I just love the simplicity of this painting. My mind is looking for shapes and recognizeable lines in the rough brush stroke. More in his portfolio at ivanfranco.co.uk, but not a lot. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future (Via Creative Review).
I saw La Haine when it came out and as soon as it was on DVD I bought it. I lent it out and it’s whereabouts are now unknown. Nevertheless, this is easily on my top ten of all time list, perhaps number 1. Black and white, with a close up, in your face attention to detail you’ll only see in a film like Jean Luc Goddard’s Alphaville. Alphaville I saw with a film maker friend of mine right after we graduated from college. Incredible, every shot is treated witht he care that a still photograph would be. Now that I think of it, I’m willing to bet Wong Kar Wai of In the Mood for Love fame is a big fan of Alphaville.
Here’s links to both films on Netflix:
La Haine on Netflix.
French director Mathieu Kassovitz traces a fateful day in the lives of alienated ghetto youths Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé) — a Jew, an Arab and an African, respectively — who are grappling with the aftermath of unexpected tragedy. When their friend Abdel lies comatose after a police beating, Vinz vows to dispense rough justice, sealing the destiny of all three.
Alphaville on Netflix:
Directed by cinematic legend Jean-Luc Godard, this mesmerizing sci-fi noir centers on secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) and his mission to destroy Alpha 60, the sentient computer that controls Alphaville by destroying freedom of thought or individuality. Brilliantly realized and crafted, Godard’s 1965 film helped to lay the foundation for future sci-fi classics such as Blade Runner, The Terminator and The Matrix.
Humor is my best friend. We go way back, through years of profound social anxiety being funny has always been my way of handling awkward situations. It breaks the ice and no one can deny this simple truth: Everyone likes a good laugh.
But these days after years of advertising and marketing campaigns pulling in huge earnings from the businesses they serve to promote and build customer relationships with, my belief is as a tactic (like scantily clad men/women) in and of itself, it’s failing. Here’s Why.
Burger King is not doing so well. But I don’t understand? Their product is exactly the same as it always was and they have this hilarious bizarre creepy King guy that is their new campaign. And if you say you don’t like him then “you’re not cool enough to understand it”. Hmmm.
I could be naive and perhaps not looking deeply enough into the campaign but it seems to me, that Burger King is betting that being edgy and cool and funny (Indy?) is going to make them desirable by association. Unfortunately and as their quarterly profits show that’s not happening. So what’s wrong?
For a brand to be effective in inspiring its creative strategies and execution those projects need to be rooted firmly in the simple truths of what makes that business truly unique and fulfilling to its customer’s needs.
There is definitely something one goes to Burger King for, and it’s not the creepy plastic King dude. It’s the fresh crunch of pickles and lettuce and creamy mayo and that smoky grilled burger that we who still eat that stuff lustfully with eyes rolling back in our heads allow ourselves to indulge in (burger snobs step off, I love me a good Shake Shack/Burger Joint burger ok?).
Comedy and laughter is a tool, but it is certainly not a means to an end. It gets people open, relaxed and ready to be suggested to. That’s a powerful thing, but it’s not the actual message, unless your Comedy Central. Making a date laugh doesn’t mean she’ll (place desired outcome here) you, but you certainly have her attention. But connect to her passions, her desires, the things that interest her that she wants and you have a soul mate.
This is touchy subject but it’s something that keeps coming to mind as one of the biggest lessons of my professional career. It’s created a 180 degree turnaround in the relationships I have with my clients and the people I work for and with.
For years almost everywhere I worked and the studio I was running there was this strange undertone of our clients somehow being our enemies. There’s this pervasively snarky “they don’t understand design and what we do and it’s our jobs to save them from themselves” attitude. Does this sound familiar?
On top of this there was this constant need to be accepted by our peers in the design and creative community. Strangely enough I constantly found myself colluding with my peers, those who I should be competing against and constantly competing against our clients, those who we should be working with! This is so completely backwards.
For years I subscribed to this approach and it consistently failed me. The people on my team took my lead and felt the same. Eye rolling on calls, and ultimately the lack of respect for our clients ultimately led to a constant rift in our relationship where we felt like we couldn’t tell them what we really thought so we cow towed to what we thought was their desires. Not their best interest mind you, just what we thought they wanted.
This ultimately led to some abysmal work. Not always bad, but generally watered down. And ultimately this ended up with relationships that were unproductive and negative.
So why does this happen?
It all happens at 2 stages of the relationship.
1. The first date: You need to be confident enough to tell it like it is, explain your process, show a genuine interest in the success of their business, tell the truth, seek a connection. Walk away if it doesn’t feel right.
2. Therapy: When you’ve been working with someone for a while and things aren’t going well know well enough when to cut the line and move on. Our job as branders, designers, communicators is to enhance the value of our clients’s businesses and products. To help them grow, and if we’re not doing that we have an ethical responsibility to help them find someone who will do this for them.
So what have I been doing that’s worked so well for me?
1. Listening better:
Rather than trying to come across as the expert I’m trying to ask the right questions. This is about understanding their business not selling mine. My goal is simple now: How can I help? If it’s 20 minutes of free chat time I’m game. My goal is to help people succeed. It’s all about them, not all about my work or my portfolio.
2. Explain and stand up for your process:
You need a system, a process. Brand work is too complex to wing, and if you’re passionate about the science of design your work will reflect a depth that it may not have before. Walk someone through your process, tell them how you work, give them a sense of what to expect when they hire you. Explain how you’ll approach solving their problems. Maybe even dive in a little bit to give them a taste. Don’t worry about giving away the show, if they think you’re capable and smart they’ll hire you. What you’re talking about if you’re good is too complex to steal. If they get bored when you explain process, or ask you to skip over it, then this is a giant red flag. You need a partner to get good work done. And they need to be sold on how you work.
3. Zen Out:
The last thing I changed was to be absolutely calm and understanding no matter how tense things get. Our clients are people, often challenged with the same stressful professional and personal challenges we are. When things get tense it’s usually because of a miscommunication. Don’t be reactive. Stand your ground and work towards a resolution of the problem at hand. Since I started doing this I’ve been blown away by the responses I get. Clients genuinely value someone who they know is stable and can handle the stress of day to day business. Be like water and they’ll lean on you more. Be someone they’re psyched to talk to, so when they have a call with you it’s a highlight to their day, a ray of sunshine and calm, not a stressful battle over minutiae.
I’ve been working at this myself and I’ve seen a huge turnaround in the relationships I have with my clients. I feel like I have partners now, we’re a team, not a client and a vendor (oh how I despise that word). They love my work and it makes sense to them, they feel part of a process and so do I, and I feel blessed to be able to step into their world and learn about their business and what makes them tick.
Read Steve Jobs’ full “Thoughts On Flash” here.
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
April 29th, 2010 / Giles Dickerson
Category: Brand Strategy, Business Strategy
Tags: Mobile
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