A few weeks ago I attended Reasons To in London (February 19, 2016). It was a spur of the moment decision after the cancellation of the Future of Web Design.

The theme of the day was about doing something you love and keep doing it. Not a revolutionary idea, but an important one to remember every now and then.

Mr Phil

How to change your career to something you want to do:

• Start something
• Be inspired
• Say yes to stuff (worry about it later).
• Keep going.

Sarah Parmenter

This was Sarah’s “Designing for Social Behaviour” talk. If you have not heard it yet, try and catch it somewhere. It’s a good talk, and the “Let’s get social” song alone is worth it.

The two main things to remember with social media contributions are commitment and authenticity. You need to strive for at least one of these. But both is better.

Mike Brondbjerg

Using data and code Matt creates amazing works of art. Including a logo designed using maths and Processing (a programming language for visualising design). Who needs Illustrator?

Linda Brownlee

Linda is a photographer and she showed us a curated collection of her work. The pictures were great, but what I enjoyed most was all the stories behind the photographs.

• The circumstances in which she had to take the photograph;
• What the people in the photograph were like;
• The limitations of the surroundings she had to deal with.

Knowing about those things can turn a good picture into a great picture.

Eva-Lotte Lamm

Keep a small notebook on the go to collect small snapshots during the day. You can use those later to make more detailed sketch notes of them.

Emily Forgot

Emily is a generalist and likes to discover and collect things. She is a self confessed generalist. And that’s a good thing. It keeps her focused and interested in things.

Tom Muller

Another Belgian!

(Next time you have to come up with 10 famous Belgians in a pub quiz, you can include Tom Muller. Speaking at a conference qualifies for being famous. Also he’s worked on the marketing material for the Wolf of Wall Street)

This was an interesting take on working for free. If you can afford it you should do it. Working for free is about trust, respect and setting terms. As Bill Cunningham once said:

“If you don’t take money no one can tell you what to do kid”.
— Bill Cunningham