Take Risks, Break Rules, & Kick Ass

We focus a lot on the final creative or final execution.  I thought it would be interesting to go backstage and share a talk that San-Fransicso based artist and freelance creative Ivan Cash gave at 72U (the in-agency university at 72 & Sunny). It’s a 30 minute talk but it’s worth a look if you have time.

It’s interesting to understand the insight and triggers behind each project. Here’s a selection of just a few of the projects that Ivan takes us through.

Snail mail my email is a collaborative art project where volunteers handwrite strangers’ emails and send physical letters to the intended recipients, free of charge. A total of 431 volunteers have artistically interpreted and collectively sent 13,968 letters across the world since the project began in 2011.

Selfless Portraits is an interesting self-funded project (that was originally pitched to Facebook).  Strangers across the world draw each other’s Facebook profile pics. So far, over 40,000 drawings have been submitted from over 143 countries.  I find the resulting portraits fascinating and incredibly expressive given that total strangers have managed to producer quite compelling and personal expressions of people that they don’t even know.

Occupy George. The media choice of the dollar bill is great.  Cash stamped fact-based infographics on the money itself circulating the facts around the #Occupy movement.

You can see all Ivan’s projects here.  There are components in different projects that remind me of the earlier work from Aaron Koblin.