Forecasting 2014 with... Jeff Levine

Acne Production’s interactive director, Jeff Levine is a forward-thinking innovator within the creative industry developing projects and pushing technology with a focus on new user experiences.

In the interview below, he tells us about personalisation, intelligent ideas and executions that adapt with the user and how he can’t wait to get drunk on the beach with his fiancé this spring.

What are your predictions for the industry in 2014?

I think ‘personalisation’ will evolve from authenticating with Facebook and pulling in your name and image to less intrusive forms that don’t require an extra step to make them personalised - they will just be personalised.

What would you most like to see happen in advertising over the next 12 months?

I would like to see experiences that have a sense of intelligence. Experiences should change over time as users interact and be responsive to HOW users interact with it.

What are you most looking forward to personally over the next year?

I’m excited to be creating interactive experiences that live outside of a typical computer screen.

What will you do differently this year that you didn’t last?

I want to focus more on the details and how a user interacts physically or digitally - whether it’s through a computer screen, mobile device or physical installation.

What media/technology/platform/campaign do you think will shine this year?

For me personally 3D printing will be big this year, not from a standpoint of consumers being able to print anything they want in their kitchen but more in the sense of prototyping anything we want for projects. When agencies and clients come to Acne now, we have the ability to rapidly prototype our ideas, and to manufacture them in-house.

What effect do you think this year’s World Cup will have on the industry?

The World Cup, the Olympics; whatever the major event of the year is just means an influx of work for the weeks and months leading up to the event. I don’t see things like this impacting the industry in a large capacity as it did years ago. Things change and evolve so quickly these days.

Where will you go on holiday this year and why?

I’m getting married in March and will be going to Antigua for my honeymoon. We chose Antigua because it’s a beautiful island where we can lie on the beach getting drunk for a week.

What’s your New Year’s resolution workwise or other and do you think you’ll stick to it?

I don’t like New Year’s resolutions for work or personally.

If you had one hope or request from the client side this year, what would it be?

Give people more time to create the experiences you are looking for and expecting. Timelines are shorter and expectations are higher, give a little more time on the back-end and it will pay for itself 10 fold on the front end.

And if you had a piece of advice for the creative industry in 2014 what would it be?

We aren’t curing cancer. Relax.