MANILA, JANUARY 30, 2013 – The new Maker Movement, espoused by Wired writer Chris Anderson in his book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, could just be the catalyst needed to help drive the next big wave in the global economy. And in an era where custom-made products and DIY are the norm, the Internet generation is given the ability to be both small and global, artisanal and innovative, high-tech and low-cost, starting small and getting big, and, most of all, creating the sort of products that the world wants but doesn’t know it yet “because those products don’t fit neatly into the mass economics of the old model”.
The movement could be in full swing if everyone, creatives included, would aspire to create and not just ideate, Lowe Philippines president and chief creative officer Leigh Reyes exhorted Raw School students, Thursday, January 24, 2013.
“We are less the creators we can be,” said Reyes, mourning the lack of “stuffmakers” in the creative industry.
Instead of conforming to the norm of outsourcing the execution of an idea to production agencies, Reyes encouraged the students to also be able to answer the “how” of their ideas, in addition to the “why” and “what”.
What people want and why people do what they do hasn’t changed, Reyes said. But the “how”, the way people do things, has changed. “There are more tools available, therefore more things can be done,” Reyes stressed.
However, the problem lies in the fact that most creatives are not equipped to execute their ideas. Reyes’ solution? “Learn new tools to create new things.”
When it comes to inspiration, sources of this are limitless. Reyes encouraged the students to scour the Internet for great sites that can help them create, recommending sites such as, instructables.com, necomimi.com, and makeprojects.com.
Next, Reyes explained the importance of prototyping/wireframing the idea to make execution easier. Although the old way of doing so is through storyboards, the efficiency of using the “if-this-then-that” process of wireframing is garnering support from the tech industry with countless softwares and apps that can aid creatives in the process. Tools Reyes herself uses include Keynote, Omnigraffle, Balsamiq mockups and the humblr paper and Sharpie combo.
Come assembly time, Reyes also shared her favorite virtual and physical haunts for raw materials which include Adafruit, Makeymakey, Inventables, Divisoria, Ponoko, and Shapeways.
But the process of creating doesn’t stop there. Sharing with the community is much a part of the creating process, making networking necessary. Mobile Monday Manila and Startup Weekend are great events to attend for networking.
Reyes closed with a paragraph from Anderson’s book, stating: “The money on the table is like krill: a billion little entrepreneurial opportunities that can be discovered and exploited by smart, creative people.”
Raw School is organized by the Creative Guild of the Philippines.
