Have Yourself a Merry Little … oh whatever

steven Published December 19, 2011
By steven

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Really, how tasty does that sound? And can one toast them without charring? These are the kinds of questions that plague me about holiday music. It all sounds so merry and bright but, how many of us get the pleasure of ride in a one horse open sleigh? Or a two-horse open sleigh for that matter?

We are accused in advertising of commercializing Christmas, but alas, that began eons ago when Santa first appeared as a Coke spokesperson. I won’t even go into the dubious connection of Santa to the birth of Christ; that is for another time, another blog, and mercifully, another blogger. But really, it’s not just advertising that commercializes the season, it’s the news, the schools, your Griswoldian neighbors that glitz up a holiday which is essentially a birthday party. Some may grouse that this holy date has grown to represent, in a secular world, the celebration of friends, family and love. Yet, as Elvis Costello so memorably said, ‘what’s so funny ‘bout peace love and understanding?’

Some say why can’t we celebrate Christmas every day? To that I say, no thanks. There is something special about this time of year, what with a renewed effort to be kind to our fellow passengers on this inexorable, and shared, journey toward death. There is hope and optimism that the new year will be better than the old one. There is time. Time to spend with sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, moms, dads, grams, and grandpaps. Time to time slow down and appreciate the time we have here with each other, time too easily taken for granted. And if everyday were so special, no day would be special.

I have learned to accept the fact that some, nay, many things are, and will forever be, beyond my control. While I will never understand the Bulls at Pamplona approach to Black Friday sales, I will respect the right of those who need to embrace such incomprehensible chaos to do so. I don’t have to agree with them or their motives, for mine are what matter to me.

Commercialism, while distasteful, is here to stay. While I abhor seeing Christmas decorations in Rite Aid in August, almost as egregious to my tastes are the ubiquitous holiday TV specials such as Simon Cowell’s X Factor Xmas. Speaking of which, let’s get the X back in Xmas, shall we?

My solution: address those things that are in one’s power and let the other stuff slide. Personally I will have my hands full doing all I can to avoid a certain Mr. Jack Frost getting anywhere near my nose.

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Commuting by design

jon Published November 30, 2011
By jon

My commute through Sonoma County Wine Country is a time of the day where I have 35 solid minutes of uninterrupted thought. I’ve been driving the back roads between my home in Sebastopol and the Firefly office in Healdsburg most days for the past few years and I consider myself very lucky to have such a beautiful commute. Watching the seasons change in the vineyards reminds me that the opportunity to work with our clients in the wine industry is a beautiful thing — wine is one of those rare businesses where the people involved are truly passionate about their work and I get to be a part of this picture.

Of course, being a designer, I find myself involuntarily obsessing over every bit of graphic signage on the road as I drive along and admire the natural beauty of Sonoma County. I can’t help but tear everything apart that I see for aesthetic beauty and balanced composition, legibility, font usage, etc. I’m afraid it’s actually to the point of obsessive compulsion that I have to avert my eyes every time I see something that has been poorly executed marring the landscape. The occasional good ones on the other hand, provide a small visual happy place every morning as I see them naturally blend into the scenic view rolling past in a peripheral blur.

I actually have a recurring fantasy of having the opportunity to redesign (or at least curate) every single piece of signage for an entire town — my dream project. Imagine rolling through a small town where every bit of visual communication has been carefully thought out and executed to keep in mind not only the beauty of the signage itself, but also how it fits in with the environment around it. I always think of it kind of like the Clint Eastwood movie, High Plains Drifter, where he art directs the townspeople to paint the entire town red as a greeting for some arriving visitors. His striking visual concept was not only spectacular in its wow factor but also unified every building in complete, perfect harmony. It must have been incredible to ride into town to that.

My favorite commute signage? Well, the winery signage is certainly all quite well-done — Merry Edwards, Martin Ray, J and Rodney Strong. Interestingly though, I have to say ­there’s also a real charm to the hand-made ones like Windmill Farms on Old Redwood Hwy. (the old, weathered one with the red letters, before it was painted over this year) and Gather outside Sebastopol.

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Well Done Jobs

matt Published October 24, 2011
By matt

You may have heard about this: a group in Kansas is planning to protest the funeral of the Steve Jobs. These protesters are a group that is well known for protesting the funerals of celebrities and soldiers. Their basis for protesting? They believe Jobs was selfish with his money, claiming that he wasn’t known for donating to any charities. Surprisingly, there is no word as to how the protesters distribute their money to charities.

The truth (I know, pesky, but sometimes facts do help): Jobs was credited as being the largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Many people also believe that Jobs may have donated large sums of money anonymously. But really, that is beside the point. Jobs was a businessman. A private businessman. Even if, as seems unlikely, he never donated one single penny to one single cause, does he really deserve to have his funeral publicly protested? Does anyone deserve that?

Remember his annual salary at Apple was $1. And, as we all know, Apple is one of the most profitable and successful companies in the world.

The most interesting thing about the protest? Word was spread far and wide by the protesters instantly and effectively by using a simple mobile device. Yes, you guessed it, the iPhone.

And everybody thought irony was dead.

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Creativity on Demand

christine Published September 27, 2011
By christine

Whenever we land a new account, I experience a rush of adrenaline and elation. Followed, almost immediately, by panic and shortness of breath.

What the hell made me think I could pull this off?

The world of advertising is all about creativity on demand. You’ve seen it on TV and in the movies ­– the crystalizing moment, usually accompanied by musical underscore, when the million-dollar idea materializes from some mysterious recesses of the brain.  The ‘Aha!’ moment, if you will.  In cold, harsh reality however, some days are sprinkled with fairy dust, but more often, the idea fairy took the day off. Unfortunately, deadlines don’t wait for the fairy’s muse.

So how does one reconcile the Mojo challenged periods with the realities of insertion dates and anxious clients?  After years of trial and error, I’ve come up with a few things that work for me.

  1. Coffee and Sugar. My most productive time of the day is between 9 a.m. and Noon. That creative sweet spot between the kick-start of my morning latté and the inevitable blood sugar crash at lunchtime.  Knowing this allows me to schedule meetings later in the day and take advantage of the peak creative time.
  2. Rituals. Whenever I begin a new campaign. I clean my office. File (or toss) the piles of papers and clear my desk. Eliminate the visual clutter that reminds me of all of the ‘other’ things I need to do.  It creates a blank canvas for my mind to start playing.
  3. Door English. Interruptions are the grim reapers of creativity.  We have an understanding here that if a door is firmly closed all the way, it means, ‘don’t bother me unless your hair is on fire.’ And even then, try to find someone else to douse it first.
  4. Inspiration. Nothing inspires me to do good work like looking at good work. When I feel stuck, I get away from my desk and peruse magazines, newspapers, comic books, etc. You name it, I read it ­– design pubs, Vogue, I never know what will spark an idea.  Great design makes me giddy. And to paraphrase Gordon Gekko, ‘Giddy is Good.’
  5. Start with the obvious.  I always start with producing exactly what the client is expecting to see. This lessens the pressure. Slightly. Once I’ve met their expectations, I like to push above and beyond. This frees me to contribute ideas and concepts they haven’t thought of yet. Ideally it also inspires them to think about their product, service or business in new and exciting ways.
  6. Smart Friends. Brainstorming with other people helps me get outside of my pre-conceived notions and opens up other worlds of possibility. It’s not important that they be in the field­ ­– in fact, it often helps if they aren’t ­– only that they are open, positive and not naysayers.
  7. Fear of starvation and public failure.  Nothing pumps the adrenaline more than the fear of standing up in front of a full boardroom with an empty PowerPoint presentation. I try to channel this fight or flee instinct into self-discipline and motivation to close Facebook, turn off e-mail and stay focused.
  8. Faith. I’ve learned over the years to trust myself. If I don’t panic, get enough rest and give my mind some breathing space, The Idea will come. And it will be good. Not every day is a Don Draper day. Thank God; the whiskey bill alone would kill me.
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To QR or not to QR

steven Published August 25, 2011
By steven

QR CodeSo the little Rorschach designs you see all around? They are QR codes. In an amazing bit of truth in advertising it stands for Quick Response. And it delivers. They are actually known as matrix barcodes. Just snap one with your phone’s camera (using a QR app of course) and then lo and behold, you are directed to a destination point, website, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, etc. for any one of a bazillion purposes: find out more about that wine you’re drinking right now, access discount coupons, find local retailers for your favorite goat cheese. It’s called hard linking by the way, this method of connecting the physical world to the ether universe.

It’s the latest (although not so by the time you read this) iteration in getting you one step closer from seeing something to taking action on said something.

Do I like it? Not sure. I tend to resist anything that feels like encroachment in those increasingly rare respites from the white noise of advertising and ubiquitous connection, which of course ironically, often makes us even more disconnected. For, alas, the idea of community has also evolved from face-to-face interpersonal relationships to remote friending, fanning, tagging and other pseudo verbs that paradoxically involve practically no action whatsoever.

In a world built around instant gratification, this is the next step. And it’s working. Take a peek at the next magazine you thumb through, and see just how many ads are accompanied by a QR. They are showing up on movie posters, wine bottles and gravestones everywhere. Yes, gravestones.  Those things usually accompanied by graves. A company in Seattle is now offering to put QR codes on burial markers. When a mourner scans the code he or she is directed to a website that features photos, highlights of the deceased’s life, and allows the visitor to leave messages, share stories, etc. See for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/3gpqyv8

The QR code is the latest tool in our lives (and now apparently deaths) in the constant quest to whittle down the time between a consumer digesting information and acting on said info to Nano seconds. And even that will seem too long for some.

For now, I say let’s see how this whole QR thing works out. If you buy the idea that more immediate access is a good thing, then QR is like an 8th Harry Potter book. If not, then it’s more stuff cluttering up your psyche that you just don’t need. Like an 8th Harry Potter book.

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