RYTHM IS A DANCER, DRENCH IS A QUENCHER

"Brains perform best when they’re hydrated. Your brain is 75% water, so keep it topped up"

eh–a little digital mixed in. The butt jiggle is pretty funny though. This spot for Drench, a product of Britvic, is fun to watch.

See how well your brain does before Drench, Stay Drenched, on this micro-site. Test your manual dexterity with a little finger play on the keyboard.

FIGHT HUNGER, OR FIGHT YOUR CO-WORKERS HUNGER

The Scavengers Part 1




The Scavengers Part 2




CREDITS:
Agency: DraftFCB/NYC
Creatives: Billy Custer, Derekh Froude, Jakop Nazaretyan, Anthony Santiago

These are funny. The opening title sequence is great. This concept ties a familiar working environment with a familiar style of TV programing while communicating a message we're all familiar with. We tend to do crazy things when we're hungry. So–imagine how starving children would feel or act.

Billy's belly looks great on screen. ;)
Nice job guys.

LASTMINUTE.COM

Via Buzz Attitude


Great use of experience as the message. And the concept relates directly to the service. It even has a nice theatrical appeal. Just when you thought it was over–

THE ORIGINAL MOBILE TECHNOLOGY, BUT COOLER

Via Godspeedz

Nice to see the technology come back to it's roots, but I'm curious to know–how does one talk with the device. I don't think people will want to hold their wrists to the mouths constantly. It's hard enough to drive as it is.

I'M WATCHING YOU WATCH ME WATCH YOU

There are several, loud and frantic concerns regarding brand-surveillance and controlling brand personas within this new 2.321423432 version of the web. *smirks*

I think it's worth pointing out that; its likely that a person, at this young stage of a hypothetical transparency on the interwebs, would not be able to access a network of any type without providing their own personal data. Eventually this will be the norm.

A remedial example;
If you are going to comment on a blog, you are required to use your real name. In doing so, I'm provided with a link that traces back to your blog; network; portal–whatever the term would be for this example.

We'll also probably see an introduction of reputation rich people with profiles built exclusively by other users. This will ultimately change the value of personalized information. Transparency isn't the issue. It's validating the seeker/prospect against their existing contributions. A user couldn't be involved unless they have contributed in some fashion. If this transparency is merit-based, it would neutralize the delusion of surveillance. This could actually force a change in morality. We will get what we give.

Brands; controlling brands; products; services; ideas; will continue to be introduced into the public consciousness through controlled means but will not end up on the other side as intended. Top-down, does not work. When addressing the concerns of brand equity while trying to provide a valuable service or product, do not be fooled into thinking that because the market hasn't responded online, that their isn't a response overall.

The web is young. The economic web is young. The capitalist's web is young. Whatever you might consider yourself, join the overall conversation. It's worth it.

WEB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0

Thanks to Noel Bellon for this find via Radar Networks.

I'm especially curious about Web 4.0's call out to The WebOS, as I've written a few times about this topic. I realize it is not the most original of thoughts however; it is a very natural evolution of the web.

Another point worth remarking on; Intelligent Personal Agents. Any thoughts, guesses–don't cheat. :)

FORGET TRANSPARENCY; WE NEED AUTHENTICITY

We've unsuccessfully moved from being noise junkies to noise producers. We need creative value centers. We are coming dangerously close to losing our ability to provided well-thought out ideas. Let alone, long-term memory retention of the things we've created. Their respective failures and successes are instantly magnified and then consequently reduced to nothing, tossed out. Overwritten.

As a rapid-prototyping creative democracy approaches, we forget before we've learned. The most precious of commodities–exchanging, implementation, advancement of ideas through fair and ubiquitous streams of information, can potentially hurt us without a creative value center of some sort...

And as the micro-centralized thought/idea people collect, where or how, do we continue to provide unlimited access and information through a synchronized... operating system? ( the internet )

Just a few thoughts.

PROMOTE YOUR T-SHIRT ABOUT A...THINGY

Take some of your product and add real tags, or fake ones–it's hard to tell with some tag designs. Be sure to include fake bar codes on them. Place the shirts in real retail environments next to other stacks of tees and let the fun begin.

Thrift stores are a great way to expand awareness as well.

I KNOW YOU KNOW HOW, SO DO YOU

Mentoring, in any capacity, is a humbling experience. Especially if your one to provide individual attention to every person you interact with. Despite work environments hindering this process on some levels, I think it's important to remember how valuable the little bits of information we pass onto others can be.

A concentrated effort towards mentoring forces us to communicate outside of our own frame of reference, subsequently learning something new ourselves. We're painting the same picture with a different brush and another pallet. Verbalizing one's own thoughts and beliefs, hearing ourselves express an idea or thought can be a profound experience. And learning to communicate it in an entirely new context breeds innovation on those ideas. Then to hear someone reiterate those ideas and reinterpret them–I smile.

· Coaching assumes the coach has all the answers.

· Consulting is being talked at, not with.

· Management does not allow for deviation in routine or ritual and is generally pragmatic.

· Mentoring allows for exploration with trial and error. Guide without pontificating. And in most cases it is a reciprocating process. We're all intelligent beings and quite capable learning just about anything given the proper time.

In retrospect, I've been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by some inspirational and frankly, very patient mentors. Just a few observations.

Meaning, by opinion, for: logo, symbol, identity, brand, icon

LOGO
A unique graphic designed to represent a company, service or idea. There is no reinterpretation or alternative to this graphic. It is used consistently to identify the same idea, product or service. No matter how abstract the idea, product or service is.


SYMBOL
A geometric shape/shapes designed to correspond/represent a phrase or word derived from human syntax, in any language.


IDENTITY
A broader visual system of language that uses a Logo as the foundation for establishing a recognizable system of colors, shapes and typography.


BRAND
The emotional context in which an individual associates themselves and their respective experiences with an idea, product or service.


ICON
A literal/graphic representation of an idea, product, service or object, designed to appeal to the broadest set of narrow-minded perspectives with a clear and unanimous observation by all.


NOTE: One thing to remember, these are defined by the end-result of their usages.

Any additional thoughts? Ideas? Disagree? Agree?

BREAK AND RUN LAW-BREAKERS

Creativity has already been redefined in many ways. Those of us that spend a considerable amount of time online have had the opportunity to experience some rare design pieces/works. Very inspirational. And we'll see a lot more of it.

Through this transition, I've noticed and heard a few cries of disenchantment and general jaded and derogatory comments from senior design people and high-level communication professionals. What is even more concerning is, they're saying this to their teams. Their young teams of professionals.

I think it's worth saying: it is important to remember that design has no true form and it is defined by the end-result of the experience. If you agree and this holds true, you simply need to design something else in order to stay a designer. Design is being redefined but, it is applicable to every aspect of life, business and especially the internet–interface design, user experiences, icons, etc. ( don't get cold feet cause print sales are down )

Technique is making the perfect mistake. In doing so, you create something new. No matter the medium ( print, online, collateral, packaging, houses, transportation ) and especially no matter the usage of the piece being designed. Don't get hung up on 'styles' or 'usages' of the things you create. Classifying design can often limit it. And when you give limitations to another creative, expect those limitations to be redefined and recreated entirely. Classifying the work can eventually lead us to talk ourselves right out of work. Which several designers have already done, along with several communication professionals.

There are some very important rules for design. At the very bottom of the list, some find this one: Break these when your comfortable with them.

RESEARCH THE RESEARCH

An aggregation method is needed. A more accurate one rather. One problem with searching is; relevancy. And relevancy is a human characteristic precipitated by the information related to the objectives. When you have no objective, you find irrelevant information in most cases. Sales can sometimes be inherently dependent on face-to-face communications. Along with several other empirically observed qualities.

A little tool I enjoy while searching aim-fully and aimlessly; On a Macintosh computer, using Safari as your internet browser, there is a great feature known as 'Summarize.'

Highlight the copy from a web page and then from the Programs respective menu item ( next to the blue apple ) choose; Services > Summarize. A prompt will appear with a small slider menu for adjusting the size of your summary, based on the original content. At-the-least, this will cut the user's reading time down and allow for a more synchronous scanning method.

Surprisingly this has been very reliable for me and removes ancillary information in several cases, providing a nice one-sheet of info.

EXPERIENCE THE MOVIES™

I've found that the experience of being as close to as possible to an immersive environment is simply the reasoning for choosing to go to most movies. Ideally it's the social aspects of sharing an event with friends and family however; this lies at the bear-bones of my reasoning. Sharing the experience.

Brick and mortar environments could benefit greatly from enhancing the experiences around the movie, the theater itself.

FLORIDA CREATIVES: JACKSONVILLE

It might just happen... Chris Wodja and I are looking to meet-up in San Marco this Saturday for an informal introduction with either; coffee, banana splits, pizza or a tasty beverage.

Email me for information or sign-up here.

AGENCY MODEL IN RETROSPECT

A visual look at the box, thinking inside the box, thinking outside the box and simply avoiding the box.

Rich reputations will sustain the core of every communications agency. I'm not entirely sure that micro–anything is worth exploring at this stage of communications within the existing media landscape. We'll be solely responsible for maintaining relationships with people and brands within any niche.