Wow! What an interesting week it has been. At Burson-Marsteller (B-M), we just completed the first Digital In Action program at our offices here in NYC. Just to provide a bit of context, Digital In Action is an intense, 2 day seminar aimed at helping B-M employees from disciplines across the company to be able to apply Digital to the way they help their current rosters of clients.

While the first phase of digital training that took place in early 2007, Digital Bootcamp, was designed to bring everyone in the company up to speed with the new digital landscape, Digital In Action took those efforts to the next logical step in showing them how to apply that knowledge to the way they help their clients. In other words, phase I was “this is a Wiki/blog/social network” while phase II was “here are the tools you need to go out and put all of this new knowledge in action.”

It was a great 2 days. I had the pleasure of being a faculty member and team leader for the 2 day session and the group I led was so inspired, they immediately began work on a digital action plan they hope to propose to an existing client within the next 2 weeks! What’s remarkable about this is that these individuals are not from our digital practice. They are traditional PR, advertising and communications professionals who work within B-M. Many of whom began their careers prior to the start of the Internet age.

This week’s program was the first of many to come. Eventually these sessions will be rolled-out globally within B-M. I’m excited about the change we can bring and the prospect of really helping to shape B-M so that the company can help define modern PR in the 20th century just as it did in the 20th century. Judging by the level of excitement generated this week within the company, I have no doubt that will happen.

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Wow! It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged! And the perfect first thing to get me blogging again is this video (I stumbled upon it on David Armanios’ blog, Logic + Emotion), where a couple is breaking up over dinner. More specifically, the woman (who represents “consumers”) is breaking up with her boyfriend (who represents “advertisers” and definitely traditional advertising in general).

This video is hilarious! Especially the part where the smarmy advertiser insists “What do you mean I don’t know you? I know you, you’re 28-34…” or “I know what you want….. COUPONS!”

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that one of the most remarkable things about this video is that the creator is a Trade Marketing Manager for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions!

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I saw this on the Mashable blog earlier today and instantly was hooked. OnMyList allows you to create your own top 10 (or whatever the number) lists that you can share with others and allow them to vote or comment on.

Here are my top 5 lists for vacation destinations and favorite sports teams.

More to come!

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The other day, the creative director at my company who is my counterpart on the print design side overheard a discussion between me and our digital senior art director and blurted out “You web guys have it sooooo easy!”

When we asked him why, he replied “You don’t have to spend so much time dealing with typography, kerning, widows, etc. because that stuff is not possible on the web.” Of course, our digital AD shot back “You print guys have it easier than we do because what ends up on the printed page is the same for everyone whereas we have to deal with varying monitors, fonts, browsers and bandwidth.”

Of course, being the only one of us three who has spent at least 8-9 years in the print world and then also in the interactive world (3 of those years overlapped the two worlds), I can honestly say there are unique challenges that designers in both worlds face. Having said that, I would say designers who design for the digital space have it a bit harder. Here’s why. (more…)

After openly criticizing the AIGA in both these, and other forums, as well as my blog, this past week I became a member of the AIGA.

OK, part of it was because I have not been a member of one of our industry’s major organizations and felt it was time that changed. But of course there were tons I could have chosen to join (and some I still may end up joining) but my first choice was the AIGA.

Why?

I think partly because I felt like if I really wanted to see change within the industry’s largest organization, that change may need to happen from within. I suppose another reason would be because I felt encouraged by certain changes and new initiatives happening within the AIGA that I found encouraging.

I think finally I joined because I felt that the AIGA simply must change and maybe it was time for me to put my money where my big fat mouth is and at least say that I was part of an effort to bring about that change, rather than shooting off my mouth from the sidelines.

Either way, it’s too late now. They’re stuck with me! Heaven help them!!!

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I just read this article that was linked to from the AIGA Diversity Initiative web site, originally published in Step Inside magazine, called “White Space“. Now for most designers, the term “white space” takes on a very clear meaning, dealing with the amount and proportion of white space allocated within a design. But in this article, “white space” deals with the fact that our industry is still very lacking in diversity and that this is an unsustainable fact that threatens to marginalize our industry as the color and ethnic composition of our nation changes in the 21st century — out of proportion with the rate of change in the design field.

Thoughts?

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Ever been to a dinner party where everyone knows each other, shares common interests and the group is engaged in a conversation where everyone is involved and allowed to participate? Now imagine that how you would have felt if someone you did not know had entered the party, occupied one of the seats and interrupted the conversation to tell you all about how they were doing, about their great job and all the wonderful things that they were up to.

To say the least you’d be put off by such an intrusion. Regardless of what this individual was really like as a person, your first impression of them would be that they are rude, ill-mannered and completely self-absorbed because they have shown no interest in easing themselves into your group, gracefully entering the conversation and becoming a part of the overall group dynamic.

While very few of us would ever act this way in the real world, many PR professionals, members of the media and marketers find themselves making these types of social faux pas on a daily basis in social applications all over the Internet. (more…)

This is a very clever cartoon I found on Tina Roth Eisenberg’s blog. I think most creatives have met at least a few of these types of critics at one time or another.

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Excellent motion graphics/typography excercise by SCAD student and motion graphics designer Jarratt Moody. The students had to take a piece of audio from a film, answering machine message, etc., and add motion graphics typography to it. Jarratt chose one of my favorite films of all time, Pulp Fiction. Play the video but definitely put your headphones on first!

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This is a 5 minute video I found on another blog. It’s an interesting summary of the basics of Web 2.0 called The Machine is Us/ing Us, by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

OK, I know I promised that podcasts would resume a little while ago and I even recorded a podcast around the time I said I would. Problem is that apparently the new version of Skype on the Mac is terrible with regards to echo cancellation. I recorded a podcast that is completely unusable because it is full of echo on the side of the interviewee.

Thankfully Secret Cameraman from Beach Walks with Rox turned me onto a piece of software called Gizmo Project. Gizmo project is great! It works just like Skype in terms of allowing you to make free computer-to-computer calls as well as cheap computer-to-land/cell phone calls. Best of all, it has built-in recording capability so I don’t have to use software like AudioHijack.

Stay tuned, I’ll try to have a podcast out for Christmas. Ho, ho, ho!!!

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At the last agency I used to work for, there was a large poster that hung in one of the common areas that read “Next life, I’m coming back as a client!”

We’ve all had our share of experiences with difficult clients — which may or may not be the same thing as bad clients. Bad clients are perhaps the types who don’t pay, pay very late, don’t respect boundaries (i.e. calling your cell phone at 11pm to discuss the most recent comp direction) or are verbally abusive.

Difficult clients can perhaps be good clients if maybe uninformed clients or clients who are new to the design process. The excellent blog A List Apart has published (yet another) fantastic an insightful article entitled “In Defense of Difficult Clients”. In it, author Rob Swan writes:

These clients represent the ultimate test: They require that we explain why frames are bad. Why cross-browser compatibility is a serious issue. Why the use of “click here” is considered inappropriate. Why we now consider the web to be a medium in which vertical scrolling is acceptable. They test our knowledge and they test our patience.

We all know why our methods are best practices, but can we justify them? Because there’s no getting unjustified statements past these clients, and there’s no bamboozling them with buzz phrases and marketing spiel. You have to justify each of your points in plain, simple English, whether it’s a usability concern, a standards issue, or a design choice. (more…)

Mike Rohde, of the Rohdesign Weblog, was good enough to forward a wonderful article to me this morning. The article, The Thin PMS 185 Line, is an excellent critique of the graphic design industry written by Andy Rutledge.

I’ve not read Andy’s writings before but something tells me I will in the future. Andy, apparently not one to waste time, begins the article with a bang in writing:

What follows is a critique of the traditional graphic design community and its various instruments, albeit from someone other than a traditional graphic designer. I don’t write this article in order to bring ridicule upon graphic designers, but rather to shine a light on misguided practices and destructive ideals I want kept out of my own segment of the community – interactive/experience design.

Wow! Nice preamble. Instantly I was intrigued. What “misguided practices”, or better yet, which ones? I, along with some of my podcast guests, have been critical of the design industry at times so I was interested to hear what his observations were. He goes on to write: (more…)

Next week we’ll resume with the The Prepared Mind Podcasts! Thanks to all of you who have listened in the past and hopefully the latest podcast, #14 by now, will be heard by a few new listeners as well.

We’ve got some really interesting guests lined up and I’m going to try and do them once a week but a lot is going to depend on the interviewee’s schedule. But I’ve got to say, it feels good to get back into podcasting again. Thanks also to those of you who have dropped me a line over the months and let me know that you’ve missed them. It should be exciting as I’m trying some new things in terms of the technology and format. Let’s see how it goes!

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It’s Election Day here in the U.S. and Americans across the country must decide between U.S. Senators, Representatives, state and local officials and numerous ballot measures. What’s interesting is that almost immediately, early this morning after voting began, reports about malfunctions with respect to voting machines began to come in from all over the country.

Now for most who know me, there is little doubt about where I stand on political issues. That’s for other blogs, not this one. But regardless of which side you come down on, it seems like the richest and most powerful country on the planet ought to be able to get the process of voting correct! I mean, at this point, why not go the route of the Iraqis and get the ink pads out? You’d think that after the 2000 presidential debacle in Florida, that the most powerful country in the world would have figured out a way to get it right. Make sure that every vote counts. Make sure that the process of recording precious votes was flawless and rigorously tested. (more…)