Last night, SXSW Interactive wrapped up the 2012 festival with the HP Awards Ceremony. It was humbling and inspiring to see all the tremendous work from agencies, companies and individuals all around the globe, truly a diverse collection of creative talent.

We at Y&R Midwest in Chicago were already very excited to have the Craftsman SCREW*D project nominated as a finalist in the business category, and we were even more thrilled when they announced us as the winners.

This moment marks a great new step forward for the network as all offices collectively explore and execute interactive, immersive storytelling for clients, and it also pays off on the vision of David Sable to combine our creative firepower with innovative technology and new ways of reaching and engaging with consumers.

Thanks to everyone out there in the Y&R network!

The team (from left to right): Evan Thompson, Kevin Babcock, Richard Fischer, Brian Smego and Matt Witt

Wearable Meme

I have a soft spot for teetering, often man-repelling heels. But for some reason, I never took to Jeffrey Campbell’s Lita bootie. And while I don’t like them, I always been acutely aware of them. Because they’re everywhere. Cult status.

It wan’t until today’s panel about the influence of social media on ‘high street’ fashion did I learn the curious back story behind the look.

Launched in 2010, Jeffrey Campbell seeded Lita on Lookbook.nu. Bloggers fell hard. Looks, likes and comments ensued. One influential French blogger amassed a collection of 200+ pairs. With that, the shoe became a signifier of ‘those in the know,’ which apparently I was not a part of.

I had no idea that this crazy shoe, like Rebecca Black and Bieber, was a meme in and of itself. Perhaps the first ‘wearable meme.

Thanks to the viral nature of social media, Lita became bigger than the shoe itself. The bootie and the brand had become a part of popular culture.

(Why Karl Keeps His Shades On)

Incredibly awesome and inspiring talk by Scott Snibbe, interaction designer and app developer. He’s the guy who developed Biophilia with Bjork.

Six grueling days of SXSW note-taking, made a little easier by Ogilvy.

Susan Weinschenk

Some highlights from recent panels:

Al Gore and Sean Parker talked about the political side of social media. While we’ve all heard about movements like Occupy, they made the point that candidates can be using it more and more to get in the public’s eye — without needing millions for traditional campaign advertising.

A BBC executive producer and a CD from UK’s Iris unveiled new ways for social media to create comedy shows - instead of just being a channel to discuss them. New ideas include improv where comedians base skits off viewer tweets and audience Facebook profiles in real time.

In that same panel, they also talked about “newsjacking,” which means developing quick platforms that capitalize on stories just as they come out. That way, once it peaks, your brand is already associated with it.

And finally, one thing I just found pretty mind blowing, is that scientists are developing technology that puts people into a meditative state. Pretty soon (maybe), we can all be zen masters.

Connected with Allison Kent-Smith yesterday, whose article on the importance of digital education in agencies was just published by Fast Company.

Just heard a panel talk about WebGL, the 3D platform currently being implemented in new browsers through HTML5. Before everything started getting uber technical and over my head during the Q&A section, the conversation on stage veered into WebGL being used in tandem with 3D printing (something that had been touched on by multiple speakers here). They had some great examples of sites currently using both (these are a bit processor intensive so they are best viewed on a computer):

MyRobotNation - Customers can construct and paint a 3D robot in real time, then have it printed and mailed to them.

123D Make - Upload a 3D model of your choosing or pick from a preset list, tweak and tinker with it then have it fabricated and shipped to you, or print it out yourself.

Nervous Cell Cycle - Design your own jewelry, changing it’s paramaters and seeing the results render out instantly in fully rotatable 3D.

They also showed off a ton of flashy demos like this one that really got me excited for what the future of the 3D web has in store.

-Jon Leachman / Y&R

Today’s panel with Willem DeFoe was great. He was debuting his latest film The Hunter.

He is known as the antagonist in many of his films. He touched on how he relates with playing that kind of character. “You represent them and try to humanize them. In theory you look for yourself in the character. You want them to have their day in court.”