This past month Reasons to be Creative has returned again to Brighton for it’s well-known 3 day conference of the very best speakers that work in the creative and digital fields from all around the world. Past speakers have included Stefan Sagmeister, Neville Brody, Kate Moross, Jon Burgerman and many more.
WHM had the opportunity to attend the conference and be inspired as well as informed by this years variety of speakers from talented designers, articulate coders, visionary film makers to passionate illustrators. And this is only a slice as there were 49 creatives that took part this year! Spoilt for choice we enjoyed seeing as many as we could and thought to write about our favourites for you folks at home, so whether you are a creative minded person or like the sound of what they do then book tickets for 2016 to get the full experience.
Tom Platten-Higgins hosts a hilarious talk on how to make games fun called, well…’Making Fun of Games’. The talk included a rather detailed look at the sport of gull racing, how the game of Yik Yak came to be and why having six people complete your game doesn’t make for happy customers.
Noma Bar gave us a look at the many things he’s done throughout his career, from the start to where he is now. The graphic design star explained his design process, the many big names he’s worked with and the work he’s doing across the world.
Ros Horner leads an inspiring talk about all the **it she didn’t get done that she said she would and everything she did. There were also a lot of inspiring quotes like “You can do it!” that were – thankfully – ironic. All in all, I’d say Ros got enough **it done in a year to inspire everyone listening and get us off our backsides.
Already big fans of Annie Atkins work we were incredibly excited to see the graphic designer who designs for films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and this years Speilberg’s new Cold War spy thriller. Annie took us through her process and experience of making highly detailed graphic design pieces for film sets, her workshops for making Dracula’s passport and funny stories of the devil in the detail, leading her to be on the IMDB goof’s page. Charming and humble, Annie left us feeling more knowledgable and aware of the work that goes into a film set as well as inspired to continue the labour of love.
The funniest talk we saw was the award-winning Japanese illustrator, Yuko Shimizu who gave an insight into her life’s lessons and journey from a corporate worker to becoming the illustrator she is today. Her work has been on Gap T-shirts, Pepsi Cans, NY Times and much more. A character in her own right, who sparkled on the stage covering many of the questions that creative people ponder as well as the funny side of being a creative such as when she did illustrations for babies nappies: “So babies are pooping on my art, and I feel okay about it!” She emphasised on the importance of being humble, loving what you do and most of all following your dream to the end.