DownsideUpDesign

Step 1. Take one musician and have him record a track written by a composer with sensational lineage.

Step 2 Send said track out to the experimental masters of electronica and hip-hop for remixing.

Step 3. Collect results and compile.

If you think this sounds like a recipe for some avant-pop single, we’d forgive you.

In reality, this is a glimpse into the creative process behind the latest work of our next CreativeMornings/London speaker, classical contemporary cellist Peter Gregson.

Apart from his collaboration with Gabriel Prokofiev, titled Cello Multitrack, Gregson has also worked with some of the greats of the classical contemporary music scene, including Max Richter, Howard Goodall and  Steve Reich.

And in the last two years he’s performed at SXSW, XOYO and MIT and TEDx Alcatraz (where he forms part of the house band).

Need we say more.

Performing -and speaking- at CreativeMornings/London in the intimate Sanderson Billiard Room, this ain’t gonna be your average cello recital.

Read our interview below and make sure to set a reminder for 10:55 on Monday, May 21st.

Well, you wouldn’t want to miss out, would you?

Peter Gregson will be appearing at CreativeMornings/London on Friday May 25th -sponsored by The Sanderson- at at the Billiard Room at The Sanderson Hotel at 50 Berners Street, W1T 3NG. For more information and to reserve tickets, please go to the CreativeMornings London Eventbrite page.

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Jonty describes himself as a country-living gastrophile with a penchant for all things egg.

Our CreativeMornings/London April speaker also revels in understanding the murky area between designers’ confidence and arrogance.

Currently UX Design Director at Albion and previously with Tobias & Tobias, Jonty has over 12 years experience in branding, user experience design, and look & feel across all digital channels.

Having chaired panels at SXSW and appeared for our mates at LDNIA, we’re super excited to be welcoming him to the CreativeMornings/London family.

Our usual interview is -you guessed it- beyond the jump.

Jonty Sharples will be appearing at CreativeMornings/London on Friday April 27th -sponsored by Forward and Sense Worldwide- at the Forward at Floor 2, Centro 4, 20 Mandela St, Camden, NW1 0DU. For more information and to reserve tickets, please go to the CreativeMornings London Eventbrite page.

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Not Alice Taylor, but one of her dolls

Alice Taylor founded Makielab, a new toys and games company based in Shoreditch, London, in February 2011. Within their magic lab, they’re making a new kind of future-smashing toy: customisable, 3D-printed, locally made, and game-enabled.

This latest adventure came after nearly four years commissioning games, apps and web TV shows for Channel 4 Education.

Previous to Channel 4 Alice was VP Digital for BBC Worldwide (LA), and previous to that, the brains behind another start up producing Java entertainment software – avatars, forums, chat apps.

Alice is an avid gamer, an innovator and an admirer of the indie spirit, most apparent in indie games and web development. Alice blogs at Wonderlandblog, and her personal tweets are at @wonderlandblog.

Our usual interview is beyond the jump.

Alice Taylor will be appearing at CreativeMornings/London on Friday March 23rd -sponsored by The Sanderson Hotel and Sense Worldwide- at the Billiard Room at The Sanderson Hotel at 50 Berners Street, W1T 3NG. For more information and to reserve tickets, please go to the CreativeMornings London Eventbrite page.

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Kenny Schachter; art dealer, design critic, car lover, collector and commissioner of culture. His various professional and personal activities give him a unique perspective on design, art and, of course, design as art.

First coming to our attention during a panel discussion on the future of the automotive designer (Kenny thinks the increasing impracticality of cars will see them elevated to objects of cultural desire), there’s little doubt that Kenny’ll provide a provocative perspective on the practical, cultural and economic value of design.

Our usual interview is beyond the jump.

Kenny Schachter will be appearing at CreativeMornings/London on Friday February 24th -sponsored by Forward and Sense Worldwide- at Floor 2, Centro 4, 20 Mandela St, Camden, NW1 0DU. For more information and to reserve tickets, please go to the CreativeMornings London Eventbrite page.

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Recently CreativeMornings founder Tina Roth-Eisenberg a.k.a SwissMiss went to see a talk at the Atlanta chapter.

While she was there she was interviewed by Ron Dawson of Dare Dreamer magazine for the video above.

It’s such a neat encapsulation of what attracted me to CreativeMornings and why I was so desperate to bring it to London way back in 2010.

Hat tip to Tina and Ron

During the interminable wait to get on a rescheduled flight to Tasmania I started idly flicking through my blog feeds.

More often than not I hit “mark all as read” rather than actually doing any reading.

But my eye was caught by a post by Steve Jones on the Fast Company blog titled Authenticity Vs. Perfection: How To Brand Like A Rock Star.

A lengthy excerpt from a book, my sleep-deprived, caffeine-addled brain skimmed most of it.

But the central thesis is one that has resonated with me since I started my journey into brand strategy in 2005.

Here’s my riff on it: humans are imperfect but imperfection lends individuals their character. It’s character, our unique mix of our perfect and imperfect qualities, that acts as our emotional magnet, attracting or repelling fellow humans. It could be said that the more honest we are about our mix of perfect and imperfect, the more authentic we’re being. And, in my experience at least, authentic people have deeper, more engaged and longer-lasting relationships.

And so it could be (should be?) with brands.

Because we want brands to be our best friends after all.

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In 1951, a Shell advert proclaimed that one went “very fast very gently in a Bentley”.

In that same year, Bentley’s own advertising proclaimed that theirs was “The Silent Sports Car”.

David Ogilvy, in his imperious advert for the ’59 Rolls Royce, went so far as to say that the Bentley alternative was for the diffident.

And even when growing up in the decade that taste largely forgot – the 1980s – Bentley remained the choice of the discreet.

Indeed, all the way up until 2003 a Bentley was a luxuriously appointed ride under the radar.

Then Volkswagen came along and buggered it all up.

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