Photo Credit: Amber Gregory

Being honored with the last time slot for Thursday’s TYPO SF conference, Davis definitely defeated the challenge of speaking to a crowd that consisted of many who either wanted to get some shut eye for tomorrow’s slew of lectures, or couldn’t wait to mingle at the after party. Davis’ lecture was one not to be missed with his theme of play, showing us how he draws inspiration from all of his surroundings (accidental or not), and the lesson that collaboration is key in continuing to grow as an artist.

With the theme of ‘play’ Davis captured the audience with his belief that work is play and play is work, and that these two words are not antonyms, but synonyms necessary in order to keep one’s sanity. Through a survey, he discovered that adults viewed the opposite of play as ‘work.’ However kids gave him much more inspiring answers like ‘bored,’ ‘home,’ and the most insightful ‘not work.’ Revealing the secret that if you ‘get up every morning and do what you love’ then work will follow. Your love for what you do becomes contagious. Just as infections as a smile your love for something can inspire countless others.

Joshua Davis

“One of the lessons taken from Davis’ lecture at TYPO San Francisco was that collaboration is necessary in growth as an artist and always leads to good things. As Davis so wonderfully put it, “Collaboration is a good way to step away from ego.” In an industry that can so easily become narcissistic, we must take a step back and realize that every new collaboration can not only allow us to show off what we can do, but allow us to take away and store in our brains much more knowledge than we had before. ” (Holly Wickland, TYPO San Francisco Blog) Joshua Davis is an American artist, designer, and technologist producing public and private works for companies, collectors, and institutions. Davis is renowned for pioneering an original method of computational, generative-art known as Dynamic Abstraction. Davis explores the technical and aesthetic limits of Flash and Illustrator to generate unique visual compositions according to rules-based, randomized processes.

Speaker page

Davis himself reveals his very own sources of inspiration, which included a chapel in Germany he lovingly referred to as Evil Cathedral (not to be confused with Evel Knievel). The stained glass windows and tile flooring inspired many personal projects – one of which turned into a professional project, a book cover design. Sometimes though, inspiration is found where we least expect it. In Davis’ case inspiration can come from as random of a place as his friends basement floor. Letting others (and their basement floors) into your artistic world is always beneficial.

All in all this lecture has inspired me to go home and PLAY! Giving me the knowledge that my love for creating things will draw others in and avoid the ever dreaded ‘work for a living’ lifestyle. I’ve been reminded to let my surroundings always inspire me whether I mean them to or not, and if I ever feel limited in my knowledge or abilities, I need to find inspiration in others’ knowledge and abilities. In a wonderfully educational, inspiring, and quite entertaining lecture from Joshua Davis I walk away with wanting to put on my pair of Vans and play.

Text — Holly Wickland