The New Creatives @iotwatchalex@designswarm.com

B.A.Sp Industrial Design Université de Montreal 2000-2004 M.A. Certificate Interaction Design Interaction Design Institute Ivrea 2004-2006

First UK distributor of the Arduino an open source electronics education platform tinkerlondon.com Strategy, research and community building for companies interested in the internet of things designswarm.com Founder of the Good Night Lamp, connected lamps for your global family. goodnightlamp.com

Tribes. Invisible & complex creative business practices. How they lead to innovation but not scale. Why they are like unicorns (not in the investment sense). What you can learn from them.

A design education was never enough In the last 10 years I’ve learnt about Coding Marketing Electronics design Supply chain design e-commerce design Finance Cash flow management

I exist in the world of micro-SMEs

An unofficial part of the creative industries.

A new kind of craft.

Most crafts businesses are too small to identify in business survey data, so while there has been a crafts section in the former classification, we’ve not been able to provide GVA data. […]

We believe that many crafts workers are very clearly in creative occupations. However, in the official classifications, many of these workers are spread across a range of occupational and industrial codes […]. To include these codes would not give an accurate value to the crafts sector, so we are looking at better ways to measure this contribution.

Anti design

When design is about purpose impact authorship longevity.

The work of New Creatives is Experimental Ephemeral Social

A mix of art film advertising product design software web development events

Characteristics of New Creatives

Learn new skills constantlyLearnt how to code so they could work faster or already knew how to codeHave done work as an artist or as a freelancerWork on ‘side projects’ all the timeDocument their process thoroughlyTransparent about collaborationsWork in micro SME formatsAre always a limited companyDon’t know how to describe their work to othersTerrible portfolio websites with photos of electronics on themor no photos at all

They are often hiding in the early stages or years of interesting projects and even more interesting ideas.

Tom Armitage, Creative technologistApril 2014

October 2015

Katie London, Creative technologistBotanicalls (still on sale now)2009

October 2015

They start memes that stick.They understand the internet and digital culture in a deep way, not as aa shop window for images.

Matt BiddulphCTO ThingtonFormer CTO of DopplrCoined ‘Silicon Roundabout’

Matt WebbFormer CEO of Bergcloud / BergFormerly of Schulze & WebbResponsible for the UK government’s use of ‘Tech City’

James BridlePublisher, Artist, Creative technologistCoined ‘New Aesthetic’

They engage with politicsand politicians.

They bring new ways of seeing to businessesfor a period of time

They build their own businessesfor periods of time.

And sell thingsfor a period of time.

FRSTEE by RIG LondonChristmas 2012

Bubblino by McQN Ltd Know-Cardsby Tina Aspiala

They also write books.

Designing the Internet of ThingsMind HacksArduino for Dummies

And lecture.It’s rarely their bread and butter thoughas it doesn’t pay well enough.

And just like thatthey move on to other things.

Who cares? So what? What’s new?

There is no such thing aslocal design.

There isstrong local communities with global ties.

Your practice is never completethere are always other people you could be working with, other ways to work, things to learn how to master and engage with. You are always an apprentice, you can never be a master.

Know your digital culture, it’s historyand create within it. Blogging and social media are not an option.

Redefine authorship.Your practice is also about sharing process with others, letting others learn from you. When IP is hard to secure, your process is gold.

Anyway authorship doesn’t matter.Most of the time the clients take the credit so you might as well do something new.

Consumer culture devalues everything.Think about how your work lives onand becomes something people put in museums rather than on shelves at John Lewis.

Work with small clients (or small teams in a large corp) on small engagements.The work will always be more interesting and you’ll want to get it done more efficiently. If you have to take a job, take one for a couple of years, then move on.

Become an extreme collaborator.Recognise other people’s talent as an opportunity for collaboration instead of a threat.

You will not learn this in a design schooldesign is changing and eventually education will too.

Don’t worry about awards or press.The reward for a prosperous career should always be what’s in your bank account and what your peers say about you.

Good luck. @iotwatch alex@designswarm.com James Bridle Tom Armitage Tom Taylor Phil Gyford Georgina Voss Ben Terrett Russell Davies Matt Webb Otticamedia Near Future Laboratory ONN Studio BuckleyWilliams Adrian McEwen Andy Huntington Matt Brown

Hubbub (NL) Superflux.in Umbrellium Thington Luckybite Daniel Hirschmann Hellicar&Lewis Aaron Straup Cope Mike Migurski Kati London Tina Aspiala Chris Heathcote Nick Ludlam