Our latest module at Hyper Island - Information Society, called for all students to contact “digital media influencers”, – those that stood out for creating/leading ground breaking campaigns that help form our digital future.
A recent campaign which caught my attention and heart was Space150′s Augmented Reality campaign for clothing brand Forever21, at Times Square in June this year. Although I had viewed a similar concept earlier this year, by artist Chris O’Shea, I loved how this campaign extended the idea further – catapulting an otherwise exquisite AR play into full-fledged commercial use.
With this campaign in mind, it gave me much pleasure to contact and interview the creative who focused on the digital interaction and technical aspects behind the billboard – James Squires, Technology Director at Space150. James worked under the direction of the CEO of Space150 and Creative lead William Jurewicz for this project. James kindly took his time to answer each question in detail so I do hope you find as much value from his future trend predictions and professional insights, as we did.
Name: James Squires
Age: 31
Company: space150
1. Creativity is an important trait within this industry, what other traits do you think are needed to become a resilient leader? What is your major source of inspiration?
You have to stay insanely informed in digital in order to lead, you can’t fake it in a shop full of experts like space150. It may sound cliche, but my co-workers at space150 are my major source of inspiration. We have every digital discipline under one roof and you can soak up so much information just sitting in a few meetings or casual conversation. Just follow the twitter trail of the space150 employees from @space150; there are so many smart people there.
2. Which trends have you seen in the digital media industry that has surprised you? Are there any current trends which you think will survive long term and what do you see happening in the digital landscape in the coming years? Do you see any negative impact from this?
I don’t know that it has surprised me but I think the biggest trends by far have been in mobile, whether it’s apps, hardware, or integrated projects. Everything mobile is progressing rapidly compared to the timeline the web has taken; if you took a vacation for 6 months I cannot imagine trying to catch up. Mobile application design and development is something that I see shaking up a lot in the next 6 months. The languages for making applications require a huge investment of time to master (Obj-C/iPhone, Java/Android) This may always been the case for some things like gaming, but I think we’ll see the landscape change dramatically and higher level dynamic platforms for apps will win out making it easier for designers and developers. The competitive mobile market has really moved things forward but it has created some interesting decisions for professionals. It’s difficult to target multiple mobile platforms for apps and campaigns.
3. Since the advent of social media (twitter,etc) how has your approach to consuming information changed and what tips do you have for filtering information? Do you see much use in Micro-trends or do you find it distracting with your creative process?
You definitely have to use technology to aggregate the information. I could not keep up with every channel individually and still stay on top of the work. I personally use Google Reader and shove hundreds of RSS feeds in there. Every social media site has an RSS feed and it’s a time saver to be able to read it all in one place. It’s amazing how quickly you can skim and scan hundreds of items in Google Reader on the iPhone and pick out the important bits. You’ll pick out an idea or thought from a tweet going into a meeting and it might help shape an ideation session or add a ton of value. You have to be informed on all of the latest trends to stay relevant but I don’t necessarily feel that it’s distracting.
4. What is your wildest digital dream you would like realized during your lifetime? And what technology would need to be created /further-developed in order for this to be realized? Go crazy!
I’m a pretty big gamer at heart. My craziest dream would be to see one of my many game ideas come to full fruition or at least be part of the production of one. I’ve kept a journal with notes on various ideas over the years, and I’ve taken some to a pretty detailed level. The largest is probably an evolving dream/vision for a fully immersive virtual gaming world (think Star Trek holodeck). It’s way out there but you can see things already moving in that direction with movies like Avatar. I hope to see something like it in my lifetime.
5.What is the greatest failure you experienced during your career and how has this experience positively affected you?
Early in my career I worked for a startup where I was employed as the “Webmaster”. I designed, programmed and managed everything for the companies online presence. I reported to the VP of Marketing who was an amazingly driven individual, trusting, but also pushed really hard to get the best work he could out of you. I was tasked with creating a new website for the corporate site and he directed that I create 3 versions for the board of directors to pick from. Before the meeting my VP felt good about the designs, but all of the designs were quickly dismissed by the CEO. At the time I couldn’t handle the rejection of every design and it was a huge low point. I remember working all of the following weekend without sleep to get the final design out and ultimately we launched the site but it was a stand-out experience in rejection and helped shape me. You have to stand behind your designs and solutions but rejection is part of the gig.
6. E Commerce Management is a new program at Hyper Island – which focuses on developing and leading online business. Is this a profile which you foresee a growing demand for and what trends do you think will influence the development of this field?
Demand in e-commerce for mobile continues grow and is one trend to consider. At space150 we are already working with our clients to offer applications that expand their existing e-commerce business through mobile devices; both for running the business and expanding the way customers complete transactions.
Another shift in the industry is the advent of curated e-commerce sites run by larger entities that focus their efforts on the small business owners with specialities. The Apple App store is an obvious example but there are many others starting up, some succeeding and some failing; Etsy and Makers Market are two of the larger ones that come to mind.
After reviewing the eCommerce Manager program description that Hyper Island offers I am intrigued to find out more details behind the sessions and workshops offered for the students.
7. For the final question we’d like you to take out your crystal ball in order to make a prediction on what the next years of digital media have in store for us? It’s always better to be a few steps ahead!
In the next few years I see a huge increase in the amount of integrated media and campaigns. The toolsets have certainly evolved beyond the hobbyists and have enabled designers and developers to complete projects on realistic timelines. For example it’s great to see projects with the Arduino and Processing making headlines (Nike Chalkbot is a great example despite any controversy it may have caused)
