a hundred avatars

Wing + LATISM

OK, they kinda got the name of the agency wrong, but I'm not complaining. It's always an honor even to be nominated (ahem). 

I just found out that Wing has been nominated by LATISM (Latinos in Social Media) as one of the “Best Hispanic NY Marketing / PR Firm using Social Media”.

 
This is a totally spontaneous, crowd sourced nomination from the latino social media / blogging community. Apparently we are the second most nominated company.
 
The award show is this Thursday and whoever gets the most votes, wins.
 
If you want to participate in the vote, please go here or http://latism.org/latism-ny/latism-ny-finalists/

… and click on the “VOTE NOW” link. There are a number of categories that you can vote on if you wish, or leave blank. Our category is the fourth and we are at the bottom of the list.
 
Feel free to also forward it so we get as many votes as possible. Thanks! 

Paula Scher and the Geography of Design

In a few short interviews directed by Nicolas Heller and produced by former colleague Brian Collins for the Art Directors Club, Paula Scher talks about how the energy of the city affects her work. Part two talks about her maps, which are amazing renderings of the layers of perception that maps really represent.

She's doing the signage for our new office, which is really cool.

And part two

SPEWing good ideas

Tom O'Brien recently tweeted a link to Neal Stephenson's Spew, a piece in WIRED from what is essentially the dawn of time, 1994. What's crazy about it, given when it was published, is how prescient NS was on where we would be 15 years later.

Go ahead. Read the piece. It's really good, in the way that a cyberpunk piece called 'Spew' from 1994 is good. I know sometimes the links don't come through when these blogposts pop up on Facebook, but Google it if you don't see the link and read it.  I'll wait...

OK, it's not the Baroque Cycle or even Snow Crash, but it's sort of what we do for a living (or should be), right?

Anyway, a few things occurred to me while reading the piece:

1. Why don't people move more quickly? TV networks, publishers or advertisers don't respond to niche opportunities anywhere near as quickly as they do in the piece. I don't understand why, unless ennui, inertia or fear are fair explanations. There's no good excuse why, and we can accelerate how we move against opportunity. We just need a better infrastructure.
2. Try harder to find it: finding insights that are actionable.  Frankly in this day and age it's not hard to find information that matters, but honestly a lot of what we see in the business world is more often than not the result of outdated models that measure something that we all agree matters as opposed to the things that actually are happening. Not sure why this is the case.
3. WTF? Do you think anyone who read this piece 15 years ago really understood what NS was talking about? Did he? Did pieces like this create our reality (which is pretty spot on, at least from the perspective of what is possible) or was NS just so hyperaware that he intuited the next 15?
4. DIY: NS captures where culture really comes from perfectly.  As much as in his future there seems to be some sort of corporate-entertainment-technology complex that produces 'everything' they need to be culture vultures to find out what is really happening.  Technology that centralizes culture doesn't actually centralize culture creation but rather paradoxically just seems to help figure out what's really going on. Then the 'centralizer' can figure out how to take advantage (or not) of what's going on.
5. Intuition and in person: As much as the character in Spew has access to all the information out there, he's not purely quant driven in his approach.  He knows  "something is there" without being able to put his finger on it and really can only find out by going to where the target is and seeing it in person. Data feed doesn't replace human touch.

More advice, these via the armed forces

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

• in other words,  when change finally happens or when the thing you think was about to go down finally goes down it goes down fast. So always be prepared for the worst and be ready to move fast.

When the shit hits the fan, wind your watch.

• Pause before moving.  This is a lesson I've been remembering getting into playing tennis this summer. the first thing to do is wait, not swing. It reminds me of something Bruce Lee would say (yes, I just quoted Bruce Lee) about what made him a great fighter. He had the instinct and the speed to beat almost anyone, but what made him great was the learned ability to hang back and watch where others would attack.

The Power of the Human Interface

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

that was sweet. via ivette

Network structure

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...

Branding the Economic Recovery

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.

Obama, the Recovery and Transparency

According to www.recovery.gov, yesterday was the first day that federal agencies in receipt of recovery (which I suppose is how we're trying to brand the stimulus these days--well done) funds start to be obligated to report in a transparent manner how the money is being spent.

The site is pretty basic (I've copied the mission statement below) but I'm very interested in seeing how it evolves, as promised, over time.  As people can interact with the site and how the money is flowing I hope that not only will it have a positive effect on limiting waste, but also almost a placebo effect on making us all feel that something is changing for the better.

Perhaps this degree of transparency + accountability should be added to Andrew Cuomo's lessons from yesterday's post?

                                    Our Mission

• Education: Explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act;
• Transparency: Show how, when, and where the money is spent;
• Accountability: Provide data that will allow citizens to evaluate the Act’s progress and provide feedback.

Read the rest of the mission statement after the jump.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

I thought this was particularly well done visualization of how the credit crisis went down. It's more entertaining than that sounds. Surprisingly after watching it it turns out I had a good idea of what was going on.

Still, this makes it crystal clear and goes to show the importance of good visualization and simple storytelling in communications and public affairs.

Hopefully we'll all start looking at things, really looking at things, deeply and with creativity ahead of time so that we stop painting ourselves into these corners. Or maybe it's just human nature.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

reinventing Law & Order with Cy Vance

I was fortunate enough last night to meet Cyrus Vance Jr, a man who is (not quite yet) candidate for the office of Manhattan DA.  As difficult as things are today (really, today) the opportunity for change, in politics and in business are many, and fascinating. Really, things are moving in the right direction, despite all indications to the contrary. In no particular order, my thoughts from last night are:

1. Vision is everything.  Personality, experience and connections are great, but a clear and simply articulated vision carries the day (for me, at least). Too many positions proceed status quo ante, even with a change in who holds the position. Without the vision, we all just have jobs. I won't get into Cy's vision, but he has a comprehensive, humane view of the role of the DA in the lives of New Yorkers. Right on.
2. Politics is local: The flip side to the vision thing. Even in the face of the most clearly defined and articulate vision for change with a future focus, ultimately hands have to get dirty.  The broad cross-section of NY in attendance was to the credit of our host. That said, Cy (or any candidate or any brand's) challenge is to balance those intensely local and specific desires with how it fits into the overall umbrella vision. How do you balance the unchanged essence with the 
3. The role + the man as brand: Only briefly touched upon at dinner was the importance of viewing building the brand in both the position and the person. For what is, after Las Vegas' forensics department probably one of the most well branded law enforcement offices in the nation (I mean, who else has their own sound effect?), the brand is weak. Morgenthau's office has failed to use this to their advantage. Maybe, to his credit, it's because he wasn't interested in extending his brand. But not doing so diminishes the role in an era when both personal and positional power derive from the ability to capture not only the attention but the imagination. 
4. Intersection of business and politics:  Now is the time for well intentioned people coming together with a focus on progress and change. Transparency means being open about your vested interests not an absence of them. Things are too screwed up right now to waste time questioning people's motives. The more we can align motives to make the world a better place, the better off we'll be, sooner.
5. Opportunity for critical, creative and elastic thinking: Change.gov from Obama's transition is just one example. The role of DA has been viewed for years as an adversarial, hierarchical one. The opportunity for technology and new forms of analysis (remember massive humanities?) are present and the opportunity to use new techniques in visualization, communication and rapid feedback are here, now.  Like 311 in NYC, using increasingly pervasive technology to open up government and law enforcement to everyone, the quicker we can improve the city and make the office responsive to the people in the best possible way.