Kana: Presentations get better every time you do them. I think carefully defined structure is vital to presentations, not just the performance. Presentations often may not be the most favourite part for creative people. However brilliant ideas can’t just be spontaneously recognised by potential investors.

Nick: There are millions of great ideas, but usually it’s only those thought about in great details that succeed. There are also a multitude of ways to present these ideas, but the common thread among every successful presentations is concise and correct structure.

Kana: Yes I think that’s right.

Nick: Being precise is an important factor. Without this your presentation can have no impact.

Kana: Pecha Kucha Night, first started in Tokyo by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, has a clever way of controlling creative presentations by only allowing 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds. This means the presenter is given 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. I think it helps keep presentations concise, without losing the interest of the audiences. This method also increases the number of presenters per night. Though I have never attended this event, it’s become very popular among creatives worldwide. Without these strict rules I imagine it would never have been able to deliver the impact it has achieved.

Nick: When considering each minute of a presentation, it becomes much easier to be precise. It’s not often necessary to include every piece of information about the project, merely the most important.

Kana: There are things we need to think about, such the audience and how to appeal to them. However what becomes the most important element is the message delivery. Every presentation has different purpose, whatever the goal is, it needs to be achieved, otherwise it becomes a failure.

Nick: Whether it be business or personal, failed presentations can harm your creative spirit. No one wants to fail, good preparation can prevent this.

Kana: This reminds me of Dragon’s Den. Successful creatives can also be creative in the business aspect of a project. No one wants a Duncan Bannatyne to say “I’m out!”.

Kana: So, what was your impression of Glug? I wasn’t able to attend this one.

Nick: I hope you feel better now.  We didn’t have much time to attend all the networking events during London Digital Week. However I managed to find the time to attend this one. The name Glug and the strap line “Creative Drinks & Notworking™” are very fitting for this event. There was a lot of noise, drinking and conversation from around 400 attendees.

Kana: How were the presentations?

Nick: I arrived a little late so wasn’t able to get a front row seat, which made hearing difficult. I saw a presentation by Merlin Nation, a motion graphics designer. He showed some good work, especially a piece that used super 8 footage intertwined with some smart motion design. The presenter seemed to be battling with the audience to get attention and likewise I was battling to hear him. I returned upstairs to join the people networking with beer in hand.

Kana: So it was more of a networking event, rather than a presentation event? More people are holding networking events recently in the creative industry. Rather than networking online through the use of social networking sites like Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s more often as effective to talk to someone face to face. Networking events can be very intimidating for some individuals. Providing the opportunities of networking in the environment where people can buy drinks and have fun would make it easier for everyone.

Nick: When I was starting out as a designer I wasn’t aware of these type of events. I did go to some but they were of smaller scale and often held in more unwelcoming locations. It certainly didn’t seem to be as easy to participate if you’re were a young designer or a start-up company. Studio Output, Digital Gurus (a recruitment agency who organised the Table Tennis Tournament) and the organisers have done a great job organising this event to encourage creative people to network in a comfortable environment. Creative people are often introvert and can spend a lot of time working in a stuffy office or home. Some of us sometimes need a push to actively communicate together.
Kana: So the organisers have taken an important role in activating young parts of the industry, which essentially leads to the further improvement and development of the London creative industry as a whole. This form of casual networking has been made easier by the popularity of Facebook groups and other similar meet up websites.

First we got ourselves some comfortable seats and complementary drinks courtesy of JWT (of course). We then had a talk from two Tomato collective members, Simon Taylor and Dylan Kendle, who have been involved in Tomato’s digital projects. Sadly though there was expected to be three members of Tomato presenting, but one had a road accident and couldn’t make it.
Kana: I was surprised that they started the presentation with a project based in Japan, I didn’t expect it.

Nick: I remember you mentioning Tomato several years go, but I can’t remember in what respect …

Kana: When I first heard about them, I had the impression of them being a video making collective for Underworld. I didn’t actually know that Tomato operated on creative projects independently from Underworld in Japan.

Nick: The first presentation was about “Art Jam Japan”, which was held in November 2007. The basic concept was a live painting session on the walls of the Makuhari Messe. This was quite an old project, but set the tone for rest of the presentation, which was based around organically inspired digital work.

Kana: Then they presented “Word Collider” for Nokia, “Nostalgia” multi-screen film installation for the Ta Matete Gallery in Rome, “Voices: Expo 2004″ in Spain, “Water for Life” for the international Expo in Zaragoza, Spain, re-branding for “TV Asahi”, “Un Movil En Le Patera” in Spain, “Hotel Claska foyer” in Tokyo, “Aspesi Flagship store” in Milan, “You Me Who” in Japan, “Nouvelle Vague” third album design and “Gangster No.1″ opening title sequence.

Nick: I was interested in the TV Asahi re-brand, as it seems unusual for an art collective to do branding.  I had never heard of it before. Had you?

Kana: Well I think I’ve seen the logo, but not the moving one.

Nick: Whilst working on the project, Tomato had to create around 20 different versions of the interactive logo of which only one was selected. They said this was unusual as at the time, because they had lots of creative freedom and less rules, mainly due to less competition. Dylan mentioned that the logo was still going strong and had been recently been re-printed on the side of a helicopter and coffee mugs. So I decided to check up myself online.

It’s impressive that the logo is still in use today, and is still evolving. The original logo was designed from a generative audio driven animation, yet here it appears static. I think often moving logos lose relevance when they become static, the static logo works today but appears a little abstract, which is perhaps has been key to it’s longevity, yet the reason why it’s now supplemented by a little green monster.

Kana: The main theme of the presentation was “Generative”, wasn’t it? Each presentation was related to movements and had organic elements in it. The TV Asahi re-brand was no exception. It is impressive the logo still keeps going as I think they said the re-brand was in 2003. They also said it was “live branding”, never to be seen as a same logo, meaning it’s unique each time. I think their work has an association with “language” in terms of communication and interaction, it’s very organic.

Nick: This is why I think the presentation was inspirational for me. It’s nice to see something that’s digital yet organic, which seems to be coming very much in vogue today. Most of the projects talked about used analogue elements and it gave me a desire to use less digital quick fixes.