WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.250
[applause]

2
00:00:13.838 --> 00:00:15.811
<v ->I love graphics.</v>

3
00:00:15.811 --> 00:00:19.058
They tease my eyes, challenge my mind,

4
00:00:19.058 --> 00:00:21.083
and extend my understanding.

5
00:00:21.083 --> 00:00:23.701
And after practice and design for nearly eight years,

6
00:00:23.701 --> 00:00:27.403
I'm still blown away by their power to communicate.

7
00:00:27.403 --> 00:00:28.941
See what I've learned in that time

8
00:00:28.941 --> 00:00:30.209
is that graphics are like a form of language,

9
00:00:30.209 --> 00:00:33.331
and it takes time to find your voice.

10
00:00:33.331 --> 00:00:34.934
For me, things really clicked at about the time

11
00:00:34.934 --> 00:00:36.152
I created this poster

12
00:00:36.152 --> 00:00:38.854
for the Mushashino Theater Festival in Tokyo.

13
00:00:38.854 --> 00:00:41.527
You know, my goal for this design was simple:

14
00:00:41.527 --> 00:00:43.543
to create a graphic that captured,

15
00:00:43.543 --> 00:00:45.448
perhaps the magic our eyes might experience

16
00:00:45.448 --> 00:00:47.689
when we see something amazing.

17
00:00:47.689 --> 00:00:50.019
After six years, I still enjoy exploring

18
00:00:50.019 --> 00:00:51.609
the color and form of this image.

19
00:00:51.609 --> 00:00:55.129
It has become the symbol of my love for graphics.

20
00:00:55.129 --> 00:00:57.401
What's truly fascinating is for thousands of years,

21
00:00:57.401 --> 00:00:59.921
humans have used graphics in various forms

22
00:00:59.921 --> 00:01:03.128
to communicate abstract ideas.

23
00:01:03.128 --> 00:01:05.063
From the elegant cave paintings

24
00:01:05.063 --> 00:01:07.994
at Cheveaux Cave depicting an array of ancient animals

25
00:01:07.994 --> 00:01:12.209
to Buddhist mandalas depicting the universe

26
00:01:12.209 --> 00:01:13.326
to arabesque patterns that show

27
00:01:13.326 --> 00:01:15.778
the principles governing our world,

28
00:01:15.778 --> 00:01:18.478
graphics always helped humans capture and communicate

29
00:01:18.478 --> 00:01:20.278
abstract processes at work in our minds

30
00:01:20.278 --> 00:01:22.528
and in the world around us.

31
00:01:23.395 --> 00:01:25.133
Now, fast forward hundreds of years

32
00:01:25.133 --> 00:01:26.435
and you'll see that we've been raised

33
00:01:26.435 --> 00:01:28.155
in a Golden Age of Graphics,

34
00:01:28.155 --> 00:01:29.342
and they surround us.

35
00:01:29.342 --> 00:01:30.764
Sometimes in terrible ways,

36
00:01:30.764 --> 00:01:33.612
but occasionally, in beautiful ways.

37
00:01:33.612 --> 00:01:34.622
And in the digital age,

38
00:01:34.622 --> 00:01:35.884
they are being proven again to be

39
00:01:35.884 --> 00:01:38.822
a powerful communication tool.

40
00:01:38.822 --> 00:01:42.324
Now, in 1945, something amazing happened.

41
00:01:42.324 --> 00:01:45.193
ENIAC, the electronic numerical integrator and computer,

42
00:01:45.193 --> 00:01:47.073
was turned on.

43
00:01:47.073 --> 00:01:48.222
This is widely considered to be

44
00:01:48.222 --> 00:01:50.292
the world's first digital computer.

45
00:01:50.292 --> 00:01:52.142
And this huge calculator

46
00:01:52.142 --> 00:01:53.313
started an armed race to build

47
00:01:53.313 --> 00:01:56.391
the world's fastest tabulation devices.

48
00:01:56.391 --> 00:01:58.918
Now, these machines were out of this world

49
00:01:58.918 --> 00:02:00.478
for the people of that time.

50
00:02:00.478 --> 00:02:01.511
And it's unsurprising that companies

51
00:02:01.511 --> 00:02:04.358
had a hard time explaining what they did,

52
00:02:04.358 --> 00:02:06.438
or really, why they were important.

53
00:02:06.438 --> 00:02:08.624
A photograph simply couldn't capture

54
00:02:08.624 --> 00:02:12.537
their inner workings, so they turned to graphics.

55
00:02:12.537 --> 00:02:14.907
Designers such as Anton Stankowski,

56
00:02:14.907 --> 00:02:16.387
who actually coined the phrase,

57
00:02:16.387 --> 00:02:19.126
"the visual presentation of invisible processes,"

58
00:02:19.126 --> 00:02:21.222
in the 1960's were commissioned

59
00:02:21.222 --> 00:02:22.639
to create abstract representations

60
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.820
of what these machines could accomplish.

61
00:02:25.820 --> 00:02:29.060
These graphics captivated the imagination

62
00:02:29.060 --> 00:02:30.839
and started communicating this new

63
00:02:30.839 --> 00:02:33.511
and invisible world happening within computers.

64
00:02:33.511 --> 00:02:36.095
And they did it with style.

65
00:02:36.095 --> 00:02:37.845
So 50 years later, human ingenuity

66
00:02:37.845 --> 00:02:41.415
is pushing us even deeper into these invisible worlds.

67
00:02:41.415 --> 00:02:45.165
Whereas, the 50's and 60's was an exploration of hardware

68
00:02:45.165 --> 00:02:48.436
and 60's, 70', and 80's, was arguably

69
00:02:48.436 --> 00:02:50.974
an exploration of silicon and software,

70
00:02:50.974 --> 00:02:52.843
the exploration of our day is data,

71
00:02:52.843 --> 00:02:55.995
and more importantly, the potential of data.

72
00:02:55.995 --> 00:02:58.224
And yet again, graphics are proving to be

73
00:02:58.224 --> 00:02:59.955
an invaluable tools helping us describe

74
00:02:59.955 --> 00:03:02.675
and share the nature of the many complex processes

75
00:03:02.675 --> 00:03:05.875
within these invisible worlds.

76
00:03:05.875 --> 00:03:10.042
From my early days at Wired to my extensive work with IBM

77
00:03:11.269 --> 00:03:14.368
to fooling around with the folks at Facebook,

78
00:03:14.368 --> 00:03:18.027
and most recently, VISA, I've always been fascinated

79
00:03:18.027 --> 00:03:21.408
by the worlds within our networks and devices.

80
00:03:21.408 --> 00:03:23.747
And this fascination has sent me on a journey

81
00:03:23.747 --> 00:03:26.547
of drawing the invisible.

82
00:03:26.547 --> 00:03:28.448
Today, I'm often commissioned to create

83
00:03:28.448 --> 00:03:29.831
abstract graphic representations

84
00:03:29.831 --> 00:03:31.979
of things you can't see:

85
00:03:31.979 --> 00:03:35.198
themes such as connectivity, personalization, scalability,

86
00:03:35.198 --> 00:03:39.068
to name a few, are all common threads in my work,

87
00:03:39.068 --> 00:03:42.901
all of which display vast invisible processes.

88
00:03:44.326 --> 00:03:48.961
So how do you make a picture of something you can't see?

89
00:03:48.961 --> 00:03:49.975
For me, I started

90
00:03:49.975 --> 00:03:53.926
by asking questions and creating puzzles.

91
00:03:53.926 --> 00:03:56.694
For example, these sketches, so some of my first

92
00:03:56.694 --> 00:03:59.075
real work with abstract graphics.

93
00:03:59.075 --> 00:04:00.824
A little company called IBM

94
00:04:00.824 --> 00:04:03.624
commissioned me to create a series of visual compositions

95
00:04:03.624 --> 00:04:06.424
of contemporary technical phenomena.

96
00:04:06.424 --> 00:04:08.144
They wanted purely graphic,

97
00:04:08.144 --> 00:04:10.548
non-representational designs presenting terms such as

98
00:04:10.548 --> 00:04:14.048
insight, risk, computing, or simply, data.

99
00:04:15.828 --> 00:04:18.404
I mean, this was an amazing, yet daunting assignment.

100
00:04:18.404 --> 00:04:19.622
Where do you start when you're asked

101
00:04:19.622 --> 00:04:23.178
to create an abstract representation of data?

102
00:04:23.178 --> 00:04:24.866
See, at my core, I'm a visual storyteller,

103
00:04:24.866 --> 00:04:28.121
so making pretty pictures isn't good enough for me.

104
00:04:28.121 --> 00:04:30.378
It's important that I really understand the subject.

105
00:04:30.378 --> 00:04:32.155
And I create something that is smart

106
00:04:32.155 --> 00:04:33.819
as well as beautiful.

107
00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:35.950
And this is why I start by asking questions.

108
00:04:35.950 --> 00:04:38.590
I would question everything about the subject.

109
00:04:38.590 --> 00:04:40.419
There were no stupid questions.

110
00:04:40.419 --> 00:04:42.099
I mean, what makes data data?

111
00:04:42.099 --> 00:04:43.598
How do you structure data?

112
00:04:43.598 --> 00:04:44.870
What's the nature of raw data?

113
00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:46.499
I would sit in my studio having

114
00:04:46.499 --> 00:04:48.569
these low-level existential conversations

115
00:04:48.569 --> 00:04:51.670
that I as an art major in college

116
00:04:51.670 --> 00:04:54.939
was completely unqualified to have.

117
00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:57.398
But something constructive would emerge.

118
00:04:57.398 --> 00:04:59.579
That would be the seed for an image

119
00:04:59.579 --> 00:05:01.958
that could artfully, but intelligently,

120
00:05:01.958 --> 00:05:03.680
represent these subjects.

121
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:05.671
For example, data is just simply information

122
00:05:05.671 --> 00:05:06.504
that's been collected.

123
00:05:06.504 --> 00:05:07.337
We all understand that.

124
00:05:07.337 --> 00:05:08.245
That's simple.

125
00:05:08.245 --> 00:05:09.678
You know another thing is that

126
00:05:09.678 --> 00:05:11.361
a single piece of data is useful,

127
00:05:11.361 --> 00:05:12.790
but generally, knowledge happens

128
00:05:12.790 --> 00:05:14.932
by planting multiple, and oftentimes

129
00:05:14.932 --> 00:05:16.019
unrelated pieces of data.

130
00:05:16.019 --> 00:05:17.379
That makes perfect sense.

131
00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:20.837
But, lastly, data is always changing, so it's alive.

132
00:05:20.837 --> 00:05:22.429
And like anything else that's alive,

133
00:05:22.429 --> 00:05:25.997
it's subject to external pressures and hierarchies.

134
00:05:25.997 --> 00:05:27.248
Now, when I go through this exercise,

135
00:05:27.248 --> 00:05:28.888
this is where things start getting visual for me,

136
00:05:28.888 --> 00:05:30.528
and I start making puzzles.

137
00:05:30.528 --> 00:05:31.659
And let's play this out a little further.

138
00:05:31.659 --> 00:05:33.397
A piece of data is called a data point.

139
00:05:33.397 --> 00:05:35.350
Well, in my world, this is what

140
00:05:35.350 --> 00:05:37.148
a data point looks like to me.

141
00:05:37.148 --> 00:05:38.998
You know but when you add enough data points,

142
00:05:38.998 --> 00:05:41.369
patterns begin to emerge.

143
00:05:41.369 --> 00:05:44.853
And, eventually, a picture fills-in.

144
00:05:44.853 --> 00:05:47.180
And then, when you add a sense of depth,

145
00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:49.100
you breathe life into the hierarchies

146
00:05:49.100 --> 00:05:52.518
and the pressures governing those patterns.

147
00:05:52.518 --> 00:05:54.228
And then what eventually emerges

148
00:05:54.228 --> 00:05:57.395
is my abstract representation of data.

149
00:05:58.518 --> 00:05:59.878
You see, by asking questions

150
00:05:59.878 --> 00:06:01.318
it's how I distill these subjects

151
00:06:01.318 --> 00:06:03.508
into the key attributes that define them.

152
00:06:03.508 --> 00:06:06.798
And it's these key attributes that guide my hand.

153
00:06:06.798 --> 00:06:11.068
And really, what emerges are graphics that are

154
00:06:11.068 --> 00:06:14.529
evocative of the many complex and invisible processes

155
00:06:14.529 --> 00:06:16.588
at work in technology today.

156
00:06:16.588 --> 00:06:19.421
[10 second pause]

157
00:06:26.878 --> 00:06:30.430
So, you know, whether I'm constructing an image

158
00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:32.830
representing the tsunami of DNA data

159
00:06:32.830 --> 00:06:34.681
we're currently collecting now,

160
00:06:34.681 --> 00:06:38.430
or how data and analytics is improving our personal health,

161
00:06:38.430 --> 00:06:40.899
you know, my motivation is to capture

162
00:06:40.899 --> 00:06:43.059
and celebrate the abstract nature of our existence

163
00:06:43.059 --> 00:06:46.241
into beautiful cognitive puzzles.

164
00:06:46.241 --> 00:06:48.329
And I've come to understand that my graphics draw

165
00:06:48.329 --> 00:06:50.412
upon many of the principles governing the natural world.

166
00:06:50.412 --> 00:06:52.289
Things like multiplicity, pattern,

167
00:06:52.289 --> 00:06:54.456
chaos, form, and function.

168
00:06:55.521 --> 00:06:57.014
But perhaps the strongest aspect of my work,

169
00:06:57.014 --> 00:06:58.706
I think, is when I combine

170
00:06:58.706 --> 00:07:01.187
geometry with iconography.

171
00:07:01.187 --> 00:07:03.375
And a great example of this is a series of six

172
00:07:03.375 --> 00:07:05.130
interlocking posters I created

173
00:07:05.130 --> 00:07:08.687
for IBM's Think Exhibit in New York.

174
00:07:08.687 --> 00:07:11.255
But another thing I've learned over the years

175
00:07:11.255 --> 00:07:12.448
and I find absolutely fascinating

176
00:07:12.448 --> 00:07:13.742
is the ability for these graphics

177
00:07:13.742 --> 00:07:16.534
to transcend language and culture.

178
00:07:16.534 --> 00:07:18.534
The work I was doing at IBM was central

179
00:07:18.534 --> 00:07:20.073
to a communication platform

180
00:07:20.073 --> 00:07:22.182
that spanned over 130 countries.

181
00:07:22.182 --> 00:07:23.911
From China to Chile, IBM was using

182
00:07:23.911 --> 00:07:26.613
these designs to talk about and communicate

183
00:07:26.613 --> 00:07:28.992
some of the more illusive and complicated stories

184
00:07:28.992 --> 00:07:30.659
they wanted to tell.

185
00:07:31.603 --> 00:07:33.342
So now, I'm really excited to share

186
00:07:33.342 --> 00:07:36.167
a piece of work I haven't shown yet.

187
00:07:36.167 --> 00:07:38.428
So, since working 60 hours a week

188
00:07:38.428 --> 00:07:40.933
just seemed too easy, I started

189
00:07:40.933 --> 00:07:42.043
a new studio, a new hybrid

190
00:07:42.043 --> 00:07:45.707
storytelling and design studio called StoryTK.

191
00:07:45.707 --> 00:07:47.587
And we recently concluded a collaboration

192
00:07:47.587 --> 00:07:50.387
that combined many of the graphic disciplines I love:

193
00:07:50.387 --> 00:07:54.929
abstract graphics, infographics, and motion graphics.

194
00:07:54.929 --> 00:07:56.558
And the client was Visa,

195
00:07:56.558 --> 00:07:58.747
and they asked us to tell the story of VisaNet,

196
00:07:58.747 --> 00:08:00.318
the global payments network system

197
00:08:00.318 --> 00:08:02.798
that processes over seven trillion dollars

198
00:08:02.798 --> 00:08:04.747
in transactions every year.

199
00:08:04.747 --> 00:08:06.259
I mean this was my biggest challenge yet.

200
00:08:06.259 --> 00:08:08.779
Something so big and so technical

201
00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:10.147
demanded that I get out of the studio

202
00:08:10.147 --> 00:08:11.663
and into the field.

203
00:08:11.663 --> 00:08:15.388
And my first stop was Visa's data center in Virginia.

204
00:08:15.388 --> 00:08:17.337
After getting a biometric scan

205
00:08:17.337 --> 00:08:19.188
and passing through an airlock tunnel,

206
00:08:19.188 --> 00:08:20.801
I was able to see the guts of one of the world's

207
00:08:20.801 --> 00:08:24.670
most sophisticated and secure global networks.

208
00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:27.401
And I got to talk directly with Visa's top engineers

209
00:08:27.401 --> 00:08:28.820
and was able to ask the questions

210
00:08:28.820 --> 00:08:31.580
that would help me distill this incredibly complex system

211
00:08:31.580 --> 00:08:33.864
into a simple list of attributes.

212
00:08:33.864 --> 00:08:36.774
Things like ubiquity, security, and equality

213
00:08:36.774 --> 00:08:39.635
immediately raised to the surface.

214
00:08:39.635 --> 00:08:42.573
And this prompted me to ask one simple question

215
00:08:42.573 --> 00:08:45.230
that would put me on a path to a solution.

216
00:08:45.230 --> 00:08:48.988
Is each and every transaction viewed equally

217
00:08:48.988 --> 00:08:50.263
in the eyes of the network?

218
00:08:50.263 --> 00:08:52.794
So whether you're spending 200,000 dirham in Dubai

219
00:08:52.794 --> 00:08:53.853
for a new Mercedes

220
00:08:53.853 --> 00:08:56.533
or two dollars in Denver for a pack of gum,

221
00:08:56.533 --> 00:09:00.449
does VisaNet treat each of those transactions equally?

222
00:09:00.449 --> 00:09:02.186
And the answer was yes.

223
00:09:02.186 --> 00:09:05.226
You see, they were so used to talking about transactions

224
00:09:05.226 --> 00:09:07.096
in the thousands or millions

225
00:09:07.096 --> 00:09:09.416
that a convoluted, a very simple but beautiful fact,

226
00:09:09.416 --> 00:09:12.370
that electronic payments, like snowflakes,

227
00:09:12.370 --> 00:09:15.729
are actually completely unique moments in time.

228
00:09:15.729 --> 00:09:17.449
And I was fascinated by this,

229
00:09:17.449 --> 00:09:19.161
and I was obsessed to find a way

230
00:09:19.161 --> 00:09:21.110
to capture this graphically.

231
00:09:21.110 --> 00:09:22.950
In working with Visa's data scientists

232
00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:24.849
we distilled that every transaction

233
00:09:24.849 --> 00:09:25.939
has a key set of variables

234
00:09:25.939 --> 00:09:27.801
that give it its unique signature.

235
00:09:27.801 --> 00:09:30.259
Things like merchant type, amount, time.

236
00:09:30.259 --> 00:09:32.369
From there, I developed a graphical system

237
00:09:32.369 --> 00:09:36.738
based on abstract forms to visualize these variables.

238
00:09:36.738 --> 00:09:38.487
And once the design logic was coded,

239
00:09:38.487 --> 00:09:39.999
the system would generate

240
00:09:39.999 --> 00:09:44.999
unique digital signatures we began calling snowflakes.

241
00:09:44.999 --> 00:09:47.138
So whether you were buying a wedding ring

242
00:09:47.138 --> 00:09:48.567
for your bride to be,

243
00:09:48.567 --> 00:09:51.178
or paying for your child's college tuition,

244
00:09:51.178 --> 00:09:54.039
or making a donation to your favorite charity,

245
00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:56.418
this system combined the power of information

246
00:09:56.418 --> 00:09:59.628
and abstract graphics to capture and visualize

247
00:09:59.628 --> 00:10:01.828
the data moving through one of the world's

248
00:10:01.828 --> 00:10:05.680
most secure and sophisticated global networks.

249
00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:07.560
And, yet again, graphics was a key part

250
00:10:07.560 --> 00:10:09.578
in helping us capture and explain

251
00:10:09.578 --> 00:10:12.983
a complex and mostly invisible process.

252
00:10:12.983 --> 00:10:14.350
And as people continue to build

253
00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:17.944
evermore complex and invisible technological wonders,

254
00:10:17.944 --> 00:10:20.667
abstract graphics will be even more necessary

255
00:10:20.667 --> 00:10:23.715
to communicate how they work.

256
00:10:23.715 --> 00:10:26.755
Yet no matter how much I celebrate abstract graphics

257
00:10:26.755 --> 00:10:29.576
as a powerful communication and storytelling device,

258
00:10:29.576 --> 00:10:31.315
their ability to delight

259
00:10:31.315 --> 00:10:34.496
is powerful and undeniably beautiful.

260
00:10:34.496 --> 00:10:37.663
Thank you. [applause]