Inspirational interviews with Canadian creatives from The Guild series
http://www.theguildseries.com/
https://vimeo.com/98873355
Jennifer Keesmaat is the Chief Planner of the City of Toronto
On taking advantage of challenging projects instead of hiding from them:
"I'm way beyond my skill level, I'm way beyond my depth. But I'm going to surround myself with ideas, information, analysis, that's gong to allow me to thrive in this place of uncertainty. It really is to me, being creative, is about asking those tough questions and going into that uncertain place where you have to tolerate not having the answers. You've just asked the really hard questions, and you don't have the answers, and then being able to test some different things...And you'll know when you've created something that's beautiful, and something that's good, because it will feel right. And you will also know, in that place of uncertainty, when you're not there yet; you'll know it because it won't feel beautiful, and when it feels beautiful and looks beautiful, then you'll know, you've in fact done really good work."
https://vimeo.com/120624907
Joeph Hofer is an Industrial Designer at BlackBerry
On what inspires him:
"I love travelling, I love seeing other cultures and seeing other ways of doing things. I love finding a coffee shop or a place to just sit and people watch, I find that fascinating. I'm more inspired by people than I am anything else. What I wish I'd have learned earlier, is to care less of what people think of me or what I did, and thinking more of why I did what I did. I realise there's a lot of common design principles that are in a lot of other design professions, but on a product level it's almost related to distance. Like, what's the read at ten feet away? What is the form factor or shape? Then as you come closer, you pick it up, what's the weight? How do the edges feel? How does it fit into your hand? Understanding that relation between the product and the person is really important. Designing something that's comfortable, something that's exciting, is really valuable."
"Creativity plus risk equals success."
These interviews are a huge source of inspiration for me; they apply to a lot of my deepest interests (future-thinking, city planning, industrial design, humanist design, human-interaction design) and ambitions, and they are presented in a way which exponentially increases their appeal. The way the films are shot, the camera angles, the soundtracks, the film locations, the way in which the creatives talk. It all adds up to a hugely inspirational and memorable set of videos.
