nothing terribly spectacular, which is what makes this pretty cool.
here's a music video (the first? maybe) shot on an iPhone 3Gs. Spectacular thanks to it's non-spectacularness, and what we take for granted that we can carry in our pockets.
anything is possible. via @chrislin
From a random conversation with a friend who's an ex-Marine (can you be an 'ex' Marine?), via a friend of his (I think) who is a full bird colonel in the Air Force.
Two pieces of advice:
When the balloon goes up it goes up fast
When the shit hits the fan, wind your watch.
My boss and I had the great pleasure of meeting and having lunch with Pedro Font, a true legend in (multicultural) marketing and advertising yesterday.
For those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s the man who put the Fo into the FoVa that still appears on my paycheck. (17 years later, WING is technically a dba).
He founded the predecessor to Wing in 1979, 30 years ago this year. Say what you will, he was a major force in making the Hispanic market and multicultural marketing the multi-billion industry that it has become. If you want to read a decent overview of the agency back when Grey acquired it, check out this link.
He, for lack of another word, es un personaje. Since leaving the agency he has run a business responsible for selling Televisa’s content and other companies’ films distribution rights all over the world. In other words, Don Pedro is doing just fine, thanks. For all the stories I’ve heard through the years, and I'm sure the rest of you have too, I found him quite gracious, full of ideas and interested in what we’re up to at the agency.
Put a different way, Don Pedro is on our side.
As a true personaje, Don Pedro was not hesitant to regale us with stories and to give us advice. Some of it should be taken with a grain of salt, some of it is useful. All of it is worth reading.
I took notes, and figured I’d share what I gleaned to be Don Pedro’s rules of the road with you. Some of it he said, some of it was observed....
Oh, and if you can, get your own table at 21.
All the rage in visualization of ideas and information need not be overcomplicated, as I realized today. I thought this was a nice and simple visualization of why interconnectedness matters and how it works. As he says himself, I'm not convinced this is totally accurate or if there should be more dimensionality between the layers. Maybe it should be arranged in a less hierarchical way?
He makes an interesting point in the 'voice over' of the visualization, which is that even though we assume it's better to be high up in any hierarchy that's presented to us, there's more engagement and 'love' in the lower levels. As he puts it
Which means more to you personally? Discovering a funny video that's already on the top of the Most Popular page on YouTube? or Finding a funny video on that weird niche blog that none of your friends know about?
To some extent this explains the need and interest in multicultural advertising and creating culture for brands in languages other than English, in channels outside the traditional. By reaching more deeply into slightly less populated realms of media, we engage more deeply.
Lots of interesting thoughts too, insofar as at different levels the size of the dots should be of greater or lesser importance than the big white dots that are at the center now...
Nada, nothing new, but I really enjoyed this bit with the guys from Nortec Collective during this episode of Kurt Anderson's Studio 360.
Never ceases to amaze what openness happens when people ignore borders and follow hearts and instincts.
There's also a great interview with Toumani Diabate, who is the 73rd generation of his family in Mali to play the kora.
In this case following the borders follows the heart. It would be cool if Nortec started to work with him, since both interviews mention Bjork. But the Nortec guys didn't work with her, they just had a taco together.
Loved this description of the new digital life we lead from an introduction to an article about The-Dream written by Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker.
Based on some new research I've seen lately, I think there is an increasing unification of behavior and thinking between the mobile and 'wired' world as well.
Hard times lead to great ideas. Business Week sat down some futurists to predict what the next 10 years will bring. Their guesses were interesting but nothing that would shock you if you're a regular reader of, say, PSFK.
Still, a fun exercise, which led to some things I want. Only one thing you can be sure of: the real future will be much better and much worse than you see here. We can do better.
Lots we can do to make some of this happen today. Doing your part?
Steven Heller's covering the Obama administration's effort to put a stronger visual identity behind the economic recovery in his blog.
Interesting since the last solid example of this kind of work was arguably the strong graphic and visual elements that formed around the WPA and other elements of FDR's New Deal.
So as the New New Deal moves forward, I think it's smart that the attempt is being made to give people a visual element to coalesce around. The jury is out if this will really be effective or frankly if these logos are strong enough to garner greater support or to give people a solid flag to stand behind.
Regardless, it's interesting to see it happen. Bigger question is if 'design thinking' and other experts on the application of creative thinking to solving business and social problems are going to consistently going to be invited to the party. The lateral thinking Obama has shown in staffing a number of his cabinet posts suggests that this may be the case, but only time will tell.
Recent Comments