Smell excitement in the air. Here’s to Rajesh, Kay and Team for rolling it out for ten years. I want the same yet different. That’s why I am here. I am not a writer yet I become.
We designers can connect with 400 corporate honchos at KDY. Now that’s good design. Colourful Laura with the pink stockings and Kevin Finn (his practice is called TheSumOf ) lead on stage.
Talk 1: Nick Law of R/GA stressed on the need for left and right to work in tandem in today’s world. Storytelling and systems thinking, digital and narrative merge to give beautiful human experiences that transcend the ordinary. Now that’s organic. That’s nature – we are getting closer. It pumps adrenaline.
Talk 2: Random Studios really do random work – that’s Mike and Daan for you. They have the guts to do this and they’ve got their clients to trust them. They stand firm – belief and conviction nurtured with years of practice. We are two different cultures, audience and speakers earnestly trying to connect. At one point like waves of two rivers we meet and flow together. From technology to soul.
Laura Jordan Bambach spikes the audience with, “Only boring people get bored”. Cunning, she calls it, but it impresses the importance of feeling alive. “Be relentless always and never give” and “Ask for forgiveness and not permission”, she belts out.
From my sonorous post-lunch state of mind, Satya Raghavan of YouTube India jolts me with, “What are you 40+ people doing in a conference like this?” Strange that the world is apparently designed for adults by adults; not for children. But, as one would like to believe, now the youth are enabling this change with technology: content creation and access is no longer going to be controlled by media/entertainment houses but society en masse.
Lydia Winters stepped outside her comfort zone to become Brand Director at Mojang. Say YES to new things. Speakers were united in their beliefs about sharing, presenting, teaching and telling us what excites them, what gets them to do what they do. They pumped our hearts, made them skip a beat even. The last speaker of the day John McHale was a maha guru leaving us with a lot to ponder about. His journey from Cannes to KYD showing a wide spectrum of work confirms the non-designer’s entry into design practice. His thought, “Every one of you can do something better than the person next to you”, left me inspired about each of us leaving unique footprints. As John says, a good idea can come from anywhere.