![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/ReasonsTo.jpg\")
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I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of attending Reasons to be Creative 2015<\/a>\u00a0in Brighton a couple of\u00a0weeks ago. I had attended its predecessor, Flash on the Beach, a couple of times but I\u2019d never been to this new incarnation since it started a few years ago. I\u2019m really hoping I will get to go again next year as it\u2019s an amazing event.<\/p>\n The three days consist of some incredibly impressive and inspiring speakers (including artists, illustrators, designers, makers, hackers, developers, film-makers and CEOs), some great \u2018how-to\u2019 sessions, demos of latest creative software and a very positive atmosphere of creativity. Even just being in the presence of several hundred other digital creatives is a motivational experience. You feel like you\u2019re in the right place. And it certainly affirmed to me that I am definitely working in the right field, as I felt completely at home. Even if I won the lottery and could retire early I would still come and attend this\u00a0event each year.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a great location they have as well, in such a creative town as Brighton, with the venue just minutes walk from the beach, the pier, the Lanes and also my fantastic B&B at Guest in the City. A massive hat tip to John Davey<\/a>\u00a0and his entire team for putting on such a great event. Everything about it was so professional, friendly and welcoming.<\/p>\n Some highlights for me…<\/p>\n Dominic Wilcox Website –\u00a0http:\/\/dominicwilcox.com\/ Noma Bar<\/strong> Website \u2013 just shows his\u00a0cool dog\/cat\/mouse image –\u00a0http:\/\/nomabar.com\/ Jane ni Dhulchaointigh from Sugru Website –\u00a0https:\/\/sugru.com\/ John Hicks<\/strong> James Hall – Security<\/strong> Ros Horner – S<\/strong>etting Goals<\/strong> Yuko Shimizu<\/strong> Danny Yount<\/strong> How-to Sessions…<\/strong><\/p>\n Mike Brondbjerg – Using Data in your Creative Process Chris Gannon – Animating SVGs The Elevator Pitch<\/strong> Martin Hollywood<\/strong> Adam Butler<\/strong> Mr Phil<\/strong> In summary, Reasons to be Creative<\/a> is a fantastic event and one I can\u2019t recommend highly enough. I’ve come away with so much motivation inspiration I’m bursting to the brim with cool ideas. My main challenge is what to\u00a0play around with first… illustrations, SVG animations, data viz javascript, title animations, Raspberry Pi solutions. Who knows where Reasons to be Creative will take me. I know it will be somewhere interesting though!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of attending Reasons to be Creative 2015\u00a0in Brighton a couple of\u00a0weeks ago. I had attended its predecessor, Flash on the Beach, a couple of times but I\u2019d never been to this new … Continue reading
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Dominic.jpg\")
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\nDominic is incredible. A tour de force of original thinking.\u00a0He was a great speaker too. Although billing himself as an introvert he had a great stage presence and a lovely dry sense of humour. This session was worth the price of admission on its own. He has a very practical and hands-on sense of design which is illustrated by his hydraulic grabber made using syringes, a great illustrative style as demonstrated by his slide titles and quirky little animations, and a wonderfully anarchic imagination as shown by most of his work, such as the headphones that make your left ear hear what is coming from your\u00a0right hand side and vice versa. I also really loved the eyes on his robot cereal spoon. The animation on those eyes totally brought\u00a0that inanimate object to life in such a fun way. Make sure you watch the short film about him below. So refreshing to see a creative mind like this at work. It makes me very happy that there are people like Dominic Wilcox in our world.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/span><\/span>Twitter –\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/dominicwilcox<\/a>
\nVideo (a must watch) \u2013\u00a0https:\/\/vimeo.com\/122959827
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Robot cereal spoon –\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iVqlQRnyW08
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Book –\u00a0http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Variations-Normal-Dominic-Wilcox\/dp\/022409887X\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Noma.jpg\")
\nI would go so far as to say that Noma is a genius in his particular field. His illustrations are so, so clever and he has done it so many times that it is definitely not a fluke. He is able to portray\u00a0someone\u2019s personality using just a handful of lines and he is a master of the use of negative space to combine images in creative ways. He has the ability to make things seem so simple that you think \u2018Oh yeh, I could do that.\u2019 But having done caricatures in the past I know just how hard that is, and Noma\u2019s style is the purest form of that art. This session came right before Dominic\u2019s and combined to make the most inspiring 2 hour session of the event.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Twitter –\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/noma_bar<\/a>
\nChicken Mouth –\u00a0http:\/\/www.opticalillusioncollection.com\/2013\/09\/chicken-mouth-optical-illusion.html
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Other images –\u00a0https:\/\/uk.pinterest.com\/explore\/noma-bar\/
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Book –\u00a0http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Guess-Who-Many-Faces-Noma\/dp\/0977985075\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Sugru.jpg\")
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\nI was very aware of the Sugru product before I attended the event but I hadn\u2019t used it yet. I knew nothing about the company or the CEO so I was fascinated to find out that the CEO was a young Irish woman who had attended art school (the same school as Dominic Wilcox interestingly – small world). It doesn\u2019t really surprise me now though because it\u2019s such a clever product and so cleverly marketed that I think it really had to be a creative person behind it who was able to think outside the box and not be restrained by normal parameters. Jane’s\u00a0session was great as it showed how the company was founded, had extremely practical lessons to be learned, demonstrated some extremely clever and creative ideas and also managed to include many inspirational quotes such as “You don’t have to be an expert. Learn it”<\/strong>, “Start small, make it good”<\/strong> and “Design for impact, not just for the thing itself”<\/strong>. I wasn\u2019t expecting to hear from a speaker like this on the event, so it was a hugely pleasant surprise. It’s great to hear from designers who have made a real impact in the business world.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Twitter –\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/sugru<\/a>
\nVideo –\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?t=8&v=lXR48LE9X1Y
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>Magnet Kit –\u00a0https:\/\/sugru.com\/buy\/magnet-kit<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nVery interesting to hear John speak, as he is the illustrator behind such great logos as Firefox and Mailchimp.
\nhttp:\/\/hicksdesign.co.uk\/
\n<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/hicksdesign<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAn extremely enlightening, and sometimes depressing (not James\u2019 fault) look at how to keep yourself more secure online. Basically if someone wants to hack you, they will. There are ways you can make it harder for them, but if someone wants to hack you, they will. Extremely eye-opening, and I rarely used the public wifi after this session!
\nhttps:\/\/parall.ax\/
\n<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MrRio<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThis session was great as a motivational, get off your arse and do it, goal setting session. I joined in and submitted my goal which was to build a retro arcade machine of my own.
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/roshorner<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGreat talk by Yuko, about how you are never too old to reach for your dreams.
\nhttp:\/\/yukoart.com\/
\n<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/yukoart<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThis was another huge name for the event. Danny is the creative mastermind behind movie titles including the Iron Man movies, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes. Very interesting to see behind the curtain of someone actually working in Hollywood.
\nhttp:\/\/www.dannyyount.com\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/dannyyount<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Mike did a great session on using data in your creatively. I\u2019m very interested in Data Visualisation and his sessions focussed on using some Javascript techniques to help you create interactive display methods. I just loved his approach and how he built up his demo step by step from a very simple start to make sure people were following along and then adding layer upon layer of complexity. Some fantastic examples of his work (mentioned in a very relevant way) including the vector polygonal images of US Presidents.
\nhttp:\/\/www.brondbjerg.co.uk\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/mikebrondbjerg<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>This was a real highlight for me from the event, in terms of practical takeaway skills. Chris demonstrated how to create an SVG animation. SVGs are really hot right now, as a very light way to have scalable graphics online, and while there aren\u2019t a huge amount of tools to animate SVGs Chris demonstrated the fundamental theory behind it whilst taking us through a cute little animation step by step. You copy the elements on screen in your Adobe Illustrator file, paste this into a blank text editor to clean up the code manually, then you put this into Codepen, with the help of Greensock, where you can directly manipulate the Javascript to animate the piece using code. This method really gets me excited as it\u2019s the perfect marriage between left and right side brain thinking. Cute graphics with raw code. Chris presented brilliantly and it was a hugely enjoyable, as well as educational, session. Check out his Dribbble page. I just find those\u00a0animations so pleasing to watch.
\nhttps:\/\/dribbble.com\/chrisgannon<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisgannon<\/a><\/p>\n
\n3 minutes to speak on stage in front of the whole event audience and pimp your ideas. Pretty nerve-wracking but 20 people put themselves through this for a chance of telling people about what they do or in the hope that they might be asked to come back and present a full session next year. There were some really interesting people here that I am certainly going to explore more of their work. It’s even given me the incentive to perhaps put myself forward to speak one year. Just not sure what my topic or subject matter would be yet!<\/p>\n
\nThoroughly enjoyed Martin\u2019s session. Some of the things he has made are fantastic examples of what you can do with Raspberry Pi\u2019s and Arduino boards. And I also loved his Google poetry. Plus he\u2019s Scottish which is always a bonus.
\nhttp:\/\/www.thathollywood.com\/
\n<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/thatHollywood<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAdam controlled a drone live on stage using the numerical pad on his iPhone. It must be scary enough doing a pitch on stage, let alone using live technology like that.
\nhttp:\/\/lab.io\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/labfoo<\/a><\/p>\n
\nVery cool illustrations from Mr Phil. I seriously think he should do a colouring book. I\u2019d buy it!
\nhttp:\/\/www.misterphil.co.uk\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/mrpillustration
\n<\/a>
\nMark Robbins<\/strong>
\nI found Mark\u2019s presentation very impressive indeed. He was showing advanced CSS techniques in order to perform cool tricks inside emails. Pretty cool stuff and I\u2019m going to contact Mark to find out more.
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/m_j_robbins<\/a><\/p>\n