For all those media doom and gloom reports about the economy and all of the woes you may be experiencing right now, there is still plenty to be done. Remember, readers, we are the keepers of our destiny and have the power to make it happen.
Peep these tips for all you creative folk out there.
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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/
Chicago – Dallas – Los Angeles – San Francisco – New York City – Seattle: These placement gurus have got some good work and clients brewing. Go get you some work and you are free to send all commission checks to me via Paypal 
Seriously, lots of great work and opportunity for freelance. Let me know how it goes!
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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/
I have a friend who doesn’t eat anything he hasn’t had before without a huge amount of coaxing. He decides he doesn’t like things even before he’s tasted them. There are literally thousands of amazing foody experiences he’s going to miss out on because of this. It boggles my brain how he can be so phobic of food – all he needs to do it pop it in his mouth, give it a whirl, and low and behold he’d probably like it. Maybe even love it.
The same thing happens in advertising. Clients are the main culprits of this extremely frustrating trait.…
As we revamp our company’s website I am amazed how far the web has come. With template words like Joomla, Drupal, and PHP-BB you may feel like you are in the midst of the swine flu or zars epidemic–but it’s safe in here, I promise. Tired of our wham, zoom, “lookie what we can doey flash” site we are opting for a simpler site where the work and content can become king. In this new world of templates and easy site creation it’s hard to feel that’s good enough. As I develop online presence for clients we battle custom flashy flash site and…
Ever wonder, “what does it really take to develop great ideas?” I mean the big ones. The juicy, sloppy, wet ones that drench the culture and live soaked in society for decades. Well, there is a great Cannes Selection film, “Art & Copy,” that does just that. Or, shall I say instead of wondering, the filmmakers decided to Just Do It!
Check out a screening in your area: http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/screenings/
While in Atlanta, I’m gonna go to the screening on Wednesday, April 22nd as part of the Atlanta Film Festival. Tune in Thursday for my review–like you care what I think–but I’ll let you…
Ok. Gonna tell you a little secret….
I know we can get caught in our rut of, “how much bigger do I have to make this logo,” “must EVERYTHING have to be sketched, comped, and spelled out to buy off on just the concept?,” or “do I have to work with the brand marketing all-star team from the 60’s?”
But on my way to meetings yesterday, I got a quick reminder of how lucky we are. I was riding on the interstate and saw a car on the freeway hit the guard rail only to be thrown into oncoming traffic. This reminded…
Ahh, now I know where awards are and the money to pay for entering can be found.
To those of you who dream of seeing your name grace the gold pencil, running in meadows with gold lions, or at least getting in the table of contents of design award annuals: get ready to pay up. I have been amazed at the fees participants must pay for entering design shows. Ok, ok, maybe I can understand the big bucks for Cannes, One Show, even CA, but all types of “award shows” are now asking for exorbitant amounts for just one entry in…
So, what is the answer?
In a world of competing designers where everyone with Arial and a Sharpie are now the next Paula Scher, how do you compete for work? Is spec the answer?
Well, as lines have been drawn, there are two sides to the work-for-free war and boy oh boy are the jump drives flying.
One side believes that designers must take a united stand to not give free labor and belittle our purpose and industry. The other side says that in this overcrowded, over-saturated, and any other “over” word you can think of, it is just part of the evolving world…
What Can You Pack Into A SNAPSIL? A great delivery system that is so unique in it’s product innovation, I believe that we will be seeing a lot of SNAPSIL for a very long time. Remember that you heard it here first!
SNAPSIL is a proprietary portion control sample and utensil that combines both an industrial design sensibility that makes so much sense and it’s tactile ease-of-use for a high level of functionality and flexibility. The promotional possibilities and opportunity SNAPSIL offers is the icing on the cake. This is an outstanding example of problem solving at it’s best and it richly deserves…
I learned about this company On Product Publishing about a year or so ago and was intrigued by their unique delivery system of combining promotional publishing content in a multiple of formats and varied executions.
Besides stupid people and abject nonsense, they’re a given. We all do things that don’t help our own cause and make what we normally do very fluidly, into a battle and a struggle. Shalu Wasu a creative consultant with a terrific website that offers some great “reminders” on how not to be your own worse enemy. It is a simple, effective read that will be useful: http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/15-elephant-tethers-that-stop-you-from-being-creative/
Here’s a taste of what Shalu Wasu identifies as the many things creatives use to tether themselves to failure:
1. What will people think?
2. But I’ve never had any great ideas!
3. What is the right answer?
4. I don’t…
Successful branding is all about “BEHAVIOURAL MOMENTS” that are a set of actions that happen in the real world that actually drive sales an repeat business. “Once you decide, We Are Not In The Image Business, We Are In The Behavior Business, It Empowers A Different Conversation About Everything.”
10 – Our Troops all coming home ahead of time, safely and being appreciated for doing an impossible job!
9 – More Talented, Smart Creative people being rehired in Advertising
8 – The Ad Industry coming to their senses that Creatives are the muscle that drives our industry
7 – The economy rebounds from the current melt down as fast as possible!
6 – The price of gas continues to plunge and we’re paying under a buck a gallon by February and it doesn’t stop going down there… (Oil companies going under would make my millenium!)
5 – Wall Street Interlopers, Scum Bag Politicians, Predatory…
Since the new batch of Kool-Aid that is being doled out is called “Change We can Believe In”, why not get people who actually drive change, like Steve Jobs and Apple and put them in charge of economic innovation and give then a 3 year mandate to to deliver solutions to this current economic state and just watch Jobs and his team of brainiacs knock it out of the park and redefine the term “over-deliver!” That would be nice for a change… Creative minds = problem solving!
I don’t have the XBox 360; I can’t afford the Playstation 3–it’s just not in the budget right now. But I do have a long history of playing video games, and still consider myself a comic book collector and semi-geek. Typically, when I see a commercial for a video game, I say “hmm, interesting.” I never have the itch to actually go out and purchase the game, or the console with which to play it.
I do get that itch with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. There are very few games that capture me nowadays; Metroid for Nintendo is one of…
Where do we go from here with cell phones go? What is your professional opinion in regards to what we the masses, can expect next?
There are two types of SWAG people: the people who are shameless SWAGGERS like me and the others who don’t admit to this silly, guilty pleasure!
necessity in bad times always delivers creative and unique solutions.
After my first blog earlier today I’ve been doing more Gears of War 2 research and I came across one of their commercials. I blogged a while back about a really touching Xbox commercial from Microsoft and since Gears is one of the anchor games for the system it is no doubt Epic Games will make a great commercial as well. This is one of the ads that was on TV to get the gaming community salivating for something they have been waiting for for a long time.
This commercial is called “Last Day”. To catch anyone up on what is…
I haven’t had my Xbox on in over a month. The increasing lack of work stress had made me have to get serious. I had forgotten about any new releases and then yesterday came across a Gears of War 2 midnight opening. I’ve looked around at reviews and the game is pretty much the same from what I have been reading. What caught my attention and since this is a design blog is the cover art.
The standard edition of the game, as you will see below, has the main character Marcus Phoenix and his wingman Dom, heading into battle. Since…
I wrote a blog entry back on July 29 about the horrendous behavior that abounds in interviews and it seems like it is only proliferating as we really start to feel the brunt of the economic meltdown hot home and ad agencies and all other types of employers who use creatives serve up another smack down just in time for the holidays!
Want a good laugh that you can share with your friends to end the week and start the weekend off with? Go to this site and have fun! I think that we all need it, all things considered! http://www.tatuagemdaboa.com.br Brazilian actress Juliana Paes has been the face of Brazilian beer company Antartica’s BOA Brand and is the reigning celebrity hottie in Brazil. Really cool rich media initiative here.
Take 30 seconds and enter your name on the first two entries and then hit “VISUALIZAR” and enjoy the fun. You don’t have to speak or understand Portuguese to get a laugh out of this…
Antarctica’s BOA Brand is…
Many of us keep searching for the key to creativity. This quest also baffles me. I’ve learnt the hard way that there is no key, at least so far. I’ve however come across many factors which help you grow as a creative person. Many of them include being able to look at the world differently, being able to look at things through other people’s eyes, readiness to learn, so on and so forth
The most crucial factor however seems to be that you have to be childlike. When I heard this insight by a guest lecturer in college, I really wasn’t…
The upcoming IN-STORE MARKETING EXPO, NOVEMBER 13-13 IN LAS VEGAS has far surpassed the annual GLOBAL SHOP Show in Chicago as the place to see the next big thing in Experiential Marketing.
Pfffffft…Not quite. I was throwing away all the stupid crap that was in my mailbox like Wal Mart, Lowes, and KFC ads. If I could use them for toilet paper and mail them back to each company I would. Anyway the KFC thing caught my eye because being a gamer I noticed the familiar Guitar Hero logo. I sat there for a minute making a face like I had just been given a dirty sanchez trying to figure out how Guitar Hero and chicken go together. I don’t eat fast food so I’m out of the loop on who eats…
That song brings back so many memories. My dad always aspired to bring more culture to his kids – so when we were growing up we saw a lot of international films. Some were great, inspiring even…but others were not so awesome. In the mix, my dad would always get us to watch Kung Fu films…sneaky little man. But, I have grown to love every Bruce Lee movie, and…and others which right now all I remember are certain scenes – but no names.
The reason I write about this is I received an email today from Creativity-online.com - it held the new commercial…
I don’t need to tell you this, but our economy is doing just horribly. Just like everyone else in America, when I found out the news about AIG, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers…I was floored, flabbergasted.
You see I worked at AIG, about 3 – 4 years ago; and during their new hire orientation – which lasted 4 hrs – about 90% of the discussion was concentrated on how big and powerful AIG was. AIG was the parent company of “hundreds” of smaller companies; had thousands of employees; and was making millions of dollars in investments. At the end you were left thinking, “Wow,…
The search engine Ask.com, is coming out with a new campaign from Hanft Raboy and Partners, New York. It will show the brand as the best place to get questions answered online…literally. The new spots will break in only 13 markets this week. It will coincide with their new site’s redesign, which includes relevance, speed and interface enhancements. This new campaign, is attempting to imprint the site with emotion and personality. If this proves to be a successful campaign, they will go national next year with a larger budget.
According to the Jim Safka, the CEO of Ask.com, “There has…
Ah – Ha! Gotcha! It’s this type of shock treatment that the Oregon company, Borders Perrin Norrander, were going after. They created the campaign: “Don’t Vote: Things are just fine the way they are” to encourage voter registration. 
On the main page of the site, you are greeted with an American flag, which starts to fall apart. After the flag falls apart, you read: “DON’T VOTE THINGS ARE FINE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE. TAKE A LOOK AROUND. OUR WORLD NEEDS A CHANGE. YOU CAN BE THAT CHANGE. VOTE. AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO VOTE.” On the site, users can download…
Back in simpler times, when Mickey Mantle was playing for the Yankees and Barbara Stanwyck was starring in “Double Indemnity”; Doctors, Dentists, Pastors, Preachers, movie stars, sports stars, kids, and even Santa Claus endorsed smoking.
Those images, some just plain scary, were normal to use in peddling tobacco products. There is a new exhibit opening this week in the Healy Hall at the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library. The exhibit is called: Not a Cough in a Carload: Images used by Tobacco Companies to 
Hide the Hazards of Smoking.” The first part of the name comes…
