Brett Macfarlane

Adman in Techland: 8 Points of Perspective

Earlier this year I started a start-up.  Two of them actually.

One is a technically driven strategy platform working under the code name Plannr born from some work I did with Facebook last year. 

The other is a publishing idea.

Earlier this summer I made the decision to focus 100% on the publishing concept, partly because it was closer to being revenue positive and also because I loved it a bit more. 

I also love Plannr, and it may be restarted, but what I love most about it at the moment is what I learned from it.

For six months I was based in the Google start up campus around Old Street in London, met as many people as possible and immersed myself in as many things as possible.  A dramatic change after a decade in highly creative, innovative and potent advertising agencies. 

There is a very different lifeblood in the world of entrepreneurs, of course a high degree of motivation but also self-responsibility.  There are hundreds of people in London and most any city around the world today investing their personal money and time in making something happen.  There is a real pressure you see in people’s eyes when they know they need to make it work, not just move on to another client or meeting if things don’t pan out. 

It gives a swiftness of movement and forces entrepreneurs to confront the full scale of what it takes to make an idea happen and worry about their weaknesses.  Entrepreneurship is a team game and there is no such thing as “not my problem” or being “too busy”.  Consequently it attracts the most strong willed and optimistic people out there.  It is awesome. 

The past couple months I've returned to adland doing some consulting work on integrated concept development and execution for both tiny boutiques and mega-big agencies.  So I thought I’d jot down a few points of perspective gained over the past year.  I ended up with 8.

 

Ideas are easy

There are thousands, maybe millions of ideas floating about.  Some good, some less good.  As Ferran Adria, the most creative chef in the world, said to me “ideas aren’t the problem, doing them is.”  At a time when any idea is possible in infinite ways, how you execute is the most important thing to worry about.  In truth, ideas are small, doing them is the big thing.  Doing them is what matters, the only thing that matters, and doing them brilliantly is bloody hard.

 

Ideas aren’t stealable

There is a notion ideas are something to protect, as they can be stolen.  Very early a good friend advised “nobody can make your idea your way.”  In practice the more people you show it to the more you stretch and strengthen the possibility of the idea.  This doesn’t mean to take every comment on board, but every comment helps form an independent view of what one should or shouldn’t do.  Also, people love having a coffee if the subject is talking about an idea that might be famous one day.

 

Ideas are fragile

As the owner of an idea you spend a lot of time with your idea.  The idea becomes incredibly familiar, which is good.  It also becomes easy to continually evolve and morph what the idea is.  At times this is vitally important, at other times one much watch it isn’t out of boredom or undisciplined.  The idea must always link back to the core problem you are solving, not a technique or something shiny.  This understanding is typically at the core of great ad agencies.

 

Ideas bloat

Often people confuse an idea with features.  For example Facebook’s product is connecting people, it does this through a number of features such as your wall, mail, messaging, photos, etc.  Speaking with Jay Bergman of start-up golden child Hailo, he explained his greatest challenge is feature creep.  Especially at the beginning.  Every feature adds an exponential degree of complexity and resource demands, build an idea that has the potential to grow (conceptually and technically) but be desperately brutal with what features you start with.  Bloat kills.  The husks of overbuilt and complicated unsold “digital” ideas litter agency graveyards of servers and filing cabinets. 

 

Ideas aren’t digital

Real people don’t give the slightest moment of consideration to the word ‘digital’.  It is a meaningless hollow shell of a term used by people too lazy to be specific about what they actually mean.  People care about ideas, they care about what it does and how it makes life better.  Everything uses digital technology today, it’s life, not a specialty.  Any agency requiring any job role with digital at the front is failing themselves.  Have technical experts who execute but ideas and strategy mustn’t be confined by the artificial silo of “digital”.  Rarely did I hear the word digital on the campus, people speak in ideas and tasks not vagities.

 

Ideas are small

Smart start-ups are obsessed not with the 1 billion potential users, but the question of who will be the first 10.  Then the next 100.  Companies are built by recruiting one customer/user at a time starting from zero.  This forces real discipline in who you are going to engage, how you will reach them and why they will care – product development questions as much as marketing, more so really.

 

Ideas are technical

I’ve previously spent a lot of time with a hand in the Vancouver tech community and I find the Vancouver and London scenes total opposites.  Vancouver is full of technical ability but lacks ambition in its ideas.  Vancouverites are generally content with millions, London universally wants billions.  London is full of ambition and big provocative ideas but lacks desperately technical ability.  Most ad agencies also struggle to balance either the creative ambition or technical excellence.  Most creative agencies are all ambition without technical excellence.  Most self-declared “digital” agencies are all technical ability with little creative ambition.  There is a middle ground a few dance in, and is in my opinion the holy ground for the next generation of companies and brands people will genuinely care about. 

 

Ideas repel ads

Part of getting advice is giving advice.  The most frequent counsel I give to fellow start-ups is to use anything but advertising as your business model.  Too many too early look to ads as a magical tap of money.  It is lazy and the idea thus devalues to simply be a hook to deliver ads.  Sure like Google or Facebook you can make crazy  money if that’s your thing but for users the presence of ads dramatically changes the context of the experience.   Frequently it brings negative value, detracts from user experience and associates your brand with the same banal advertising content already plastered across the internet.  However, if the presence of ads adds value to the user, for example Kiip, that’s good.

Chilling With Kanye in Paris

Came across an atypically typical Parisian occurrence last week on the second of my two one night layovers in Paris.

We grabbed some Velib's (the bike share scheme whose continued membership is my most beloved extravagance) for a night ride along Canal St. Martin.  

We rode down my favourite haunt, rue Bretagne, and stopped for a little projection performance on the bare wall overlooking Marché Enfants Rouge; the oldest covered market in Paris.  

The performance was watched by a couple hundred well dressed, coiffed and camera'ed up Parisians spilling out of Café Charlot onto the street.

The sort of event that seems to happen with great frequency in Paris; jammed together Parisians being Parisians making the most of their city streets to soak up a cultural spectacle that doesn't require tickets or a theatre.  Brilliant.

The track banging through the neighbourhood sounded, to obnoxiously quote myself, "like a French Kanye West."

Turns out it was Kanye West's new track New Slaves.  

This was one of 66 such events around the world that night, the same day the track was first performed on Saturday Night Live in America and streamed on kanyewest.com.

A fact I learned two days later, just now.

It reminded me that a few years back "trans-media" narratives were a bit of a thing, but they seem to have gotten lost under the umbrella of integration.

Inherently, good and fresh media with a perspective on our world is transmedia.  Even if it only existed originally in one place.  

Transmedia isn't the chart with all the plumbing of the internet - it is the real way creative things flow.   The way them permeate all channels in ways that cannot be 100% predicted.

It is the idea over the technique.  Both are important but technique is meaningless without idea.

Sure it was marketing, what isn't - but if it wasn't interesting and genuinely compelling to begin with, I wouldn't have stopped on Saturday and taken some shots, publications wouldn't have written about it and I wouldn't be caring about it now.

There was no branding or "messaging".  I had to figure it out for myself.  How atypically memorable.

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TED Vancouver. Why not us?

TED is moving to my hometown Vancouver in 2014.  That is pretty cool, but why Vancouver?

One of my favorite memories of the first Interesting Vancouver was meeting the artist David Young when planning the event.  He had recently moved to Vancouver from the US and remains absolutely convinced Vancouver today has the right ingredients to become the world's next great creative hub.

As a born and raised self-loathing Vancouverite it seemed equally ridiculous and addictive this provocation of his.

"Why not us?" he challenged me.  

In his Interesting Vancouver 2008 talk he dissects the great cities and creative eras of human history to build his argument why the present generation's Vancouver is potentially the next great creative culture. 

I fully agree with David and part of my reverse migration to Europe is to experience and study more closely how other cultures - be they local, national, regional or global - operate with success, mediocrity or failure.

Having left Vancouver, I increasingly identify the reasons why Vancouver already is one of the planet's leading thinking hubs of the moment.

1. Hard Natural Resources - wealth of the land is helpful.  Traditionally hard natural resources timber, minerals, agriculture and fishing have provided the wealth of the region and a financial backbone of a community. 

2.Soft Natural Resources - have created new opportunity and financial resource - such as near perfect natural light conditions to create the largest film production centre outside L.A. and NY. Technical knowledge from logging built one of the most technically advanced rigging expertise centers for big budget action films (eg. the X-men films) or early computer pioneers driven by an economy that only knows technical progress (and a bit of local sci-fi rebel rousing from William Gibson types.)  These are soft resources developed in one area that then jump laterally to areas like video games with EA who develops most of their sporting titles in Vancouver.

3. Collaborative - while a big city it is not so big that individual business sectors never cross over.  Each sector has a handful of players (take advertising where there are maybe 5 meaningful agencies today) such that they naturally cross paths with many other areas.  Likewise, two large but excellent universities and the top notch Emily Carr art school who have departments but never the entrenched silos of old world institutions.

4. Curiosity - Vancouverites tend to be more introverted than elsewhere but certainly are curious types seeking stimulus from all sources.  It is one of the world's few genuinely multi-cultural cities.  Many great cities like London or Paris are international but their government and self-image remains caucasian male with barely a handful of exceptions despite the factual demographics and thriving ethnic  communities.  A strong world life balance mantra of work hard play hard also keeps people fired up and full of interests fueling curiosity.

5. Pioneer spirit - over 90% of the population moved within at most two generation to the region in pursuit of a better life.  It is hard wired to think that however something is done today it can be done better tomorrow - change is always better than not changing. A few quick examples being Greenpeace for the environmental movement, Lululemon for modern sportswear and Vancouverism to embrace a new model of mixed use urban planning transforming downtown over two decades.

David, who attended TED before the Chris Anderson buyout and subsequent commercialization noted that Interesting Vancouver felt very much like the free exchange of the early TEDs.

TED has become something completely different, and very bloody good at what it is.  But why bring it to Vancouver?  

Why not?

Now, is there still room for Interesting Vancouver?  Or course, they are brothers of the same mother after all, just growing up to be very distinct people contributing each in their own way to the world.

Hemingway: 10 Lost Lessons for Young Writers

One damp, dark and bone chilling winter day in Paris last year I ducked into La Galcante. Possibly my favorite shop in Paris.  Hidden in the middle of the heart of Paris' 1ere arrondissement on Rue de l'Arbre Sec.  Tucked behind the oft visited Spring Boutique where I'd stock up on and learn about wine during my time living there.

La Galcante's reason to exist is historic journals and ancient documents. Newspapers, engravings and magazines from the past couple hundred years.  Equal part museum and treasure hunt.  Most all from "mechanized" eras focusing on culture, war and politics.

In La Galcante are collections of boxes labeled by theme - a person, place or event.  A functional way to collate clippings and publications devoted to an individual.

Buried deep in a box shared by Earnest Hemingway and Orson Welles was edition number 662 of Artes published March 19 to 25 in 1958. A seemingly since deceased publication.

Hemingway, the man and his myth are as closely intertwined with Paris as any other artist.  A vicarious window for many into Paris during its most recent truly golden age.   A vision into the modern construct and lore of the lifestyle of an American writer.

The article lists his 10 punchy pieces of advice for young writers.  Loosely translated as follows: 

1. Be in love.

2. Apply yourself to writing with force.

3. Watch the world and mingle closely with life.

4. Intermix with upcoming writers.

5. Don't waste your time.

6. Listen to music and look at paintings.

7. Read constantly.

8. Don't look to explain.

9. Listen to your pleasures.

10. Shut up.  The sense kills the creator of words.

While Hemingway wrote a lot, he rarely wrote about how he wrote - though writing did feature in a number of his semi-autobiographical fictions.

The accompanying article also chronicles exactly how he writes in his Havana flat.  450 to 1,250 words a day, every day.  Not the most prolific but not so much as to get in the way of living a life that gives one something to write about.

Great tips for a writer, and for life in general.

 

Hyper Island Founding Principles

Came accrosse these today from the Hyper Island folks. 

They call them principles but are also kind of rules.

1.Remove silos, subjects, barriers, titles

2.Active lifelong team learning

3. Challenging open-­‐ended projects

4. Immersive technologies

5. Agile working methods

6.Build on the work of others

7. Reflection and evaluation

8. Change is constant

I like them.  Partly because some stand the test of time and others are rather philisophical statements around how to approach the type of work that seems to increasingly work really well.  Specifically the importance of teams working together, being agile with each other and egalitarian.

These principles don't guarantee great work but are a great way to work.  In this day and age it also problably creates more and more of the great work out there.  Presumably.

Ideas, Rules Doing and a John Jay

Our industry has a lot of great minds and a lot of opinions.

But opinions aside, its what one does that matters.  The actual ideas.  The ones that get made, and made great.

Whether an idea is in the form of a script, a way to look at the budget to make the impossible possible or what a prospective client sees in the lobby on pitch day - they all matter.

But some people do more and do better.  No matter how old I get, they are a kind of hero.

Few know the name John Jay.  But anything he does, says really, amazes me. 

Sharp, profound and informed.  Above all, makes you think a bit different and better about something.

A knower of art, retail and how a restaurant can reshape a neighbourhood while reinvigorating its past  (Ping.)  A genral doing of things.

These are the types it is great to see enter halls of fame. 

I don't know Jon, but I know I like what he's done.  Even if it was only the skewers at Ping, I would hold that opinion.

These are his rules stolen from a WK blog:

1. Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.
2. Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.
3. Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.
4. Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.
5. Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.
6. Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.
7. Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8. Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.
9. The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10. If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.

 

Amazing: Nike, Get Up

As is increasingly the case I don't know if this is a TV ad, a viral, a web film, podcast, street projection, a YouTube promotion or CCTV - and I do not care.

Simple a wonderful motion picture story.  The athlete's fighting spirit.  Humanity's drive to go beyond known limits, fall, and get back up.

Bravo.

Familiarity

People who follow the rules to the letter, without interpretation of intent, have always seemed a bit simple minded.  Conversely, those who "don't play by the rules" and spend an obsessive amount of time pointing out the flaws of rules have always seemed rather childish and insecure.

In the middle is breaking rules from within rules.  That is often where good stuff happens.

Paris, like many metropolises is drenched with graffiti in every corner in the most inaccessible places.  Some the crafty art student Banksy-esque homage others the territory defining statements of turf ownership. 

The graffiti I love most is found within the frames of unused advertising space.  I love the rawness where there should be polish.  I love how the graffiti sticks within the pristine porcelain frames.  I seem to be collecting a small catalog of examples.  This particular one at a metro stop three blocks from my temporary home in Montmartre.

People notice, stop and look at these works more than any competitive ad space.  The ads all look like what ads are supposed to look like and therefore go unnoticed.  There is something powerful flipping what is familiar in unfamiliar ways.  

The best TV ad, website, poster or radio spot tends to do just this.  Use the familiar in unfamiliar ways.

While the search for the "new thing" carries on relentlessly, and for good reason, it is good to remember that doing something new with an old thing can be powerfully effective.

Gossage or Macluhan probably said something about that, or somebody, but doubt they talked about gorgeous porcelain frames.

Hats for Caps

Thanks to the good folks at Innocent I haven't been this enthralled by hats on inanimate objects since Jobu's hats for bats in classic sports film Major League (clip oddly and tragically not YouTubeable...)

Introducing Sprize by The Gap

The Gap quietly launched something very interesting here in Vancouver.  Something called Sprize.  The mechanics of it are pretty straightforward.  Apparently this is only in Vancouver at the moment.

This really is exceptional.  Just the latest creative sales promotion tactic by the folks at Gap Inc. for their various brands.  But Sprize is certainly the smartest.

Shopping has always been as much a psychological game as the utilitarian pursuit of buying clothes to protect our soft human skin from the elements.  High streets are a consumer chess game where retailers try to get you to buy today something that likely will be marked down tomorrow.  The Gap has become notorious for "wait till it goes on sale."

With Sprize The Gap is essentially calling their own bluff, saying that they know that your know that the starting retail price is just the first offer.  And you negotiate with time by coming back tomorrow to see if it's marked down, or buying it today and 14 days later come back for a price adjustment.

With a Sprize account you almost look forward to paying full price to see how much money you "win" in your account.  So now, not only does Gap encourage a sale in the present, you'll be coming back in to spend your winnings.  Smart, smart, smart.

Pair this with their renewed efforts to elevate the fit and quality of clothing designs plus a badly needed re-invigoration of their retail environment.  But realistically, those improvements are just moves to chase the more nimble brands that have been eating their lunch - Zara, H&M, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters amongst others.  Sprize is a genuinely differentiating move in an increasingly commoditized category.

Going beyond a fresh coat of paint and slogan shows this old dog still has some tricks up its sleeve.  Go on you.

Foreign Creation of American Prep

With summer about to wind down and retail shops winding up with fall fashion and sure to re-embrace the world of layering as always it's good time to explore the provenance of this year's dominant fashion theme. The elements of the look most commonly known as American prep will be even more prevalent on the high streets this year.  A little more style is always a good thing to pick up our economic gloom.

What is most fascinating about American prep is that the overall style, energy and look as we know it was crafted by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida and published in a series called Ivey League (the term prep had yet to be invented in 1965.)  While the book runs nearly $1000 on Ebay scans of are popping up on the web.

What makes the work quintessentially Japanese is the totality of the captured lifestyle from the clothes themselves to activities and ethos of Ivey campus life.  Conversations on foot, short travel by bike and prioritized lounging to balance one's work load. Not to mention gorgeous typography on everything. In many ways the book lays out the exact utopic view of the ideal urban development combining low carbon lifestyles and convenience.   Only more stylish and desirable that the banal lifestyle photography wrapped developments in progress today around the world.

Long an industry secret holding influential prominence in the bookshelves of creative directors at fashion houses maybe it's time for a collective effort to deliver The Ivey to urban planners, developers, ad agencies and other creators of uninspired garments.  Not necessarily to duplicate but inspire originality in their work as the gestalt of a lifestyle, not singular piece.  This gent in Ginza enjoying a casual Sunday stroll would agree.

DoTank

"An idea is nothing without execution."

Don't remember where that came from, me, or osmotically borrowed from someone smart.  However, I do know who said this:

"Ideas without execution are a hobby."

Creative people or people in creative industries talk a lot about what should be done or grip about how their ideas didn't get made. 

I really respect great ideas that get made greatly and the people who make them happen. So I've started a Do Tank, a repository of how great ideas got made.  Could be tales of how an idea was sold, the barriers overcome in production, or just a great case study.

Shoot a note to @DoTank to add your favorite tales of great ideas done great.

Now back to hiatus.  See you soon.

Is the creative process broken?

I hope so.

Did this thing a few weeks back with James Sherrett of AdHack who always inspires me.  He was kind enough to ask me in to launch his AdHack Live series..  He put me on a camera and asked a bunch of questions, to which I gave a bunch of answers. 

This is what came out.  Am surprised nobody has called BS on me yet, and I'm more surprised with the fact despite all my years in America, I really do still kind of say "a boot" when I mean about.

Fully Meh

As the long time reader of the blog will remember one of my favorite pieces of sports action film is the intro to Fully Flared, the Spike Jonze directed skate film.  The sense of anticipation is genius.

So it's a bit disappointing to see it bastardized. 

Not because this is an example of an ad agency "ripping off" Spike.  Maybe they did, maybe he himself ripped off someone else, I don't know.  Playing who thought of it first is a fools game and the purpose of this blog isn't to "bust" creatives of idea theft and call them lazy.  What disappoints is how poorly this wonderful original reference was used.  The end product is just some generic "lifestyle" skateboarding shots without any actual sense of emotion, drama, anticipation or anything really.  Just some pretty advertising pictures.

Mexico has some of the most incredible artists and the agency grabbed some very sweet boarders.  Too bad they didn't put that to work and create something new, or even process Spike's work.  They clearly had the budget and seemingly sound strategy to work from.  Too bad the client and agency didn't grab the opportunity to do something great.

Evolution of the Human Language

 

What's starting to get pretty tired is web 2.0 and all this talk about the wonders of social networks, iPhones, twitters and everything else.  In fact it's brutally tired.  Not just because there hasn't really been a new killer app that garnered popular attention since twitter was released in 2007, but because it misses the point of what is so fascinating about all this stuff.

What is not tired and ever more fascinating isn't the existence of these tools, but what we are doing with them.  The fact everyone can make a movie doesn't mean more good movies, means more crappy movies.  No, no it really isn't interesting that most anyone can do what was done before.  What's really interesting is seeing how people are using these things in ways never done before.

What we are gaining is a broader language for interacting with the world around us.  iPhones and the ever increasing pool of touch devices are training the broader population how to navigate digital screens with multi-touch.  This means we can navigate information, and increasingly narrative in imaginative ways.  The first generation of touch was pretty lame, flip a Coke bottle or move some MM's (at least that's what the first prototypes we were shown did.)  Right now iPhone apps show the most imagination in this space but with the flood of new advanced mobile touch devices in Q1 and Q2 this year along and the pending burst of Microsoft Surface type devices around the corner we're all going to get pretty good at this stuff, at least as good as people on the creation side can develop.

The same holds true for motion sensors like the Adobe thing or up here in Canada our Fruit Mirror.  It's amazing how far techonology, and our expectations have come, even just back in 2006 it was kind of lame, this was all Nike could do, more of a gee wiz, look what we can do, rather than a relevant, informative and captivating experience.  Worse are those washroom posters that play what amounts to be a radio ad when you're washing your hands.  That's not helping anyone.

Moving picture and sound (ie. video) is getting amazing not because of visual effects, editing or other technical aspects (though they are ever more awesome.)  Video is getting amazing because with less and less explanation we can get people to understand the context of one's message or intent.  Wired's Clive Thompson in this month's Wired encapsulates this brilliantly with examples like Mad IV .  Or how a broadcast sitcom like How I Met Your Mother can incorporate web content into the show, without "directing" viewers to them and they become part of the narrative and viewing experience. 

In a time when all media is digital the definition of interactivity is evolving.  It's not pushing a button it is how two or more things work together.  Sometimes it's you and your phone, other times it can be how content across different media interact as part of the user/viewer experience. 

Making predictions how this will evolve is foolish, but there is fertile ground yet to be sown.  It's going to be great to see what sprouts.

Creativity unveiled

Brand inspired art is an ever growing genre, but what what is really neat is all the behind the scenes footage brands like to release around the making of.  This is cool because one of the secrets of advertising is that some of the greatest creativity existed behind the curtains of "finished production."  The process of how to actually bring a creative idea to life is as, if not at times more, creative than the idea itself. 

This behind the scenes documentary on the making of a BMW spot, shot by Ridley Scott's son, Jake, is the latest in the making of genre.  All the detail, trial and error and engineering into making something like this happen is fascinating.  I'd expect nothing less from a company like BMW who takes their engineering very very seriously.

In an era of ever growing transparency and a desire to know what's going on behind the scenes, this content is really neat when you have a brand that truly stands for something meaningful and unique, whether it in it's proposition or integral to the products themselves. 

That said, are we at the point yet where "lets do some art around the brand" is becoming a bit of a lazy tactic.  Probably...

PPT Art

Some artists use paint brushes.  Some use words.  Others use photography.  Some clay.  A few spray paint cans. 

They all use the tools of expression in which they are masters.

I am a master of none of those things.  So when asked to create and submit a piece of art into an art auction there was only one creative tool to use: PowerPoint.

It sold, and therefore is art.  This is only the beginning. 

Notice served Banksy... notice served...

Attention to Detail

Creative Space?

One trait of working in an ad agency is discussing how one's office and or space is or isn't helping you be "creative."  A creative space doesn't make creative people, but it does help creative people be creative.

Just finished The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton.  Not a new book, but was new to me.  A few great paragraphs and insights buried in the book.  One of my favorites:

"There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places... [t]he music or the view distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness and which runs scared of memories, longings, introspective or original ideas and prefers instead the administrative and the impersonal." 

Often we expect others to make our space conducive to good thinking or just accept what is there.  It's great to move or rearrange everything to jump start new thinking.  First though it's good to know what you have.  Here's how I work:

This wall is a physical expression of my mind.  Articles, collateral and printed bits of the world collected in groups discernible only to me but well organized based on particular lines of though at a given moment/project.

The desk which is unremarkable.

Random collection of things given to me and acquired through various travels.  Primary purpose is to give people something to start a conversation with.

This black box exists purly to rest Bill Bernbach's genius.

If a big thought is necessary, or a better way to state a thought in a brief, you'll find me looking at the street below or a sliver of the mountains and ocean visible just out of frame to the left.

James Lee Foundation Scholarship

James Lee is probably the most explosive creative person I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  Explosive in a good way - full of smart passionate ideas and impeccable craftsmanship.  His work dominated Canadian award shows and regularly achieved international recognition.  One of the few people in this world the term genius rightfully applies.  His unexpected passing at 37 years was a tremendous blow for our agency, but his legacy continues with the James Lee Foundation Scholarship, currently accepting applications from emerging creative talent.  Application and contribution details here.

NYC - A Better Ad Campaign

Like most cities, New York has their tourism campaigns featuring beauty shots with some visual design device and a smart headline to try and make them stand out from all the other cities using the same approach.  Last week a campaign, that isn't an ad campaign launched, that wasn't meant to be an ad campaign but will more certainly garner more attention and interest in New York than any well produced magazine ad.

Waterfalls, an art installation features a number of waterfalls over 100 feet tall installed for the summer along the Hudson River.  If The Gates from 2005 is any indication Waterfalls will get heaps of coverage, not just from the media but average Joes, amateur photographers and professional creative types.  .

If this was a "marketing" campaign what a brilliant approach to a media plan it would be - make something brilliant and stunning enough from people to photogaph, blog, talk and share it.  Obviously things are very different when brands get involved and the 30 permits Waterfalls had to secure are nothing compared to if it was a private enterprise.  No matter, that doesn't mean something equally stunning cannot be acheived.

A nice NYT slide show tells the full story (from which the above photo was borrowed.)  And the Flickr action has already begun.

critical space

The Vancouver Art Gallery has a good show on right now called Critical Space, the first comprehensive survey of the work of Andrea Zittel

Her basic intent is to better understand the basic needs of humans and our interactions with surroundings, be it spaces or physical objects we wear or live in.  One of my favorite parts was a list of 14 things that Andrea knows for sure.  Lots of insights and connections one can make to advertising, the creative process and planning.  Numbers one and eight are so darn true.

1. It is a human trait to want to organize things into categories. Inventing categories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in the way that the world works. 

2. Surfaces that are “easy to clean” also show dirt more. In reality a surface that camouflages dirt is much more practical than one that is easy to clean. 

3. Maintenance takes time and energy that can sometimes impede other forms of progress such as learning about new things. 

4. All materials ultimately deteriorate and show signs of wear. It is therefore important to create designs that will look better after years of distress. 

5. A perfected filing system can sometimes decrease efficiency. For instance, when letters and bills are filed away too quickly, it is easy to forget to respond to them. 

6. Many “progressive” designs actually hark back towards a lost idea of nature or a more “original form.” 

7. Ambiguity in visual design ultimately leads to a greater variety of functions than designs that are functionally fixed. 

8. No matter how many options there are, it is human nature to always narrow things down to two polar, yet inextricably linked choices. 

9. The creation of rules is more creative than the destruction of them. Creation demands a higher level of reasoning and draws connections between cause and effect. The best rules are never stable or permanent, but evolve naturally according to context or need. 

10. What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves. 

11. Things that we think are liberating can ultimately become restrictive, and things that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of comfort and security. 

12. Ideas seem to gestate best in a void—when that void is filled, it is more difficult to access them. In our consumption-driven society, almost all voids are filled, blocking moments of greater clarity and creativity.

Things that block voids are called “avoids.” 

13. Sometimes if you can’t change a situation, you just have to change the way that you think about the

situation. 

14. People are most happy when they are moving forwards towards something not quite yet attained. (I also wonder if this extends as well to the sensation of physical motion in space. I believe that I am happier when I am in a plane or car because I am moving towards an identifiable and attainable goal.)

—Andrea Zittel (as of Spring 2005)

The 5 Rules of Wieden Kennedy

http://nikkaia.blogspot.com/2007/08/5-rules-of-wieden-kennedy.html

** Act Stupid. "Our philosophy is to come in ignorant every day. The idea of retaining ignorance is sort of counterintuitive, but it subverts a lot of [problems] that come from absolute mastery. if you think you know the answer better than somebody else does, you become closed to being fresh." states Jelly Helm, creative director.

** Shut up. "The first thing we do when we meet with clients is listen. We try to figure out what their problems are. Then we come back with questions, not solutions. We write these out and put them on the wall. And then we circle the ones that we think are interesting. More often than not, the questions hold the answer."

** Always say yes. "What I've learned from improvisation is to let go of outcome and just say yes to what4ever the situation is. If you say an idea is bad, you're creating conflict--you're breaking an improv rule. You want an energy flow that moves you forward, as opposed to a creative stasis."

** Chase Talent. "Find people who make you better. It's best to be the least talented person in the room. It's reciprocal. It challenges you to keep up."

** Be Fearless. "Do anything, say anything. In the worlds of our president, Dan Wieden, 'You're not useful to me until you've made three momentous mistakes.' He knows that if you try not to make mistakes, you miss out on the value of learning from them."