Alexander Younger

"Attitude determines your altitude." Alexander Younger, President and Founder at Design Lab, Pilot, and husband of Sarah Richardson, came in to speak with the class today. Check him out on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @designlabinc.

Alex started DesignLab 20 years ago with a passion for emerging technologies, and has thrived by helping clients to leverage those technologies to efficiently communicate with their customers. The theme of Alex's presentation was app design.

Luke Wroblewski at Moblilism 2011 in Amsterdam.

Alex started by showing some interesting facts from lukew.com. Just to put things in perspective; 371K babies are born every day, 378K iphones are sold every day, 700K Android devices are activated every day, and 562K iOS devices are sold each and every day. So I think he's trying to tell us that mobile design is relevant :) And I would imagine that a lot of the demand for smart phone devices is being driven by apps... which need to be designed.

Best Practices for Mobile Design

1) Establish your business goals. How do you make people want to buy your app. In the case of Angry Birds they were able to create this phenomenon, partly by giving it away, and then made off by merchandising it.

2) Keep it simple. People are smart but they are not intuitive. If something is tried and true, use it.

3) Get inspired. Know what the competition is up to. Be on top of new innovations. Cool example of reactive design from foodsense.is. Also check out barackobama.com.

4) Go social. In a case study of DesignLab's work with The Beer Store, Alex walked us through the process of building their app which features a beer passport to encourage sampling and community building.

5) Remember the rankings

6) Measure

Alex's advice on how to impress an agency

1) Put together a great portfolio

2) Have a great attitude, be enthusiastic

3) Research the company and your interviewer.

4) Ask a lot of questions, "how am I going to grow here."

5) Don't settle.

David Gray

David Gray came in to speak with us today. Another grad of the Web Design program at Sheridan College, he is now a Digital Sales Producer at CTV News & Entertainment, Bell Media Interactive. You can find him on LinkedIn or check out his personal website, www.davidgraydesign.com. He's also a singer, songwriter and music producer :)

This one gets me every time.

When David graduated in 2007 it was around the pinnacle of Flash banner design and he was able to land a job an Interactive Designer / Flash Developer, (aka banner bitch) position at Publicis Modem Toronto. He warned us of the hours we can expect to work at an agency, and it sounds like he was worked to the bone in this role. Basically, if you love it, you will thrive, otherwise it's easy to burn out. Projects got pushed out daily, and in this way he was able to learn quickly and soon became a producer.

When the recession hit, David was laid off, and he started out as a freelancer. This is where his network came in handy and he was able to pull in enough work, but the hours became erratic. A common scenario would be to get a job in the late afternoon that need to be ready for the morning, so he'd be up all night to get it done. Freelancing is all about your contacts, being organized and learning how to manage your money. Feast or famine.

After a quick stop at Digital Percent, (now Q Media) he was back freelancing when an opportunity at TBWA came up. There he looked over maintenance of Visa.ca, a huge account with really quick role over times. Each morning started in a meeting with the accounts team to discuss the changes that needed to be implemented that day.

Next, budget cuts, and again he was laid off. David's stressed that you can't take it personally, this is just the way business goes. Soon after he landed his current position at CTV Bell Media where he works on a lot of co-branded units. He got this job through a contact otherwise he wouldn't have even known it had been posted. As a Publisher he's responsible for making sure that everything gets done by the launch date. He needs to keep people happy and motivated while ensuring that the client gets what they asked for on time. He is an organizer, and a delegator.

Tips for survival:

1) Network and make contacts

2) Use LinkedIn to connect and find out about job opportunities

3) Do research at home and stay ahead of the curve

4) Keep your cool and be organized

5) Learn as much as you can about mobile

6) Get to know your browsers

R.I.P Pan Am

Michael Gramlow

Today we got to hear from Michael Gramlow, award winning Creative Director at Lollipop. Before this he was a Creative Director, Interactive at Dentsu Canada, a Creative Director at Henderson Bas, and lots more things, both here and in the United States. Michael has Nakane Teien Kenkyujo listed under his education on LinkedIn. As far as I can tell this has something to do with traditional Japanese painting?? Look him up on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter @mgramlow, or find his portfolio on michaelgramlow.com.

Lollipop is a creative production company that works with agencies to produce digital experiences. As the industry has evolved, Michael sees three areas of opportunity for work, each requiring a unique passion and skill set. 1) Interactive Pure Play, which includes companies like Critical Mass, Organic and Blast Radius. 2) Integrated Ad Agencies like Taxi, DDP and BBDO. 3) Production Companies which incluce Lollipop, Pixel Pusher, Indus Blue and Fuel. So Lollipop's job is to execute an idea put forth to them by an ad agency. There work is mainly produced for American companies, as their representation is in New York City.


Pureblacksunshine.com was produced for Extreme Group, for a Canadian/Haitian based coffee company with a unique marketing angle. Visitors are invited to step into shadows of the underworld, chartering a flight to a mysterious island to undertake a business deal that simulates a 'movie like' drug deal. Players who keep their cool and make it past the imposing steel door guarding the entrance to a seemingly abandoned warehouse are tested to the limits as they come face to face with the dealer, his pure organic stash, and a gun-toting gang of hired thugs.

Shot in the basement of the Pure Black Sunshine processing plant in Toronto. Michael talked about the process of creating the narrative and building a style and mood for the shoot. This one must have been fun.

Part of a holiday campaign shot for TJX Brands. This is an interesting brand experience that allows the user to customize the background using googlemaps and send a christmas carol to a friend. You can also add a reindeer which they got from Greenscreen Animals.

Nice.

Produced with Dentsu, this is a site created to support the launch of the Legendary Biru campaign for Sapporo Beer. Lollipop designed and built the site, in addition to shooting the sage video. The site itself is centered on a character - the Sage - that is the keeper of the legend of Sapporo. He leads visitors on a 'treasure hunt' through the site where the goal is to collect a number of hidden scrolls. Some are easy to find and tell a brief story about the beer, while others are well hidden and require diligence to unlock. Those who reach the end of the journey are given a message tailored to the number of scrolls they’ve discovered, while those who manage to collect all 15 scrolls are entered to win a trip to Japan. This is a lot of fun and I love this commerical.

Besides showing us about the production side of the creative industry, Michael had some valuable advices. He really stressed that we'd need to pound the pavement hard and bug people, even if we think we're annoying them. People in the industry are simply really busy and will forget to respond to you even if they want to. Guess now is as good a time as any to get started.


Today was plaid day. Wonder if Michael noticed.