Erik Ries
Chief Creative Officer
Over the past 20+ years, Ries has been an award-winning independent creative in entertainment advertising. He supports major creative agencies in Hollywood, CA working on theatrical key art campaigns for studios such as Disney, MARVEL Studios, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Sony Entertainment, Netflix, A24, and many more.
Erik Ries
Chief Creative Officer
Ries is also the Creative Director for the non-profit ‘OHINA, one of the founders of ‘Ohina Labs, and an Executive Producer with ‘Ohina Films in charge of Content and Development for our first Project: Kālewa.
He achieved an MFA from Pratt Institute’s Graduate Program in Communication & Packaging Design (New York City, NY) as well as a double major in Advertising & Marketing Management from Portland State University (Portland, OR).
He is author of the pilot script AUPUNI; a half-hour dark comedy crime episodic series exploring the illegal overthrow, occupation, and Americanization of the Kingdom of Hawai’i. It’s Snatch (the movie) meets Peaky Blinders (the series) set in Hawai‘i.
In his spare time, he tries his best to fit in illustration, mixed media art, photography, and (when home in Hawai‘i) surfing
Solving the Problem
Although Recognizing That Each project, regardless of the industry or my role, is Individually Unique… The Approach to the Solution Remains the Same.
Design Thinking Process
Empathize | Define | Ideate | Prototype | Test
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” – Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO
1. Empathize This is central to the design thinking process. It highlights the significance of listening to the requirements of the particular problem. The approach aids in saving discoveries and learnings during this stage in a systematic way such as empathy maps.
2. Define Combine all the insights collected at the time of listening and observing. Start to synthesize and face the challenges ahead. This means starting to define a problem. An aspect that design thinking proves vital at is framing a problem in a clear manner so that we end up devising solutions and exploring opportunities. Try framing the problem correctly so that more avenues and solutions open up.
3. Ideate With the problem or the opportunity clearly framed, it’s time to search for methods to handle it. Ideate as much as possible. Brainstorm. Don’t ignore ideas that seem obvious or easy. Any idea can create a brilliant concept. Look into each and every idea with an open mind.
Design thinking encourages a team approach to promote multi-disciplinary groups bringing varied outlooks and opinions that produce better outcomes. Shortlist the best and leave the rest.
4. Prototype Bring solutions into vision. Different methods are involved; sketching, rapid prototyping, and many others. No matter whatever method, the core purpose remains the same, creating rough drafts of solutions to decide if they will prove beneficial for the problem.
Follow a simple, speedy, and economical approach while prototyping. A prototype can transform into a beta product or a minimal viable product (MVP).
5. Test Testing the prototype with the client and monitoring the response determines whether the solution is satisfactory or not.
Form the right features for the right people, product, project, or industry. The concept allows the designers to pose the right questions, create the right features, and engage with the clients effectively. Calculate whether a particular feature will fit in the product or not or if it will serve a real user problem?
