The marshmallow challenge
Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2010 in Business • Creativity
Articles in Creativity
Not the future of publishing, but pretty cool
Why I don’t think that the message is necessarily true, It is a clever little thing:
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 in Business • Creativity • Strategy
How to solve it
While reading up on heuristics, I came across this examples from Polya’s 1945 book, How to Solve It, a book about mathematics.
- If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.
- If you can’t find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that (“working backward”).
- If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.
- Try solving a more general problem first (the “inventor’s paradox”: the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success)
These sound like wonderful strategies for dealing with design problems. I haven’t gotten the book yet, but it in my queue and ready to download…
Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010 in Business • Creativity • Strategy
Wall-e closing credits
Finally saw Wall-e this week. The best part in my opinion is the closing credits. It basically showed the (re) evolution of man through art. Great piece.
Posted on Friday, December 11, 2009 in Creativity • Design
Leonardo da Vinci Quote
One can never draw too many penguins in one day, as one can never take too many breaths of air
Posted on Monday, November 09, 2009 in Creativity
Your business card sucks
I don't want to buy business cards.
Not one primarily for contact information anyway. I think it's a waste of paper and a waste of time. The business card concept might be a dead one, but like email, what else is there? It's the currency of business contact information when meeting someone face to face. Electronic exchanges is the future, once there is a way to make the exchange easily or everyone gets hip enough for an iPhone so they can do that bump thing.
There seems to me that this transaction is superficial at best. My name is unique enough that a quick google search would yield not only contact information but so much more so much faster. Much more than having to dig out a business card. The business cards I receive go right into my contact database, along with any information that I remember about them that actually makes person on the business card not just a name, a number and a title. To me that is much more robust than a business card in a roledex.
Posted on Friday, September 04, 2009 in Business • Creativity • Design
Meeting notes: Opportunities
This is a business card meeting. We were going over some mockups of some of our more ambitious ideas. While none of them were chosen, it always good in a company to get away with as much as possible. They may not choose the design this time, but with enough priming they may be ready for it next time.
This is a written exchange between myself: ever pragmatic, and my co-worker: ever optimistic
Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 in Creativity • Strategy
My three step plan for the newspaper industry
Okay here is my three-step plan for the newspaper industry. The short answer is give it away, charge more and don't worry about being first.
Let’s face it, no one looks to the paper anymore for breaking news. Newspapers should get out of the headlines business, because it literally is yesterday’s headlines. Here is what I’d like to see from newspapers:
1. Change you paper to a daily tabloid and give it away. Sell as many ads as you have to to monetize the thing. I’d take a general news-in-brief from the New York Times over the Metro any day. What you are really looking here is for the numbers. Also why you are at it. Make it as local as possible. Even a story or two of what is happening in my neighborhood would be nice. You can get a blogger or two, they don’t know their power yet, so you can get them for cheap or free.
2. Give me a single-serving paper when necessary. Much like single serving sites, Print a paper that is about one thing and one thing only and make people pay. I’d pay $5, $7 10 $10 bucks for a dossier of articles that tell me why Iran is going through what it is going through, and context of why it is important.
This week would have been ideal for a non-sensational look at Michael Jackson, why he is important and while you’re at it, throw in the others who died last week, and why they were important. But whatever the case tell me something I don’t know.
3. If you must break the news don’t reinvent the wheel, or use the same one you been using. Just use the tools available like twitter and text alerts. Be discriminating and substantive about what you break, and don’t worry about being the first. Just pass along the information. In an environment where information is free, the best asset you have is trust. If I can trust you to just give me the information and give it to me now, I won’t look anywhere else.
There you are newspaper industry go to it. Check out my friends over at metaprinter, they think about this type of stuff all day.
Posted on Monday, July 06, 2009 in Business • Creativity • Strategy
Salvation Army Commercial
I find this commercial for the Salvation Army done amazing well. It's not flashy, expensive or have superstars. It's a simple commercial that is just familiar enough so I don't need to think (the words to Amazing Grace), but adds a twist that made it stick in my mind (those that are profiled add in a personal experience - one's we may be able to relate too).
Posted on Sunday, June 14, 2009 in Branding • Creativity • Critique
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