Archive for the ‘Concepts’ Category
Insight in
Today I met the third client of mine to tell me they’ve drastically cut their marketing budget.
When I hear the words ‘budget cut’ from a client, I usually think they’re about to ask me to work for Read the rest of this entry »
:o)
I am a convert to the emoticon. Not those hideous yellow graphic smileys you can add to your emails if you’re under 16, but the punctuation emoticon. The PE.
At the beginning of my PE journey, I was hugely skeptical :-/ and annoyed >:-[ by all PEs, considering users to be complete :-@! However, the more of the little :-) faces I saw, the more :-)) I became. My relatively short time as a PE user has so far been an enjoyable one; I’ve got over my snobbish ‘I’m far too sensible for all this silliness’ position and have joined the throngs, considering them a lot less offensive than the use / overuse of the exclamation mark!!!!!!!!!!
Discovering there were Homer Simpson (_8^(|) pirate, P-( smoking, :-i Frank Zappa :^{= and even pope PEs +<:-) just makes the process more imaginative and amusing.
Radio 4 Mash-Up
Sometime last year, I was on the phone to a writer friend of mine. I’d caught her parked up at some anonymous soul-sapping service station, munching her lunch and listening to a CD. Mid-chat, my friend changed her CD. Now, at this point, you could be thinking one of two things:
1. Either I am so interminably dull, that I wouldn’t notice when I’ve bored someone so much that they’ve listened to an entire CD while I’ve been rambling on or,
2. I’ve just proved (as if proof were needed) that age-old adage that women can eat, talk, listen, write, apply make-up, prove the existence of the Higgs boson and change CDs, all at the same time.
Pulp Addiction
A great and creative thing to do with your old pulp fiction stock. These shots of quirky book cover art from photographer Thomas Allen. See the whole collection here. More on Thomas Allen and his process here. Enjoy.
Pay Attention!
So the government is introducing a new test for six year olds. To check their ability to use phonics, kids are going to be tested to see if they 
recognise made-up words like ‘koob’ or ‘zort’. I don’t know whether this is a good thing. I’m not a literacy expert. Six year olds sitting exams does whiff slightly of post-communist Asian education systems, but on the face of it, it’ll definitely check whether they get the whole phonics thing or not. It’s the classic test to see if you’re paying attention; the insertion of a red herring or deliberate mistake.
It reminded me of Gamestation and their little April Fool’s joke last year. Gamestation changed their online terms and conditions to state that they had the right to claim your soul:
How To Spell Spam.
An interesting piece popped up on Yahoo News last week; an account about a council tax scam where fraudsters contact you to say you’re due a financial reward as a thank you for paying your bill by direct debit.
Now I don’t know about you, but the concept of my local council financially rewarding me for paying tax would be enough to make me click ‘SPAM’ faster than you can say ’seriously unlikely state incentive’. However, clearly enough people were falling for this to warrant its broadcast, albeit hidden within the confused jumble that is Yahoo’s landing page. So I read the whole thing and there – towards the end – was a paragraph about spelling.
Illustrious stuff
I’ve been looking at a lot of illustration in the past few weeks which, for me, is a bit like christmas. Why you ask? Well, because in my dreams, I get to commission all of these talented people to illustrate the many stories I currently have out ‘there’ sitting in the vast bottomless in-trays of the demigods that are publishers’ and agents’ editors. Editors who, I’ve discovered, live on a completely different planet where the concept of time versus available life, has yet to be realised.
Am I ranting?
Tinker, tailor: Writing to your niche
Generally speaking, I try to avoid re-blogging anything to do with blogging – especially when the post is blatant corporate selling. So, it’s with a not-insignificant amount of knuckle-chewing that I pass this on. This is a post from Hubspot about how blogs are using more complicated language than traditional media. This shouldn’t be a surprise: old media = well-trained journalists who can write; blogs = anyone. Plus a few good copywriters. *Cough*
This post is about posters.
With only a week to go, this is just irresistible. Jonathan Jones introduces a feature in today’s Culture Guardian showcasing alternative takes on the political campaign poster from some of Britain’s leading artists. You can see their work here plus more detailed commentary from each artist (and Jonathan’s introduction) here.
I agree with the article tone that official campaign offerings are more than unimpressive, but I’ve really enjoyed the unofficial and not so underground stuff like My David Cameron. If anyone can teach the big parties a thing or two about clear copy, it’s the creators of some of these gems.
Very early comments on the Guardian site suggest there is a big gap between fine art and graphic design when it comes to posters. My own take – unsurprisingly – is it comes down to the copy and the connection the copy has with the design. Hence my favourite of the lot is this one by Goshka Macuga. Clear, clever, totally connected to its purpose and comes with a back-story.
The Fantastic Dr Lakra
If you happen to be in Boston this summer, go and see this guy’s exhibition at the ICA. Jerónimo López Ramírez (aka Dr Lakra) is an artist and tattooist based in Mexico. I really like his process – the way he invalidates what he’s chosen to paint on and the slightly subverted tone. You can see a slideshow of some of his work here.
Converse Presents Dr. Lakra from Highsnobiety on Vimeo.
What’s the (second) Big Idea?
I’ve been reading a few blogs by fairly well-lit individuals in the business and marketing world. Some appear to conjure up new concepts on a regular basis. Quite aside from how exhausting this must be, it made me think about whether it’s actually possible to come up with more than one Big Idea.
One or two of my subscriptions include the blogs of successful business gurus, considered experts who are watched by a certain sector of Corporate plc for the next big thing – this on the basis that they’ve already delivered one widely adopted Big Idea. But are subsequent pearls of wisdom original new ideas of value and reason for contact, or just the same story set in a different scene?