the fruits of imagination

An urban planning first

For once, they're unpaving a parking lot, and putting up a paradise.

(apologies to Joni Mitchell)

Doing stuff is good

"In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil.
Evil doesn't drive out good.
But the energetic displaces the passive."

                                                            - Bill Bernbach

X-ray image of solar flares via Stanford University

Inspiration

As we try to make brands more interesting and useful to people (or at least less annoying), I found myself taking inspiration from two artists each of whom takes on the task of making the world a more creative and interesting place.

Miranda July is one of those people with a lot of slashes after her name (performance artist/writer/film maker) who always seems to be doing something surprising and excellent. In her long-term project learning to love you more, she (along with another artist) sets artistic assignments for anyone to complete and send in. It's much like The view from your window or Postsecret, except refreshed with a new project every month. But like those other sites it provides a little glimpse into the odd and wonderful corners of people's brains, especially people who society doesn't usually label as creative. The writing about the impetus for the project is really nice too: 

"The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response."

That's a worthy goal for any creative project. Also, you need to stop what you're doing and check out the lovely website for her new book No one belongs here more than you.

And while you're at it, see this. Twice.

Another constant source of good stuff is illustrator Keri Smith. How to be an explorer of the world is some great advice (which, come to think of it, I'm going to nominate for post of the month).  Her blog is one of my new favourites.  And if you're ever stuck for inspiration, you could do worse than to read her 100 ideas.

She's got a new book coming out too - a journal/scrapbook called Wreck This Journal that uses prompts and suggestions and assignments to get you to be more creative, to do new things, to fail, and to ultimately wreck the book. In her words:

"I had become tired of reading (and writing) about creativity and decided to make something that would make it impossible for you to be a passive observer, (how many books have we read but not acted on?). I thought about a book that was somehow integrated into the users everyday life, both as a way of documenting it but also to encourage new experiences."

It strikes me that both of these artists would probably be mortified that marketers are looking at their work for ideas and inspiration. But I'd like to think that if we can all start being a little more like them, and a little less like this then we probably all come out ahead.

On leadership

"If you want to build a ship
don't herd people together to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Random inspiration (part 3)

I'm on a plane to the UK today for some meetings and the APG Battle of Big Thinking.

In the meantime, here's some random stuff that was interesting from the past few weeks.

1. Digital Agency has a good piece on the implications of trying on different identities and roles, as new web platforms and social media like Second Life allow us all to do.
2. Grant McCracken on Butler Shine Stern's awesome moving notice, and the power of little details.
3. W+K London won £10,000 cash prize for Honda's "Cog" as part of an awards show.  Instead of adding it to the corporate coffers, they have turned it into an experiment in designing, making, and selling a W+K product. Which is a fantastic idea - it could turn the £10k into a revenue stream, but at the very least it will teach them a bit about what clients have to go through building products.  They're currently trying to decide what the product will be, and are down to a short list - and the final decision is open to voting (personally, I love the pantone coffee/tea mug - genius).
4. The top 40 magazine covers of the 20th century, as judged by the American Society of Magazine Editors.  A fascinating look at how good photography, typography, and art direction make something visually interesting.  (via Digital Agency)
5. This lovely, crazy building - the recent addition to the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), by Will Alsop.  It's a fabulously innovative use of architecture.  The 130-year old college desperately needed to expand, but had nowhere to go, nestled in between a park and a major art gallery.  Alsop propsed building above the existing structure - the new extension is balanced on stilts 100 ft in the air above the original building (my photo doesn't really do it justice - there's a whole flickr set that's much better). I live a few blocks away and love going to the park and looking at it. I find it good inspiration for thinking laterally.
   

Random inspiration (part 2)

Sorry, not a lot of posts this week (but thanks to Mike for stepping up and filling in some of the void).  Things are very busy right now: a combination of two new business pitches, lots of client stuff ramping up, several days of offsite meetings, a major research project, and preparing to speak at a conference, plus still adjusting to the new baby.

Not much time to think, so for now I'll throw out some more random stuff.

1. The Elegant Universe - a great series on Nova, a show on PBS (the US public broadcaster, truly a national treasure).  It explains the changing understanding of the universe over the past 100 years, from Einstein to quantum physics to parallel universes to string theory, and makes it easy to understand, engaging, and fascinating.  It's really well done.  The best part is they've chopped the 3 hour show into 6 minute chunks, all viewable online, any of which is a good little brain refresher between projects.  It will put your latest creative brief into perspective.

2.  StumbleUpon - I've been using this for a few months now, and it's great.  The best stuff on the web is often the most random stuff, and this makes finding that stuff a little easier.  It's a toolbar that adds a "stumble" button into your browser which will take you to a random webpage.  It's not completely random, you tell it some rough parameters for your areas of interest.  Then you rate whether you like or didn't like the sites it sends you to, which will help it better select more stuff for you (sort of like Pandora).

3.  Consumer Psychologist - a detailed but accesible overview of a lot of consumer psychology and research topics by a prof at USC.  Covers quite a lot, from life stages and segmentation, to innovation acceptance curves and social stratification, to different theories on motivation, perception, and social influences.

4.  Retailing tricks - just when you thought advertising was devious, here's a great list of all the things supermarkets do with store design to get you to spend more time and buy more stuff.

5.  Presentation Zen - Russell reminded me about this last week, I hadn't looked at it in a while.  A great website dedicated to helping everyone make simpler, better designed presentations. It should really be required reading. Is there any more insidious force in business today than bad powerpoint?  If you've agreed with that, you may also want to check out Russell's 5 things about Powerpoint video advice.

6. And on the topic of visual information, everyone should check out Lynetter's great flickr set of useful internet stats.  Every time she finds a useful statistic about new media, she pairs it with a compelling visual and posts the resulting slides to a flickr group.  There's a ton of great stuff.  She even offers an RSS feed to keep you updated on new findings.  Very useful.

Random inspiration

Here's some random stuff that inspired me this week.

Daft Punk's video for "Around the World."  Or anything by Michel Gondry, really.  His stuff doesn't really ever make sense, but despite that (or perhaps because of it), it's completely coherent and compelling.  Why can't ads be this interesting to watch?  Gondry once said "It has always been my goal to make people feel alright when they watch my work."  Maybe we should all use that as a starting point.

"It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case"   
- journalist Sydney J. Harris. 

Does that tell us something about what is emphasized or prioritized in different cultures?  I wonder if English-speakers are more self-oriented than others, all due to a simple grammatical artifact.  It made me think about the effect that basic things like language have on the way we think and organize the world.

Kapitaal is a gorgeous little Dutch short film looking at the world with everything stripped out except for brands, media, posters, and other public signage.  Makes you realize how much visual noise we're surrounded by all the time.  And this visual effect somehow both heightens it and calms it down at the same time.
via City of Sound

 

PostSecret.  I keep forgetting about it and then rediscovering it.  Always worth spending some time on.  Great insights into the human condition, and some truly touching, funny, and weird stuff.

"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid." 
      -  Basil King (although often misattributed to Goethe). 

This is one of my favourite quotes.  Thought of it in regard to the failure thing.  It's good advice.