Today was the first full day of SXSW. Waking up this morning was a little rough. I ended up going out last night to a really cool "Mexonesian" restaurant / bar called Hula Hut. It boarders Lake Austin and has 2 bars, one of which is a floating dock right on the river. Aside from the margaritas the fish tacos were really good. Needless to say last night ended up being a late one.


Anyway after some coffee I started the morning by going to Alexander Manu's panel The Imagination Challenge: Points of Departure for Design in the Knowledge Age. It was very insightful and was a great way to start off the day and think about things in a new light. He talked about how creativity is spawned through play and imagination and that "without play imagination dies, and without imagination creativity dies".

Those that know or work with me will be the first to tell you that I am a huge believer in this. I have never considered the "work" I do to be work, but more a way to play and let loose. Although at times I can forget this and take both myself, the world around me, a project, or my job too serious. Mr. Manu basically suggests to take relax and play because when we stop playing we stop imagining.

Creativity is an application with imagination as a prerequisite

I then headed off to Ramblings From the Ranch by Chipp Walters. While I am amazed at all Mr. Walters, and his companies, have accomplished over the years in the the industrial design / interactive designer community, this session was more a here is my portfolio, look at what my company does / has done. I didn't think the panel was a bad but I wouldn't rate it as the highlight of the day.

After grabbing a bite to eat, and chatting about mobile devices and technology in Germany/Europe I made it to the Opening Keynote by Jeffrey Zeldman. Mr. Zeldman is as interesting a speaker as he is a writer. While the keynote didn't go over any new technologies or tips / tricks it was still a pleasure to listen to him speak about prior SXSW events, and his life in general. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak I strongly suggest you go!

For the afternoon panel I started off with How to Hot-Wire the Creative Process by Curt Cloninger. He started with a run down of the graphic design process. Then walked through a series of strategies, tools, software, and habits that will help pick you up out of a creative rut. Some were either common since or things I had heard of or used before, while others were new interesting ideas that I will be sure to use the next time I am staring at a blank Photoshop document.

To finish out the day I went over to How to Make Big Things Happen with Small Teams by Jason Fried. This hit home on a couple of levels, and while I don't think I will be able to use all of the techniques that were suggest. There was a great wealth of information that I am going to bring back to my company and use in my own personal projects from this day forth. He showed that no matter how small your team is you can accomplish great task. It is all about how you go at a project from the get go. Unfortunately the panel was standing room only, so after an hour I was ready to sit down and rest for a few (can we say out of shape).

After heading back to the hotel to freshen up I headed out to hit up the after hour events. All the parties were very enjoyable and provided the chance to put faces on people I had never physically met before, as well as hang out with some old friends and meet some new ones. Plus drinks were FREE and the music/atmosphere was great!