Rebel With A Cause: THE Conversation

I have a story to tell, about being a Rebel With A Cause. But when it’s a story of space exploration, time travel and magic and art and immersion, I was never going to take a conventional approach. I’d love you to experience it.

Some of the greatest conversations I’ve had with Monty Munford have occurred around a dining table, over drinks at the Century Club, or in the back of a cab. Monty has lived a life of adventure and ridden the tech rollercoaster. As a straight-talking industry leader, risk-taker and Gamepay CSO, he’s more used to interviewing Steve Wozniak, John McAfee or Kim Kardashian, but we sat down to talk freely about design, tech and innovation, the people that matter and the direction it’s all taking. We’d love you to join us.

As we talked about the past and present, conversation naturally turned to our virtual future. We want evergreen content to live on in the Metaverse – it’s why Matt Littler of Analog Films shot all three episodes in VR, so we could offer the experience of sitting with Monty and myself, not simply watching from behind a screen.

The stereoscopic 3D footage was all shot on an Insta360 Pro II camera, with ambisonic spacial sound, surrounded by the visual feast of Bittescombe Lodge in the heart of the English countryside. This luxury location offers an incredible mix of traditional and contemporary design, reflecting the nature of our conversation and my roles as President Elect of the Chartered Society of Designers, Artist, Adviser, Mentor and Ambassador for numerous startups and creative organisations.

I make the point in our conversation that many new forms of technology don’t replace those already in existence – they compliment and extend the experience, rather than make any one platform obsolete. So naturally, this series exists in a conventional video format too, as well as the written words below.

Each platform offers its own unique content, so I hope you’ll enjoy the jetpack moments expressed on each.

Speed Up For Traffic Lights

Episode 1: The Present

We all have words to live by, even if most aren’t aware of the exact phrase that gets us out of bed in the morning, we’re acutely aware of a war cry to get shit done, or die trying.

I’ve always had a fascination with time, be that the potential to travel – physically or virtually – backwards to relive, alter or learn from our past or head to the future for a glimpse of our destiny or alternate realities existing in parallel to our own.

This in turn has given me an appreciation for just now precious time is. In the words of Louis Armstrong “we have all the time in the world” – yes, but we still wish for more or discard what we already have.

How often have you found yourself behind someone approaching traffic lights and they begin to slow down, anticipating a red when they’re still on green? This defines the character of a driver expecting the worst outcome, it’s a negative mindset.

And this is exactly why I hit the accelerator when I approach a green light, pre-empting the positive and effectively engaging my own time machine. Imagine how many precious minutes each year are gained from not sitting at a red light. Time gained, pulse raised and positivity reward unlocked (almost) every time.

Those life-affirming words can be distilled into the phrase “Speed up For Traffic lights: Bank on Green Not Red”.

My mindset isn’t something developed from a group of inspirational business leaders and entrepreneurs. No, my Dad instilled the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’ in me – his very own words to live by.

Sadly, we lost Dad to COVID in 2021, just 5 months before his 90th birthday. But those words live on as the inspiration for mine.

Episode 2: The Past

One of the most disappointing things in life is knowing when an opportunity has been missed. When connections fail to meet. When a message falls on deaf ears.

I would rather apologise for something awesome than ask permission for something lame – that’s been my attitude throughout my first 50 years. Never settling for average when exceptional is achievable.

So, for me it’s always been about telling the right story in the right place at the right time. If any of those three key ingredients are missing, it all falls down. It’s no use if your timing is perfect if you don’t have the right thing to talk about or the words, images or experience fail to materialise.

I believe in magic. Not Harry Potter, but the application of science to deliver the unbelievable. The unexpected creates impact, impact makes people sit up and take notice, and once you have their attention, you need to deliver on the promise.

Magic without substance is just vapour. It’s why I appear on stage shooting fireballs – but they serve to illustrate the challenge for contemporary marketing. Offering an audience a glimpse of IronMan’s inventory – be that full-body haptics, bionic shoes or the infamous flame-throwing – they all form part of a narrative and demonstrate technological collaboration. They also break with the expected structure of a keynote, disrupting ‘the feed’ and stopping an audience in their tracks.

It’s easy to form an opinion based on someone else’s opinion. That’s why global conference stages are full of people that Google their topic and deliver the search results via Powerpoint. I’m proud to be able to put my money where my mouth is and say “I’ve been there and done that”, giving weight to my opinion – even when my advice is to learn by my mistakes and follow a different path.

This attitude helped me deliver the first iPad app and Apple Watch apps on the days those products launched, create one of the first multitouch iBooks, spend 48 hours in Virtual Reality, work end-to-end with mobility brands (inside and outside the vehicle) and paint portraits of Michael Douglas, Anthony Hopkins and Chris Eubank, then getting under the skin of NFT art – as an artist! I’ve been honoured to work with legends of the music industry, motorsport heroes, stars of the silver screen and help relaunch the Star Wars franchise.

If you don’t know it can’t be done, you just find a way to do it. Like when people find super strength to lift burning cars, we all have our own superpowers.

There’s so much more that sits under NDA for now, but I’ve also been taken at gunpoint in Beirut, smuggled into Bosnia in the boot of a car, had security remove me whilst dressed as Captain America, nearly filmed one Presidential inauguration in VR and lost another Presidential client following their assassination! But that’s for another day…

Episode 3: The Future

As an Artist, Designer, Technologist and Innovator, I’m more excited about the prospect of designing the future than ever before. The tools we have at our disposal are undoubtedly powerful, but humans tend to switch off from the technological white noise. When brands like FaceBook (now Meta) don’t simply talk about Virtual Reality – they also offer it AND paint a picture of their view for its future, consumers sit up and finally take notice.

Although I’ve been deeply involved with the Metaverse for the past decade, it’s a tough sell when you’re flogging a dream without an audience. For Virtual and Augmented reality to succeed, these technologies have to provide escapism AND familiarity. The experiences must be top-shelf and immediately accessible.

However, the most important area of focus for the Metaverse – and any new technology – isn’t a digital environment, it’s the physical world around us.

We all return to reality so we need a reason to plug ourselves in to begin with and inspiration to achieve more when we return. My 48 hour VR immersion in 2017 made me appreciate reality far more than the virtual because we haven’t laid the foundations for the Metaverse yet, let alone started building the dream.

Look up. From your desk, from your screen, from your device, from your LIFE. It’s the equivalent to an artist taking a step back from their work and gaining perspective.

So, I ask you… are you a Meta Offsetter? For every virtual idea you have, think of another in the real world. It’s like planting a tree for carbon neutrality, but one reality doesn’t defeat the other. Instead they co-exist, with each platform adding value rather than forcing a choice or making something obsolete.

We all need to take a breath, it’s a process I’ve always valued. That moment of peace, allowing us to reset mentally and physically and return stronger and more focused than ever.

I haven’t had that since my Dad died on February 5th 2021. Since I held his hand and said goodbye with the promise that I’d make the next 12 months mean something.

So here I am on 22 / 02 / 2022. Ready to write the NEXT chapter.

A Brief Discovery of Time Travel: Dean Johnson and Monty Munford IN the Metaverse

Immerse yourself in the full VR experience via your headset of choice or 360º on-screen exploration as Monty and Dean take a deep dive into the potential for The Metaverse.

[For best results, open in the YouTube app on your preferred platform]

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!

Future Narrative: No Joking Matter

The book is dead, long live the book! The film is dead, long live the film! Attention span is dead, long live social! I could go on, but no genre would be dead and no new platform is without its merits.

I watched the movie ‘Joker’ at the cinema last month. Yes, the cinema. Another one of those outdated platforms that apparently no one considers any more. The two dimensional film, shown in a darkened room with zero distraction or interaction was a masterpiece of storytelling. I respected the creative content – written and directed by Todd Phillips, memorably performed by the film’s sole lead – Joaquin Phoenix, and there was no denying the impact of the powerful cinematography and the dark oppressive soundtrack. But I didn’t really enjoy it.

And that’s my choice, it’s everyone’s choice. I love the beauty of narrative, the long winding journey it can take each and every one of us on. No matter how a film, TV series, book or play is presented, they are open to personal interpretation and what you as an individual take away from them – like art, because that’s what they are. A living, breathing art form.

Some have said Joker is not a superhero movie. I beg to differ, because it features Batman’s nemesis – The Joker – and Batman himself, albeit in the pre-superhero guise of a young Bruce Wayne. Many have insisted the film is about mental health. Yes, it tackles this issue by default because the central character is deeply psychologically disturbed – but he’s hardly the poster boy for mental health awareness. Unless everyone currently jumping on this particular bandwagon is suggesting individuals with ‘issues’ end up like Arthur Fleck – a delusional gun-toting, knife-wielding homicidal maniac?

If cinema isn’t broken, how do we approach future narrative? In 2018 the global box office was worth over $40 Billion and has increased year-on-year for over a decade. It shows no signs of stalling, with ‘Avengers: Endgame’ taking $2.8 billion in cinemas – a new all-time high. Is ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ set to round off the decade with the highest earnings ever?

This leaves future platforms with a tough fight on their hands when trying to convince marketing teams to invest their money in untried and untested technology. When you include home entertainment revenue, the global film industry is worth an additional $100 billion, so audiences are spending a lot of money viewing content on other devices too.

This figure naturally features TV sets, smartphones and tablets. For future audiences this will undoubtedly include VR headsets, AR glasses and autonomous vehicles.

The thinking behind the latter is illustrated by Renault’s 2017 acquisition of a 40% stake in the Pedriel Group, the publishing house that produces the weekly business magazine ‘Challenges’. They clearly recognise the future potential for published content within self-driven mobility. If we’re not absorbing written or audio material, the car interior will offer a multitude of digital surfaces to begin, continue or conclude the narrative of film and TV viewing. Are you all ready to Netflix and chill as your car makes all the decisions for you?

However, future platforms aren’t simply there to provide the same type of material but on a different device. They will inevitably offer this, but where they excel is in adding value. In its simplest terms, a smartphone can provide second screen conversation – leveraged by shows such as BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ or ITV’s ‘Love Island’ and ‘I’m A Celebrity’ across social channels to drive conversation and generate further awareness and reach.

Others championing new storytelling are Nesta with their ‘Alternarratives’ challenge and Ford’s Developer Programme, looking to innovate the future of the car with ‘Music That Moves You’ in partnership with Capitol Records – leading to some amazing potential for storytelling around music artists and genres.

Many Futurologists or Tech Pundits will talk the talk without ever having walked the walk. I have been fortunate to push boundaries my whole career and with some amazing clients including Warner Music Group, Disney, Apple, BBC, Scientific American, Smithsonian Enterprises, Renault, Pottermore, Guinness World Records and Mark Staufer’s ‘The Numinous Place’. Together we have explored some of the possibilities for future narrative. There are many more to come.

All new forms of digital and physical storytelling should be explored as we don’t yet know where they will lead us. The impact of horror in a VR headset. The ability to bring elements of a story to life seemingly in the world around us through AR. To use Artificial Intelligence to extend and personalise narrative. All have enormous potential for a diverse cross-section of audiences, but they don’t offer replacements, they provide depth, understanding and new creative challenges.

I’ve said many times before, if the opinion that all narrative evolves into something else held water, this would have left books, radio and theatre dead long ago. They’re far from that. In a world of digital depth and diversity – they’re actually flourishing because they bring the focus back to great storytelling.

Without that story and an engaging narrative we would live in a world of meaningless words swirling past us in a fleeting moment, we have Facebook for that.

Despite what you may have been told, the future of narrative isn’t about the technology that surrounds us, it is about the thing right at the centre of everything – the human. If you never lose that focus, you’ll never lose your audience.

eVolution: Humanising the Future of Mobility

I’d like to introduce you to Adam. He’s in his mid thirties, single, has a physical space in an office but also travels for work and takes his digital life and enterprise with him. Adam lives in the suburbs but spends a lot of time in the city, other regional hubs and visits relatives in rural neighbourhoods.

Adam’s pretty average, but let’s not hold that against him as he also likes gin, Guns N’ Roses and fast cars, so he has his moments!

Adam’s life is timeless, but his relationship with the car isn’t. Everything above works in a given environment – the home, the office, leisure activities. Even a decade ago, Adam could take his digital life with him as smartphones began to offer him previously unknown freedom, but the car has always been a barrier to seamless digital activity.

Ten years ago Adam marvelled at in-car connectivity via Bluetooth audio. Now he lives in a world of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto offering additional messaging, navigation and audio integration – but it’s still a ‘hands-on’ environment, where distraction is more than discouraged – it’s illegal.

Adam loves listening to music in his car from the same point he left the house or office or sidewalk or transferring Google mapping to his vehicle for navigation short cuts, but the near-future promises a whole new chapter.

When we move from semi to fully-autonomous vehicles – at least Level 4, because the self-driving story doesn’t really begin until then – we’ll enter a new world of distraction and the closest thing to a time machine since Marty and Doc scorched the tarmac in their Delorean.

It’s very easy to get hung up on the technicalities of autonomous vehicles. Sounds obvious when you’re tasked with making that happen for clients and partners, right? It’s essential, but ultimately confusing for consumers as they don’t need to understand how the magic happens, but they MUST know the tech works and how it benefits them. The essential processing happens below the skin of each vehicle, but this technology empowers us as humans to maximise our potential above the surface.

Back to Adam and his time machine. As a box-ticking exercise, autonomous vehicles will help us to work, rest and play inside the vehicle we own, lease or summon on demand, but this isn’t new. The way we’ll engage with content and activities may be – via VR or AR experiences and user interfaces, with the support of AI assistants that interact with occupants to hunt and gather information, access key functions and streamline communication.

Adam’s initial response to a self-driving car is like his view that the development of AI will result in robots taking over our lives. Intelligent tech will initially replace the humans responsible for production lines and service industries. Naturally, the reaction to this is one of concern that “we’ll all be out of a job” – but the truth is we’ll be gifted time. Time to do what humans do best – to create, love, play, empathise and ultimately interact with one another.

Autonomous vehicles too will do what they do best – reduce accidents relating to fatigue, stress, distraction and a lack of information, improve efficiency and communicate directly with each other, along with the cities and road networks they inhabit. Ironically, the unknown random factor is the human when a mixture of AI and human drivers share road space.

Adam believes Uber drivers will lose out (he’s right) and he’s worried he’ll spend even more time working or staring at a screen – he’s wrong, because he’s forgetting about the improved quality time outside a vehicle.

And this is how the time machine works. If your car knows the fastest route to any given location and where everyone else is, you’ll gain more time in your world out of the vehicle. A regular two hour car journey could include traffic congestion, refuelling, route deviation and parking. Travelling door to door (including first and last mile) on the most efficient and least congested route could shave up to 25% off Adam’s travel time. So this becomes about quality of life gained ‘outside’ the vehicle as well as the interior experience.

The technology ‘just has to work’ (no pressure!) leaving us with the human – the most important piece of the autonomous puzzle.

I read a fascinating book recently ‘The Passengers’ by John Marrs, questioning the pace of development for autonomous vehicles. It didn’t put forward a case against them, but held authorities and manufacturers accountable for the security of the ‘hackable’ vehicle operating systems and the even bigger topic – ethical selection in the event of a road accident. Should the passenger or pedestrian take priority and why? I would highly recommend everyone working in the business of mobility should read this and apply the thinking to their current and future plans for autonomy.

Adam’s typical day revolves around technology. He doesn’t regard it as tech, it’s just there unless it stops working – then he’s all too aware of it. And the more seamlessly it works the better as Adam checks the temperature of his house whilst locking his smart door, walking to his car as he listens to his favourite podcast. His audio picks up where it left off when the vehicle awakens, charged and ready to go. He knew the charge level at a glance during his shower because it sits on the home screen of his smartwatch and the car already has his destination thanks to the Google route he planned on his phone.

This technology exists and is delivered when all the dots are joined, then the car journey begins. Currently, Adam interrupts his digital potential at this stage and concentrates on driving from start to finish. Any interaction happens on a truly functional level. Soon, the totally distracted ‘Autonomous Adam’ will have access to extraordinary experiences with integrated VR headsets (and ‘VR Hair’), projected AR and multiple interactive surfaces – but that creative potential can be explored another time because it is vast and exciting, not seamless and invisible. 

So what do you do if you’re an auto brand hoping to appeal to Adam? How do you sell in the idea of a self-driving car? If Adam was 15 years younger, the chances are he’d never experience car ownership. It’s possible he wouldn’t ever touch a steering wheel – that would have been taken care of by relatives and Uber drivers. First steps into an autonomous vehicle would come naturally as there would be no real sense of loss of control or a sentimental yearning for a time when humans used to race away from the lights or ‘get the back end out’.

But Adam’s torn. He likes fast cars and loves driving, but he’s not in love with commuting or parking. He’s human and craves a relationship with a brand, a vehicle and relatable technology – and that requires a human touch.

This highlights an uncomfortable middle ground where the auto industry is moving towards digitalisation in almost every area. Online sales, virtual test drives, digital documentation and AI assistants. They all have their merits but aren’t the only future scenario, especially when introducing an audience to the concept of self-driving vehicles.

Adam – and everyone else yet to experience an autonomous journey needs first-hand demonstrations of the technology in action. Next steps beyond this will be peer-to-peer recommendation from those that have lived to drive another day following a demo. This conversion will only come from a physical experience, not a digital representation.

Tesla championed the pop-up showroom because it brought the brand to the people. Elon Musk has announced plans to close many of his physical stores and take all vehicle ordering online. This, at a time when Amazon is investing in bricks and mortar and Apple Stores go from strength to strength, may seem a bad idea. It would be for many other brands but Tesla is known for its innovation, groundbreaking technology and disruption of the market and they have a secret weapon – the Musk Factor.

Elon brings the human element to a brand in a way no other CEO has since the late Steve Jobs did for Apple. He provides the word of mouth reassurance of a friend or relative and down-to-earth language devoid of marketing spin or technological jargon, whilst injecting his vision of the future that makes us all feel part of the journey.

Before all the auto brands set off on a path to digitisation, they must win over their audiences in a physical world with personal relationships and exceptional service.

So for his first steps into the autonomous world, Adam needs reassurance, relevance and reality – but most importantly, he needs to feel human.

And as Doc Brown pointed out – where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

The original version of this article was published as ‘Autonomous Adam: A new chapter in the self-driving story’ on Arm’s Embedded blog.