On good days it all works so well

meaningful content multitasking

There is such remarkable opportunity in our writing and thinking lives: we can share what we've created, how we're thinking, what we're inventing through so many outlets. Twitter becomes a tool to help ignite quick connections, get the word out, read and react quickly to ideas. Facebook is a hub that lets us talk ritual and connection and see what others are doing. Vimeo and youtube give us a platform. Blogs allow us to think out loud and archive. We text and fill ideabooks and take notes. All good, except that I'm writing to fuel the process rather than writing to tell stories or frame the next idea. I note that there are now creative tools that help you crossplatform and prioritize. But damn, I want to clear the table and just write the story.

psfk asks: can planners be the new creatives?

The January PSFK London conference has a series of great videos. This one found via twitter -- three different tweets in 15 minutes on this one -- and asks a smart question in this transformational time:

sketchbook from sxsw :: ideabook as art

Go here for amazing flickr capture of all 70 pages of notes. Designer Mike Rohde makes note-taking an art.
His blog shows process -- as example he designed the word cloud on the SXSW bag everyone carried -- and his wonderful sketchbook proves that we can make wonderful content from the simplest assignments.

setting type :: old technology with such possibility

My friend has set type for decades, even as he was an investigative reporter for various papers and now as he publishes a hand-set, self-printed 16-page journal. A beautiful piece. He's teaching me to set type and use his small, elegant printing press. What an honor. Some photos of this morning's lesson.

 He's so fast and nimble in his moves to set lines of type -- 10 point Kennerley here -- and moves deftly. A craftsman.

visualizing 2008 in numbers :: wow

Good Mag and volumeone.com, you are so wonderful with your transparency, your flash, your visual poetry. This Always inspiration:

good advice for creatives

Three things I read this morning that strike me as best advice:

Get a great blend of people with different core strengths and perspectives to collaborate.  As ideas develop, it's important to have "no-bullshit" sessions to challenge the ideas from the outset.  It's also important to know when to pull the plug…this is tricky because persistence is often the key ingredient for success but in the end, so is good judgment.
cloudraker And so much fun to look at.

This essay presents a concept called confluence culture to describe the changes that the advertising industry is currently undergoing relative to the rise of digital culture. We argue that all advertisers, in order insure their relevancy, must recognize the role confluence culture plays in their work.
Sheehan + Morrison in First Monday
Beyond convergence: confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world

Visualize information so that everyone in the organization can see concepts, flow, energy, and ideas. Have a board that dedicates space to this.
From my notes during Scott Belsky's Behance talk at sxsw Making Ideas Happen

5 big takeaways from sxsw

Though I have a ton of content to think about, I took some time to consider all on the way home. So here's a first glance at what went on for me. The SXSW Interactive gathering is amazing, inspiring, smart; 12000 people strong all considering the digital space. Used to be only nerds and coders. Now, designers, agencies, brands, bloggers, activists, digital thinkers, public intellectuals, writers, journalists, and artists gather to talk about digital and interactive.

All that said, a few takeaways. More later today.

1 :: Terms + Trends that were used handily from one session to another. Administrivia (used by a Harvard Digital Natives Project student who explored real digital issues of the university classroom). Backchannel (used cross conference) which we saw real time as twitter was used in the best and worst ways: twitter used so much -- many times mindless or self-serving stuff -- that AT+T had to bring in extra towers to service all the iphoneage twittering going on (it was a Mac conference almost exclusively), and twittering that enriched sessions with backchannel side conversations, explanations, exploration. Very interesting. Deadtree media (used often and pointedly) during conversations about what news organizations (i.e., newspapers often at forefront of this conversation) will be doing to form a sustainable business plan to bring news to society.

2 :: Smart inspiring speakers that were there to bring transformation to the audience. Steven Johnson on The Ecosystem of News offered the thoughtful, informative position that old growth media -- print and appointment television -- will fade as new growth media grows to fill in and grow in its place. It's happening quickly now but the growth is healthy. Now to find the business model that supports the people and thinkers involved. Advertising + news must work togetehr to do that. Alex Bogusky on a bike share program but the real point was that creative people -- and orgs such as advertising agencies, design firms, pr agencies, universities -- should be curious and confident enough to use their expertise in other ways, to stick their noses in to new and different problems and offer solutions.

3 :: Behance with actionable creativity and products that support that. Wow. A network, a community, a thoughtful and smart digital discussion. And tools. Great presentation and ways to make ideas happen in organizations and meetings.

4 :: Toolkit importance. To be a strong participant, notetaking plus twitter (at its best) plus flip and cameras plus. That means a strong inclination to report on the sessions, to connect and share. Very interesting to see people blogging throughout a session, making content. I couldn't help but compare that to classrooms where open laptops usually means someone is checking facebook. Two sessions really stoof out as important in the tools area. One was Behance as noted above, another was a great session on presentation that explored how to make presesntations more interesting and vital to the information. Big takeaway there: kill the bullet points, pictures means more than words, there is no research done on the effectiveness of ppt or keynote. Wow on the Keynote Presentations that used mindmaps drawn as the talk went on, real time creative info management. This is the one for the Nate Silver Keynote:

 

5 :: Interesting, energetic people who believe in ideas. It was everywhere. The sense of creative energy that wasn't confined to things or titles, but to people engaging in something big. Even the discussions of news and journalism -- and for our purposed this is big -- was met with excitement and enthusiasm for the reinvention of the model. Newspapers would be well served to attend, listen to the Steven Johnsons of the world, think about invention rather than the sadness of end eras.

All in all amazing. I'm proud that our Bedbury Scholars used their time wisely, immersing themselves in the culture of the digital energy. They'll be bringing that home in presentations and big platforms.

5 takes on curiosity

We've been talking. The fuel we use as creative strategists, as writers and thinkers, as risk-takers, doers + makers of things is our intellectual curiosity. Why? and What if? become the tools of invention, our saving grace when we find ourselves stuck or without hope or searching. So, let us find those things that pique and provoke.

1 :: Begin with a premise. The creative process is steeped in wondering. The rational tools of research methodology, collaborative approaches, scientific inquiry are used by asking pertinent questions repeatedly to find answers. Curiosity leads us to answers, to more questions, to bigger conceptual platforms. Interesting research:
Kashdan + Steger (2007). Curiosity and pathways to well-being and meaning in life: Traits, states, and everyday behaviors. Motivation + Emotion 31 (3), 159-173.  Keywords: Curiosity Happiness Hedonism Pleasure Positive emotion
Much good info here, but this is the takeaway: "Greater trait curiosity and greater curiosity on a given day also predicted greater persistence of meaning in life from one day into the next." Being curious, the data suggests, predicts more meaning in life. When we wonder, we grow.
And using this as a personal and professional building block? Wow. Click here for a collection of what ifs. Click here for discussions on curiosity and creativity. Of course, listen to the astounding Ken Robinson talking about human creativity and education :: 20 minutes that can change your life.
But maybe an interesting way to imagine curiosity as creative prod is to listen to a poet who curiously delves into time and humanity. Poet John Rives asks :: Is 4 a.m. the new midnight?

2:: The Curiosity Group gives us a tour of imagination and smart thinking, letting us connect curiosity with strategic ideas. After all the best work happens when it's built on strong curiosity. Wonderful, whimsical and they're in Portland? With a flying elephant? Move that couch into the bathroom. A screen grab of their work page.

3 :: Our new School of Journalism Advertising curriculum is built around the creative strategist model we've created. One of the classes that help tell that story is Curiosity for Strategists, a course built on creative and conceptual thinking, mythology + archetypes, anthropology, storytelling, and performance. Beautiful, fun stuff that leads to people like Mark Lewis, Professional Storyteller, coming to class.

4 :: To be curious is to build the architecture of meaningful ideas. Digging for insights is part of the the Strategic Planner's DNA, finding the conceptual nuggets that lead to smarter, honest work that is compelling and memorable. When we visited Nike, we saw the trappings of good work everywhere.  This piece is part of a campaign that started with a simple question: how do sports affects the millions of girls on the planet in ways other than competition?

 

5 :: Curiosity then invention. Quintessential W+K Portland. If we're curious, we weave together ideas, invent. We make things.

type curiosity

Since we've been talking typography and since we're curious about the interesting, the new, the unexpected in type design, I searched a bit tonight and found these. Always giving attribution when found.

Also: some twitter connections got me here: very cool links from @usetypography and @typedirectors.

From Typecon 05 New York Crystian Cruz flickr account:

or this from Deviant Art's site (culled from somewhere else I believe...honor to the creator) ::

mashups + sweet connections

Very cool idea and site -- The Best Mashups on the Web Mashup Awards -- that lets you see the power of connecting conceptually. Some favorites from the archives here:

1 -- Helveti-Tweet :: a stylish stream of Twitter updates mentioning Helvetica

2 -- Pixelpipe :: liberate your content is the line they use. Basically you can push all content you produce into one pipeline and deliver to multiple platforms...video, audio, text. wow. from their site:

3 -- Twitter Venn :: oh. my. word. This is fantastic. "Enter two or three search terms separated by commas and press the 'Search' button or type Enter/Return. After the data is retrieved a Venn Diagram is shown which illustrates the rate of tweets containing the search terms in the various combinations. See the Neoformix post on Twitter Venn for more details."  This was created by Jeff Clark. Dear Jeff Clark: yes. Here's a screen grab from the site...homage to the authors.

4 -- TubeGraph :: Talk about your interesting feedback models. Lets you review certain pieces of a youtube video for rating.

5 -- Joblighted :: Certainly apropos for today. Mashing twitter, aggregate jobs postings via keywords, and mapping to let you see how and where jobs are popping up and where to contact. You know...there is some energy out there.

w+k radio

Hilary Jones reminds me that Wieden's radio grooviness lets us in on all things creative and compelling. Staffed by  W+K media/creative/support types on a daily basis, the shows range from feature pieces, new genres, cool bands of the hour.

It also reminds me that the best advertising agencies are thought leaders, able to come up with new ways to morph media, new ways to get everyone engaged. Who else might use this model? Are newspapers out there racing to reconfigure an old medium to a new and interesting use? Could in-house radio be the perfect magnet for getting a community of employees working and playing together? How many other agencies are building cultural connections like this?

This is the front piece to the W+K Radio site. It'll lead you to good stuff.

making data come alive

Good Magazine -- always a favorite and worth a lengthy discussion due to smart design and inspiring content -- posts an illustration (here) and an accompanying Flash piece to show us what the war really costs. The design and info are by Matt Owens, principal at volumeone and a partner in the design collective Athletics, and Jason Bishop, a designer at the School of Visual Arts (always an inspiration).

See the video here.

5 twitter friends who get how to be interesting

Some folks you follow on twitter for the info, some for the entertainment. I follow these because they always offer something I want to read.

1 -- @edwardboches
Come up w/ one amazing idea that makes u unforgettable. It’s hard not to hire someone if you can’t get them off your mind.
2 -- @neilhimself
Tell them something you believe, that you've learned, about how YOU see the world. Trust them & don't lie to them. Make good art.
3 -- @undermanager
Things were written: other interestings: I've been thinking about what we do for Interesting.. http://tinyurl.com/a9lt69
4 -- @tweetpostsecret
From my mailbox today: "Before I mail a bill I don't want to pay, I stick the check between my BUTT CHEEKS, then I put it in the envelope."
5 -- @presentationzen
Delivering BETTER Presentations (short post on a presentation transformation by Robin Jay) http://snipurl.com/c5a0m

amazing w+k day

Look what happens when people get inspired. Lord, these kids are good.

5 ideas on type + design

I have friends who are type fanatics, who lovingly talk about the beauty of a bowl on a B or the arc of the descender in a lowercase g. Beautiful stuff.
In looking through material that can help us think about the good things happening in typography right now, I collected these. Lots more...let me know if you have recommendations.
1 -- Steven Heller is the dean of designers, a real treasure. His quicktakes on type and design are full of insight and new ways to see. He's also the author of some gorgeous books on design.

2 -- Wow. Esquire has reinvented the magazine cover. The punch and power of a front cover with information reinvented as design is amazing stuff. Look at these:

                                

3 -- Though I don't think it a great idea to buy a Ford F150 right now unless they up the gas mileage and lower the emissions, I do admire the voice (Denis Leary) and tone, and the energy of these smart spots from Team Detroit. Good stuff, guys.

4 -- Go look at this. Henderson Bromstead Art is typgography as art...posters, logos, brand stories, social issues. even a beautiful process poster. Very nice.

5 -- HandJob is priceless. Wonderful fun hand-drawn type and ideas. Better that you don't google this one...believe me, you'll get more than you bargained for.

greenwashing forum at portland turnbull center

The Forum went off beautifully. Seven expert panelists from around the country, a terrific blogging and tweeting production team, strong opinion and good conversation from a 50+ audience. The great takeaway of the day :: brands need to tell the truth, stay honest and authentic, and strive to bring a sense of integrity and best practices to their messages, especially green ones. Enviromedia brought it. All we need to do now is find a strategy to help professionals and consumers make this happen. Max Radi designed our projectable banner (not printed!) and the stamped folders.

ideabook prompts

For the classes, for the masses.

1 :: Write one page of truth without lifting your pencil from the page.

2 :: Collect 5 images that show honesty. 5 images that show courage. 5 images that show green culture (no leaves or trees allowed).

3 :: Write 5 versions of the same event.

4 :: Archive one thing -- at least 20 images -- on one page. Kim Karalekas looks for stop signs with extra messages, collects them, looks for patterns, insight, humor. What's your collection?

5 :: Chose one word and show it in 10 typefaces. Write a line for each on personality.

6 :: Craft a tutorial showing how to do something. Put it in photos for an ideabook, on your blog if it's video. Start a campaign of these pieces.

7 :: Select 5 photos. Match each with an illustration of the same thing.

8 :: Put your 5-year plan in cartoon style. This is a sunday strip...use color.

9 :: Write on paragraph on the following and find a photo to illustrate:
    On bullshit. On tomorrow. On renewal.

10:  Show the story of your life is 10 photos.

Here's a timeline I did to show 54 (gawd) years. Each year is a decade. And, yes, I've forgotten the 70s.

relevance in ad + brand development curriculum

Relevance happens when we emphasize critical thinking, innovation, insight, responsibility.

content! 5 ideas to get you thinking about what a book can include

It's cool to make smart insightful stuff and understand it's place in a book. Branded pieces show how you think about engaging a consumer. Content pieces such as these show you know the human condition, that you're thinking bigger than brands.

1 :: New York Times One in 8 Million series :: These simple elegant profiles of real people help us understand the power of the interview. Audio, stills in SoundSlides format...the execution is simple.
2 :: The Gay Alphabet :: How beautiful is this? Simple animation and we get an A-Z snapshot of gay culture. Interesting to consider a collection of these that look to insights over stereotypes, but it could be a useful exercise.
3 :: Handwritten Typographers :: Making your own type from handwriting. Wow. Nicole Karalekas recently made her own A-Z dingbat colelction of her life. beautiful.
4 :: Books! Self-published, collections, portfolios, conceptual themes, good content. I love issuu and blurb for looking at what people are doing.
5 :: Videos and insight. UT master's student and photojournalist Joey Castillo crafted this beautiful piece on the Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow. Very smart. (Thanks, Glenn Griffin. You always have the best stuff to show. You inspire me.) Sidenote: vimeo has good stuff.

How about a little graphic to brighten the post?

optimism + the idea industry

How do we make the joyful noise of an inauguration and the current cultural paradigm shift mean something relevant to the people doing good work in the idea marketplace?

If anyone, any industry had a stake in optimism, it is this one. We're built on creativity and invention and problem-solving. We -- agencies and nonprofits and universities -- own high stakes in the optimistic.

Via facebook magic, I've gotten so many messages of sadness, angst in the last few weeks: layoffs, survivor guilt, meaningfuness of work. The conversations are tough. The last thing I want to offer is a handy motivational speech or the "not to worry" quackery. But as you ask for advice (or comfort or a reality check), I have a bit to offer.

And the first part is :: we'll get through this.

After that, no easy answers. Instead, I offer something looking from way above the fray and then, later, back into the guts of reality.

5 directions for living on purpose

1 -- Be indispensable. The wonderful Joyce Thomas of McCann offered this as a way out of the troubles of the next year. If we do our jobs with the joy of being absolutely relevant and necessary to our clients, to our team, to ourselves, we increase our chances of being focused on doing things right. If you've left your job or haven't found one, keep indispensable as your guide as you talk to a next career chapter.

2 -- Be real. The realities are staggering. Look at the daily tally and understand what's happening. Talk to your friends. And when this agony is over, what will we have? The best news is that survivors -- individuals and agencies -- will be smarter and stronger.

3 -- Be mindful of what you always wanted in a career. There are cultural lines running through this time that speak of change (the easy observation), engagement, the power of what we do. How we play through these times is a measure of who we are. I've asked students for the last 15 years to offer their manifesto of the type of work they want to do. I have been touched by the volumes written on meaning, "finding myself in what I do" and creating work that is the best it can be. This assignment usualy comes early on as students are first connecting with the professional world. They are innocent and purposeful. And they know intuitively what they should do. Capture that again. Get honest in your work.

4 -- Be a learner. Here it is again :: pick up a new skill, connect it with the legacy you've created as an idea person. Art directors are learning code and Final Cut Pro, writers are inventing new ways to present work in story form. Everyone is tied in new ways to social media, digital tools, the beauty of new ways to create. No excuses.

5 -- Live in this beautiful moment. Politics aside (can I do that?), feel the impact of people believing in what is possible. That is magnificent. It forces new ways to solve problems. It forces to get over obstacles and fulfill possibility. Damn, that is remarkable. What does that do to your life?

our china trip shown beautifully

While we're working on the video story, the wonderful Max Radi + team produced a poster on our experiences at the One Show China Workshop in Shangahi. The poster is showcased in Allen Hall and will be part of an exhibit we show for visitors. An extraordinary opportunity and we thank The One Club and the School of Journalism for the support and possibility.

5 things we can do to stay good

Crazy times. I keep hearing from you guys and even with fear, frustration, anger, new chapters, I hear so much optimism.

Besides the usual ideas of networking and looking at fresh work, here are a few collected survival strategies from you over the last few months:
1 :: Keep learning. Keywords for survival: curiosity, discovery, reinvention. Easy fix: Grab a tutorial and learn a new tool. Long term: what do you want to be when you grow up?
2 :: Know yourself. Find your strengths and make the most of them. Own up to what you have to work on.
3 :: Use work as play. Hard to do in anxious times, I realize, but the people I hear from who are the happiest, their heads are in the play zone. Kevin Carroll has a new book on this in his Red Rubber Ball series.
4 :: Remember what made you tick. In consulting for agencies and organizations on creativity, I find that a few years out of school, people tend to forget what they know about making ideas. If you love something, do it. If you lose your way, go back to the beginning.
5 :: Live to tell a great story. You were laid off. But maybe the real story happens when you find yourself afterward. How do you want your kids to remember you? What do you want people to say when they describe you? How do you want to live?

The last thing I want to do is offer self-help motivational drivel. Instead, let's look at what can happen. Let me know your own strategies for keeping it alive.

show me how

Wonderful new book that serves as visual playground, answering the "how do I?" on a few hundred problems.

Couple of big takeaways here: simple visual communication is a smart way to tell a story. Illustrator drawings can keep things simple, while setting the solution in a well-designed frame.

Notcot gives a great overview.

Authors Fagerstrom and Smith are owners of the Curiosity Shoppe and gallery in San Francisco (very cool = curiosityshoppeonline.com), and update on smartsandcrafts.com. They're about professional curiosity and discovery...great skills to have during this interesting period.

The book is a wonderful read. Three hours on a train went skipping by with this at hand.

5 things I'm reading everyday

Besides the usual CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Adweek, russell davies and TED, I can't live without:

1 :: Newser. Wow, Newser is using short blasts of interesting news from an array of sources (BBC, Salon, The Guardian, TMZ, NYT, The Economist, People) offered with a key visual. It's easy to use and a great way to look over the news of the day quickly. Developed by Michael Wolff -- Vanity Fair writer -- and full of delicious nuggets. Besides, Drea and Brock created this  that was such a winner.

2 :: Arts + Letters Daily. What a cool way to read about everything -- literature, pop culture, politics, music -- on a site that is a huge conglomeration of great stuff. They draw from newspapers around the world, plus a variety of blogs and new books. The Chronicle of Higher Education brings this together, so it has enough gravitas to count for a few college credits if you read it daily. You can spend hours clicking through.

3 :: Romenesko. If you hang out with journalism types like I do, you need to know what makes the profesion tick. This poynter,org site is the daily blog of Jim Romenesko. It's a compilation of news stories about the industry, job postings, business insight, and matters of journalistic culture. Very cool read, one that anyone in the media world should be reviewing.

4 :: Animal is fun. How about this: "ANIMAL is a mix of underground culture, city-centric musings, and cultural epithets updated daily, providing compulsory reading for artists, writers, curators, creative peoples, (as well as editors, reporters, and brand people)." Yes.

5 :: Before & After Magazine. I love this site and all it offers. Subscribe and you can download all the articles on type, design, elegant production. Very groovy.

new term :: new energies

That's the way it always happens when you're perpetually in college. Think of the optimism is signing up for a new term, new classes, new things to learn. It's awesome.

And speaking of awesome optimism, consider the media industry paradox. The economic downturn/ crisis/ crapshoot/ shitter emphasis puts many in a philosophical mood. So many of our media partners in journalism can't face the changes that the perfect storm of economy + digital culture bring. They're weeping, "we're melting" like the wiched witch. Or they're hiding their heads, not admitting that the huge shift we're part of is actually affecting them. Newspapers are dying, or, at least, reimagining their futures. But there is little optimism in the profession's view into the future.

But the advertising + brand industry is giving us something different. An idea industry relying on their base in the creative economy, they hold on to their creative DNA by witnessing with optimism. Agency models adapting -- some slower than others, but still moving -- to the new challenges. But more...plenty of people are excited about what they're inventing. It dioesn't take away from the fear of layoff or the vagaries of freelance or even the realities of getting a pink slip. But hearing from people in all three situations, I know that the overwhelming reaction is one of "what do I need to know?" and making that list of things to learn. That's optimism.

Good luck, journalism. I'm hoping more of you learn, adapt, grow. Invent a new way for the glory of the newspaper to shine. Engage the citizenry in engaging in your product. Be smart. Just like advertising.