During my youth in Savannah, “creativity” was helping my grandmother make a six-layer caramel cake to be enjoyed after a family dinner at Williams’ Seafood or Carey Hilliard’s.
Back then, “worldliness” for us was driving around the block off DeRenne and White Bluff and circling the globe-painted storage tank. Yes, that was more years ago then I care to admit.
Yet since then, although I have spent much of my career in or around Savannah, most of my workdays were logged in Silicon Valley or Europe.
So, imagine my delight as I meet world-class game designers, entrepreneurs and technological innovators daily right here in Savannah. Although there are creative and innovative initiatives throughout the region, today I want to share how the SCAD graduation exhibits simply blew me away.
Each year SCAD puts graduating senior exhibits on display, from one end of campus to the other, from architectural designs to fashion creations to new media innovations.
I had the privilege of touring a number of these exhibits last week, courtesy of Bob Dickensheets, SCAD’s director of external relations.
First, as I parked across from the Gulfstream Center for Industrial and Furniture Design, I noted license plates from 13 states on the first 20 cars. This opened my mind for the various languages I soon heard inside.
There, I was awed by the ability of students to rethink, articulate and produce innovative toddler games, summer grills, tables, bike racks and more. Questions I never knew to ask had surprising and wonderful new answers. A designed world is an incredible place to live.
Munich, eat your heart out.
At SCAD’s Collaborative Learning Center I was introduced to authentic learning opportunities transcending 40 majors. These projects, sponsored by global corporations and led by industry leaders, are not to be placed on a shelf but to be consumed in “the real world.”
One of these student projects will appear soon on a billboard near you providing a warm welcome to Whole Foods.
As a techie, my personal favorite is Montgomery Hall housing the School of Digital Media. Just brush by the screens in the lobby and you will see why Pixar makes great effort to recruit SCAD graduates each semester.
If you are lucky, you may get the chance to try your hand at one of the interactive digital games, which are sure to capture your imagination.
One game, Lost in Thought, warrants particular mention. This incredible interactive work, the senior project of eight SCAD students, was recently selected as a finalist in the Entertainment Software Association’s (ESA) inaugural E3 College Game Competition.
Nearly 400 colleges and universities competed for the honor to display their games in Los Angeles at next week’s E3 Expo, the world’s premier trade show for computer and video games.
Kudos to these SCAD students as their work (and Savannah) is showcased alongside Electronic Arts, Sony PlayStation, DreamWorks Animation and other major gaming software names.
Honestly, I wouldn’t know the first step for creating the incredible innovations I have seen this week. But I do know about entrepreneurship and building businesses. And I know that every venture capitalist and angel investor worth their salt would be thrilled to walk the halls at SCAD.
I look forward to personally inviting these investors to Savannah for sneak peeks at our homegrown creativity.
Perhaps “innovation” to you is a gadget for cutting my grandmother’s caramel cake in parallel sections rather than wedges. Or maybe you’re a trailblazer in game design about to launch a raving trend around a rare Chinese trading map.
Regardless, I am thankful you are here in Savannah pushing the envelope and sharing The Creative Coast dream.
Bea Wray is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. She may be reached at 912-447-8457 or bea@thecreativecoast.org.