Ideas + Makers

sustainable messaging

Interesting to think that advertising and marketing shifts are forcing the industry to rethink where leaders live, how new ideas are made, even where to go for inspiration.

GreenTeam in New York makes sense. Brian Hurewitz, an AD there, brings the reality of making sustainable, conscience-ridden advertising as part of the cultural fight. Reading through his blog, it reminds that sometimes we are drawn to our calling out of chance and luck and good fortune. Sort of building your heart into the job search.

Also, link to the greenteam blog which blehblehblehs you with new ideas and ventures, possibilities. Good stuff.

Read up, then think about Enviromedia, Serve, or a number of places that are using talents to make good.

is the new

Charts and mapping again. The Diagram Literary Magazine offers this as a way of wrangling all the "___ is the new ___". Sleep is the new awake.

5 sparks

Places to go for a swift kick. Wherein I play my very own version of StumbledUpon for creatives.

Open Culture.  One Word. Mr. Picasso Head. Dirty Car Art.  Circular.

And a photo of dry ice in gatorade, a Morrison homage.

 

stamen design

Stamen Design -- a design and technology studio in San Francisco -- does strong digital work, a pioneer in making content accessible. (One of their founder's first ventures was Quokka Sports, one of Dan's client in the 90s when he went to Everest.)  Here, they discuss ways of journaling on paper and how that grows their design work in other media. A piece from the page:

michel gondry + his feet

Proving the genius / weird continuum is alive and well, Gondry solves a Rubik's cube with his feet in about a minute as his assistants work in the background.

Rewatch his movies for feet clues...

tools

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods is a wonderful tool for ideamaking and presentation. The accompanying paper describes in scholarly terms how the table was formed and classified using extant theory in ideation, visualization, and conceptualization. For conceptual thinkers of all stripes, it offers ways of conceptualizing ideas for audiences. For scholars, it offers a typology of approaches for evaluation and explaining rich relationships.

Bottomline:  It may be the juiciest overview of conceptual tools ever offered.

inspiration from tbwa

The TBWA/Lisbon blog posts a few beautiful maps of the day from the London office, an event, and advice. And then if you wander over to the London office, there's even a beautiful page on what they look for in grads.

50 pounds of ads from danny

Great story from a friend of a friend. Try Beyond Madison Avenue to think about quantity vs quality in making ideas. Which could give us better work? (Hint: there's a real reason to go after those 100 thumbnails.)

visual complexity

Using the mind map analogy that ideas are connected, associative, living entities, here's visual complexity nirvana. Check out knowledge systems, social networks, art.

doing things

Idea makers sometimes lose the love when they start actually making those ideas. The reality doesn't feel like the bright idea.

We look for places to make things better. Making journals more usable happens here. Dave Rose's beautiful printing technique makes for a letterpress feel. All of instructables is worthy of spending hours making stuff. Danny Gregory (again!) is worth a read every morning. Hugh McLeod explains why not making stuff makes him hurt.