Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.

Chase Jarvis recently spoke at TEDx at CMU in Pittsburgh. Chase was gracious enough to conduct an interview with his tight schedule and share a few thoughts with DavisonCreators before his visit. Chase not only is a world renowned photographer and film maker, but he is the creator of thebestcamera.com, chasejarvis.com and is the mind behind thebestcamera app.

You are soon to be welcomed into Pittsburgh as guest speaker at the TED conference at CMU. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? Yes and No. I had a layover in Pittsburgh but have not been to the city; but I am looking forward to it.

Do you have any specific plans to seek out any location or attraction for photographing while visiting? With a packed schedule and being a speaker at TEDx, I have no planned events. Travel has me stopping in Pittsburgh for this speaking engagement and then flying to New York City for business, then back to the West coast. I have been super swamped leading up to this event, so no camera crew; but I will have my iPhone. Look at the Best Camera website and I am sure I’ll post some pictures from Pittsburgh.

What is the oldest photograph you own; one that you had taken at a young age? And who played a role in you taking pictures early on? Oh my goodness, I have a pile of pictures I shot with the square flash bulb camera, from maybe around 1974. My family took a drive to see relatives in California. The action of the flash was intriguing to me, just as much as the pictures I was taking. My father is a hobbyist photographer, my grandfather was a photographer, so I am a third generation photographer.

In my life I have seen the progression from Polaroid, 11O, 35mm, disposable cameras, digital cameras and now cell phone cameras. What are your thoughts on how we take photographs today? You know, growing up we would have a camera with a roll of film on it, take 4 pictures over the holiday, a couple more on my mom’s birthday, then spring break take a few more, and then finally develop it over summer. With my photo app, Best Camera, people from 170 countries around the world are able to share their photos in real time, right as they take them. There is no reason to take a picture if you are not going to share it with people. You no longer have photos hiding in a roll of film. That’s amazing to me. I have a huge sense of excitement for me to be able to see and share pictures so easily. Before my app, there was no way to share your pictures with others after you took it on your iPhone; it was revolutionary.

Are you as tight knit with your creative staff as you appear to be? You seem to have a core of dedicated people working with you that support you in your creative ventures. Very much so. We have all been friends for some time, they help me to manage my time and help in running the great studio we have. Especially the handling of my tight schedule and blasts of emails; it would not be possible without my staff.

Where is your next destination, and what future work are you currently planning for? I am traveling to New York, and then to the west coast like I had said earlier, but I am not at liberty to speak about the work I am working on. Short films and commercial ventures are always in the works though. My Seattle 100 Project, a documentary I am working on for a book and a gallery show that profiles the underground culture of Seattle; musicians, scientists, bartenders, computer programmers, and everyone who makes up the culture of Seattle. Songs for Eating and Drinking is another ongoing project of mine. Hosting good friends in the music industry so that we can document a gathering of good food and good music. My phone is always ringing with a new project.

Does your travel schedule allow you to blend your work travel into leisure? Well, without making it more complex than it is, my schedule is very hairy. The reality is that my time is very packed, which is the way that I like it. That is where my creativity comes from. My life is so immersed in art, and it is a dream come true. So there is no line I draw between work and leisure. I am just 1OO% engaged. I fly 150,000 miles a year, work 18 hour days. Being a professional creative, I never really disengage. Quiet time allows for me to relax and to maybe work on my fine arts after a commercial shoot, but it’s not like I schedule two-week vacations. All I need for leisure is quiet time to sketch, or dream or think.

Any words of wisdom for our viewers who want to seek out to be as creative and adventurous as you? For me, my day starts early; I try to get outside first thing, usually with my coffee. I have a mole skin sketchbook I sketch in and, obviously, I use my iPhone to snap pictures for the Best Camera. But here’s more broad sweeping advice for the viewers; just do something creative everyday. When you sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on your cappuccino, do it in a pattern, whatever it is. Be mindful of being creative. I want to see an awakened creative consciousness of creativity in our culture. I am getting a ruler waved at me; I have to click over to line two. But thank you for the interview!

With cold weather all around us, many people who use touch interface devices are going to find that they will have to shed a layer to check email, answer a phone call or navigate their MP3 players. Instead of taking off your gloves, try creating a conductive pad on your finger tips.

These gloves can be purchased, but what is the fun in that? Try making your own gloves with a few simple items. Using your ordinary gloves, you can create an extraordinary interface to communicate between your fingertips and your electronic touch surface device. 

You can order a sample bobbin of conductive thread for a small amount of money compared to the cost of a large spindle. Instructables even has an article about creating conductive glue if you choose to go that route. The idea is to create your own active conductive surface with a little creativity and know-how. The possibilities are limitless.

These dorm room speakers say they will pack a punch, using a pop out accordion design to expel superior sound. A nice addition to an MP3 player or laptop computer. Any electronic device that clicks, slides, pops out or transforms grabs my attention.

Thinking outside of the box has been used so many times to describe an approach toward design. I really do think that the designers who worked on this touchpad case were thinking outside of the box. When slipped onto the bottom of an iPhone, this tactile guide gives boundaries to your fingertips, allowing for more than just a visual line between pressing a ‘D’ and an ‘S’ on your QWERTY touch keyboard.

With Halloween right around the seasonal calendar, a lot of people are going to begin designing their own costumes. I have found a few creative costumes for your enjoyment and inspiration — some cute, some scary, and some just really clever.  

Construction machinery  dinosaur with a cage   baby monster  baby Nacho Libre  chicken crossing the road  Indiana Jones video game monster  iPhone vending machine  Bumblebee

The Scottevest claims to replace the fanny pack as the best way to travel with all of your electronics and accessories. Shown above with an inside-out view as well as an X-ray view of it all packed up, you can see how this lightweight jacket keeps you from looking like ‘that guy’ with the fanny pack. Loaded with over 20 hidden pockets, it has a hidden highway for earbud wires to travel through the fabric to the collar and a see-through micromesh for viewing and operating your iPhone. Pricey, but it looks like a better designed way to manage all of your travel goods.

This IPhone app drafting template is pretty sweet. Use it to storyboard that awesome app you think is going to turn the world upside down. The reflective metal material is reminiscent of the Apple brand, but I think that the old-school, green plastic drafting template would be way better.

With all of the talk about the new iPhone coming out soon, and everyone taking a bite at what may be the next iPhone, concept designs like this are popping up. I hope this is a joke, because having something like this go to market would just be an example of lazy design.

Do you think that you would have been excited to see a phone like this come out in 1996?

I will wait for the real thing, trying to ignore the speculative hype in the meantime, in the hope that Apple reveals a new device that is nothing short of revolutionary. The interface and function of the mobile communication device is not dead. We are not at a stopping point in how we can design and redesign the communication device as we know it. Simply extruding the length of the iPhone will be the demise of Apple as the leader in communication technology design. One day, the Apple iPhone will be the Beta or cassette of yesterday. I just hope that day doesn’t approach prematurely because of a failed design like this concept of the G4.