Creative Futures 3 - Wednesday 4th March

Artist, Sculptor, Producer and Film Maker: Huw Davies

William Aston Hall, 10.00: He is talking about how he wants to walk around and not use a microphone! He’s just chatting to us, telling us about him.

William Aston Hall, 10.10: He has started talking now. So he took a photo a few years ago of a lam jumping. It pretty much went viral on Flickr, it was in the top ten most viewed pictures in the whole world. He then had a phone call from a science university in Michigan, who bought it from him to use as the photo for an advertisement for the powers of Photoshop in modern day, but it wasn’t Photoshoppped!

William Aston Hall, 10.20: Huw does whatever he wants and then tries to get someone else to pay him for it. He never says that he can do something that he doesn’t think he can, but often he says he can do something and then after, thinks ‘how?’ He will always have a go at something if he thinks he can do it. Because of all of this, whenever he has to talk about his work, he can sound enthusiastic, he does what he wants to do. He believes that when you put your creative energy into something you care about, it shows.

Type Matters: Jim Williams

John Troth Lecture Theatre, 11.30: Jim Williams went into work as a typographer straight after leaving university. He would make sure the type fits and the layout looks good.

John Troth Lecture Theatre, 11.40: He was invited to talk to a group of junior designers about typography, because the managers were worried about graduates’ typographic abilities. This inspired him to make a booklet for his students, which then caught the attention of Creative Review. Long story short, eventually he got the whole book published.

John Troth Lecture Theatre, 12.00: He then defined some terms from typography and told us their origins:

• Point Size – the size of the metal block that the letter was cast on
• Leading – the spaces between lines of text
• Upper and Lower Case – so called because the upper case letters used to be kept in the case above the lower case letters
• Hanging Punctuation or Shouldering – putting punctuation in the margins so you don’t get white space in strange places
• Kerning – changing the spaces between letters

Fab Lab, the Next Industrial Revolution: Dr David Armson

Lecture Theatre B118, 15.00: Fab Lab is a global company who provide open access to machines, such as laser cutters and 3d printers, to the public. The idea is to empower individuals into making their own products, not to rely on companies.

Lecture Theatre B118, 15.20: David Armson believes that the future of the ‘real network’ would be:

• Common file sharing (standardised formats)
• Open, indiscriminate access
• Thousands of minds working together
• Different expertise shared freely
• Ownership by people, not companies
• Connectivity of creation
• Creativity

Lecture Theatre B118, 15.40: He says it’s all about sharing ideas and learning from eachother, but what if you design something unique? How can you stop someone from stealing your idea and making it themselves?

Lecture Theatre B118, 16.00: No more lectures for today!