Week 3 - Episode 17 - Storytelling with buttons

Today’s blog and podcast are coming to you from Japan, where I am staying for 10 days. I’ve been looking at buttons all day, and it is fascinating to observe how different they are from the buttons I regularly use.

Which brings me to today’s creative assignment.

As you have seen over the past week, buttons signal - and tell stories.

And this makes them a great device for some indirect storytelling or, if you like portraiture.

Can you tell the story of a culture through their buttons? I think so - or at least part of it, and that’s what I’ll be trying to capture here in Japan.

You could do them same, wherever you are. What do the buttons you can press tell say about your social status, your culture, your region?

Would someone be able to guess where you’re from if they saw your collection of buttons?

Alternatively, if you’d like to stick to buttons used on clothes: could you create a self-portrait using only images of buttons you wear?

Would your friends and family recognise you?

This is a fun project to share with other people as well. Go to your closet, capture your buttons (and buttons only), create some sort of collage, and ask family members to do the same. Can you easily see who’s who?

Alternatively, you can create button-stories if you visit a museum today, for example.

Or go for a walk and ask every person you meet if you can take a picture of one of their buttons (a great way to meet new people).

This weekend, try telling visual stories through buttons.

Show us your buttons - and maybe we can tell who you are.

You can share your button creations on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #kramerseye.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 3 - Episode 16 - Buttons and their surroundings

Some buttons stand out.

They’re made to command attention.

Others hide. By having the exact same colour as the fabric they’re attached to- or by being seamlessly integrated into the background.

Today we’re focusing on how buttons are embedded.

What are they surrounded by? How are they attached? 

Is there a visual play between button and background? 

Do they shout out ‘hello, hey there, come on, press me, touch me!’?

Or are they simply sitting there, being functional and nonintrusive?

This day, zoom in on the buttons you see and capture them together with their surroundings.

This works especially well if you use a square frame format (circles love to live in squares). If you can’t set your camera to square you can always crop your photos to squares later on. 

Share your button studies using the hashtag #kramerseye on Instagram or Twitter.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 3 - Episode 15 - Buttons for Posterity

Some buttons that we introduced around the 1900s are still around.

We still push a button when we want to signal we’re standing outside someone’s house.

When we want an elevator to come and pick us up.

When we want the lights at the crossing to turn green.

But interfaces are changing. We now have sensors, and voice operated systems.

We touch screens - which are clever and convenient, but lack the physical satisfaction of ‘press-release’ you get when pushing an actual button.

So today, let’s get a little nostalgic.

Which buttons are you loath to let go of?

Arcade Game Buttons By Xdgx at English Wikipedia

What buttons would you miss pressing?

Which interactions would you prefer not to be frictionless?

Today, create your own visual button museum of the buttons you love to press.

Capture them, and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Instagram or Twitter.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 3 - Episode 14 - Press "Play"

Today we focus on tiny circles we couldn’t live without: operating buttons.

The whole concept of being able to use only a finger to make something (or someone) do your bidding is rather attractive. It makes us feel powerful and in control.

George Eastman tapped into this sentiment when he tried to popularise photography in the 1890’s, and came up with the perfect slogan:

“You press the button, we do the rest.”

Thus started the rise of the button - and for over a hundred years we have used buttons to operate machines, to play music, to open doors.

Sometimes even to close them - although the ‘close doors’ on many elevators is actually disabled. Good to know.

All day you press buttons without thinking about it - and the buttons actually tell you what to do using icons and colours.

For example:

Red buttons: stop, disable, start something scary.

Green buttons: start something good.

Triangular button: play music or video.

And the familiar power button icon is a very clever visual integration of the old I/0 switch.

Today, observe how many buttons you push in your life - and how they’re communicating with you.

What do they look like?

How do you operate them?

What are they telling you to do?

Capture them, and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Instagram or Twitter.

Listen to today’s podcast