James Hilton

0:28Hello Siri hey Ryan our College I'm a little embarrassed now after watching all our I think I went to one of the shittest colleges in England because it's like my entire view of our College is entirely skewed to Southampton Institute don't ever go to Southampton is here I'm a visiting professor at say Lambton Institute and even understand don't go there.

1:00But it was fine I suppose when I was there but essentially rather boring I wasn't happy ya don't also don't back comb your hair and use crimpers because so I didn't really sort of like so much go to colleges use their facilities and when everyone was out getting pissed at the at the Student Union bar which they did kind of like all the time in the daytime as well I was kind of like locked into the computer room because when I when I was when I went to when I went to college they'd had their first delivery of something called an Apple Mac now I'm only 40 and and so that's not all that long ago the you know the things that we take completely for granted now were like these brand new bits of innovation. And I'd certainly never seen anything like that before. And it was amazing and and I just wanted to learn everything that I could about that.

2:05And I got friendly with the the guy who owned the computer room and then just basically spent my life in there and that and that was brilliant but it's fair to say that. Actually going to college didn't actually teach me nothing and that I learn everything pretty much when I left College when I was asked by it's nice that to come they said come and talk come and talk about art college because you've got some strong views about art college haven't you as I okay I'll make something up I'll college is interesting to me because I don't know what it means it's our versus design is it craft skills or creativity because I've got a very strong view the you can't teach creativity it just can't be done I went on to Google before I came out. And I typed in how to be more creative and sure by a thousand books turn up about telling me how to be creative and you go Google Images and here's 20 things to be more creative you know take your shoes off and walk on the grass off. That's not that's not going to teach anyone anything you can't teach people how to be creative but you very very definitely can teach people how not to be creative this is I love using point blank with Keanu Reeves awesome film.

3:48This is from Special Agent Ben harp who is his boss right you know nothing in fact you don't listen nothing if you knew that you knew nothing that would be something but you don't that could have been one of my teachers it really could have been that was the attitude but the thing is right and that attitude was prevalent and I don't know if it still is hopefully it isn't you know judging by the the the other speakers but the thing is that kids come pre-programmed with creativity it's already inside them. And so the thing is - Ben harp if Ben Harper's a design teach thing is the kids probably know everything they already need to know.

4:29And it's his job to them up. And that's because most kids are born here the planet no as soon as you're born you're born with an amazing amount of inspiration around you but you're born to plan it know where you've got to choose here's another brilliant quote this is from Gaza go the guys go to the Kazarian goes to the destructor and all the other things that.

4:56Anyway Ghostbusters again brilliant film choose and perish right I don't think goes weaves using it in this context but the thing that people get asked as soon as they're born into planet NOW is in our context are you're going to be an artist or a designer are you going to be a designer or an engineer are you going to be an engineer or a botanist are you going to be a botanist or an astronomer you've got to make a choice well you're already onto a loser because the thing is that you'll start to conform and conforming you ask most designers you will you conform no I don't rabble you know I don't conform at all.

5:39But the problem is that conformity seeps into you stealthily conformity kills creativity just in the same way that processes kill passion processes exist around us because they're really nice and safe most people don't realize they're conforming but they feel it in this kind of weird abstract way that they need to be more creative even designers in in you know the agencies I really think I need to be more creative maybe I can go on a course let's go on a course let's go and do some lino printing or something that'll make us more creative well they get self-help books I've got some friends they buy these self-help books again how to be more creative and they're rubbish the only person.

6:27That's actually being creative as a person who wrote it who's managed to charge somebody twenty quid to read it I doff my cap to whoever that is the reality is that people aren't less creative and therefore need to become more creative they're just reacting to the environments around them the road that natural creativity in a very stealthy way in agencyland the stealthy way in which that happens is that's not what we do here phenomenon otherwise known as can you just focus on the task in hand and do it which is fine if you're up against the deadline but if you want to be more creative you need to do lots and lots of different things so what is creativity so we all know that it's the ability to make connections right everyone knows that the more connections you can make the more creative you can be this is as close as I ever get to a chart by the way I drew it so making connections is brilliant and it will yield results and if you go on these creative courses they'll teach you how to connect all the dots together and that will bear fruit for quite some time up until the point that you run out of your own personal knowledge but the thing is knowledge isn't really enough we've gone from information which is fine getting information and everyone you know it's kind of like you know when you're when you're marking people's work as a teacher you know you know that they're all using information because they've all gone on Wikipedia and they've all copied the same thing down and they've used information we know cuz we're mature if the information isn't knowledge so our idea is to collect knowledge and make the connections between that knowledge sorry I'll I've gotta stay on the podium and say that the key to creativity is not just knowledge but understanding if you have understanding then you own your knowledge and if you own your knowledge you can start to play with the connections in lots and lots of different ways and come up with things that you never thought possible how do we do this you have to acquire it's very simple actually you just have to acquire lots and lots of all consuming Asperges level hobbies you have to be so into these things the family becomes a distant memory acquiring multiple hobbies has the magical consequence of exponentially increasing your abilities in the one thing that you are most interested in the other great thing is that your brain isn't a fixed mass it isn't just a thing that shapes your behaviors it's actually been proven that your behavior changes your brain so let's think of a gardener decides to take up engineering her neurons will create new pathways to isolated regions so it may just be a mistake to just do one thing because if you practice multiple things you. Actually get better but any one of those things because of everything else that's going on around you just strengthen those neural pathways of course we have to repeatedly do something if I just flick through a book in nuclear dynamics I'm not suddenly going to be able to make a bomb I need to study it obsessively but the real trick is to get ahead of this disastrous conformity curve in still practices within educational establishments within businesses that hold sacred the idea of something called Polymathic creativity the idea that instead of just being called creatives you nurture polymaths people that are amazing at a variety of things and therefore can channel their creativity in one specific direction which kind of brings me to all the things that I learn what I learn I can package up and basically my principles for my fantasy art college if I'd gone to our if I'd really gone to our if I didn't bother dropping out then all gone to a College then maybe this maybe this already happens it certainly seems like it happens at fabrica the first thing that would happen is that I would teach this never grow up that is the most important thing you can ever do not grow up my one of my daughter's eleven years old she says to me dad all my friends really like you because you're just a child aren't you yeah all right somewhere in there is a compliment all right thanks a lot never grow up second thing never stop trying to be attractive he's giving it a go people let factor creep into so much stuff you know you're up against it with work but you got too much work to do well there's all this stuff going on around you your mates are going out to the pub and you really want to go and do that instead of doing the work for the client we've had a client for years and years and years and you know they're like an old sock now as soon as that starts happening bad things happen like in any relationship if you stop being attractive to your significant other guess what you get dumped same in business same with work listen to the voices in your head they will tell you everything that you need to know the voices in your head tell you the truth and largely its enormous ly inconvenient what they tell you.

13:00But they will tell you the truth they will tell you the right thing they'll tell you to do the difficult thing the thing. That's going to get in the way of your social life. But if you're hungry to zelda's point you need to listen to it as long as it's not saying kill kill kill very difficult on this if it no longer makes sense walk away people turn their decisions into Dogma a decision that you make at any point in time is based on the information that you have to hand at that point in time but guess what situations change environments change people change happens don't just stick to your guns all the time be prepared to pivot no drama nothing kills a company faster than drama when at AKQA I kind of like I want to meet everyone who joins AKQA oh I did when I was when I was there I said what do we fight against and they put the hand we fight against mediocrity it's like yeah but yeah we do that do we fight against work yeah but we do that we fight against drama I've got no time for drama queens or kings people who just want to create a scene or people who've got an ego it'll destroy your company you just need to find good people the unofficial hiring policy no in the building and then transform moments if you're gonna do something if you're gonna do some work for someone there's going to be a person at the end of user a customer or whatever transform that moment for them don't just do another bit of advertising or another app or another bit of digital landfill do something that.

14:59Actually makes a difference and in the end all we're going to do is that we're going to inspire people we're going to enable people with our tools with our services with our brilliant stuff to make them better to improve them in some way we're artists designers whatever we are our existence is to make things better and if you're not yourself you're not doing something new people get really nervous about that people who do I'm scared all right don't be scared if you're scared great get on and do it it means that you're not doing the thing that makes you comfortable and then lastly what would you do if you weren't afraid it's a an obvious statement but it recontextualized the planet for me. And I thought right what would I do if I wasn't afraid what am I afraid of I'd leave AKQA well you know I dropped out of college and start at AKQA I've never had a job ever. That's scary but what I really wanted to do was do furniture design or branding or strategy or design cars and so I started another company I left a kqn slightly this thing I tell you a strange the point of it is it's strange nobody can tell it what to do so it designs some weird furniture it does some lighting you know it starts tinkering with metallurgy does some strategy there's all sorts of things can't be pigeonholed and that's brilliant and that gives freedom this is some weird bit of 17th century murderers cabin or let's call it technology running all the way throughout it's great fun but the thing is it wasn't enough I'd only gonna do something else now as well because I've been into motorbikes since I was like 12 and so now I'm gonna be starting another company which I'm not going to tell you all that much about.

17:09But it's called that. And it will be doing amazing with stuff that goes fast bottom line I'm really sorry that I've gone over so long there everything has everything to do with everything if you're a creative person don't ever be told you shouldn't be doing that can you just go on do this somebody starts telling you that in a company question what their morals are question their creative moral compass and that's it you