Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
Henry Ford
We try to keep ourselves young at heart here at Journey. We’re constantly creating and constantly learning from what we create. But we also place a pretty high value on learning outside our building. Sometimes the freshest thinking comes by stepping away from our routines, being exposed to new ideas and surrounding ourselves with similarly minded folks. So we’ve spent 2011 fostering a corporate ethos based on that premise, traveling by land and sea to stretch our creativity with all sorts of adventures. We’ve collected more than 8,000 miles all together, plus a few postcards from along the way ...
Next destinationJourney is all about storytelling and so is Hope — so much so that she decided to pursue a master’s degree in it.
Dear Journey,
Mt. Rainier is the snow-capped lighthouse of Portland, telling everyone “Hey, you’re in Oregon now. Please recycle everything.” Being at the residency is almost like being at Journey — I’m surrounded by a lot of smart people. Turns out these guys are all also pretty good at karaoke. This comes out, of course, after a long day of lectures, workshops and readings. I’m a little worried it might actually be a requirement for graduation. Could we practice when I get home?
Hope
The place to be for Drupal (our favorite content management system) users, developers, designers, evaluators and plain old business folks. So, of course, Wilson had to be there, too.
Dear Journey,
Chicago is no Charlottesville in terms of weather. I wish someone had told me to bring the galoshes. It’s OK, though. I’m as soaked as the other 3,000 conference attendees, so it really makes the community aspect of this conference rich. That and when we go out in public people point at us and whisper “nerds” under their breath.
Wilson
SXSWi is indeed an incubator of ideas and creativity with the combination of keynote presentations, panels, workshops and parties. If you don’t walk away inspired, well, you obviously didn’t visit the Macallan’s tent enough. Returning vets Zack, Jon and Hope brought along Phil, Greg, John, Josh and Jodi.
Dear Journey,
Today Phil saw Mike Tyson. He also got a free lunch from FedEx. All in all, we’re considering it a very successful experience. We spend 10 hours a day listening to smart people and talking/arguing about what we’re learning. It’s really not that different from home except the Tex Mex is better here.
Zack
The first-ever content strategy conference — and we were there, along with hundreds of other forward-thinking creatives. For two days, Diane and Kristen engaged in conversations that blurred the lines between user experience, business models and editing guidelines. They also ate a lot of cake.
Dear Journey,
We’re at a place where the tweets flow like wine, and where word-nerds instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. We’ve never felt so quickly united with a group of strangers, bonded by a profound hatred of bad content. We’ve heard lots of smart ideas and smart questions from the strategists of Brain Traffic, Groupon, Walt Disney Resorts and Facebook, to name a few. Why, yes, we are name-dropping.
Kristen
The Basel School of Design is the bastion of swiss design methodology. It’s like mecca for Helvetica worshippers. But this isn’t the 1950s, these folks are serious about design.
Dear Journey,
Today I presented my design project. I tried to distract the professor away from my hollow concept with palaver and humor. My opening line was, “We were encouraged to feel the freedom to fail—and I have met the challenge.” I went on to explain that I intend to approach this assignment without any preconceived notions whatsoever.
That’ll have to be tonight’s cliffhanger. I’m exhausted. I intend to stare at the television for a few minutes before going to bed. “Three’s Company” dubbed in German is about to come on.
Greg
