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Reasons to be Creative – London 2016

Being creative is a part of my nature, but sometimes we all need a fresh kick of ideas, creativity & encouragement. Reasons to be Creative – London 2016 – was definitely my first great decision this year :)

Beginning of the 2016 seems to be covered in a fog. I had to force my self to everything, literally everything. Wake up, get up, eat, be positive, get out, smile… Yuck! Thanks God for this blog & Jamie, they kept me active. As it happens life is full of coincidences & reasons… mine found me on Facebook. While browsing the wild waters of internet, I stumbled upon Reasons website & made my first positive decision of 2016. I booked ticket for the event Reasons to be Creative – London 2016.

This one simple decision led to other meetings & events, which I wouldn’t even consider before! Seeing friends, shopping for my Thailand trip (yes it’s simply cheaper in London!!) & being a part of Bloggers Hangout! As often happens when we are active, we find ourselves in a busy world of possibilities. The hardest thing is to make a decision, to find a reason & make the first step. Step in any direction… Just move! Never stop moving!

myMood Song

Sonny J: Can’t Stop Moving

So what are the Reasons to be Creative?

Reasons to be Creative is a conference with an awesome line-up of speakers. Speakers who are experts because they practice everyday & come from creative world of design. If you are a designer, developer, coder, manager, game developer, artist, animator or a newbie with a creative mind, then you should not miss this event! If you are the type of person who care about your craft & details, like to hear “behind the scene” stories & you choose to surround yourself with the best in design, code & inspiration, then you should attend. There is nothing more satisfying than to feel as a part of creative crowd & see that you are not the only crazy person out there! :D

Only one day left me inspired & pumped. I went home full of ideas & eager to create! Anything! Something! WHAT? Can’t sleep at night, as my mind is full of something new. Can’t grasp what is it so far… but it’s there :)

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On the Day

When? Fri 19th Feb 2016
Where? St Luke’s building is just a few minutes walk from Old Street OR Barbican tube stations (easy-to-get-to). I used to walk by it everyday on my way to the office, always thought it’s just a regular church, but it is so much more. It’s a beautiful, classy, contemporary & flexible venue in the heart of central London. St Luke’s has definitely the wow-factor of a unique, heritage space. Mix of original 18th-century decorations & contemporary features creating a stunning setting with plenty of natural light & sound proof windows, which neighbours must really appreciate :).

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My first Reasons: London was fantastic single dayer, with an awesome line-up of speakers. Doors were open from 12:00 noon on Friday – a perfect finish of working week & start of creative weekend! My very first “out of work” creative event, was a pleasant experience. I think it should be a part of self-development routine for every creative person. Best way to charge your creative batteries & learn from the best.

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12:00 – 12:45

Mr Phil – Illustrate your day

Illustrator, Web-designer who followed his heart, turned his talent to a great personal project (drawing everyday for a year), that pushed him into the new direction & open new opportunities.
Start something new – Be inspired by everything – Share it – Say yes to stuff – Keep going – Practice every day – Be creative in your own way – Have fun

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“After completing a degree in illustration, Mister Phil spent many years as a web designer before swapping the code for crayons (0.8mm Mitsubishi uni pens to be precise) and embarking on an illustration career in a now-or-never type way. Things started to pay off and he has now worked for clients including Vitaminwater, Computer Arts Magazine and the National Gallery and is a member Tumblr’s Creatrs team, a hand-picked bunch of creatives from across the globe who provide digital content for brands across all social media…” W: www.misterphil.co.uk; Tw: @mrpillustration

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12:45 – 13:30

Sarah Parmenter – #socialmediblah

Sarah Parmenter was talking about social media madness & her experiences on the projects for stars like Justin Bieber. We heard some funny “behind the scene” stories about her projects. She said: A “social media expert” can be anyone nowadays. This title is so abused it became a joke. We are designers, we create products, software & brands – we are real social media experts. It’s all about knowing brand & people. Sociology & psychology should be the base of any work. Constant WOW effect it’s not always the best practice. Social media are the extension of the web & should be treated with the same “respect”. She also mention interesting number: 0.04% – that’s number of followers who will actually buy the product. So number of followers doesn’t always matter!
Participation is important – Tribe behaviour – Be careful with change – Be consistent, keep showing up – Commitment – Authenticity – Be honest – Type of voice – Emotion

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“Sarah Parmenter owns You Know Who, a small British design studio now in its tenth year. She specialises in iOS user interface design; regularly contributes to various online and printed media; and speaks at conferences all over the world. Sarah’s straight-talking nature and no-fuss approach to projects have landed her many great contracts over the years, with various well-known brands in the UK and abroad. Her iOS design practice, has produced work for clients including Blackberry, News International, STV, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation of America. Sarah excels at teaching. In 2011, at .net Magazine’s annual awards show, Sarah’s peers voted her ‘Designer of the Year’.” W: www.sazzy.co.uk; Tw: @sazzy

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14:00 – 14:45

Mike Brondbjerg – Math in all it’s beauty

Mike Brondbjerg was the biggest geek among all speakers that day :) In a very good creative way! Math behind the design is not exactly the first thing you think of when looking on visuals. He presented his work on some visualizations & brand designs. His approach was unique (for me anyway) & it makes me wonder – how he makes his clients to understand about importance & value of hard work behind his creative approach. Great stuff!
Projects – Visuals – Yey math! – Data visualizations – Processing – Add a logic behind it

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“Mike Brondbjerg is a designer / developer / artist working in data visualization, information design, web applications and generative design, using a range of technology including Processing, Arduino, HTML, JS, CSS, D3JS & WebGL. He runs a small studio in the South East of England with Polly Vinyard working on projects with clients & agencies including: Kings College London, Chelsea Football Club, Oxfam, Disney, Abbott Laboratories, Lilly, The Away Foundation & 51Degrees. Mike is never happier than when finding a new data source to seed a new design, animation or abstract illustration.” W: www.behance.net/mikebrondbjerg; Tw: @mikebrondbjerg

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14:45 – 15:30

Linda Brownlee – Capturing the energy

Linda Brownlee – photographer with truly beautiful mind. Capturing life in its most natural & simple way. She has an amazing talent to capture people in the right moment. Showing their true self, without staged positions. Successfully even with those who don’t even wish to be photographed. Capturing energy, showing the character of people & places she visits. She make it look so easy – to be a photographer :D But from my experience, it’s just the same as with any other art – Practice makes perfect BUT talent is a true gift!

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“Linda Brownlee was born in Dublin, gained a BA (Hons) in Communications at DCU before moving to London where she is currently based. Linda is a director and photographer, and has directed commercials for Barclays and BBH in the last year. Her portrait, fashion and documentary work is regularly featured Dazed & Confused, Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian and Telegraph magazines. Her photographs have been exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers Gallery, the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, the Yinka Shonebare Space, Host Gallery, and the Nottingham Castle Art Gallery. Drawn to all sorts of communities and cultures…” W: www.lindabrownlee.com; Tw: @lbrownleephoto

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16:30 – 17:15

Eva-Lotta Lamm – Draw, travel, explore

This woman was so energetic & positive. I simply admire people who can draw so easily as they breath :) Eva-Lotta & her boyfriend travelled around the world, for whole 15months. Instead of capturing the adventure on camera she came-up with amazing self project! Everyday diary full of illustrations. She printed a diary template for her and her boyfriend. She drew & wrote about her day, about people she met, places visited plus everyday she came up with the fact about her self. Unique way to make memories last, explore the world & yourself! The result is a funny, entertaining collection, no doubt a great material for a book! She is drawing with gel pens (that means no CTRL+z!!!), simply impressive. I’m a digital person. When I want to draw something – the result is nothing like the picture in my head :D But here is the rule: “Mothers are always right!” and as my mum keep telling me: “You have to draw everyday, f you wanna to be good in it.” So here we go – the most repeated phrase of the day: Practice makes perfect!

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“Eva-Lotta Lamm User Experience Designer and Illustrator. She grew up in Germany, worked in Paris and London for a few years. She has over 12 years of experience working on digital products as an in-house designer for Google, Skype, and Yahoo! as well as freelancing and consulting for various agencies and her own clients. Besides her daytime mission of making the web a more understandable, usable and delightful place, she regularly takes sketch-notes at all sorts of talks and conferences and has self-published her notes in several books. Eva-Lotta also teaches sketching and is interested in exploring the area of Visual Improvisation – looking at the parallels between sketching and improvisation to explore how some of the principles from her regular theatre improvisation practice can be used to inspire visual work.” W: www.evalotta.net; Tw: @evalottchen

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“Practice makes perfect!”


17:15 – 18:00

Emily Forgot – Stay curious, always!

Emily Forgot had the longest title, or more like a list of titles. I think with creative people who are curious & inspired by everything is very hard to establish that line & identify yourself with a single title :) So here she was – Graphic artist, Designer, Illustrator, Blogger, Finder & Generalist. So glad I’m not the only one who seems to be interested in many things (That’s why my blog is not about one topic). Felt kind of bad for a while – as people keep saying that if you don’t choose one thing to be good at – than you will be mediocre in everything. I simply refuse to agree with this idea :) Interesting fact was that Emily is an author of one of the visuals that covered a construction site on Tottenham Court Road, which I admired & wondered who created it & what was the brief?! Emily mentioned – that there was almost no brief – so she was kind of free to do what she likes as long as she covers the topic of shopping, restaurants & entertainment :)
What you create is a product of your creative nature & intuition coupled with your nurtured visual vocabulary.

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“Emily Forgot has been working in the creative industry since graduating from Liverpool school of Art & Design in 2004 she has amassed a diverse range of international clients, including Herman Miller, Adidas, Orange, MTV, Paul Smith, The Creative Review, Selfridges & Co, Harrods, The W hotel, Bang & Olufsen, Swarovski, The BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, Dazed and Confused, GQ, Wired, MC Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy, 02, Nokia and more. Along side commercial endeavours Emily produces personal work in the form of limited edition prints and ceramics. Her work has been exhibited both in London and abroad most notably in 2007 at the ‘Fragiles’ show as part of the prestigious Miami Art Basel.” W: www.emilyforgot.co.uk; Tw: @emily_forgot

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18:30 – 19:15

Tom Muller – Say yes to free work

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Comics lover, illustrator & graphic designer was talking about the dilemma of working for free & what opportunities it brought him. All designers deal with this dilemma from time to time. Is it Yes or No? He says Yes, BUT there are some rules… That deserves separate post! (coming soon) On the beginning of his speech we watched his presentation, which I absolutely LOVE:
The Wolf of Wall Street — Run With the Wolf

“Tom Muller designs comics, culture, entertainment and technology – and has done so for the last 16 years. Amongst the clients and brands he collaborates with he counts Image Comics, WIRED, DC Comics, Universal Studios, TV Guide, Flipboard, Zonza, WGSN, Paramount Pictures, Muse Productions, and StudioCanal – for whom he has designed and led projects that range from brand identities, international web campaigns to print and publication designs.” W: www.hellomuller.com; Tw: @hellomuller

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Reasons To Be Creative Conference in September – 10th anniversary

Brighton Dome | Brighton, UK | 05-07 Sep 2016
Get ready to – Reasons to be Creative is a conference for anyone with a creative mind. It is always on the first Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of September every year. Reasons brings together the best in art, design, code, & inspiration, and is a fantastic 3 days of education and inspiration. To be honest at the moment Im surprised I haven’t done it before?! I would love to attend this one. Subscribe to the newsletter (discounts for subscribers!) & be the first to hear about Early birds tickets. See you there guys :)

Stay up to date – twitter & facebook.

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Love this shot – its kind of saying: “Be creative & doors of opportunities will open!” :)

Short description text for each speaker taken from event website.

Reasons to be creative, happy, alive are everywhere! Don’t ignore them! Thanks for reading, see you soon. Xxx

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