It's Friday!

Happy Friday!



Sweetest Thing by Camera Obscura

Lessons from Pixar

Last year I had the opportunity of seeing three inspiring exhibits: Pixar 20 Years of Animation at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Tim Burton at the MoMA, and Harry Potter the Exhibit at the Boston Science Museum. It was amazing to see their creative processes, the detail and humor they put into their work, and their focus and trust in the story they tell.

This summer, Ali Rowghani, the CFO of Pixar Inc. came to UC to speak.  He told us about the way Pixar approached their work and how they worked together.  There are about 200-300 people working on a film, and they spend most of their time on the initial story.  So...

“Story is the foundation of our work at Pixar.  Most build and rebuild film’s foundation before any other part of the house can be touched.  If the foundation is weak, the house will fall, now matter how beautiful it’s designed. It can be adventuresome and original, but it must be solid and strong so others can build upon it.” was written on one of the displays at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. This message relates to design and how important it is to focus on the purpose of the design.  If it strays from the intended message, it will not make a holistic and emotional impact on the user. 

Aside from storytelling, there are two things Pixar puts importance on that make Pixar a successful company. 

Color Script: telling the story through color

Pixar realizes the importance of color and music and its emotional role in a film. One of Pixar’s methods of keeping the story cohesive is to evaluate storyboards of the film through color blocks.    

Team: It’s not the idea that matters, it’s the creative group that works well together that matters.

The Pixar team reviews their work everyday, rough or finished.  This way they can be comfortable and proud of what they are showing and work together on refining the story.

To end this, Rowghani emphasized the importance of trusting your instincts. As a creative, it’s important to keep the essence of your idea and not rely too much on public opinions. 

Are you happy?

Time to get back into the blogging habit! My goal with this blog for the next six months is to develop my design vocabulary, communication, and evaluation skills.  I also want to keep up with sharing my own work and what I have learned.

I found this poster today here. Looks like it is by H/34 in association with Meiklejohn Labs. It is super simple, but I think sometimes happiness can be that simple! If you make the conscious decision that you want to be happy, I believe it will happen.