A New Creative Direction

Technology is a glittering lure, but there’s the rare occasion when the public can be engaged beyond flash – if they have a sentimental bond with the product. These aren’t my words, they came from the pen of Matthew Weiner and the mouth of Don Draper (John Hamm), the Creative Director’s Creative Director and the star of AMC’s Mad Men.

Don is delivering his thoughts in a pitch to Kodak for their new slide carousel and it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch. On first viewing, I felt a sense of nostalgia for the precious moments with my children growing up. More recently, my thoughts have turned to the time I failed to spend with Olivia and Hattie, having left them in their formative years. I’ve been a poor father, but I’m working so very hard to change that.

It may sound contrived to say you must have something and lose it to truly appreciate it, from family and friends to money to freedom (a reality we’re all facing during the current global pandemic) – even job titles. I can’t help but think this isn’t simply part of our ‘fail fast’ startup mentality. It has always been true.

My somewhat nostalgic view of family also extends to the profession I love – design. This might seem at odds with my role as a ‘Futuroligist’ and all the technological interaction this brings, but my boundary-pushing has always had an extraordinary depth of respect for where origins lie.

My background combines Design, Technology and Innovation and all three should interlink to form the backbone of a contemporary Creative Director. However, Design should still be the primary focus, leading a team to creative excellence through an understanding of the tools at our disposal and the talented individuals within our sphere of influence.

We strive for future missions to Mars and beyond, fuelled by knowledge gleaned from historic human efforts to reach the surface of the moon. We design and manufacture beautiful cars, driven by decades of data taken from safety, handling and ergonomic experience. Steve Jobs gave us the future in the palms of our hands, not because he asked what people wanted but because he knew what they didn’t have. He had a greater understanding of his audience than they did of themselves and this came from observing previous human behaviour and applying this to the future – the present happened as a result.

How does this relate to Don Draper and the existence of the modern Creative Director? Last week, I took an exciting leap of faith and joined an incredible creative technology agency called Beep!, based in Poole, UK and Santa Clara, US. I had the pick of creative titles but elected to once again become a Creative Director – the Creative Director.

When I first watched the Mad Men Kodak pitch, Don became the creative hero I didn’t know I was looking for. That moment provided the approval I didn’t know I needed. It gave substance to four years of design education and decades building a professional portfolio.

To appreciate its impact, here’s the full script and the scene that breathes life into Matthew Weiner’s words:

“Technology is a glittering lure, but there’s the rare occasion when the public can be engaged beyond flash – if they have a sentimental bond with the product.”
“The most important thing in advertising is ‘NEW’. It creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion”
“There is also a deeper bond with the product… nostalgia. It’s delicate, but potent”
“In Greek, nostalgia literally means pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.”
“This device isn’t a space ship… it’s a time machine”
“It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called ‘The Wheel’, it’s called ‘The Carousel’. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Round and around and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.”

I may have something in my eye…

Artificial Intelligence, reality TV creatives and Account Execs won’t replace Designers – the world just needs to know it. The role of a Creative Director isn’t simply to say “make it bigger, make it red and move it to the left a bit”, it is to motivate, inspire and champion the very existence of design. Designers need to feel important – because they are. They also need to feel relevant and the popular opinion that “everyone’s a designer” is meaningless if there’s no distinction between a good one and a bad one.

My role as President Elect of the Chartered Society of Designers provides me with an enviable overview and understanding of the profession. It is in rude health as far as skills are concerned, but COVID has hit the job market for active design recruitment and many freelancers are also suffering hardship, slipping through the cracks without Government support.

Good news is out there. Some creative businesses are flourishing AND employing (Beep! is doing both) but this message is easily swamped by the sheer volume of negative media output. It’s more important than ever to keep telling the world about success wherever and whenever it happens.

Those of us that consider ourselves designers and technologists tell a great story about “designing the future” or “shaping the now”, but like Kodak in Don Draper’s pitch, we find ourselves creating products that capture a moment, platforms that share them or channels that allow us to comment on content. Their power lies in the very same nostalgia Don referenced.

The past, present and future all intertwine and so do our roles as creative leaders.

This is why I’m championing a direct approach that streamlines the complex and makes Creative Direction great again. Like the things we feel we’ve lost or even lost touch with, it is important to appreciate simplicity in order to cut through the white noise of contemporary life.

We’ve all had our fill of Ninjas, Gurus and Experts. And that once-simple org chart now features more layers than Photoshop. When you hit the dizzying heights of creative leadership, you discover quite a crowd at the summit. These are all existing job titles:

– Design Director

– Art Director

– Associate Creative Director

– Creative Director

– Senior Creative Director

– Group Creative Director

– Head of Design

– Executive Creative Director

– Global Executive Creative Director

– Chief Creative Officer

And I’ve probably missed a few!!

2020 may seem like the longest year on record, but more than ever… every second counts. Don Draper’s time machine offered a glimpse into what many people crave – the ability to design the future by combining an appreciation of the past and an effective grasp on the present.

The Creative Director is dead. Long live the Creative Director!

The Digital Design Imperative

When President John F Kennedy so famously uttered the words “ask not what the design industry can do for you, ask what you can do for the design industry”, how could he have known they would be even more relevant today. Or was that Neville Brody?

I’ve always been of the opinion that if bad Photoshopping and typography doesn’t make your blood boil then you shouldn’t be a designer. If you can sit on the tube opposite an ad featuring poorly-kerned letters or view a Frankenstein comp of a ‘lead character when young’ movie prop photo and still not twitch, you are creatively dead inside.

Slink away now if you’re unmoved by either example, or hang around and get motivated.

The role of designer has changed beyond all recognition since leaving college (it’s moved fast, I’m not THAT old). What’s graphic design then? Well it used to be relatively easy to define when ‘digital’ wasn’t in play. Brand design, brochures, editorial layouts, posters, flyers and packaging for starters.

That list still exists but most brochures are now interactive, from PDF’s to iBooks with websites either replicating or delivering the same. Great editorial layouts are still essential within tablet magazines and ebooks as the eye is arrested by the skilful juxtaposition of stunning images and intelligent typography. Posters work on various levels, from the 48-sheet variety now on many digital Jumbotrons and underground screens, to our ever-increasing screen sizes offering the scale previously reserved for printed posters. Flyers (unless from the local pizza deliver business) are emails, Facebook posts or Tweets. We’re a long way from losing packaging from our high streets and out of town stores, but the online marketplace offers many more virtually packaged download opportunities.

So, who cares? Things change, technology advances and forces us to move with it. That’s one take, leading to the sloppy Photoshop, branding and layouts that make me want to punch inanimate objects (or designers). This attitude can be brought on by creatives who don’t live and breathe design and clients who believe our computers do all the work for us.

Snap out of it and appreciate the incredible opportunities to not only design great visual experiences, but now bring them to life as incredible user experiences. The graphic design label got scrapped, welcome to the wonderful new world of design where the brief to create postage stamps became the task to build iconic icons or miniaturised album covers and book jackets, where the fight to be seen and remembered provides the ultimate pixel-pushing challenge.

Wearable technology and Smart TV will provide your new playgrounds so start thinking about future opportunities to make a design difference.

Knock down the mental barriers and apply great design thinking to everything you do. Don’t assign different standards to different work or clients – we live in a world where a local butcher can have as much global visibility as Wallmart. The world’s eyes are on your kerning, your cut-outs and your colour palette.

Originally published in Computer Arts magazine in 2013. Hasn't aged a bit!

In the Blink of an i

Life is full of moments: good, bad, happy, sad. Full of colour and breadth or detail and depth. We have a personal and unbreakable connection with a memory but we make our own judgement of an image. Thanks to the phone camera in our pockets, we are all photographers and this makes us individually responsible for capturing the most incredible moments.

I used to be a dedicated SLR photographer. Having pursued an education in photography (if not a career), I had progressed from several film-based SLR’s to the digital variety. I loved the feel of a full-sized camera, the perceived quality and the flexibility the lens selection and manual controls offered.

The reality was, my eldest daughter Olivia began life with a set of ‘perfect’ photos. I would painstakingly photoshop food from her face and unwanted toys, pieces of furniture or poorly shaped friends and family from my photos – just to aid composition!

By the time my other daughter Hattie arrived on the scene, I had ditched the cumbersome D-SLR and replaced the full digital darkroom with the iPhone in my pocket.

This was a revelation.

I moved from the selection of perfection, to a lifetime of moments. Rather than hoping to capture something whenever I had my camera, I would take 100 casual shots for one visual memory – and that is why I’ll never turn back.

I find being able to photograph the unexpected a far greater reward than a staged set piece. You know when a smile is real, because the rest of the face wasn’t expecting it.

That doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop being a ‘proper’ photographer at heart, or a designer. I love to create, so the moments I capture are the ones I’d like to see – and I have a critical eye. Most shots are edited in Snapseed or Black and many never reach a public audience.

It has never been easier to share great photography with the world. That doesn’t mean I haven’t got myself into trouble trying to do just this during my world travels. I was detained at gunpoint in Beirut for snapping architectural photos where I shouldn’t, I ventured into the most dangerous parts of Moscow to capture street lighting and walked back out – thanks to ignorance rather than travel awareness and I have taken risks for great automotive shots by hanging out of a few car windows, off-roading a Bentley GT and many more.

Smartphone technology moves on every year, but I still use an iPhone 7 Plus. The phone isn’t slow, the battery life is acceptable, and the camera is great. Do I need a new phone? No. Would I like one? I’m an Apple fan, so of course.

Will an iPhone 11 Pro make me a better photographer? Absolutely not. It will deliver greater detail and perform better under lower light conditions. But a phone doesn’t make a moment…

…we do.

You can find all my photo highlights on Instagram if you’d like to follow the journey.

Uploading The Future…

The doors of the elevator open and instead of facing inwards towards the security of a welcoming carpeted corridor, they reveal a 30 storey drop on the outside of a gleaming glass structure at the heart of a bustling city. The wind hits you, every hair stands on end and you struggle with a moment of panic, staring into the unknown. Then adrenaline kicks in, your mind races and you take a step forward…

I’ve faced exactly this scenario in virtual reality, although I like to bungee jump and abseil so I didn’t cling to the back of the elevator. However, I’m not describing a utopian or dystopian digital future. Individuals and businesses face this kind of dilemma every day but most choose to stay where they are, or even step backwards rather than commit to change and champion progress.

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating what you have or taking inspiration from what you had, but to truly innovate you need to push boundaries and look to the future.

And that’s what I’ve been doing for 34 years.

Boundary-pushing isn’t always welcomed, but my brand of change has never failed to deliver results. From my earliest business interests (at the age of 13), starting a magazine and software label, through a career as a graphic designer, to the combination of design, technology and innovation over the last decade.

I’ve told heads of global automotive brands to integrate reclining seats for sex in autonomous vehicles. I’ve given VR advice on Capitol Hill at the heart of US Government. I have demonstrated emerging technology to NATO, told Apple where to focus on Wearable Tech, Publishing and AR and continue to test products, services and theories to destruction – or survival.

In 2009, I successfully predicted the existence of Apple’s iPad and helped deliver the first app on day one to expand opportunities for the Publishing industry. I designed, produced and wrote one of Apple’s first interactive iBooks (Design top 20 for 6+ years). I followed this with deeper focus on Wearable Technology, resulting in an automative app title alongside the launch of the Apple Watch.

But what happens when the technology we’re faced with doesn’t go far enough, or the messages from or about an industry just aren’t going anywhere? You push and you deliver your own results. Nowhere is that better illustrated than in my 48 hours in Virtual Reality where I tested full body interaction driving a go-kart and strapped to the top wing of a bi-plane, fell asleep and woke up in VR to test mental awareness and had a tattoo whilst wearing a headset to prove the benefits of virtual distraction to mitigate pain.

I didn’t set out to write an ‘Isn’t Dean Innovative’ list, but I’ve found myself personally pushing these boundaries for decades rather than simply quoting other people’s experiences – or accepting “no” for an answer. As I said in my TEDx Athens talk...

“I’d rather apologise for something awesome, than ask permission for something lame”

…which is why I’m excited to announce that I am now taking those 34 years of valuable experience to the rest of the world as a Design, Technology and Innovation Consultant. I’ll be continuing to develop my XR Immersion Suit to push boundaries in ALL the realities, bring these to life on global corporate and public stages and help others to push their own boundaries.

I also plan to write a book about the future of Automotive and Mobility – but I can’t offer you everything in one article.

So let’s step back into that elevator again. Don’t worry, I won’t make you jump off the building this time, but forget about Dave in accounts, or that Board meeting on floor 27, or the canteen at your designated lunch hour. Press a number you’ve never pressed before and begin a voyage of discovery. It might only be the mail room, but you could find yourself on the Holodeck or in a chamber full of cryogenically frozen world leaders.

But you won’t know if you don’t try. It’s why I'm not afraid to tell it like it is, how it’s going to be, and how to design the future.

I am, and always will be, a rebel with a cause.