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]

2020 Vision

The Reality Industry has spent the past six years talking about ‘next year’. Every year. We’ve been proposing potential and identifying opportunities for an audience keen to invest, dedicate time, effort and resources, without offering much in return. So, is 2020 the big year for consumer VR and AR?

I’m a man of few words. You may disagree if you’ve read some of my blog posts or seen any of my longer event keynotes – but I believe in actions, they speak far louder than words.

The thing about immersive experiences is that to really appreciate them, you need to be immersed. Sounds simple but it’s not when we share so much digitally. Using video to tell stories about the benefits of VR therapy or AR for industrial solutions is a powerful tool in a marketers armoury – and they’re far more effective than simply creating the technology and hoping your audience will view it or adopt it.

Until now, the Reality (XR) Industry has been hobbled by the hardware – from low-end phone-based headsets to expensive desktop PCs with their wired units. This, in a wireless world where we’re all trying to escape from desktop tethers whilst demanding higher and higher resolution and ergonomic comfort. These expectations aren’t unreasonable because we’re used to technology advancing at a breakneck pace.

Thankfully, Oculus launches its Quest VR headset next week for £399, a 6 DoF (Degrees of Freedom) device with hand controllers, unencumbered by phones, PCs or wires and empowering the user to move freely within the real world to navigate the virtual, unlike the cheaper Oculus GO that has you rooted to the spot.

You’ll be told there are better headsets on the market, even by Oculus. Some are cheaper, others with faster processors and higher resolution but none stand a better chance of changing hearts and minds and reaching the largest audience than the GO – if the story is told in the right way: A  tale of magic and wonder and learning and discovery wrapped up in out-of-this-world experiences. Not Virtual Facebook. I’ve spent more time in VR than most and Facebook is the last thing I want to experience in any reality.

So what about consumer Augmented Reality? I’m not going to list all the headsets/glasses but Hololens and Magic Leap look stupid and are way beyond consumer pricing, Vuzix Blade looks cool but is still $1,000 and ODG and Meta are no more. Those price points are still too high for anyone other than early adopters, so use your phone (because it has always been AR-ready) for social cosplay, apps for way finding and beyond, then throw in a Lenovo Jedi Challenges Lightsaber, because it’s an awesome demonstration of consumer AR capability with haptic feedback and multiplayer mode.

Alternatively, you could combine VR and AR as I did in my XR Immersion Suit on the world’s fastest city zip wire in London for a Vice documentary or during my Digital Freedom Festival keynote ‘Blurred Line Between Man and Machine’

Both utilise VR headsets for maximum Field of Vision (FoV) using their built-in cameras to offer an augmented view of the real world around us. These actions do indeed speak louder than words as the research delivers the message that we’re not there yet – the world needs stunning (and life-changing) content to add value, depth and relevance if we’re going to engage and retain a consumer audience for both VR and AR. You can’t hope to tick some of the boxes and still be successful – you need them all. Effective video storytelling not only raises awareness of XR content, it tells your audience where it is, why it exists and how it is relevant to them.

However, stunning VR or AR content alone simply isn’t enough if it doesn’t encourage an audience to return to it or go out into the real world and act upon it. Don’t be afraid to ask the question “why?” at ANY stage – or your audience will instead.

Is 2020 finally the ‘year of XR’ for consumers?

Yes.

Why?

The Inspiration Game

No one wants to own anything, or drive anything, or change anything. The great Innovators have stopped innovating. The great storytellers aren’t making as much noise as the bad ones. And everyone is happy to follow the crowd – or so the crowd has been told…

In January 2019, Apple reported their first decline in revenues and profits in over a decade. They blamed weak iPhone sales and a downturn in China. True, the Chinese market has become a tougher nut to crack, but the underlying reason for the downturn is we’ve stopped wanting AND needing some of their products.

I used to queue outside Apple Stores to get my hands on new model iPhones. I even waited in line for over twelve hours outside the New York 5th Avenue glass cube in 2010 to be the first to buy an iPad. But that was then, I now struggle to justify the cold nose, sore feet and dented bank balance.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no interest in owning a PC or using Android as my primary mobile OS – because I still love Apple. My long line of MacBooks have never let me down and have been worth every penny and my iMacs have always been there when I needed them, delivering day in, day out for years. My iPhones have worked brilliantly inside and out, looked beautiful and felt like the quality products they are.

So why are Apple’s profits down? Because their flagship physical products are too good and too straight. Too good might seem a great selling point – but it’s clearly becoming an issue. My iPhone 7 Plus is into its third year of ownership and I haven’t upgraded my iPad mini for seven! They both work perfectly and I simply can’t justify upwards of £1,000 for the iPhone I’d want (or need) or an iPad Pro upgrade.

So let’s turn to ‘too straight’. Apple used to excite me. I’d eagerly await each live-streamed keynote with a sense of anticipation akin to the Oscars – living in hope for Steve’s ‘one more thing’. And he’d always deliver. Deliver something we didn’t need or know we wanted, but we just had to have it because it was the future. Our future.

The world we know and love has been built on elation, not iteration – but that’s what Apple now delivers. It makes $Billions from smoothly blending one model into the next. One service and software update into another. The world needs a defibrillator moment where we kickstart the kickstarts and make our hearts beat that little bit faster as we rediscover the joy of the unexpected.

Apple didn’t become the most valuable company on the planet by making poor business decisions so it’s not about dropping the things that work and veering off at a tangent. Tech rivals all too often over-promise and under-deliver, or feel they need to fill a market gap only to find no one wants what they have to offer. But the key to consumer engagement is telling a great story and making it relevant to a brand’s audience.

I’m not going to apologise for disagreeing with the statement “make things people want, don’t make people want things”. Screw that, most people don’t know what they want until they see it. A brand’s role is to tell them why it exists, how it can improve their lives and steer them to ownership, membership or sponsorship via the point of least resistance.

Advertising and marketing opportunities still bring us stories for the products we consume, but these stories need to be told by the people with the passion behind the brands. How they’re made is one thing, but the reasons why they exist are far more powerful.

I spoke with Roborace CEO, Lucas di Grassi in Berlin in December and he told me about the race series startup’s change of direction away from the Daniel Simon-designed Robocar as the audience didn’t understand its capabilities and true Artificial Intelligence. The focus has instead been turned to their DevBot car, with a combination of AI and driver interaction.

The inability of the audience to grasp Robocar’s relevance is not a failing of the motorsport fans – but a missed opportunity to tell a story of excitement, interaction and inspirational possibilities for the future, rather than one of the technology beneath the surface. Don’t give up Lucas, we need Robocar in our near future, weaponised and ready to roll.

It’s more important than ever to get this story right when introducing the next generation of self-driving vehicles. Industry experts speak of the irrelevance of dealerships and a pure digital future but they’re missing the point. Entirely.

Motorists won’t simply hop from their current vehicles into an autonomous network. They don’t trust the technology, it’s as simple as that. The way to convince is not through a VR simulation. Not an online video. It’s by physical experience, sat in the very car they will be instilling ALL their trust. This won’t be about telling an audience how safe a range of robot vehicles is – it’s through the vehicle occupant not being involved in an accident.

The next level of trust will be via word of mouth and the testimonials of ‘real people’ – not actors or brand ambassadors. Selling the autonomous future through trust not tricks.

But there’s still a world of inspiration for us all to discover. The iterators may be shouting louder, but sift through the white noise and you’ll find thought leaders not simply leading by telling great stories – they’re also leading by example.

Richard Browning of Gravity (or ‘Rocket Man’ as he’s more commonly known) is pushing the boundaries of personal mobility by offering us a superhuman vision of the future. He has built a successful business from his own personal invention, innovation and ability to sell a dream. One jetpack is evolving into a scaleable race series on the road (or lack thereof) to tomorrow.

Claire Lomas, an athlete paralysed in 2007 in an equestrian accident epitomises courage and encouragement. She has never faltered in her battle against her physical condition, unwilling to accept the boundaries seemingly imposed upon her. Claire has worn a robotic exoskeleton to complete marathons and her determination to excel has resulted in a new skill – motorcycle racing!

Both Richard and Claire aren’t playing the Inspiration Game – they’re living it. Roborace will also inspire and innovate in equal measures when their story is told in the right way to the right audience, and it will be epic.

Apple has stopped playing the game. It’s not too late for the company I still love to let the iteration take care of itself and get back to thrilling us with one more thing.

And if they’re struggling to find inspiration themselves – or any of us for that matter – the words from Apple’s own 1997 TV ad celebrate the existence of The Crazy Ones. The very people I love and will always aspire to be.

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Digical: Designing Physical Magic in a Digital World

“The future is digital!” Well, yes the future does indeed contain an increasingly digitised conversation, with a growing dependency on connectivity, platforms and networks. But to neglect the physical and merely focus on digital design and production misses out one vital ingredient – the human being.

I’ve thrown myself into numerous debates on the future of digital disruption, such as “VR is the future of film, TV and entertainment” – no, it’s ‘a’ future (no technological option has yet made the printed book obsolete) – they all continue to co-exist.

Speaking of books, we were convinced interactive multimedia digital experiences were the ‘future of the book’. They weren’t, as pushing certain content too far in one direction created something entirely different – a game for those not wishing to play, or an interactive movie for those simply planning to sit back and watch.

As part of my ongoing involvement in shaping the future of mobility, another heated debate rages over the subject of autonomous vehicles – “how do these things drive themselves?” “Is the technology safe?” “Will we be able to play Pokemon Go on the windscreen?” It’s my mission to inject the missing physical experience into this line of questioning.

Brands need to move consumers’ automotive expectations away from “how does it work?” to “how does it feel?” Lidar will speak to AI and AI will communicate with other vehicles, road networks and entire cities, but how will it feel to sit in a vehicle where control has been replaced by a far more important thing – choice.

I’ve had top-level conversations with global auto manufacturers about the importance of sleep, relaxation and sex in a self-driving vehicle and I’ve tested VR content, enhanced by the dynamic physical actions of a moving car. The choice of surface materials and storage solutions will become increasingly important as we’re given more time to physically interact with the environment around us and we’ll become less accepting of something that merely transports us from A to B.

Every action and instruction can be transmitted through gesture or voice, but in vehicles built for dual-driving (switchable between self and human-input) we’ll still appreciate tactile input systems such as rotary dials and switches even if some simply trade on brand history, but add strength and conviction in the process.

Part of the reason I spent 48 hours in Virtual Reality last year was to counter the argument that all VR time was wasted on a sofa watching movies or playing games. We planned as much physical activity as possible (including the wing-walk, go-kart racing, boxing and my real-world tattoo) and successfully combined physical kit with digital platforms and content.

However, Teslasuit have brought this physical element even closer to the virtual world with their full-body haptic clothing, sending electrical stimuli to muscle groups and delivering physical presence direct to digital experiences. I have been fortunate to not only test the suit with an eye to potential real-world application, adding value rather than IoT clutter, but also combine this with further wearable technology.

As much as I hate acronyms (and MR in particular), my Immersion Suit is all about the XR – (e)Xtended Reality. By taking a base layer supplied by the Teslasuit and adding bionic shoes, exoskeleton gloves, AR and VR helmets and a smattering of fireballs, I’m successfully combining the real with the hyper-real and providing a platform for digital content plus the opportunity to talk about what works, what doesn’t and what the future holds for us all.

And that future doesn’t need to look ridiculous. OK, I’m not saying we’ll all be running around in Immersion Suits in ten years (or twenty), but FashTech is a real thing, as is good product design so it’s important the view we’re projecting of the future is one we don’t just think is acceptable, but actually mirrors developments in materials and manufacturing in the fashion industry.

Google failed to predict the negative brand association of Robert Scoble stood naked in a shower, wearing Glass. It wasn’t a consumer product, but it soon hit the consumer press – as did Scoble a few years later for ALL the wrong reasons.

Is Magic Leap displaying a similar naïveté (or arrogance) as images emerge of tech geeks clad in Magic Leap One headsets swamping consumer press and social channels? The technology is undoubtedly incredible (as was Glass) but no one wants to think they’ll look stupid in the future – and that’s exactly how Magic Leap pioneers are being portrayed right now.

Product design is about more than ergonomic comfort and shoehorning the right amount of tech into an acceptable space. It’s also about the look, the feel and the image. Just pick up any Apple product, hold it, balance it in your hand then ask yourself how it makes YOU feel.

Which brings us to Disney. And The Void.

“AR, not VR is the way of the future for Disney Parks.

What we create is an experience that is real.”

Bob Iger

And then Disney partnered with The Void, Lucasfilm and ILM to produce ‘Secrets of The Empire’ – the best Immersive VR experience to date. My previous benchmark was ‘Ghostbusters: Dimension’, another Void experience with Sony Pictures at Madame Tussauds in New York.

I’m fortunate to have been on Utah-based The Void’s journey since their early days so appreciate how far they’ve come. Their bespoke helmet design, haptic vest and weaponry fit perfectly with these immersive cinema experiences when adding blasts of air, heat, vibration and physical environments. This is transformative digital technology, genuinely transforming by offering a physical experience – not a replacement for it.

Spending a lot of time in VR (I’ve probably racked up more hours than most) it’s clear the technology is incredible, with experiences beyond our wildest dreams. But those dreams are even more magical when we share them with others in the physical world around us. Disney has perfected the art so it’s easy to see why Bob Iger views Augmented Reality as a more suitable experience for his parks than VR.

But we’ll have to wait for the AR headsets to improve before that becomes the shared experience we’re used to in a theme park environment. Poor Field of Vision (FoV), battery life and hygiene are holding back wider adoption – which leaves us with the real world.

Disney stands alone like no other collection of brands, properties, platforms and products, with a heritage to die for. But turning the spotlight on the new(ish) kids on the block, the magical world of Harry Potter is winning when it comes to contemporary physical brand extension. A ride on the Hogwarts Express or browsing every store in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios, or getting up close and personal with the costumes, props and sets at the Warner Bros Studio Tour – these are delivered to an extraordinary standard. Next steps could easily combine an AR overlay or a complete VR experience – but these physical environments already feel magical and out of this world so they must add genuine value.

The more I consume digital, the more I appreciate physical and the higher expectations I have of each.

Almost every industry is guilty of developing digital content without fully considering physical interaction. But the future isn’t one or the other.

This isn’t about choosing a physical OR digital solution – it’s about effectively combining the two, with a love and appreciation of each. Let’s get Digical.