Have you ever been called into a brainstorming session at the last minute or find halfway through one your asking what are we doing here again? I bet more of us have than successful ideas or products that have come from these sessions. Recently I attended the HOW Conference in Austin and had the pleasure of meeting the authors of “Caffeine for The Creative Mind” and “Caffeine for the Creative Team” both books available on Amazon.com and both full of exercises to use in brainstorming sessions.
This three-hour session provided exercises and principles that both invigorate and spark creative ideas that bring ideation and execution to your team and company. The session started with an exercise right out of the book and quickly we found ourselves describing Austin and what it meant to us using Play-Doh. After about 5 minutes my group had an alien with a head made out of a taco, a body that resembled a guitar, a BBQ burger and beer bottle in hand and we kept the “keep Austin Weird” message going.

Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield the authors highlighted key principles that after hearing I was ready to share back with my team and make the next big thing. Below I will highlight some of these and for a more detailed version with over 500 exercises pick up their books.

1.    Have the right number of brainstormers present. Usually 4-7 is good, 5 is their magic number.
2.    Don’t surround yourself around other you’s. Have many different personality types include the janitor if needed.
3.    No pop quizzes – give people notice (2 days) to bring ideas to the table.
4.    Value time 1.5 – 2 hours is ideal.
5.    Fresh input, familiar output. Experience the brand in its environment but come back to a familiar place to meet otherwise there will be too many distractions.
6.    Have something up your sleeve: bring elements into the area; this shows how important certain elements are.
7.    Start the fire with a creative match. Exercises of creativity.
8.    Bring in the strategic play. Have a creative catalyst Kevin Carroll at Nike has his own creative gym on their complex.
9.    Leave the judge at the door. No one will speak out if they say something stupid and get judged. Have people feel they are not developing a solution but possibilities.
10.    If you unroll it, they will draw. Surfaces that are drawable, Play-Doh, etc.  
11.    Be the coach not the owner. Look from someone else’s or things perspective, give stalls a push.
12.    Capture residual ideas – come back 1 day later in an informal visit and jot down any ideas that might have come up.
13.    Put on the back patter hat. We all like to be stroked so praise may make us generate more.

All in all I thought these ideas were excellent and half way through the session I had a calendar invite from my team for a brainstorming session the day I got back so I was looking forward to using these.

So today I had the privilege of sitting in a HOW conference session titled “Designing for more than three screens” by former CBS Interactive Vice President and Entertainment Creative Director John Couch, whom now runs his own technology consulting firm Titanium Sky. His presentation was focused on his work primarily with CBS and the hit show CSI. He discussed his role in the development of creating brand experiences across multiple platforms such as TV, mobile and Web. One key point he reinforced was once you have established your audience both on-screen and on the Web was to not let them get away. Even if the show is cancelled you may still have thousands maybe millions of viewers that can carry your brand and perpetuate it into new forms of revenue. Couch was one of the first to market the concept of short commercials with tie-ins to see continued media on the brands websites.

He spoke also on the subject of new media and where it is going, which seems to be the mission of his own website with the tagline “the future is sooner than you think” which can be found at http://titaniumsky.com. He highlighted some of the upcoming technologies that brands should and will embrace that will change the way we think of brand experiences and us as Experience Designers (IxD) should keep up with. Below I will highlight some of the technologies that are up coming and feature links to their websites that show demos and screenshots.

Cocoon – Tino Schaedler – 360degree screen that will immerse you. Video demo

Emotive Systems – Brain computer interface – You think it and the screen interprets it. view demo

Bionic Contact Lens – University of Washington in Seattle is working on this technology. view demo

True Holographic TV – Used for walk thru advertising. view demo

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) – Screens you can bend (Sony is working on this technology) video link

Augmented Reality – Pioneered by Marco Tempest – so many possibilities here. Link

Gesture Controlled TV – Hitachi is developing this. Video link

X-Box 360’s Natal – Demoed at this years E3. Demo link

World Builder – Brandit VFX – Pioneered by Bruce Brandit – Holographic world shot over several weeks, took 2 years post-production work. Video link

I recently deisgned the poster artwork for the upcoming CD release of Epic Funk by ATX DJ's Cortinas & Wade released under BucklUp Entertainment.

Ok so my last post apparently posted it about 5-6 times and i don't know why, It seems if you click on the link you get a bad request message if anyone knows how to fix this I am using the .Net Blog engine to power the back end please leave a comment below. Thanks

TL Effect – A synergetic experience where value is added from the product acting as a catalyst to advance the end user.

So recently I purchased an Acura TL and let me tell you I love it! From the super-fast VTech engine to the Bluetooth syncing with my iPhone to the pounding super clear sound system this car has it all and more.

This past weekend my girlfriend got a dose of what I have dubbed the “TL Effect”. We were on our way to the movies Sunday night and stopped at a light when a jam from my iPod, plugged into the in-car USB plug, turned some heads and had the couple next to us dancing. I think Acura made an excellent choice promoting the TV commercials with Citizen Cope’s “Let My Drummer Kick” but in this case I found the perfect song for the perfect car. I have a remixed version of David Guetta’s “Love Is Gone” and the electronic baseline goes hard and nasty on the Dolby Sound system. Next we found ourselves ROFLOAO as the beats in the song seemed to be synchronized to our next moves. We pulled into a spot in the parking lot of the theater as if we were the stars arriving for the debut.

The next day I pulled up to a stop light and two young guys busted out a lame version of the robot cracking up as they did it. It was a classic YouTube moment probably worth millions of views but the 360-degree swivel-mount video camera option with one button upload to YouTube isn’t offered on the ’09 model yet.
 
Same story last night, passed by a local nightclub/bar and a girl exiting the club in a black dress threw up her hands and started dancing in the streets. It was awesome and entertaining to say the least. I’ve had people yell, “Hey give me my car back”, “can we go again” and probably broken more necks than an old Wrigley’s Double Mint double take commercial as they stare the TL down.

What I’m trying to say is that the experiences are worth more than what Acura had sold me for the car or promoted. They are moments and stories that are priceless and will be shared. The brand is rock solid the product ensures it, which makes for an enjoyable ride full of surprises each time I get in and push the big red button. More brands should focus on this type of experience design and weigh value and ROI on what the product can ignite and perpetuate in the user beyond just the sticker price. Thanks Acura you have a new loyal customer.

P.S. I would be happy to drive the next Great User Experience you create and share it across the web just give me a tweet at @RFIJoey.

So I posted this yesterday but it seems my blog post got deleted. So here is some promotional work I recently did for the Dynasty of Dirt Bike Series here in Northwest Arkansas. Goto their website for more details on the upcoming events www.dynastyofdirt.com 

So I recently got asked to design a website for one of our fellow coworkers here at Rockfish Interactive or @RFInteractive on twitter, and it was a fun side project to work on. Lots of band pictures, tour dates, and where to get band merchandise on the site so check them out here at www.nonamekicker.com and check out their music. I'm sure they'll be playing in a bar here in NWA soon so you'll be able to check them out live. No Name Kicker Rules!!!