1. Does the new solution meet the need?
2. Is it compelling enough to win the audience?
3. How will it be: Developed? Produced? Marketed?
4. What will the costs be?
5. How will those affected respond: Novice? Expert? Supporter? Opponent? Competitor?
6. Can it be protected? Should it be?
7. Is it worthy of your involvement?
8. Will the world be better for it?
Seize the day,
Chuck
Celebrate the design of Halloween
Just for fun I'm devoting today's post to the design of costumes and theatrical makeup.
First some funky old halloween costumes from 1963...
The whole collection of retro halloween designs...
Tour the studio of one of the top makeup artists of all time, Rick Baker...
And finally, peruse some film costume and prop history-from the "Don Corleone" assassination overcoat Marlon Brando wore in The Godfather to William Shatner's "Capt. Kirk" space suit from Star Trek (from "The Tholian Web" episode) (This is a large file but well worth a wait-384 page, 60.2MB PDF)...
I am in love with these French school wall maps from the early Twentieth Century
This series of French school wall maps was produced by Vidal-Lablache, what I assume is a company that was founded by geographer Vidal de la Blache. I first saw them on the walls of the Washington, D.C. furniture store, Room & Board.
A close up...
Here's how the maps are displayed at Room & Board...
Others can be found online...
My favorite (so far) is Oceanie...
What case for article titles and subheads?
I prefer to use sentence case for the capitalization of article titles and subheads. For example, to me, B is far more readable thank A...
Does an art school education pay off?
It's a VERY broad question that the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) is attempting to answer. To do it, they have surveyed tens of thousands of art school graduates to determine where they are and if and how they are putting their art education to work.
Its latest report, "Shows that America's most recent arts graduates are using skills learned in school combined with internship experiences to find work, forge careers and engage their communities, despite higher student debt levels than older alumni."
I'd be interested in knowing how many designers (like me) do NOT have an art degree (I made it through two years).
Making It Work: The Education and Employment of Recent Arts Graduates (6.4MB PDF)...
An Uneven Canvas: Inequalities in Artistic Training and Careers (7.8MB PDF)...
Painting With Broader Strokes: Reassessing the Value of an Arts Degree (2.7MB PDF)...
A Diverse Palette: What Arts Graduates Say About Their Education and Careers (7.7MB PDF)...
The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) website...
The SNAAP Shot Dashboard...
I've always been fascinated with Alex Gross' illustrative paintings
Shared experiences are amplified
In a recent study titled, "Shared experiences are amplified", Erica J. Boothby, Margaret S. Clark, and John A. Bargh pose that the mere act of sharing an experience with someone else, amplifies the participants feelings about it.
As they put it, "Every day, people spend time together in the absence of explicit communication. Lives unfold socially but often silently. Yet even in silence, people often share experiences, and the mental space inhabited together is a place where good experiences get better and bad experiences get worse."
I'm fascinated by this type of research. I think as marketers, it is our responsibility to continually educate ourselves about the ever-changing nature of communications and to discover positive ways of incorporating it into our work.
Any idea how you'd employ this idea in a design project?
From the Association for Psychological Science: Sharing Makes Both Good and Bad Experiences More Intense...
The study: Shared Experiences Are Amplified, Erica J. Boothby, Margaret S. Clark and John A. Bargh, Psychological Science (439KB PDF)...
If you use InDesign (or QuarkXPress), you might find this useful
The idea is simple. Modifying a well-designed template is far easier than starting from scratch. My InDesign Ideabook includes 315 researched, designed, and meticulously formatted documents in a clean, simple style that it easy to build on.
The Ideabook lets you breeze through time-consuming document setup and get right to the important stuff. Instead of spending 15 minutes to create a simple layout, you'll spend 15 seconds. For complex projects-books, newsletters, catalogs, reports-you'll save HOURS.
"If you need to create winning design and your time is important to you, there is no better investment than Chuck Green's Idea Book. I write copy and create marketing materials for small business, and Chuck's world class layouts have me up and running in minutes instead of hours. I can't recommend this book enough!" Kory Basaraba, Copywriter and Consultant, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
For Adobe InDesign
For QuarkXPress
My favorite cartoon of the 2014
(So far) is this gem by Robert Leighton...
Rare and important travel posters
Last week, Swann Galleries in New York City auctioned a large collection of what they characterized as "rare and important travel posters." Wow, what an amazing collection of stunning graphic designs.
Example 1: Walton On Naze...
Example 2: Go Pullman...
Example 3: Imperial Airways...
The full catalog of Rare & Important Travel Posters...
While you're here, another collection of Vintage Posters...
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books..
The Swann Galleries homepage...
Interesting new fonts
Bowling Script...
Diogenes...
Jacques & Gilles...
CoalhandLuke...
Achieving on the highest level and for the right purposes
Haha... Seth Godin certainly doesn't need my endorsement. But I can tell you, in my few dealings with him (and in being a long time follower), that I sense he is one of those "top few" human beings. Top few meaning one of the elite folks on the planet who seems to be operating, thinking, and achieving on the highest level-and most importantly, for the right purposes.
Yeah, he knows lots about marketing, but what he knows most about is human nature and human behavior. Not from a the angle of some kind of master manipulator but from the angle of someone who honestly wants the world to be a better place. He is clearly doing what he does because he loves learning-and he sharing everything he's learned with anyone else who's hungry to know.
That said, somehow I missed the hours of great insights he shared through a series titled, Seth Godin's Startup School. He describes it like this...
"In the summer of 2012 I had an amazing opportunity to spend three days with a group of extremely motivated entrepreneurs-people right at the beginning of building their project/launching their organization. During those three days I took them on a guided tour of some of the questions they were going to have to wrestle with, some of the difficult places they were going through to stand up and say, 'This is me. This is what I'm making.'"
There are 15 episodes.
Seth Godin's Startup School...
Kevin Evans has transcribed the discussions here (2MB PDF)...
Seth Godin's world...
So much of what Seth has written is available for free...
Marketing insights from someone who knows
I was doing some research for a client and I came across Trey Ryder, a marketing advisor who specializes in marketing the services of lawyers. As you might expect, the articles on his website are addressed to his legal audience, but take a closer look and you'll find that much of his thoughtful advice applies to anyone marketing a product, service, or idea.
There is, of course, plenty of generic marketing advice online, available for the taking. But I find Trey Ryder's advice is worth special note. It is comprehensive, detailed, and articulates some ideas I had not heard before.
His website is super-simple and his opinions are straight-forward and thought-provoking. Nice.
Scroll down the page for a list of articles...
An example of the articles offered: How to Troubleshoot Your Marketing Program...
