We're speaking with Brendan Dawes, creative director with interactive agency Magnetic North, based in the UK. Over the years, his portfolio has ranged from work for Fox Kids, Disney, Coca-Cola and Kelloggs, to personal projects such as Saul Bass On The Web at saulbass.net, a critically acclaimed homage to the late great graphic designer. When not working on commercial projects, he likes to put together nonsensical Flash experiments for his Web site at www.brendandawes.com. He is the author of Analog In, Digital Out: Brendan Dawes on Interaction Design and Flash ActionScript for Designers: Drag, Slide, Fade, both published by New Riders.




TAXI Hello Brendan. You place great emphasis on creating experiences that are special and personalized to the end user, where the actual process of getting to the end is the real goal of the exercise. Why do you think this is important in today’s society?

Brendan Dawes Quite simply people don't behave like machines. Obviously they don't. We're filled with illogical things such as love, taste, passion and a million other properties that simply don't "compute" in the black and white paradigm of the computer. Yet it's all that stuff that sits in between those cold ones and zeroes that make a very human connection when we interact with things - but from an efficiency point of view they're "pointless".

For example on the iPhone, if you removed the transition that takes place from the home screen to launching an application, the end application would still work.  But the experience is nowhere near as good because nothing happened on the journey from A to B. If our brains thought in the way machines do we would remove all these things in the name of efficiency. But these pauses in between, that create rhythm and flow, are just as important as the end destination. We need more of these "useless" things to make the things we use more useful to people.

TAXI How do you think that digital media has changed the way people interact with each other, with the shift in paradigm from the physical to the virtual?

Brendan Dawes As a society we've become much more selfish, fearful and paranoid towards our fellow human beings. We're told that our neighbors are "from hell" and will probably murder you if you even look at them. Of course it's complete bullshit. Just small pockets of bad behavior that is then exaggerated by the twenty four hour media so eventually people start to believe it's true. So it's much easier, and safer, on the whole to have a million "friends" on Facebook or Twitter.

We all crave attention, so with the absence of that old neighborhood spirit people have naturally turned to the all evasive social network to replace what they once had. But it's also about how we've re-contextualised the concept of "friend". For many a "friend" is now someone you've never even met, but have exchanged the odd status update with. Friends are now just something you consume and throwaway like everything else in the disposable world that we now find ourselves in. 

TAXI You are vocal about encouraging designers to look beyond the normal tools of their trade to find inspiration in the most unlikely of places. Can you share with us a few of the more memorable success stories arising out of this?

Brendan Dawes The one that I usually talk about is what I like to call "swans on a train". Whilst travelling home one night from Manchester on the train I eventually fell asleep. On waking up the previously busy carriage was now fairly empty apart from a stranger sat across the aisle. Then I noticed a piece of paper on the seat opposite, with the letters PTO scrawled onto it. The message of Please Turn Over was now willing me to grab that piece of paper and see what was on the other side. So I picked it up and turned it over. The message simply said "please take these swans". I looked around and couldn't see any swans, after all this was a mundane train on a typical rainy manchester night, not some enchanted lake in an enchanted forest. But when I looked again, what I first thought were just random bits of litter were actually two lovingly crafted origami swans. Swans left by a random stranger, just for me.

What did I pull from this random experience? Firstly, even on very mundane journeys, that you've been on a thousand times, you can find wonderful things as long as your mind is open to them, and secondly I love that fact that the "experience" of finding these swans was really well executed. The "pause" of adding the PTO message on the front added a layer of intrigue and curiosity that made the whole thing even more memorable. A beautiful example of the use of time within a narrative.

TAXI How important is the role of R&D in your company, and why do you think more companies do not adopt it?

Brendan Dawes I'm not sure I'd call it R&D, as it almost seems a bit grandiose,  but we do take the process of "play" very seriously. We' re very much about making things rather than simply talking about making things. To us the act of making is as important as the end result, sometimes more so. A lot of the time it's about playing with new technologies in a toy like fashion, but I'm not interested in the gadgetry or geeking out. Technology can be, and often is, the catalyst for change but it's always about the creative uses of that technology not just the technology itself. Look at what fiberglass did for surfing and how it changed the sport forever with faster, lighter surf boards, which then allowed people to explore a new form of creative expression and freedom. That's why I get excited with the possibilities that technology can offer - it's impact on society and the people that use it.

I think some companies see R&D as an self-indulgent distraction from the business of making money, and stick to what they know as it's far safer and a more comfortable thing to do. With a low probability that anyone will get fired. Personally I don't think anything great ever came from playing it safe.

TAXI Many of your projects have an element of the romantic and nostalgic to it. Do you think this is indicative of your personality in general?

Brendan Dawes Yeah I think so, though I think it's because I've always been someone who is a bit of day dreamer - at least that's what my teachers always told me and probably why I was a huge failure at school. I guess subconsciously you end up making the things you care about, which for me is about how we make use of this magical technology to create work that resonates with people on an emotional level. Be that making them laugh, smile or even cry.

TAXI Your great admiration for Saul Bass is legendary. What is it about Bass that inspires you like no other?

Brendan Dawes Well I wouldn't say he inspires me like no other, as I have many people who inspire me - Charles Eames, Bill Buxton, Edward Tufte, Walter Murch to name just a few, but it's true to say that I have been fascinated with his work for a long time. What I admired is how he managed to distill the feel of a movie down to seemingly simple graphical forms that he then combined with beautiful use of timing and composition. By the act of removal and simplification he was able to communicate more clearly. So when I was starting to play with Flash I studied Saul Bass's work in the hope that some of that magic would rub off, not just in motion graphic pieces but in the flow of interaction within things like interface design, which is very dependent on the use of time.

TAXI With your years in the industry, what do you predict to be some of the trends in interactive design and experiences that would pan out in the near future, and what are you most looking forward to exploring further?

Brendan Dawes I think it's dangerous to try and predict future trends, as there will always be surprises that nobody sees coming. What I'm most excited about though is that all this technology, at long last, is really starting to work so much so that it's starting to become invisible and melt into the background, which is how it should be. I think in many ways the way we live our lives now is more fantastical than any science fiction writer could have envisaged - oh apart from time travel and teleportation - that would be fantastic for sure!

What I'm trying to say is these are amazing times for anyone involved in design, especially interactive design. People are now interacting with clever, powerful devices on a daily level, with many of these things a part of their normal habits. Who would have thought that my wife would carry around a Nintendo DS in her already crowded handbag - and let me just say that wife is not "into computers" or gaming in any way. These seismic shifts in our use of digital technology should not be underestimated. For me and mN, societies continually changing relationship with technology, and the opportunities it brings is what excites us the most.

TAXI What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the creative world for the next 10 years?

Brendan Dawes Curiosity.