fight the un-words

Implementing results of curiosity.

My new desktop wallpaper seems to mirror things on my mind again. At the moment it’s pure motivation, deliverd by the trailer for “THE ALCHEMISTS”. (Also linked on Simon Law's Another Planning Blog.) So, inspired by this finding, I started thinking about a job or project driven wallpaper as a planning tool. It should have to contain all relevant data for one client’s project: important quotes, pictures, moods, the logo of course, some figures – altogether randomly placed around a questionmark representing my motivation: the search for the gold nugget. The insight.
Maybe some IT guys (generatorblog???) come up with an easy-to-use template to add, remove, or extend the wallpaper’s content. At the end, this might be a useful instrument to underpin a briefing. A successively built mind map for planners and creatives as well. Why not?
Perhaps something like this exists already. In that case I would be grateful for a hint/link.

How to canalise information?

Refering to a post I did some weeks ago, I want to refresh the think about how to canalise information.
It's our mission in the ad industry to do this with our clients’ information/brand. But the problem we are struggling with is the threadbare phrase: information overload. In the position of a planner or as a market researcher you are struggling with a massive amount of information as well. Finally, you face two questions.

a) Which channels do I have to use to get informed?

b) What information is relevant?

I tried to figure it out for myself, in order not to overload my colleagues with useless facts.
10 channels I use regularly:

1.   family/friends
2.   colleagues
3.   city and environment
4.   newspapers
5.   supermarkets
6.   radio
7.   news on telly
8.   bars/cafés
9.   russelldavies.com
10. tube/bus

Some things might be missing. Of course, I use the internet a lot. But there are only a few sites that really have an impact, compared to the people and real life around me.
But that just leads us to the second question: What is relevant?

I'd say "impact" is also a useful criterion to answer that question. Many experiences I made that changed my way of thinking were related with a kind of fear.
One example is my first visit of Brixton in 2003. I have to add that I had just moved to London. Before I lived in other big cities in Germany, but nothing compared to London. So, it really depends on someone's heritage what is frightning you. (And soon I got used to it.)
Another example was reading the interview with Jonathan Meese – see below. A third point is signalising its arrival, as I am reluctant to do it – my first interview for this blog.

I don't know wheather this made a point at all. A third question still needs to be answered: How do we implement the facts we gathered, in the process of creative planning?

Body language.

I know words transport only a tiny bit of what I want to let people know. The bigger amount is communicated by tonality, speed and amplitude of my voice, my body language or facial expression. (By the way: That's something many advertisers ignore the most, I suppose.) But this vocabulary is new to me. I hope it will help you – I am going to check some pieces of it tonight.

Product is image.

I've read an article in the German trade press about Ritter Sport. To whom this brand is not aware: It's a chocolate brand ranked second behind the German market leader Milka. I was surprised to find following statement: "Ritter-Sport schickt eine Kampagne ins Rennen, die Produkt- mit Image-Werbung verbindet." (Engl: Ritter-Sport is airing a campaign that combines product and image adertising.)

Pardon. Isn't it manifested in the "Professional Brand Management Act of 1689" that your product constitutes your image – more than anything else?

In conclusion: Don’t even think about something like a separation of product and image.
I'm looking forward to a discussion on this topic. I know there are other schools of thought.

Desktop publishing.

I noticed that I'm one of these guys who is changing his desktop wallpaper on regular basis. So, I've just decided to share my desktop with anybody who's interested in it. This one is the current one.

 I kind of created it today. It's a perfect mixture of what's on my mind these days. A little bit of Quiet Storm, some helpful guidelines by Russell Davies – How to be interesting – co-created by signgenerator.org as well as some "Banksy" aside. The wonderful British dwelling house* with the backyard is representing my dream: to work in the account planning department of a London based advertising agency. If you look on the right you can see there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be sorted. Usually, that doesn't mean anything good. It's a sign for a temporary confusion I guess. 'Cause actually I’m a big fan of a clean desktop. If you look on the bottom left hand side of the picture you can see how it should look like. Hopefully I'll get it done before I have to publish the next wallpaper.
*) Image courtesy of chslondon.com

The following wallpaper is the one I had before. It's a photo of Regent Street with, yes, the "be interesting list" in the front – don't mind the spelling mistakes. If you find one – it's yours. (Same applies to my entire blog;-)

Unexpected items.

Just a small thing that made my day. (It might be a pi for the "spell with flickr" thing. Anyway.)

Street Art.

I once shared a flat with a guy who was in street art. He introduced me to some celebrities from the scene. Now, I have recently found an article in the modart magazine. They wrote about the drivers of street artists and street art and prepaired a TOP FOUR LIST: "What exactly is it about street art that makes it so incredibly intriguing and alluring for people...?" – as written in the modart magazine:

1. Location, Location, Location.

2. Surprise and delight.

3. Must have something to say.

4. Personal.

I found some work of guys my flatmate told me about and have to say that it’s still impressing. Probably the most lively underground scene and yet not noticed at all by the public – although we pass their work every day. Keep your eyes open! Pretty likely they become as famous as Picasso one day. And you crossed their work and did not even notice the opus.