worshippers I co-founded with some foodie friends.

Ryan wrapped up his argument by expressing appreciation for the way I volunteered my time and energy to serve as leadership with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, and for bringing the breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings to Vancouver, reminding me how many friends, collaborators, staff—even clients–had emerged as a result of all of these efforts—not to mention the positive impact it had on my reputation, network and influence.

My friend’s point was more than suitably made, and I felt great. I had never really considered all the various activities that I engaged in terms of an investment, but he was right: I had muddled the meaning of words like “investment” and “profit” by confusing them with money.

The truth is, beyond any feel-good sense of fulfillment, I was indeed profiting from my investments of time, energy, creativity, leadership and unpaid hard work in ways that easily outstripped most financial vehicles available. And in practical business terms, my company receives numerous inquiries, recommendations, new clients and projects, and in fact PROFITS from all of these indirect investments.

So how’d my PechaKucha presentation go? Well, it was still a challenge to put together and delivery succinctly, but as usual the challenge motivated me to step up and overcome my own fear and I think it went OK. According to coverage of the evening, the event was a success and my presentation was well received and memorable. Here’s a link to the audio and slides, so you can judge for yourself, but I feel like the effort was a good investment.

So now I ask you, what are you investing in this year?

CreativeMornings is being brought to Vancouver, by our very own Mark Busse.

CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg (@SwissMiss) for creative types happening the first Friday of each month. Each event is FREE of charge (thanks to sponsor support), and includes a 20 minute talk, with the added bonus of a proper hot breakfast and coffee.

Events in mornings don’t normally work for me as they tend to run from 8–9am (I’m a busy guy and mornings are normally crazy taking my daughter to daycare) but CreativeMornings/Vancouver is from 8:30–10am, so not even the parents among us have an excuse to miss this inaugural event (September 2, at W2 Media Café).

Logistics aside, Stewart Butterfield (the co-founder of Flickr and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world) will be talking and telling his story, followed by a  20 minute group discussion. This is going to be a very engaged and rare opportunity to see such a speaker in Vancouver and in such an intimate setting (and remember it’s FREE). The tickets will be released on August 29th and are limited to 150 seats (register at: http://vancouvercreativemornings.eventbrite.com on Monday, August 29th).

It’s awesome that Vancouver’s creative community is getting the credit it deserves and thanks to Mark for bringing this event to our city.

For more information read the article in Design Edge or visit www.creative mornings.com

UPDATE: At precisely 11am on Monday, August 29th 150 tickets for CreativeMornings/Vancouver’s first event became available to the public. By 11:02:50, less than three minutes later, they were completely sold out, with 130 disappointed people on the waiting list. The lesson? Vancouver’s creative community is hungry for this sort of event, and if you want tickets for the next one, set a reminder alarm and be ready!

Speaker Elliot Jay Stocks at the Interlink Conference. Photo by Steve Mynett

An edited version of the following article was published on DesignEdgeCanada.com on June 7, 2011:

Walking into the Interlink Conference felt a bit like witnessing two worlds collide. Half the audience was the hardcore designer set, with their retro haircuts and designer eyewear, the other half developers, with their nerdy t-shirts and techno-gadgets. Or was it the designers with the tees and toys and the nerds with the hipster fashion? The crowded auditorium at Capilano University was a sea of glowing Apple logos, and the line between designer and developer was so blurry it didn’t seem to matter anymore. In fact, perhaps that was the point. All of the more that 300 attendees and 15 speakers that came to Interlink Conference June 2 to 4 were there to share and learn from each other about how to make the web a better place and help people make their lives better.

Being the first ever edition of this conference format, rookie organizer Shawn Johnston opened the day by sharing his vision for Interlink, explaining that his intention was a “peer-to-peer discussion both among the attendees and between speakers and workshop leaders and the audience”.

The topic of inspiration sometimes seems ubiquitous at design conferences, but web industry veteran Denise Jacobs kicked off the conference by sharing practical tips for embedding this often elusive muse into a creative process “on demand”. Jacobs countered basic ides like ignoring our inner critic or giving ourselves permission to produce bad ideas with examples of strategies, habits and tools a web designer can use in the daily pursuit of creativity and inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter how much you like some ideas, as they may not like you back.” explained Portland’s popular and well-spoken design guru Frank Chimero. Stunning the audience by declaring he’d scrapped his planned presentation, instead talking about his personal journey, and the frustrations and revelations he encountered in his design practice. Using the metaphor of the painter stepping back from the canvas to evaluate the process itself, Chimero discussed the difference between the “how” of design (the techniques and tools we use) and the “why” (the choices we make). Chimero presented an argument that it was where these overlap that real design happens. Referencing the continuing rapid changes on the web, Chimero challenged the audience to consider that designers “don’t actually solve problems, they produce design responses” with a myriad of possibilities for most design challenges. “If we solved design problems, there would be only one Twitter client app.” joked Chimero to chuckles from the audience. “There’s a different between good work and valuable work, and we don’t have to choose.” Chimero continued “But valuable is how you get to good. The point is to make stuff to help us live better.”

The first of many UK designers was Elliot Jay Stocks, who used humour to challenge the audience to move past established Web 2.0 aesthetics with a straight-talking rant about “cheesy effects” and illogical choices so commonly made by web designers. Refreshing was Stocks’ contention that it was the obligation of serious web designers to learn the fundamentals of traditional graphic design and apply it online. “Bogged down by web design?” asked Stocks cheekily, “Then go do some print design—it’s so liberating.”

“Good design does not necessarily mean good experience”, argued New York-based designer Whitney Hess, as she explained her user experience philosophy and introduced the audience to a set of ten design principles anyone could apply in their own practice. The foundation of Hess’ approach was the notion that “user experience is the establishment of a philosophy about how to treat people,” echoing Frank Chimero’s earlier sentiment that good web design is about making people’s lives better, not just creating pretty graphics or cool effects. Through creative use of striking photography and a charming presentation style, Hess inspired many in the audience to frantically jot notes, a sure sign of a compelling conference presentation, and more than a few attendees posted tweets about how they planned to initiate a set of design principles themselves.

Still reeling from Hess’ inspirational talk, the audience next met UK-based mobile interface designer Sarah Parmenter, a straight-talking (and striking) Virgo perfectionist who claims she started designing iOS apps “because she likes surrounding herself with aesthetic things.” From the benefits of an application definition statement to a series of examples and techniques, her glossy presentation included practical tips and tricks for any web designer wanting to make the leap to designing interfaces for mobile devices—something she claims is inevitable for anyone in the web design field these days. Parmenter also emphasized the importance of respecting the user experience, a theme woven throughout the entire conference.

The most technical presentation of the day, Yahoo designer (and one of only two Canadian speakers) Jonathan Snook walked the audience through an overview of the evolution of CSS and demonstrated a series of useful techniques and tips. While not everyone in the auditorium were as engaged by this code-heavy presentation, Snook’s talk reminded all that using technologies such as HTML, CSS and JQuery is an important part of being successful as a web designer—and not nearly as daunting or awkward as in years past.

“At less than 15 years old, our industry is still young—it hasn’t even had sex yet.” began DIBI Conference producer and English web designer Gavin Elliot. He certainly got the attention of those in the auditorium, but it didn’t get much better unfortunately. His presentation, called “A Better Process” was billed as an intro to web design process which we could put into action to make our own work better than ever. “We don’t build websites, we build systems” was the most memorable statement in his slick presentation, while the core of Elliot’s talk lacked much practical or applicable learning suitable for this well-informed audience.

The final conference presentation was by yet another Brit, this time web designer Simon Collison. His presentation was arguably the most academic, rooted in the fundamentals of visual language as he discussed applying a more analytical approach to content and structure and how they affect the choices we make as designers. “The influx of type choices online requires us to think smarter about type design choices” argued Collison, echoing the sentiments of Ethan Dunham and others. His contention that static web design, versus adaptive or responsive web layout resonated with numerous attendees who could be overheard discussing ways to make their own interface designs more flexible.

Still buzzing from a jam-packed day of conference presentations, attendees returned to Capilano University on Saturday for hands on workshops by industry experts. Simon Collison continued his theme of the importance of visual language with his “Analytical Design” workshop, explaining some of the science and meaning behind the decisions we make and offering ideas and methods for improving design process. Canadian Steve Fisher, who argued that there isn’t any fundamental difference between UX and design, gave attendees practical tips on how to spend more time examining the reasons and motivations behind the functions and interfaces we create. “I’m in the process of blowing out at least 30% of my process because I think it has been lying to myself, stakeholders and other team members.” Fisher explained. “Things like static wireframes essentially lie.” Wrapping up the workshops was a pragmatic, no-hype introduction to HTML5 by Manchester-based developer and Opera Web Evangelist Patrick Lauke. ”HTML5 is a huge topic.” says Lauke, “People use it to refer to “really cool shit” for everything that is out there.” explaining that HTML5 is still basically a proposition under development, but in the final stages of review for W3C recommendation. “What people think of as HTML5 is most often javascript or CSS3.” explained Lauke. Attendees were treated to an overview of this new specification along with some useful training in new syntax/semantics, improved form interactivity, and the “flash-killer” features like native support in browsers for video, audio and canvas.

Aside from a few comments about the inconvenience of the venue location in North Vancouver, and the mayhem of the Stanley Cup playoffs (go Canucks!) interfering with some social activities, Interlink successfully delivered on its promise of bringing thought leaders together from all over the world to spark discussion and debate regarding the evolving and constantly changing face of the web. One group of attendees chatting over drinks on Saturday night discussed a longing to see more real-world project case studies and panel discussions next year. ”Apart from a few hard to follow and slightly obscure talks, I was thoroughly impressed with the level of quality of the discussions.” offered Calgary-based designer and developer Matt Trienis. ”Lately, I’ve been feeling like I need to step up my game, and Interlink really confirms that.” said Vancouver web designer Catherine Winters.

Congratulations to Shawn Johnston and his volunteers for hosting the first of what will surely be many more successful Interlink Conferences.

Photos from the conference can be on Flickr.

I’m basically a print designer, and even though I have done web design I worried that they would be “talking in code” and I’d be lost. I was pleasantly surprised—the presenters who showed some code did it in a way that I could understand. Even Eric Meyer’s chat on “CSS for evil” was presented in a way that made sense to the print designers like me!

Monday morning started with AEA founder Jeffrey Zeldman giving a history of Emoticons. From the simple smiley face to winking emoticons with hats and mustaches to the difference between eastern and western styles, we were impressed with Zelman’s vast knowledge.

Just joking :)

Seriously, you know that the next two days are going to be great when you hear things like “Beautiful no longer means flash-based.” Zeldman’s passionate opening on the history of the web—Web 2.0—set the tone of the conference. He kicked off AEA by showing inventions from history that led to the web, and showing why we stand at the dawn of a newer and more mature web powered by standards.

Following Zeldman, we heard from Sarah Parmenter on Crafting the User Experience. She discussed principles from human psychology, such as speed, simplicity, surprise, social behavior and stirring emotions, and she gave practical advice for using psychology when thinking about web design and user experience.

Rounding out the morning was Jason Santa Maria’s session On Web Typography. He began by talking about what makes a good web typeface and major typography considerations, such as dimensions, special features, prolonged reading and internationalization. “Good typography is invisible. Don’t make me think about reading, just let me read!” Then he talked about the advances and choices we now have with web fonts. Even though those advances are exciting, he cautioned, we still have to use good design and web standards.

The afternoon started with Scott Berkun talking about Why Designers Fail and What to Do About It. He gave us his thoughts on how we’d never learn and move forward without failure. He said all designers fail 95% of the time, but design suffers from a lack of failure analysis—how to look at the reasons we fail and what to do about it.

One of my favourite sessions was A Content Strategy Roadmap with Kristina Halvorson. She provided valuable insights into how we spend a lot of time on strategy, wireframes and design before obtaining content for our websites. Content often comes last, when it should come first. The bottomline: “Start designing from the content out, rather that the canvas in,” she said.

Finishing off the day was Luke Wroblewski, whose presentation Mobile Web Design Moves left me eager for his full-day mobile web design course. It was exciting to hear about the huge growth in mobile usage, the immense possibilities of mobile web design and how we need to think differently when designing for mobile devices.

Day two started off with Eric Meyer and his talk The CSS3 Anarchists’ Cookbook. Basically, he gave us tips and tricks on how to use CSS for “evil”—how to mess with your co-workers by changing up code in their browser’s user stylesheets. I was a little scared of this talk, but whenever Eric showed the code he showed examples of what it did so it made sense. It was a cheeky way to show the new tools in HTML5 and CSS3.

Jeremy Keith followed with a discussion of Design Principles. He talked about how your principles and design should match, and how this will help you reach your goals—“The more you can boil down your design principles, the better.” Aarron Walter then did a presentation titled Idea to Interface. It was great to learn how those iPhone apps you have in your mind would translate from just an idea into actuality. He said you need to give yourself permission to be the person with the idea, and he outlined how you would carry it through.

The afternoon continued with Andy Clarke and his presentation Smoke Gets in Your Eyes about CSS3 web animation. We learned about the latest CSS animation techniques, and he showed some entertaining videos, such as the Flash vs. Web rap battle.

Alexa Andrzejewski, the founder of Foodspotting, followed with an intriguing presention The Dimensions of a Good Experience. She talked about evaluating experiences using 10 principles from urban planning, and how these same qualities could be applied to digital experiences—“Design influences our experience of the world.” It was the process that led her to create the Foodspotting app.

Finishing off day two was the humourous and incredibly passionate Tom Coates talking about Everything the Network Touches. He reminded us all about how exciting and powerful the web is and how the network is not only extending to people but to objects and places. His final thought: “I am going to say something controversial: I don’t think we should have web standards. It’s only with the ability to explore and not be bound by rules and regulations that we going to create and discover new realms.”

With our minds on overload from these two days we headed into day three, Mobile Web Design with Luke Wroblewski. Again, I had no reason to worry that we’d be doing something super techincal. It was all digestible information. Talking to a crowd of 300, Luke did a great job of getting us to interact with him and each other. He started by asking the audience what we’d like to learn. We also did a few interactive projects by sharing in small groups. Throughout the day, Luke took us through the major considerations when designing for mobile: what the constraints are, stats on usage, what behaviours drive the use of mobile devices and how they are used.

AEA, you know how to throw a conference: 12 exceptionally fantastic speakers, a live Twitter feed, three parties and a soundtrack! If you’re looking to attend a fun web design conference that runs seamlessly with loads of exciting and passionate people, check out An Event Apart. Having attended many design conferences I found AEA to be among one of the best experiences I’ve had. I went from not knowing anything about this conference to coming back with practical experience and tools ready to be put to use in our office.

Further reading:
A List Apart
World Wide Web Consortium
Luke Wroblewski’s Notes on AEA Presentations

The next Likemind Vancouver event will be held at 8am on Friday, April 15th, and hosted by Ethical Bean Café 91315 Kootenay Street (near Boundary & 1st Ave) (Click here for directions).

Free coffee and snacks will be generously provided to those who come early, so come join a group of like-minded creative professionals and start your day with some good conversation over a cup of good coffee.

Remember to confirm your RSVP on the Facebook group page so we can estimate how many people are coming (sometimes more than 50 attendees). If you don’t use Facebook, you can join our LinkedIn Group, or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on upcoming events.

Invite a friend, and bring your travel mug. See you there!

PS – If you bring your camera along, please upload your shots and share them with the 70 other Likemind groups in cities around the world! Also, please consider sharing your appreciate for our host café by posting to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, Urbanspoon, or your personal blog!

The next Likemind Vancouver event will be held at 8am on Friday, January 21st, and hosted by Prophouse Café at 1636 Venables St. (one block west of Commercial Dr) (Click here for directions).

Free coffee and snacks will be generously provided to those who come early, so come join a group of like-minded creative professionals and start your day with some good conversation over a cup of good coffee.

Remember to confirm your RSVP on the Facebook group page so we can estimate how many people are coming (sometimes more than 50 attendees). If you don’t use Facebook, you can join our LinkedIn Group, or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on upcoming events.

Invite a friend, and bring your travel mug. See you there!

PS – If you bring your camera along, please upload your shots and share them with the 70 other Likemind groups in cities around the world! Also, please consider sharing your appreciate for our host café by posting to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, Urbanspoon, or your personal blog!

For the past three and a half months I have been an intern at Industrial Brand, and what a journey it has been. I have learnt a lot about the business of design and every step in between from how to write an RFP response to preparing production ready files to organizing a 16TB server chock-a-block full of archives and files up to 14 years old! The whole design process: beginning to end. Come on, what more could you ask for out of an internship, really! It’s awesome!

For all of you who know the team at Industrial Brand personally, I think we can all safely say they say a lot of random things. During my internship I have published a series of quotes on my blog that the members at Industrial Brand have said at the office. Half of the team did not know they have been secretly recorded for this purpose… SURPRISE! Some of the quotes have been censored out (for good reason) and some have been forgotten through time. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed listening to these five unforgettable people.

Here are a couple examples:

For the rest, check out my Tumblr page: nikolej.tumblr.com/tagged/Fun_Quotes

What I have learnt at Industrial Brand is invaluable, and definitely unforgettable. I have been able to see and contribute to multiple projects, some from the beginning of the design discovery process, and some projects as they are coming to an end and being sent to press. One thing I know now from interning at Industrial Brand, as funny as it may sound, is that there is so much I do not know. School can only teach you so much, and until you are in a working environment and get a real grasp at what you are doing, it’s only then that you get to use those skills they taught you at school and apply them.

There are many things I shall miss at Industrial Brand. I shall miss: Charlie running into furniture when we moved things around the office, the morning banters, the ‘tining’ sound of iPhones going off, the random jokes and off topic conversations that never end, and the random one liners that keep me laughing. Most importantly I shall miss the people at Industrial Brand. This office is made up of five very uniquely different team members who all bring a new perspective and individuality to the team.  How they bring together each members’ individual styles into the projects, while listening and guiding one another through the design process I will never know. All I know is that I will miss it.

I will now pack my backpack with books and a K4 sandwich and go back to school, finishing my 4^th year of BA Graphic Design for Marketing Degree Program at Kwantlen. Thank you Industrial Brand for everything. Your knowledge and wisdom is invaluable. During this summer I have viewed the team as my Yoda, my Jedi Master of communication design.

Good luck. Farwell… and I am just a text message away in case something is lost on the server.

Thank you!  Nikole Japuncic

‘Stationery!’

The next Likemind Vancouver event will be held at 8am on Friday, August 20th and hosted by Kafka’s Coffee & Tea House at 2525 Main Street (at Broadway) (Click here for directions).

Free coffee and snacks will be generously provided to those who come early, so come join a group of like-minded creative professionals and start your day with some good conversation over a cup of good coffee.

Remember to confirm your RSVP on the Facebook group page so we can estimate how many people are coming (sometimes well over 60 attendees). If you don’t use Facebook, you can join our LinkedIn Group, or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on upcoming events.

Invite a friend, and bring your travel mug. See you there!

PS – If you bring your camera along, please upload your shots and share them with the 70 other Likemind groups in cities around the world!

The journals have countless pages of inspirations and ideas in them. My favorite part of this whole project is that the pages are created by ordinary people, not artist or designers. Allowing new ideas and unique and unusual concepts to emerge. It is simply brilliant.

There are still 1,000 journals circulating around the world… who knows, you could find one.

Check out 1000journals.com or buy the book with Amazon

Matt recently wrote a great article about why he was excited about the upcoming Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 conference.

This week Icograda released this animated promo video about the theme of Design Currency created by Rethink, Giant Ant Media, Todd Smith Design and Wave Productions—all studios in Vancouver, BC.

The coolest thing for me is that the video is old school flipbook animation, not computer trickery. The production team literally printed and photographed 2,180 custom bills to create the effect. Here are some behind the scenes photos showing how they did it.

Pretty cool work guys—well done!