A Visual Life: Intel
Intel has this great video series where they create mini documentaries about varies artists; photographers, musicians etc., that I found via PSFK (of course). Michael Wolff, a designer, talks about the muscles of creativity. He shows that creativity takes childlike curiosity and an appreciation of ones surroundings - noticing how colorful and beautiful things can be, to develop the muscle of imagination and creativity. He is so right. The world is such a completely fascinating, beautiful place if we just open our eyes and really look.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTfAzjBTokc&w=640&h=390]
Tyranny of the Alphabet: A new study explores how your last name influences how fast you buy stuff.
As someone who's last name starts with Aa, I'm strongly aware as to how last names influence ones perspective and behavior. Being at the beginning of the alphabet, I do not hold extreme will power and the ability to bounce off any attempts at advertising persuasion, but I am also not a shopaholic. Where do you stand? Click on the link for the complete article.
via the Slate
By Timothy NoahPosted Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, at 6:16 PM ET
My surname falls almost precisely in the middle of the alphabet, N being the 14th of 26 letters. That may explain my previous indifference to the societal implications of alphabetization. Or perhaps I should say alphabetism, defined as discrimination against people whose last names fall near the end of the alphabet. We're talking about you, David Vitter, Reese Witherspoon, Carl Yastrzemski, and Fareed Zakaria (though it doesn't seem to have held any of them back). According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research (registration required) by Kurt A. Carlson, assistant professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, and Jacqueline M. Conard, assistant professor at Belmont University's Massey Graduate School of Business, the farther back in the alphabet the first letter of your surname falls, the quicker you're likely to chase some enticing new consumer offer. This response is rooted in childhood trauma.
To the extent I ever thought about this issue at all, I was inclined to believe that having your name at the end of the alphabet set you apart from the common herd in a good way. My Slate colleague and friend of 30 years, Emily Yoffe, has always been among the easiest people to find in what was, at various stages of my life, my address book, my Rolodex, my Palm Pilot, my PDA, and my bouquet of Apple devices (iTouch, iPhone, iPad). No matter what the platform, the way to find Emily was always the same: Go right to the end! Family members, by comparison, could be found only by stumbling around the middle, tempting me more than once not to send them Christmas cards. But Emily set me straight, confiding, for instance, that applause at her nephew Zachary Yoffe's graduation from the Naval Academy "was considerably less than for the kid whose last name was Anderson." She directed me to this survey in the Telegraph of London, in which readers with surnames at the start of the alphabet rated themselves more successful than readers with surnames at the end. Even in my address-book competition, Emily's advantage from being at the end is bested by that of my friend of 35 years, David Atkins, who resides at the beginning....
PSFK Skills of the Rockstar Planner: Insatiable Curiosity
The title of the next video in the PSFK Skills of the Rockstar Planner should really be "Traits of the Rockstar Planner." In one of my weekend workshops at Miami Ad School, our teacher talked about planners always asking the "why" to every situation. From the moment I could form complete sentences, to the onset of Google, I managed to annoy my father completely by following up his answer to every single one of my questions with "why." Not to get too kumbaya but isn't understanding the first step to solving a problem?The planners in the video talk about having an innate and deep curiosity about the world, seeing patterns where others don't and being able to synthesize vast quantities of information. Fortunately for us planners, our abilities to synthesize information has yet to be replaced by a super RSS Reader or Google algorithm. But it's not just about absorbing information like a sponge, but about knowing how to find those facts and insights. Why get a Library Science degree when you can enter the seemingly more exciting world of planning?
Dominico Vitale from People, Ideas & Culture takes insatiable curiosity to the next level, saying that the "ability to turn knowledge into ideas is the core of talent. It's about what hasn't happened yet and what could be."
Vitale touches on the idea of disruption and planning leading to a behavior change which ultimately leads to the behavior of using a particular product. But it also leads to another area of planning, that which leads to research and development. What's a good ad without a good product?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTqGmzCq1qw&w=640&h=390]
Why Men Fight: A Look Into a Silicon Valley Fight Club
I recently saw The Fighter with my friend and was left wondering why the hell men fought. I mean.. seriously.. Why would you want to voluntarily get into a ring knowing that you were about to get the crap beaten out of you or be responsible for beating the crap out of someone else? I can imagine it's part of our animal nature to want to fight and I'm sure we can look into the animal kingdom to see them fighting for dominance regardless of whether or not their ability to secure food or procreate is involved. But as a woman, my nature tends to air on the side of motherly and protector. So when I came across a video on Gizmodo via The Next Wave about men in Silicon Valley creating a fight club, I was intrigued.The fighters talked about how the men bonded with each other by hitting each other. It was a way to test each other, build courage and a remedy for sitting at their desks all day. According to one of the participants, Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of aggressive people in the United States. So let's get back to nature for a minute here. For the better part of human existence, aggression was a key component to securing ones food or protecting ones family. Men in Silicon Valley no longer have to use physical force and strength to provide for their family. Instead, they use intelligence, strategic thinking, and endure countless hours behind the a computer - quite possibly for all the same reasons - that they want to provide for themselves and their family. So coming full circle, competitive or violent video games, sports, and... fight clubs are all most likely fueled by that residual aggression. Nike picked up on this insight years ago coming up with the strategy line, "Sport is war without the killing" which resulted in the line "Just Do It." And not to be outdone, Silicon Valley has taken that idea one step further with their very own fight club.
Click on the link to watch the video.
Uppercut from California is a place. on Vimeo.
Small World
I'm on a video/ photography kick. It's been too cold to go into the city specifically to photograph people and I'm usually lugging my computer so I can send off emails in between advertising interviews. Anyway, I thought this was a super cool story and interesting way to connect with someone. I'm inspired and almost want to create a similar video for the lantern I found in my attic that's dated from 1906 but ha, I'm guessing they wouldn't be alive or checking YouTube. Actually, I've found many more interesting objects in my attic that have inspired me to start writing a book which I've been working on for the last two years. I even managed to find the former owners of our house on Facebook. Weird. When social networks first came around, it was really about finding people online that were in your life. Now, the web is about using the online world to connect to the physical world and this video illustrates that perfectly. The film maker Todd Bieber, found a film canister in the physical world, created an online video about the experience and hopes to connect with the owners of the canister in the physical world again. Because I think what most of us have realized is that nothing beats human contact and real connections.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmop7EAY1Zg&w=640&h=390]
Recent Cultural Trends
I've recently piled all my stuff that was in a storage, into my parent's house in NJ as discussed in my other blog Wandering & Pondering here. The process of going through boxes I packed last August had me thinking about how my "stuff" plays a part in defining who I am. While I was in San Francisco, I felt weightless, flying across country with only 3 suitcases including a refined version of my wardrobe, a few books and of course my computer. There was the possibility of a new beginning. But as I leafed through my books after taking them out of their boxes a few weeks ago, I realized that the objects we collect have an imprint on us - there's a give and take. A quick scan through my bookshelf reminds me of different periods of my life and ongoing interests, from my obsession with Italian Renaissance history to non-fiction science and history. I was inspired to revise the plot to my novel in progress, delve into an old box full of one hundred year old family photos and newspaper articles, and even unload some books to de-clutter.A few times last week, I discussed wanting to have a huge, built in bookshelf in my future apartment when I finally decide to "settle," despite probably eventually getting a Kindle or iPad. I visited a friend who lives in a classic Upper West Side apartment with just that, passed down through her family. I scanned someone's bookshelf who had recently moved after living in one spot for nearly a decade. He declared that he would limit his book collection to this one shelf and would only keep books that were worthy enough for it. And then I met an incredibly interesting, intelligent philosophy teacher who declared that one should never throw a book away because you never know when you'll want to find a quote or read it again. Then ironically, yesterday, I opened the printed version of The New York Times to this article, about interior design firms that curate book collections for their clients. The Times points out that "as it happens, the-book-as-relic was forecasted by marketers. Ann Mack, director of trend-spotting for JWT New York, the marketing and advertising agency, noted in her trend report for the coming year that “objectifying objects,” she said, “would be a trend to watch.”
Quoting from her report, she added: “Here’s what we said: ‘The more that objects become replaced by digital virtual counterparts — from records and books to photo albums and even cash — watch for people to fetishize the physical object. Books are being turned into decorative accessories, for example, and records into art.’ ”
Maybe that's why Moleskin's have become so popular. Most of my thinking is done on a computer but I prefer to put my extra special, private thoughts in my Moleskin. Despite the convenience of digital, physical objects have a power and energy all their own.
For more interesting trend forecasting, you can check out this JWT Slideshare document here.