Hasta La Ideas

Nov 04

DesignThinkers: Robert Wong

Posted in: Uncategorized

Robert Wong‘s presentation was my favourite presentation; his was mix of personal story and professional fulfillment. His keynote was “Crap I Think About At Google: 50 mins of random thoughts about life, love, work, happiness, HTML5, and a better world through creativity.” To label anything Wong is doing at Google ‘crap’ is a completely inappropriate (but in keeping with the crass language that most of the keynote speakers enjoyed delivering). Executive Creator at Google Creative Labs, his job description seems quite open to whatever he wants to make of it. When Google came calling to hire him, he likened the experience to a spaceship landing in his backyard… he couldn’t not go in and see where it took him.

He spoke of “highjacking the 7 trillion”, a reference to the amount of money spent globally on marketing and advertising. At Google, Wong has the ability to harness a nice chunk of those funds and channel them to worthwhile endeavours—projects that promote art, community, awareness—while promoting the Google vision. The journey with Google has yielded some amazing work, which I will share here in links and video.

Some points from Wong’s presentation:

job = necessary to feed your family
career = feeds your ego
calling = feeds your soul by giving job, meaning and delight
what does a better world look like? look at a 3 meter radius around yourself and start there
happy wife = happy life
5:1 formula for a happy marriage (5 good things for every negative)
the element of surprise (S!) is the secret cheater formula, increasing the points in a positive action
S! = (empathy + creativity) divided by expectations
use the tools available to us as designers (photoshop, web, etc) to mockup the future
you will be happy in your work when you help someone or delight someone

Wong used the video spots to great emotional effect; when his talk ended one could hear the sounds of rustling kleenexes and sniffling noses.

Google Art Project