HELLO, SXSW Creating Great Analog Souvenirs for a Digital Era Ryan Bigge March 11, 2013

@biggeidea

Can I borrow a feeling?

Every great analog souvenir should evoke an emotional response or meet an emotional need

Visit physidigital.com for image sources

Evan Roth solitaire.exe Windows 98

Instaprint

Photoshop in real life

Alan Belcher

deaddrops.com

Let me clarify…

physidigital is a physical manifestation of a digital experience

Let me clarify…

physidigital is a physical manifestation of a digital experience

analog souvenirs are a speci"c type of physidigital object or experience

Tom Haverford’s real life Pinterest board (Season 5 Episode 4 of Parks and Recreation)

old is the new new “The future of interactivity involves a picture of a hamburger on a corkboard.” –Ryan Bigge

old is the new new “The future of interactivity involves a picture of a hamburger on a corkboard.” –Ryan Bigge

“The next decade is going to be about healing the digital-physical divide by pulling bits back into the world of atoms.” –Wired

The plan •  Why are analog souvenirs so popular?

•  Philosophical and artistic motivations

•  Personal tips and insights

•  Using analog souvenirs to drive retail innovation

Analog souvenirs Why so popular?

Pantone calendar

fizzydigital physidigital sounds like "zzy digital

fizzydigital physidigital sounds like "zzy digital

"zzy digital fuzzy digital

dematerialization

All that is solid melts into zeros and ones

rematerialization

Facebook’s analog lab

Analog souvenirs A bit of theory

Polaroid Cacher

“Beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.”

Hybrid thoughts

•  Dada collage •  Surrealism •  Druids vs. Engineers (Paul Sa#ro) •  Nathan Jurgenson vs. IRL Fetish •  Reverse skeuomorph

SXSW 2013 comrades •  The Paradox of the Cloud •  Digital Reality: Life in Two Worlds •  Re-imagining Toys: Merging the Physical and Digital •  Physical and Digital Collide: Retail Rewired •  Embracing Analog: Why Physical is Hot •  Are You a Digital Hoarder? •  Analogue Anonymous Meetup

Analog souvenirs What I’ve learned

txt2hold.ca

tweet2hold.com

Maker Faire Toronto 2011

Ron Wild Ryan Bigge

Dylan Reibling Edwin Lara

The Brototypes:

Lymbix emotes •  A#ection •  Enjoyment •  Amusement •  Contentment •  Sadness •  Anger •  Fear •  Humiliation

Lymbix.com

physical manifestation of digital experience 1.0

Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

physical manifestation of digital experience 2.0

Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

behold txt2hold

Photo courtesy of dylanreibling.com

Lesson #1 Do your research

Sweet emotion •  Baby announcements •  Birthday wishes •  Romantic messages

Lesson #2 Test in the real world

tweet2hold Nuit Blanche 2011 Toronto

Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

Nuit Blanche 2011 Toronto

Photo courtesy of mikelewisphotographer.com

Lesson #3 Idea selects the technology

“Paper holds a memory.” –John Guppy, Toronto Origami Society

Lesson #4 You are not your target audience

Jake Barton is smart “The broader you go with your work, the simpler it needs to be.”

“People can be more interesting than technology.” --Local Projects | vimeo.com/54561376

Lesson #5 Accumulation is a powerful aesthetic tool

Video about tweet2hold’s physical data visualization project for Social Media Week Toronto 2012:

vimeo.com/43832564

Lesson Recap Do your research Test in the real world Idea selects the technology You are not your target audience Accumulation is a powerful aesthetic tool

Analog souvenirs Enhancing in-store retail

Nurun digital in-store

www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

Improving in-store findability

www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

An app for that

www.digitalforreallife.com/2013/02/in-store-product-discovery/

Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

Looking for inspiration? physidigital.com Includes links to all material referenced in this slidedeck

Resources physidigital.com

txt2hold.ca

tweet2hold.com

nurun.com

new-aesthetic.tumblr.com

Robin Sloan, Dance the Flip-Flop

Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas

medium.com/xoxo-festival/2c9ea2927$2

infovore.org/archives/2012/07/30/ghostcar/

edge.org/response-detail/2385

thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-irl-fetish/