Notes Design

Day 2 ended with a rousing presentation by three cultural influencers: Bob Gruen, Massimo Vignelli, and Karim Rashid.

Gruen started it off with a moving presentation on his experience as a Rock photographer. From John Lennon to Greenday, Gruen is responsible for some of the most influential music photographs of all times. He cited his desire to work with "not what's known but what's interesting." His father was an early source of inspiration and drive, prodding him at an early age to seek out his own way. It's "better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission," Gruen stated. Such gusto cleared a sensational path that, he admits, is not easy at times:

There's a huge fear factor in being a free agent. I am afraid of getting up in the morning...I'm afraid of falling over...Fear is the adrenaline that keeps me going...I crave peace and quiet but i thrive in chaos.

It is this energy that Gruen admires in other artists:

I prefer people who are seeking solutions rather than creating problems...Society is afraid of people who make their own rules - they can't conain them...[This is] the job of an artist...to dream up new ideas.

He went on to describe the work of musicians like John Lennon, the Clash and Bob Dylan as artists who had power and meaning behind their work that catalyzed society. This, for Gruen, is essential:

If you're not living in the present then you're wasting your life.

more after the jump