I was busy filling my brain at SXSW this weekend, so I missed the launch party for 100 Days of Monsters. Of course, Stefan blogged the whole thing and it looks like it was a blast. What could be better than getting your picture taken with a giant monster?

4 days of SXSW 2008 + 1 ICHC panel + 3 days in the Texas hill country + 1 visit to an Alpaca farm + a new digital camera + the first day back in the office =

Posted by Megan

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Ah, swissmiss, you're finding all kinds of fun things for us today. Like this Flickr pool of song charts.

This strikes me as being simply brilliant: chalkboard napking rings. At MoMA. Via swissmiss.

Perhaps we shouldn't admit this, but there are times when we'll view a design project that's come into HOW HQ and think, "Hm. This person really shouldn't be using Photoshop. Like, really, really, REALLY shouldn't be using Photoshop." You've all seen them: the scary photo retouching, the weird tangets between combined elements, the godawful compositions. Now there's a place to share and celebrate these testaments to the adage, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should:" Photoshop Disasters.

It's sort of like The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotations, which we writers find similarly amusing-slash-horrifying.

via Core77.com

That awesome Stefan Bucher, he's just all over the place sketching monsters and talking about his terrific new book, 100 Days of Monsters. Go here to learn more about the book and all the buzz about it; go here to learn about Stefan's session at the upcoming HOW Design Conference, "Arriving at Creativity."

This week, he's on The Reflex Blue Show, hosted by Nate Voss and Donovan Beery. They've posted a short documentary about Stefan's monster creations, plus a podcast of their interview with him. Plus, Stefan created a new monster just for the occasion, with is being auctioned this week (all proceeds go to the American Red Cross).

ARG? Huh? Until yesterday, I didn't know that ARG means Alternate Reality Game, but now I do and I'm ready to play. ARGs are games that mix the real and virtual worlds together to create a rich experience. ARG expert Jane McGonigal explained how happiness is the new capital and that game designers are in a great position to deliver happiness-generating experiences to their audiences. I'd argue that lots of designers are in the position to deliver such experiences. Jane cited some findings from the new field of happiness studies to explain what really makes people happy:

1. Satisfying work to do
2. A sense of being good at something
3. Time spent with people we like
4. A change to be part of something bigger

While it's obvious how these things can be delivered by games, they could also be delivered by a well-designed retail experience, for example. Do your design projects make their intended audiences happy? Maybe they should.

Posted by Megan

While I enjoyed many of the sessions, the most valuable one was presented by Adaptive Path, a San Francisco-based user experience firm, about managing creatives. It was so good, I'm going to look into bringing them to a future HOW Conference. Bryan Mason and Sarah Nelson interviewed creative managers from other industries to discover how they manage their teams. They talked to chefs, stage-managers, conductors and more and distilled the lessons into 10 tips.

What was really interesting was how many of the tips are employed by the HOW staff itself. I'll share a couple:

Tip #2 Rotate Creative Leadership

There's a lot to be said for empowering every member of a team by allowing them to take charge of a project. At HOW, we take turns planning the issues and writing the editor's letter. The planning process is still a collaboration, but one of us leads the way. It's proven very effective in giving us all a sense of ownership of the magazine.

Tip #3 Know Your Roles

Even though we have a rather flat hierarchy, we also each have specific areas of responsibility. That allows us to trust and rely on one another. We never have to worry that something will slip through the cracks.

Tip #8 Leadership is a Service

Whether she knows it not, this is exactly how Bryn manages the HOW staff. She engages the team as a facilitator rather than as a dictator. She gives us the space to do our best work, but is always there to support us when we need help. (Thanks, Bryn.)

Posted by Megan

The Monday afternoon keynote blew me away. Frank Warren of PostSecret fame shared the story of how a small art project turned into a big website and a whole series of books.



Frank quoted Picasso saying, "There's an artist born in all of us." That's a theme that's run through the conference. Everyone has something to say and now, because of the internet, they have the means to say it. So if there's something you need to say, consider writing it on a postcard and sending out into the world. "Sometimes when we think we're keeping a secret, it's keeping us."

Posted by Megan