i am ghettosmurf.

SAF has gone, but the story lives on.

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:08:00 -0400

Whilst an awful lot will be said of his titles, his knocking Liverpool of that perch, his love for chewing gum and his own time zone ‘Fergie Time’, I wish to highlight the lessons that can be learned from his tenure.

Sir Alex Ferguson embodies what Manchester United stands for. He is passionate, determined, extremely hard working and driven. He has an eye for potential, believes in youth, is a master of transition and always has a clear view of the bigger picture. He is a stickler for absolute control, but has recognised the need to adapt with the times. He is, at 71 an old dog, but my has he learned new tricks.

Like most United fans I have dreaded this moment in much the same way greedy shareholders mourn the loss of a successful CEO. I have become accustomed to the success and spoilt by the glorious drama synonymous with the Theatre of Dreams; league trophies and latter stages of European football being my treasured dividend.

Yet, Ferguson, and indeed all those upstairs at United would have known that failure to prepare for such an eventuality would have been shortsighted and reckless. Ferguson, (contrary to popular belief amongst United fans) is not immortal. No one has been more aware of this than the man himself and that is evident in the state that he will leave this most prestigious football institution and the speed with which his successor, David Moyes has been appointed.

The lessons I take from this seismic shift are simple. Fergie studied every detail of United’s story and weaved the fabric of that narrative into every single component. He built an infrastructure around the story and put in place everything needed to dominate in the short and long term. Anything that harmed the authenticity of that narrative was discarded with immediacy - however talented, whatever the cost.

True respect and success is never guaranteed and we will never see success like this again, but when the culture is so ubiquitous and when every individual involved knows instinctively what the institution stands for, you have ingredients for something remarkably special.

The speedy round of musical chairs at the head table at Old Trafford only goes to highlight that the only thing constant in life is change. The important thing is how we manage it. Good ol’ Fergie was the master at it and that’s why he’s a genius.

Swing with me

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:59:00 -0400

I just stumbled across this wonderful giant interactive installation project called 21 Swings developed by Montreal Daily Tous les Jours. I really love projects like this that play powerfully on memories so synonymous with youth and use the trigger of sound as a tool of engagement.

The lesson behind this playful interactive instrument is the importance of collaboration and cooperation and demonstrates the power behind working together to achieve a common goal.

It is amazing how such a simple life lesson can so easily get lost in every day life as we often strive to satisfy our own agendas in the way that we see fit. This behaviour isn’t limited to the office space, it is unfortunately a trait of human behaviour that is becoming more and more prevalent in a fast moving, ever changing world.

But the kids (and adults) on these musical swings have got the right idea - it can be fun working together and it can be immensely satisfying stripping away the my-way-is-the-best-way mentality and looking at how as a team we can achieve something great, even if it is just a simple tune.

Check out Daily Tous Les Jours design studio.

So, what did I miss?

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:29:00 -0400

It is a gross understatement when I say I’ve neglected this blog. I could sit and come up with some elaborate excuse - the kind I used to be able to conjure up so easily back at school (my former teachers know what I mean) - but the truth is whilst I’ve seen many a thing to write about, I simply lost my digi-mojo.

What’s a digi-mojo I hear you ask? Since it’s my word, I’ll give you my definition. Long form: a digi-mojo is the wondrous ability to spot a trend, tech or temperament towards either of those two things and eloquently express my thoughts on how this might effect the way we feel, think and operate in the future. Short form: write something good on my blog.

Why and how did I lose my digi-mojo?

Simples. Digital fatigue. No seriously. It got too much. I was riding my 56k modem fuelled push bike on the world wide superhighway and simply getting left behind by the full flow of tweets, insti’s (what is the nickname for Instagrams?), blog updates and general news on business, branding, tech, trends and everything in between. It was like digital Ducati’s flying by me in the fast lane. #totesemosh

So I took a breather, looked up (at the real world), put my phone down (I know!), spoke to my wife (she’s lovely) and stepped back. It’s been refreshing and I don’t feel like I missed out.

But in a world filled with contradictions, I’m happy to say that I’m back, on the blog at least and have set myself the target of at least one post a week. Why? Because I need the practice. I have a voice, but in a crowded playground it’s not the loudest that gets heard it’s the smartest, most perceptive and most eloquent.

Gone are the long ramblings (like this one…oops), from here on in I’m going for short, pithy, concise observations on our world and how I see it.

iamghettosmurf.tumblr.com I’ve missed you and I hope you missed me too but I’m here now.

Let’s do this.

It's not about the money, but...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:09:00 -0400

This morning I read this about the company I work for. It doesn’t make for great reading, especially considering that a significant number of the ones that have left in the last year or so are ones that I personally worked with.

Putting the gross amounts of bonuses afforded to the powers that be despite not hitting targets (how does that make sense?) to one side, it is the rapid decline in company culture that really hurts.

In a climate where those in work (including myself) should be grateful for a desk, a computer, a job description and a mention on the monthly payroll system, I have clearly felt a shift in working culture from a team with a common cause working together to build something to a look out for yourself, watch your own back and fight your own corner environment that breeds frustration and zaps efficiency, productivity and perhaps most importantly morale.

This is a period where innovation, creativity and strategic development of a business offer with new exciting products carefully delivered is the only way that survival through this difficult period can be achieved. More so than ever before is the need for unity, camaraderie, togetherness and teamwork.

In order to achieve these, a company needs strong leaders that can inspire others and communicate in a way that dignifies and brings people together. Generic newsletters sent across the business that ramble on about strength in certain areas and positive forecasts for future growth in others are meaningless. No one reads them and worse than that, they are painfully impersonal. I want to meet my “boss”, I’d like to be able to talk to him - not about his bonus although that would be fun if not a little #awkward - but about the future of our company, what my role in it is and how we can move forward. I’m not looking for a pat on the back and a cheesy smile and handshake, I’m looking for honesty and to be treated like a respected, valued employee and human being.

This article in Forbes is an interesting one since it highlights a feeling (of some 1,000 American executives) that in times of economic difficulty, a good boss is deemed more important than a raise in salary. It doesn’t take much consideration for this fact to make sense. Employees invest a massive amount of their time and energy into their working life. We make sacrifices to preserve our positions, we pull rabbits out of hats sometimes without so much as “thank you” and we abide by decisions of change made for us by those who don’t fully understand the impact of those changes to our workflows and processes. Most spend more time with their colleagues than they do with their families and friends and thus it stands to reason that a good positive working culture (that is generated by a good leader) is placed higher on the list of importance than a better wage.

It’s not rocket science to realise that a happy workforce is better placed to deliver the targets set before it than a workforce disgruntled and displeased to find out about its top executives milking the bonus cash cow in a national newspaper. I wonder whether the next company newsletter will acknowledge the contents of that article. I wonder whether there will be an active attempt to unite the company as a whole. I wonder whether I’ll even be here long enough to witness the change.

I too would like a better boss and in case anyone is wondering what exactly I mean by that, here is a clear definition of what for me that would entail:

Communication with dignity - treat us like adults and actively invite workforce to contribute ideas and thinking, transparency - a clear understanding of where this business is going and how it wants to get there, a platform for sharing ideas and visualising what our offer will be tomorrow (short-term and long-term), a focus on commercial performance that is driven by understanding the real needs of the markets we cater for and not just blindly chasing revenue opportunities, a company culture that is positive, engaging and stimulates/promotes personal development, an equal appreciation for the way all departments contribute to the success of the company and last but not least - small but important - the opportunity to regularly meet the leaders of our business face to face and not just via some ‘do-not-reply’ diplomatic company newsletter.

It’s a long list, one that only scratches the surface and that would require a tremendous amount of work and will take quite some time to implement across the business. These aren’t small changes that can be made overnight. These are individual elements that will transform the culture as a whole. They require changes to long established ways of thinking, communicating and operating. I appreciate that. But damn if that’s the bonus you’re taken home with you despite missing targets, it’s the least I’d expect.

Apple, if it wasn't broke...

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:32:00 -0400

One of the things that differentiates successful brands from the mediocre ones is knowing instinctively what people want and delivering it to them in a meaningful way.

Apple is known for being in tune with how people work, rest and play and have often been able to create needs that many didn’t realise they had in the first place. This quality is powerful and cannot be underestimated, since it in essence means that a brand can dictate how people perform everyday tasks through the products they make.

Much of Apple’s success has come from the simplicity, experience and quality of design of their products. Every pixel has a purpose, every detail is considered. The problem with setting such high standards arises when those standards aren’t met.

The Apple map app simply doesn’t meet those standards especially when compared to the Google Maps app it has replaced. But putting the Google vs Apple business politics aside, this move by Apple demonstrates at least two things: 1) A certain arrogance in thinking that they could develop a superior mapping system in a relatively short space of time that could seamlessly replace something we have all become so used to and 2) a failure to appreciate just what it is about Google Maps that made it work for iOS users.

Knowing how and why people use your offer (or even parts of it) is pivotal to future development and sustained brand loyalty and it’s interesting to think just how and why the developers of Maps considered it to be fit for purpose for iPhone users. Surely at some point during the building, developing and testing period, someone at the Infinite Loop lab said to themselves “I can see what we are trying to do, but it’s just not quite right yet. The Google way…is just better”.

Apple must be given credit for their subsequent public apology, especially for the openness they’ve displayed in suggesting alternatives and stating clearly how these can be added to the homescreen for convenience.

It’s a small but nice touch, yet in the arena of brand experience and mobile market share, prevention is better than a cure. We’ve already seen Samsung cleverly play hard ball on the whispered frustrations of Apple fans in that ad and whilst this is hardly the straw to break the Apple back, it is crucial that Apple stems the drip drip flow of self-inflicted brand slip ups.

With future keynotes, product launches and expected improvements to Maps, it is important that Apple’s greatest strength - the ability to shape how we perform certain everyday tasks through their products - doesn’t, through arrogance, become their biggest weakness.

Essay: Is our moving world moving too quickly?

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 06:55:00 -0400

Some of my fondest memories as a child are of me sitting in the back seat of my fathers car, captivated by the world outside my window, comforted by the warmth of being inside and the security of my seat belt.

The people, buildings, sign posts, roads and other cars were the actors and actresses, props and backdrops in my own private screening of the world around me. I could look up and see the sky imagine where the people on that plane were going to and had come from and I could return to street level and imagine where people were going and what they were doing - all within a blink of an eye.

This motion picture of the world was fast (approx 30-40mph if my dad was sticking to the limit) for the eyes and brain to constantly see > comprehend > assess > imagine and conclude before moving on to the next scene, but it was manageable.

Those days of being a back seat driver and a passenger to my imagination unfortunately no longer exist in that romantic, nostalgic form and it’s not because I now have my own licence.

Our world moves and changes at a faster rate than ever before and whilst moving and changing is good, a part of me can’t help but feel it is moving too quickly. One could legitimately argue that it isn’t moving quick enough and instead it is me that has slowed down fatigued by my own juvenile desire to move on to the next BIG thing and the thing after that. I’m prepared to accept this fact. But before concluding at this juncture, consider how the life of an 80’s child differs to that of a brat from the 00’s (the naughties).

This isn’t the bit where I compare my analogue toys (and TV for that matter) to today’s digital equivalent. That would be too easy and to be fair, what point would that make other than the fact that technology has progressed and times have changed? Technology should have improved (as it has) and times have changed (naturally). Instead, I speak of our ability to truly connect to moments in our lives and the products that fuelled those experiences. To illustrate, my father would speak of the summer of ‘69 (as an example) when this song came out and he was at this school and had this teacher by this name, he was reading this book, saw this film and so on and so forth. There is no web-based timeline to scroll through, perhaps not even pictures to trigger such memories, this is simply a time stamped indelibly in his brain that he can recall with fondness. How? Why? I think because the world moved at a more manageable pace and the products that fuelled those experiences had greater opportunity to sit comfortably in our lives. Meaningful connections had the chance to move in to our memory banks and establish roots that have lasted up until today. It took time before the SLR print had been processed and was in our hand and that period of waiting for holiday snaps created an anticipation that is now lost in our Insta(nt)gram generation.

Mine, I feel, is the last generation where we actually remember our childhood with simplicity and fondness. We laugh at the NAFNAF CO 54 clothes and smile when someone hums the Biker Grove or Grange Hill theme tune. We got our music fix on Top of the Pops and buying just one record at Our Price on the weekend and playing it to death was a massive deal. We recall the, TV holding page, Channel 4 and ITV idents and reminisce with glee about the GameBoy, Atari Lynx, Master System et al. We had 4 channels and a joystick in our hand, but we appreciated what we had and had enough time to let those delights mean something to us and shape those innocent years.

What point am I trying to make? Well it is simply this; whereby an album would be played to death for months on end with the press stop > press rewind > and press play game you would play with your cassette player to repeat that song, now we have access to endless amounts of music at the scroll of a wheel and a click of button. Want to repeat? Just click back. Want to listen something similar? An automated algorithm generates a list of what else you might like. Simple, quick and all too easy. Whereas we would once be sure to be in front of the telly as a family by 8 on the dot to watch something together, now we watch the programmes at a time that suits us, with or without our loved ones on any of our many devices. We’ve partially replaced the pages of a good bedside book and its bookmark with a screen or skeuomorph replica on a tablet. The joy of receiving a hand written letter with stamps of origination has been declared extinct by the speed and ease of emails, IM’s, Facebook walls and 140 character tweets and DMs. And to top it off, we now hold up retina display iPads at our loved ones so that those who couldn’t be bothered to make the effort can ‘join in’ and ‘be there’ on that special day. OK so that last one is a bit cynical, but the accumulation of these digital shortcuts have contributed greatly to our inability to truly connect to and embrace the world around us and the rich experiences that such untainted, unadulterated interactions can bring.

I’m not being naive here, I know full well and accept too that in countless cases the digital world has indeed brought us closer than ever before, especially to ones that geographical distance would have otherwise meant very little or no contact at all. Advancements in technology have in many ways made our lives easier and enabled us to do things that were previously unheard of. I know this. I accept this. But there was something rewarding about the waiting, about the trying and about the experiencing before the digital world reduced time and increased ‘convenience’.

Having said all this, maybe the reality is that the world isn’t actually moving quickly enough and that our somewhat inability to collectively adapt to the potential rate of change is slowing us down. Maybe, I should just accept that the experiences that I had as a child of the 80’s that enabled me to appreciate even small things more meaningfully were themselves as radical a change to my parents as the era of the 00’s child are to me today. Maybe, I should get over myself and stop talking all this drivel - I don’t know.

What I do know for sure, is that with all this in mind, the traditional business model and the formulaic branding methods have to change radically. Since our world IS moving so quickly, IS changing at a rate of knots, can businesses really expect to be continuously relevant? Can the creators of products, services and the experiences they generate REALLY expect to their creations to have a fixed place in our lives for a sustained period of time? Should businesses adopt a shorter life span approach and focus on a shorter period of relevancy and meaningfulness and be confident enough to move on when time is up (new MySpace springs to mind)? Is a permanent state of beta the new ‘established’? Or is the quick pop-up here-today-gone-tomorrow structure a sharp sword to the makers, designers, thinkers and doers, making, designing, thinking up and doing anything of any real lasting value?

Indeed I find myself asking questions like, what will the next Facebook be, what will the next game changing iProduct be and what universal standard/platform will the Internet be replaced with? What will the world look like when my sons son is sitting comfortably in the back seat of their commuter spaceship watching the world go by and having his imagination tell him its own story? Or will his window too be replaced by some device force feeding his brain an artificial reality?

The world is moving and changing quickly but business and branding still tries to achieve the same impact that it had on us years ago. That can’t continue. The goal posts have moved, the rules have changed and - whilst this might sound contradictory - the catch up is unsatisfactory. Our digital world has done this to us, it has altered and rewired our brains and even though individually we might sign out from time to time for some analogue fresh air, we’ve been reprogrammed to iOS infinity and it’s far too much of a wrench to go back.

When we look at our map app (providing it’s the Google one) it’s clear that we are firmly placed on a path of disruptive innovation and congested progression. Our destination? The future, but who knows what that even looks like. The world is bursting with closely networked creators that don’t want to create the next big thing, but the next, next big things after that and unfortunately the result of this fast forward thinking simply means that we struggle to appreciate what we have now and how far we’ve come. We are forever unsatisfied, forever chasing tomorrow.

Whilst I won’t dispute that chasing tomorrow is exciting, whilst I champion change and progression, I hope it never destroys the warmer sense of joy that I get when reminiscing about the backseat of my fathers car and the window to the world that seat gave me.

Don't give 'em a smartphone Marissa, tell 'em a story.

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:33:00 -0400

It goes without saying that strong businesses and strong brands are built around strong leaders and talented people. The thing that enables both those on the outside and inside of a business to associate and connect themselves to the brand is a compelling, authentic and progressive brand story.

Stories have the ability to inspire, engage and at the very least can move listeners to feel something. That feeling, if meaningful enough and sustained over time, can in turn motivate listeners to act.

A workforce that can instinctively operate in harmony with the values expressed within that brand story is the solid basis upon which a relevant and purposeful offer can be delivered in a meaningful way.

Google Marissa Mayer today (September 17 2012) and you’ll find a string of articles like this one about her most recent move to hand out smartphones to her fellow employees. The Blackberry era has taught us all that corporate phones are symbols of ‘always-on-always-working’ and so that takes the shine away somewhat of a free glossy iPhone 5. But it is clear what Mayer is trying to do. She wants to and needs to change the culture within Yahoo so that her colleagues feel inspired and happy to work. Happy people make fantastic things and fantastic things sell.

Mayer doesn’t need me to tell her it will take more than free smartphones to get Yahoo where it wants to be, but it is interesting to observe her thinking and strategic moves as she bids to inject some life and relevance to the Yahoo offer. Earlier this month, Mayer hired Jacqueline Reses to focus on the most important resource of any business - people. And this crucial appointment came after it was revealed that Mayer herself reviews every new hire. This strategy simply isn’t sustainable for a business of that size and one can only imagine the talent that slips through the Yahoo net whilst Mayer attempts to processes a pile of CV’s and portfolios in her in-tray.

I started this post off by saying that strong businesses and strong brands are built around strong leaders and talented people. I stand by that because a business, the offer of the business and the brand that represents it, is only as good as the people behind it. It is however crucial to acknowledge that strong leaders or more accurately - a strong leader - can also be a great risk. A single person with strong opinions and ideas about the future vision of a business is an unhealthy formula. Input from others (especially those who have been part of the business for a lengthy period) is essential. It removes the risk of shifts in direction that comes with changes in leadership and is replaced by a central narrative that outlives any managerial tenure.

A clear brand story should be top of the agenda for Mayer. She must tap into the history of Yahoo, establish the principles upon which the company was founded, carry out an honest and accurate assessment of the current state and collectively script a clear vision for where Yahoo should sit in peoples lives tomorrow. She must aim to build something that will live on well after she has gone. The brand story must be repeatedly shared amongst all within the business and must be embedded into everything that Yahoo does.

Yes, Yahoo needs a killer product or service that is relevant and purposeful to put it back on the map and in the hearts and minds of people. But Yahoo can only inspire people to reengage and reconnect with their offer if they themselves feel inspired and realistically confident about delivering an experience fit for today’s world. All divisions, teams and people must think outside their direct remit and have a clear sense of how together they are contributing to the bigger Yahoo vision for tomorrow.

The wider application of Moore’s law means excitement of a new handset will fade long before the next keynote address makes it obsolete. That’s just what happens with technology today. But a believable and exciting vision expressed through an authentic brand story is far more effective in motivating and stimulating the desire to create the products and services to make Yahoo play a central part in users lives.

Yes, stories and not HR-incentive-smartphones will inspire and crucially in time allow those outside the business to feel like they too can once again have a meaningful connection with the brand.

Same old spice, but brand new tricks

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:52:01 -0400

Sometimes, just sometimes, the internet brings us something that is comical, engaging, interactive and just plain old brilliant. This is one of those moments.

Press play, hit record, make some beats with your keys and watch those muscles move.

Jack of all trades but without a clear identity

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:18:00 -0400

With the recent case of ‘computer says no’ at Natwest and the heavy rap over the knuckles for Barclays for having their fingers caught in the fixing rates till, it could be argued that now is the prime time to aggressively promote a new banking service to heap additional pressure on the established high street money men.

That is exactly what the boys and girls in that familiar shade of red headed by the insanely ambitious leader with the famous golden locks, Sir Richard Branson, have done. Bye bye Northern Rock. Hello Virgin Money.

For the first time a few nights back I saw the advert (above) for Virgin Money - and was particularly interested in what message the brand would communicate via this medium. The advert highlights the Records (music), Galactic (space travel, yes space travel), Atlantic (flights), Balloon flights and Train arms of the group, all as a lead up to the new banking service. The conclusion sees the words ‘On a quest to make banking better’. Nice. Timely. Achievable? We’ll see.

The brand message is clear: The Virgin group has over the years entered into a wide number of industries and hereby claim to have delivered great products and services in each of those sectors and now the aim is to bring that - excuse the phrase - ‘Virgin quality’ to the banking sector. Anyone who has ever used a Virgin mobile may care to disagree about the ‘quality’ aspect, but we get the point.

Personally, I feel that the ad itself is adequate. It does the job in drawing attention to the Virgin banking service but I cannot help but feel that Sir Richard and the Virgin group have missed a trick here.

In a time where there is great uncertainty and mistrust surrounding the banking and finance sectors, there is a real need to reach out to the battered and bruised consumer who is more wary, more pessimistic and less trusting, less confident than ever before.

This was an opportunity to not only add yet another string to the Virgin bow or to include ‘banking’ to the portfolio of businesses, but to switch up the banking game, change the rules, redefine high street banking, to really make a bold statement of change that inspired confidence and at the same time have this values reflected in an identity that portrayed all the positive characteristics of a superior Virgin experience.

A quick glance through the Virgin group portfolio of products and services and their subsequent sites highlights to me a brand that visually is unnecessarily fragmented, disjointed and confused. The various permutations of the ‘Virgin’ name do very little in expressing and communicating the values of the brand that are embodied by the personality of Mr Branson himself who is perhaps to Virgin what Steve Jobs was to Apple.

I’m not talking here of a simple change of symbol or leading the charge for a new Virgin squiggle as such. No I’m considering the merits of developing a corporate identity that reflects the ambitious, increasingly diverse offer and growth of the Virgin group in addition to the quality of service that is often associated with the brand.

The very nature of the varying sectors that Virgin has entered would make such a brand overhaul extremely complex. How do you create an identity flexible enough to communicate the values of trust, honesty, reliability and ease-of-use all appealing and fitting for a new bank service, whilst also making that same identity system work just as well for a brand that offers commercial space travel? I feel that not only has this question not been answered or addressed, I see no evidence of it ever even being asked.

It could be argued by some that the Virgin brand is powerful enough as it is, so well known that really any calls for an identity overhaul would only ever come from an individual concerned with aesthetics. Yes the Virgin logo in all its different forms is a little clumsy, but at the end of the day don’t we all know what Virgin does and how it does it? Maybe it is (a powerful enough brand) and maybe we do (know what to expect from their service).

However, I subscribe to the sentiments of this Fast CoDesign article that discusses how the design of the Virgin Atlantic lobby oozes brand values without blatant references to the brand itself. It’s about the feel, the automatic association, the response to every single touchpoint of the brand, ultimately the experience that is had whenever interaction is made.

Whilst the competitors attempt to repair damaged relationships and rebuild trust, Virgin Money must do more than just state a list of reasons as to why they’ll be a safer bet for our notes and coins. If they are to really steal a march on the high street banks, then every aspect of its presence must symbolize change for the better whilst generating a sense of security normally associated with those more experienced in the sector.

Granted, a rebrand can only do so much because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how great you look if your product and service is woefully disappointing. Yet, if Sir Branson and his red robed followers really want to ‘make things better’ in this particular sector, I would bet my last dollar that a game changing approach to banking followed by an identity to match - one that doesn’t follow the typical Virgin suit - would have been a better place to start.

Look mum, no hands!

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:23:00 -0400

Car manufacturers Ford have made an app so you don’t have to type another password for your Facebook, Google or Twitter accounts. With the aid of a Google Chrome extension, that old chestnut Bluetooth (I knew it was good for something) and the KeyFree Login app, the mere presence of an assigned smartphone device will be enough to grant you access to the aforementioned accounts.

Whilst many might ask the question what Ford is doing making an app seemingly unrelated to their main product - that product being cars, vans and anything else on wheels - I’m more interested on what this might mean for Ford as a business. Initially I’m led to think that this move is fantastic for both brand value/awareness but perhaps more importantly for the mind-set and culture of the business.

Recently I’ve been digesting the Game Changers Report by Wolff Olins that looks at the key behaviours of companies that are doing the complete opposite of standing still and sticking to what they know best. In short the sentiments of the report are that regardless of your offering - be it a product or service - in order to survive in this always-on always-changing world, the archaic rules and rigid structures of yesterday as far as operation, innovation and creation are concerned no longer apply.

Those five behaviours from the original report were: Purposeful, Useful, Experimental, Boundaryless and Value-Creative.

On a very basic level I believe the Ford KeyFree concept ticks all five of those boxes. Here is how and why:

1. Purposeful - The KeyFree concept by Ford has purpose and that purpose is defined in the video (see above). It focuses on the problem of time, or rather the lack of it. The purpose therefore is clear - this out-of-the-box product by Ford is just one element of their belief in making products that allow us to perform tasks quicker and as a result make our lives easier.

2. Useful - OK, so generally speaking we use our Facebook, Google and Twitter accounts so frequently that we are unlikely to forget our passwords for them. And really, in terms of time it doesn’t take that long to key in ‘QWERTY’ or ‘12345’ to log in does it? Nevertheless, thinking ahead, the future scope for this could be exciting as the service expands the number of online accounts it can remember your passwords for. Useful for that password you set-up yonks ago that you hardly ever use but really need at a certain moment? You bet!

3. Experimental - Experimental indeed, especially when you consider how surprised you were when you heard Ford were behind this app. We just don’t associate Ford with a useful iPhone app, we just don’t link Ford to password account management, yet somehow - through experimentation - a technology used for their primary product of vehicles has made its way to our smartphones in a very clever way.

4. Boundaryless - I don’t know the ins and outs of how Ford operates as a business and I am not aware of the creative culture within the walls of a Ford factory. But whatever their former state, the KeyFree Login is demonstration of a way of thinking that is refreshing not stale, exciting not formulaic. This move demonstrates a breaking down of barriers and a willingness to try new things without the advantage of previous success or failures in this field to learn from.

5. Value-Creative - well in all honesty this will only become apparent in time, but certainly there is value in making something unexpected and making it well. Doing so can only be a good thing and may well open the doors to growth in other unpredictable sectors. It also shows a sensitivity to the needs of users and consumers they might not have otherwise had.

In conclusion I confess I might be reading too much into what is effectively just an app - one might I add I haven’t even downloaded and used yet - but what i find fascinating about this app is what it might mean in the bigger picture for Ford as a company.

As Karl Heiselman, CEO of Wolff Olins stated in his introduction to the report ‘we are living in unbelievably exciting times’. He of course is right and as businesses find new ways to grow in our fast changing world, I believe we the consumer are set to benefit with innovative products even more exciting than a KeyFree service from the guys who brought us the classic Cortina and the mundane Mondeo.

More on Ford KeyFree by FastCo here and if you can read French more by Ford themselves here

Is the future Digiprint?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:05:00 -0400

I’ve just stumbled upon this rather nice video about the Layar Augmented Reality (AR) project and although I’ve known about this app for a little while I think I’m a little more intrigued now by it’s capabilities and the potential impact this technology can have on the publishing industry in particular.

Having worked in the publishing industry for over 6 years, I’ve seen first hand the struggle that publishing houses have had in balancing the way content is shared over the print and emerging digital mediums. The digital platform should do more than just regurgitate the print offering and in turn the print offer must add value that online viewing simply cannot give. It’s simple to say, but much harder to accomplish especially when both mediums fight against each other for advertising opportunities.

Way back in 2010 when I think I first heard about the Layar app, my interest was limited because as the rather Carry-On-esque video above demonstrates, holding your device up in the sky in the hope that a solution suitable to your needs at that moment in time will come up onscreen just isn’t something you would do - not if you don’t want that very device jacked from your grasp. AR in this form was intriguing at first, but I guess I questioned the practicality in everyday situations.

Now, however I think that the Layar Creator technology that ‘places the power of interactive print at everyone’s fingertips’ might just be one of the ways that digital and print media can move forward together and I can see imaginative, practical uses for interacting with the printed page.

I hear the phrase #printisdead a lot, but really why do we need to kill one medium off in favour of another? Why can’t we find a place for both print and digital? Indeed, why doesn’t the publishing industry embrace technologies like this to create bespoke media offerings that deliver material and content in ways that capture the imagination of their readership? In actual fact I ask those questions rhetorically reasonably safe in the knowledge of the fact that we will always find a place for both.

As with any technology aimed at transforming the way we do things, caution is required, but I look forward to seeing whether or not AR catches on in an arena like B2B publishing. I think the potential of cleverly activating print media with digital content is really exciting and further to this, I think the potential for brands to use AR as part of their strategy for advertising campaigns (and not just as a one-of-use-of-a-trend-gimmick) is yet to be properly explored.

At the risk of plugging Moving Brands (again) on this blog, they did this over 2 years ago. It was a self-initiated paper that incorporated AR technology to help the ‘book live beyond its printed form’. Depending on the way you position the book to the webcam, you can tap into different feeds associated to Moving Brands’ online presence. It was innovative and in harmony with their ethos of changing and moving in the same way our world does.

That was 2 years ago and demonstrates clearly that if done properly, AR can play a key part in merging the digital with the print form to make something truly interactive, engaging and content-platform specific.

Print is by no means dead and with AR could become alive and kicking in ways only our imaginations can limit.

Long live digital. Long live print. And long live well thought out uses of AR in bringing the two together.

Retail therapy the Prada way

Thu, 24 May 2012 09:16:00 -0400

I don’t know what you call this (ahem ‘brandvertising’ perhaps?) but I like it. In the presence of branded content like this, traditional advertising formats seem particularly archaic especially in light of the fact that today’s consumer is more cynical than ever before about advertising that serves only to shout the words “LOOK AT ME, BUY ME!!”.

Granted this film is much longer than your average TV ad slot and other than previewing during the halftime break in an episode of Made in Chelsea, I’m not sure where it would fit on our screens if it were to be featured on the box in the first place.

Potential advert material or not, I like this because it gives the brand character, it displays a healthy combination of wit and irony and its simplicity makes it memorable. Attributing the right human characteristics and personality to a brand is vital to helping the brand connect to people regardless of the depth of their pockets.

The actual brand references made in this short narrative are quite subtle and I think that adds to making the film so effective. There is of course the gravitas associated with the luxury brand Prada that attracts the talent of Roman Polanski (director) and actors Helena Bonham Carter and Sir Ben Kingsley - you wouldn’t find this talent pulling a stunt like this for Next - but still this film shows that sometimes a subtle brand message can be more powerful that an aggressive exclamation.

One small step or one giant Leap in interaction?

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:24:00 -0400

Having become so accustomed to pinching, scrolling, swiping and flipping the screens of our handheld devices, it comes as no surprise that the future will see these gestures extended to our desktop computers.

Apple has brought the Magic Trackpad to market for desktop users as an extension of the touch technology that is associated with laptops like the MacBook Pro. Having not used the Magic Trackpad myself I cannot comment on its ease of use and whether or not it has the natural feel of the traditional mouse, but I am more inclined to think that it is a luxury alternative rather than a revolutionary or innovative way to navigate and control onscreen activity.

The Leap technology shown in the video above however looks like this could be something special. The device looks Apple-esque in form and finish and according to the site is more accurate than a mouse and as reliable as a keyboard. The response to human gestures in the video do look very impressive.

In their blog section Leap call out to software developers to request the SDK and I would be very interested to see the many interesting ways in which this technology can be implemented to the way we interact with computers and different software and maybe even our television sets too.

I am reminded of Moving Brands working on a very interesting ‘Experience’ project with the Microsoft Kinect device and I shall be on the look out to see how coders and developers put this potentially game changing motion-control technology to great and interesting use.

Could Leap be the killer mouse trap? I don’t know but gesture based UI is going to become more central to the way we use more of our household devices and it’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

More information on Leap can be found here.

Nike don't just do it, they do it well

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:16:00 -0400

As the domestic season draws to a close and the attentions of football fans around the world turn to Poland and Ukraine for Euro 2012, Nike has with perfect timing once again whet our appetite with another classic campaign.

The last major international tournament (World Cup 2010 in South Africa) saw the viral “Write the future” which was great for the clever way in which it showed the fine line between success and failure on the pitch and the contrasting consequences of both. The narrative was compelling but the campaign was passive and as far as I can remember lacked active viewer involvement.

This year Nike have taken the concept of a campaign to a whole new level. The showpiece ad up top is themed ‘My Time Is Now’ and it jovially showcases the new generation of stars in football making a claim to replace the more established names even non-football fans are familiar with. However, the additional twist - and one I think is a masterstroke - is the link with a different initiative by Nike called ‘The Chance’.

The Chance is a project by Nike to ‘search the world for the next wave of hungry young footballers.’ The prize for the winners is the chance to go on a global tour to train and play with the world’s best teams. At the time of posting, over 27,000 teams worldwide have signed up to the project, the video has had over 113,000,000 views (on its Youtube channel) people the world over are tagging their sports related tweets with #makeitcount and over 12 million people have ‘liked’ the projects Facebook page. This is Nike actively giving every young boy the platform to fulfill their footballing dream and effectively using social media to facilitate that.

The army of young hopefuls part of that project are represented by the unknown players in the advert in the black and white kit. Their inclusion in the advert is a telling touch of bringing together the fantasy world of reaching the highest level with the reality of thousands of hopefuls dreaming of becoming the next Ronaldo.

Combining this initiative with the ‘trailer’ to Euro 2012 does wonders for the Nike brand as a whole. In addition to feeding on the excitement of the upcoming tournament, Nike draws attention to its new range of football boots and international kits that will be worn throughout the tournament. It draws attention to “The Chance” project and encourages viewers to ‘prove their hunger’ and find the 9 tunnels featured in the ad.

The campaign doesn’t end there however. There is more fun to be had with a Sonic-style game featuring Neymar and an interactive visit to the barber feature which allows you to ‘do a Balotelli’ and create your own iconic tournament haircut on Facebook - think Ronaldo 2002 or Valderrama.

I think this campaign is fantastic purely because of the multi-layered narrative that subtly yet effectively communicates so many different aspects of the Nike brand. Nike ads have generally always created a bit of a buzz, but this campaign isn’t just about a vast array of new shiny products, it’s about the way we feel about football as fans whether we’re good enough and young enough to try to reach the top ourselves or whether we are sofa fans waiting for the spectacle to kick off.

Without a doubt Nike as a brand is synonymous with sport all over the world, but as this campaign demonstrates when it comes to making an impact, creating even more brand awareness and involving the consumer/viewer, Nike don’t just do it, they do it well.

There is so much more to the swoosh than shirts, shorts and soccer boots and I for one am looking forward to seeing if Nike add other elements to this campaign as the tournament approaches and gets underway.

When did we stop playing?

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:53:00 -0400

I can find no better way to start this post than by saying that the Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican is a must for any who claim to have even a passive interest in art, design, architecture, furniture, living…and even chess.

Walking around the exhibition Bauhaus: Art as Life, one cannot help but picture what it must have been like to be at an institution where work, play, precision and freedom all had their place and importance. From chess pieces to emergency money, children’s toys to the Mies van der Rohe MR20 chair, the Bauhaus school proved to be a platform for thinkers, makers, artists and dreamers intent on shaping the future and how we would live in it.

I was impressed by the real sense of modernity in the graphical and typographical pieces as well as the furniture that came later on. But I found myself humored, sometimes even puzzled by the almost ‘crazy’ themes and stage productions for what were referred to as ‘Bauhaus parties’. Examining the pictures of students and professors dressed up in costumes playfully posing together and laughing whilst standing on the roof of the building where inside they were plotting the future offered me merely a glimpse into the balance between creativity and invention that became synonymous with the Bauhaus name.

In the founder, Walter Gropious’ Programme of the State Bauhaus, he stated that it was his intention to “give equal status to artist and craftsman” - in other words blend freedom with focus, mix play with work and unite teachers and students. This philosophy was championed further by Johannes Itten, a teacher at the Bauhaus, who worked under the motto ‘play becomes party - party becomes work - work becomes play’. The result of creating such a revolutionary cycle and environment that was so conducive to creativity and craft is clear for all to see and although many outside at that time didn’t understand it, for those within the walls of the Bauhaus, it made perfect sense.

There are important lessons that we can learn from the Bauhaus culture of blending work with play and a creative agency in the modern world must provide scope for these two extremes to exist. In actual fact I’ll rephrase that - a creative agency in the modern world must be setting the standard in demonstrating how work and play have a place within its spacious four walls in much the same way the Bauhaus did in its day.

In an industry where creatives and strategic thinkers are tasked with solving any manner of small to complex everyday problems, it makes perfect sense for them to have the space and the freedom to allow their imagination to wonder and get those creative juices flowing. As Steve Price puts it in his post Fraud, ego and f****** desks ’…very rarely will those precious sparks of imagination come from sitting at a desk’. He’s right.

The innocent nature of playing is mistakenly considered as being beneficial for only the young, but really we all from time to time need that breathing space to imagine, explore, learn and absorb without the pressure of deadlines, constraints, budgets and delivering tangible end-products for clients. After all the lessons learned whilst playing can prove to be invaluable when the time for real work arises.

I take great delight in seeing agencies actively playing and sharing the results of their time spent in the sandpit. Two agencies in particular spring to mind. Moving Brands late last year combined their knack for storytelling with a RepRap 3D printer to produce every child’s dream - chocolate. The challenge of getting the machine to work in the first place and tweaking the unfathomable nuts and bolts to make it suitable for printing chocolate by no means sounds like fun to most, but you can imagine how rewarding it must have felt to overcome those hurdles and how invaluable the lessons learned will be. Which client work would allow an agency to go through that process with no guarantee of success at the end?

The other agency that comes to mind is Method. They too have taken a leaf out of the Bauhaus manifesto and have setup a creative experimentation initiative called - funnily enough - Method Play. The aim of which is simply to step away from client work and tinker with different technologies to ‘expand thinking and better our creative brains’.

Examples of creative agencies being proactive on this front is fantastic but it is 2012 and this act of playing isn’t I feel anywhere near as prominent as it should be within the creative industry, at least not to my knowledge and that simply isn’t right.

Gropious and his contemporaries were thinking and behaving this way in the 1920’s and the work that stemmed from that playful adventurous era is still with us today. It’s still inspiring us, we are still learning from it and it’s still being exhibited.

In conclusion, it’s safe to say that the Bauhaus crew, although a little out there for their time with some of their radical ideas and social events, were on to something good, something really good. If the multidisciplinary framework of the modern day creative industry wishes to have as great an impact on our world as that school founded in Weimar did, it could do no worse than putting down the tools of craft once in a while and behaving like the children we all once were.

Beware of the Digital Hoarder

Tue, 08 May 2012 19:43:00 -0400

In my previous post, I wrote about the genius behind the renowned ’Ten principles for good design’, Dieter Rams. As one of the most recognized and lauded ambassadors of integrity within design, it is to be expected that one of his principles is centered on concentrating on only the essentials. To put it simply - less, but better.

It is perhaps with some irony that no sooner had I dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on that post, I found myself watching the rather revealing and terribly sad BBC1 documentary ‘Britain’s Biggest Hoarders’. Whilst Rams championed the complete removal of anything unnecessary in design, here I was peering into the difficult lives of those who were compulsive hoarders. For them more - and certainly not less - was better and the thought of letting anything go - however small or unnecessary - was terrifying.

The documentary clearly showed how the physical and mental health of a compulsive hoarder and their family members is severely compromised. The inability to throw out things like food that had long passed its use-by-date meant that even the simplest of tasks like walking up the garden path, taking a shower or moving from one room to another was both physically dangerous and mentally distressing. In one particular instance, a grandmother had reached breaking point deeply upset that the severity of her husbands condition meant that their own grandchildren could never visit their home.

Seeing this behaviour and the way it was destroying the lives of everyday people, made me think of the way in which our obsession with being constantly online through various digital and social platforms is impacting on our own lives. Our homes may well be pristine as some of us strive to create the perfect home environment for our delicately crafted digital devices, but is our obsession with the digital world preventing us from living in the real one?

We check-in and stamp our locations on Foursquare, we update our status on Facebook, try to figure out the point of Google+ and for sheer curiosity check whether our Myspace account still exists. We Instagram our meals and surroundings and share the private conversations we have with ourselves and indeed others in less than 140 characters on Twitter. More recently we may have selected 50 of our choicest friends to share our Path with, set up an online board to pin what we love on Pinterest and for the music lovers amongst us we tell the world what “choon” is pumping through our headphones on This Is My Jam or Spotify. Then there are blogs (granted like this) and for those who can be bothered, you may even have most of these platforms talking to each other seamlessly through ifttt and its set of automated triggers. And what of our hard drives and desktops? Think of the endless list of irrelevant files that consume byte space and RAM capacity.

Nearly every aspect of our life is having a social element stitched to it and like the hoarders in the documentary their exists the real danger of severe imbalance. But it would appear that unlike those compulsive hoarders of household items, some of the digital generation are alert to the potential dangers that this obsessive behaviour can lead to at a much earlier stage.

Slowly but surely there is an air of digital downtime sweeping across those who are feeling the tiresome effects of digital gorging and are longing to log out and recharge. Low and behold and rather ironically there is an app for this - Taking a Break, but more intriguing is the phone-stacking approach where friends at dinner stack their phones and the first to succumb to the temptation to use their device pays for all present. Could this signal the beginning of a wave of new socially acceptable digital-use standards and etiquette? I wonder.

It’s a relatively small thing - if we can even call it a ‘thing’ - but it signals the acceptance amongst some that we should maintain a healthy balance between our social/digital presence and the real world we live in.

I’m reminded of the TED talk that Graham Hill gave last year. In his talk ‘Less stuff, more happiness’ (shown below) he listed 3 practical steps to making less equal more in our everyday lives and whilst not as profound as Ram’s ten commandments, I consider it a sensible guide to help me keep check of my own digital activity. The step that stood out to me the most was the first, ‘Edit ruthlessly’. It made me question - do I really need to sign up to every new social web-based offering and do I really need to keep all those apps on my phone even though I can’t remember when I last used them? Second was ‘Think Small’ and third was ‘Make multifunctional’ and both are also worthy of consideration and application.

Clearly obsessive hoarding of any kind is unhealthy and like with most things balance is the key with the leaning towards the simplification end of scale probably the safest option. Whilst the physical evidence and subsequent consequences of a literal compulsive hoarder may not be as blatant and obvious as a digital hoarder, the impact on our lives and the relationships we have may be similar if not the same.

The sad realities of such behaviour presented in the BBC1 documentary should be enough to make any avid digital/social user take note. Me included.

Dieter knows best

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:01:00 -0400

“What effects do electricity pylons, skyscrapers, highways, street lighting and car parks, for example, have on our psyche and relationships? We know that the residents of anonymous concrete blocks can become depressed as a result of their surroundings. But who is researching these things systematically? Who takes all of this really seriously?” - Dieter Rams

I have long admired Dieter Rams for his brutally honest no nonsense approach to design. At Braun - through the products he worked on - Rams defined a design ethos and visual language that just made sense. They weren’t just rigid rules for the sake of rule-making but rather principles that would help distinguish between what was necessary, functional and what was expendable, purposeless. His ‘Ten principles for good design’ has become in effect the syllabus, the standard by which any designer should adhere to when creating work. And rightly so, after all good design is innovative, it does make a product useful and it is unobtrusive.

The quote up top is from the great man himself and is one of my picks from his speech given to a very lucky audience way back in 1976. Even then Mr Rams’ thinking was way beyond his time and as you would expect there are many words of wisdom that are more than applicable for our day.

But I have chosen that particular quote above as the theme for this post because here Rams poses some of the most critical questions that any designer should ask themselves. How does design make us feel? How do the surroundings (and their design) effect our psyche and our relationships? Who is researching these things systematically? And who takes all this seriously?

These questions are so so important and central to design that is considered to be good and that serves a purpose. When design fails to consider the emotional impact of those that it tries to convey a message to or of those that will interact with it, it demonstrates a lack of empathy and understanding of people and by default becomes bad design.

Rams later goes on to lament “I imagine our current situation will cause future generations to shudder at the thoughtlessness in the way in which we today fill our homes, our cities and our landscape with a chaos of assorted junk. What a fatalistic apathy we have towards the effect of such things. What atrocities we have to tolerate. Yet we are only half aware of them.” That foresight uttered over thirty years ago is still a reality today, but I feel that we are witnessing a shift in the quality of design in all its facets.

I genuinely believe that there are increasing examples of design that features a number of the principles that Rams signed off as gospel. Apple is the obvious example of this, but across the grand spectrum of design, we are seeing the removal of superfluous artistry and in its place evidences of only what is indispensable. Minimalist form is happily holding hands with maximum efficiency and anything else just won’t do .

In the above clip from the film Objectified, the almost fanatic and obsessive nature with which Jonathan Ive describes the thought process and engineering feat that goes into making just one of Apples’ products is a clear symbol of this shift in focus where good design is concerned. We as fastidious consumers have become accustomed to good design and are more vocal than ever before when we are presented with cases of bad design. We expect things to just work, we crave simplicity and although we may not acknowledge it, we love the objects that almost appear to be ‘undesigned’ - the design to a certain extent has gotten out of the way.

So Rams, in answer to your question who is researching these things systematically and who takes all this really seriously? I think today, 36 years later, it is all of us or at least most of us. Designers, non-designers, savvy consumers and those who are perhaps oblivious to the concept of good design as defined by Rams are all consciously or subconsciously demanding higher levels of considered solutions to our everyday problems.

Bad design much like bad weather in England will always exist, but we are more aware than ever before of the impact that good (and bad) design has and how design makes us feel. We reflect this in the consumer choices we make and our attitude towards design that performs ‘function in relative anonymity’. We are becoming the type of intelligent and responsible users that simply refuse to make room for bad design and as a result designers whatever their strict discipline are paying more attention to people and their feelings first and functionality and form a close second.

Towards the end of his speech, Rams declared that “…we are beginning to understand the changes that we are only just seeing…the times of thoughtless design are over…we cannot afford anymore thoughtlessness.” That was 36 years ago. But if design as a whole maintains the high standards set by Rams and sticks to them with the same conviction that he has, then the future of design, good design, is certainly an exciting one.

*If you missed the link, the whole speech can be found here via It’s Nice That.

Sell your vision, not just your product

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:04:00 -0400

Recently I’ve been really impressed with the noises coming from Audi. In an earlier post I commented on their smart use of storytelling to promote the new Audi A5 in a wonderfully simple advert. In this post however, it is the non-product-specific mood film and its clear brand message that has caught my attention.

Advertising space - whether it be in print, online or on TV - is commonly used to promote and sell a single product, but here Audi has created an advert in the shape of a mood film that instead of focussing on a specific model, serves to sell the vision of Audi the company.

When thinking about the messages a brand sends out to others, it is important to consider tone of voice, brand behaviour and the personality or character of the brand. Your typical advertising model tends to shout “look at me”, “look at this shiny new product” and “look how fantastic this new product is, you need it”. Those messages across the board are so prolific these days that they lose their value and mean very little to the discerning consumer. The well-informed, brand-savvy audience wants to be engaged and wants to feel connected to a brand on a subconscious and emotional level.

This mood film doesn’t so much shout out “look at us” but rather stimulates the notion of innovation, progressiveness, efficiency, and vision - all positive attributes for Audi to be associated with. Of course the edited clips, the music and narration aid the delivery of such a message, but it’s the collective subtle execution that makes the desired impact on me at the very least. Brand communication like this helps position the brand as a forward-thinking institution, one that is right at the forefront of pushing technology to provide the best possible driving experience.

Audi has obviously put a lot of strategic thought into managing its brand presence as well as its evolving advertising campaign (a mixture of mood films and product specific adverts). They seem to have found the perfect balance between simultaneously promoting their products as well as their brand values without detracting one from the other. And whilst I don’t possess the means to buy into the Audi dream myself, I for one am sold on their vision for the future of automobiles.

Project Glass: A lesson in co-creation and dialogue

Sat, 05 May 2012 23:42:00 -0400

A little while back I blogged about the futuristic Project Glass by Google. In that post I spoke of my admiration for the manner in which the team at Google X lab had opened the doors to the public in a bid to get others involved in the products development. In the cocoon of a laboratory focussed on shaping the future it is easy to lose sight of the real world and how we operate to overcome everyday problems and perform everyday tasks.

I stand by my belief that sharing the concept with the outside world at this point in the process is a fantastic way of getting people interested in the product before launch, but is also a great way of addressing the concerns and potential issues that others envisage with the device.

I’ve been monitoring the Project Glass Google+ page and although the majority of the activity has been in the comments of viewers expressing their interest, there has been an exchange in this conversation. The question addressed was that of how Project Glass would work for wearers of prescription glasses - a logical but important question to ask.

Refreshingly the issue was acknowledged by Isabelle Olsson, an industrial designer on the Project Glass team and her response was complimented by a mock-up image to show a possible solution (see image above).

It seems like such a small thing to acknowledge a legitimate concern regarding the usability of a new product and encourage feedback, but this type of interaction and dialogue is unfortunately often lacking between manufacturers and consumers.

It will be interesting to see how the team continue to address the questions that those curious about Project Glass raise and no doubt such open dialogue in the development process will help make the final prototype a truly useful and user-friendly device.

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As a side note I really recommend viewing this interview with Sebastian Thrun, founder of Google X and founder of a new university Udacity. His passionate desire for a simpler, safer, smarter society through advanced technology and frank assessment of his progress in Artificial Intelligence is both refreshing and inspiring.

When life imitates art

Sat, 05 May 2012 22:06:00 -0400

There is always something poetic about life imitating art and the new advert for Audi is a very simple yet effective example of this. The fable of the Ugly duckling is one we are all familiar with from our childhood and it is that familiarity that the advert expertly plays on.

The historic car at the beginning of the film was too futuristic for onlookers in its day and very much like the ugly duckling in the tale was rejected for its difference in form and appearance.

But in true happy-ending fashion, that original concept that was rejected has now blossomed into a successful piece of automobile engineering. The scene when the old wagon sees a reflection of its modern day self in the shape of a new Audi A5 is a powerful conclusion to this mini narrative.

I love work like this mainly because it is further evidence of the power of storytelling and proves that if you can weave a narrative in and around a product and its unique feature (in this case the aerodynamic design), you allow your audience to connect with the story your brand is trying to tell on a meaningful maybe even sentimental level.

For those interested here is the making of the advert video.