Thoughts on SxSW
Today is the last day of SxSW’s Interactive portion of the conference in Austin, TX. This is my last evening in Austin and I’d like to try something other than BBQ or meat, but I digress. Today is the day I finally felt that the conference was worthwhile despite the poor quality panels and presentations with exciting titles.
Maybe the reason the conference is moving me now as a designer is the movie screening of Helvetica. I realized how everybody in the world is now a designer or thinks of themselves as a designer. I used to be offended by this and ask them why would you think you’re a designer? Well today I realize that with digital cameras an amateur phototog can now take the equivalent of 10 rolls of film in one sitting and not have to develop the film. In graduate school my professor would applaud us when we came up with 3-5 printable shots per 27 shot rolls. We would have to buy film, take the time to develop the film, and then print them.
Today with the Canon and Nikon SLRs from the lower end models to the high end ones anybody can take the 27 shots in a minute. The more you shoot the better you get. We are now all photographers. Soon as the tools become easier we will all be filmmakers and sketchers. (e.g. JumpCut or SketchUp) Nobody has a single identity anymore.
I have been hanging on to the idea that people fit in buckets and you have to be a generalist and specialist to do your job and do it well. In this world of SxSW attendees this does not hold true. Everybody is a generalist and yet a specialist at the same time. The goal seems to be talk to everybody like you know what you’re saying, but do what you do very well to make yourself different.
Conclusion: I did not learn anything at the conference about design that I did not already know. I had many good conversations that made me question the way I think about design and how to interact with the interface. There are no answers, but always keep yourself open to new ideas.
Add comment March 13th, 2007
