trees are people too

To watch the whole process is mesmerising. Inspiration in motion.

I am sure many of you can relate. That sinking feeling when you are confronted by a (seemingly expansive) white page and literally limitless creative parameter, and are left with absolutely nothing.

There is no shortage of excuses. Too busy, too tired, too drunk. But what I should really be doing is writing an open letter of apology to you, blog, and getting on with getting on.

But sometimes, I just feel exactly like this:

And so begins my quest to find the ultimate cure to writer’s block. Or painter’s. Or musician’s. Or tax accountant’s. Or whomever, really. I have this strange suspicion that this quest may be more successful than the time I tried to eat only sushi for an entire week as a social experiment (for the good of the people, we had to know). Or the time I tried to ride a friends bike up the trunk of a tree to test the suspension. Both good and noble quests, but possibly less pragmatic than this.

And so I have called this ailment ‘creative constipation’, and the quest ‘the search for a literary laxative’. Has a  nice ring to it, don’t you think? In a discussion the other day I mused that the way I confronted writer’s block was just to get writing. Do, don’t think. Write and write until a scrap of something useful comes out. But perhaps this is less strategic than I thought. After all, surely first you need to think of something to write about before you can deal with the inability to write about it? (:sigh: I should have been a philosopher).

And so I begin my epic quest as always, seeking inspiration, answers and guidance online. This week we’ll start with items that have inspired others to write, and in the next episode we’ll move on to actual tactics. As you can see, excitement doesn’t necessarily equal motivation.

So, what’s been good? Luscious tune by the always incredible helios, remixed by stray, from the glorious Med School Records.

Some new art on my wall by Josh Keyes.

Visuals that make for misty eyes from Don’t touch my moleskin (and a lovely new blog design, also. Check it out.)

Less misty eyed, but certainly entertaining, is the new Tim and Eric short film, Father and Son.

Hell, I even tried chat roulette, but (as Jon Stewart demonstrates) this turned out to be a less rewarding than anticipated.

So much good stuff, it’s hard to not be inspired. And I feel a renewed lust for creativity now that I have discovered my new purpose. To work out how to be creative. Or something like that. It’s going to be my most rewarding quest yet. I can just feel it.

Tune in for the next episode, Actually embarking on a quest one has decided to embark on. And in the meantime, I’ll leave you with this to ponder.

It’s kinda like the red and blue pill from the Matrix movies, but with doors. And kittens.

There’s a lot of clever advertising out there. Snappy punchlines, cool camera angles and sexy people (c’mon, you know that is damned clever). But there’s clever and then there is clever. The latter is that type of advertising that sneaks up on you, usually so well camouflaged that you don’t realise it’s an ad at all. By the time you’ve clicked and recovered from your embarrassment (especially you, adland people), you then spend the next week nonchalantly mentioning it to friends as if you’d pretty much come up with the idea yourself, but couldn’t nail it because conservative clients had legal teams that had put a stop to it.

Think something like coca cola’s recent campaign for their new grip bottle that used velcro posters, a concept that literally stuck with consumers (although, as some pointed out, one that had potential to end in disaster). Using the same concept, Unicef spread a message about landmines, and then there is my personal favourite, a guerilla campaign for television series Dexter in Portugal, which literally scared the shit out of people to build awareness about the show. Each campaign worked hard to use a conventional space creatively and unconventionally, and although ROI is harder to measure, I have a pretty good idea how much attention I would be paying if the toilet I was using suddenly gushed with blood.

Ambient and experiential advertising seems to push these boundaries the hardest. Perhaps it’s because they have the tools to do it – we now have bus shelters that can emit smells, outdoor signage that can dispense samples and even advertisements that can recognise your response and react accordingly. But it doesn’t take crazy technology to make the smartest ads. It’s just a matter of thinking a little more imaginatively.

But how can digital advertising achieve this? How can we create something that is tactile, that elicits an uncontrollable reaction, that excites and inspires, that makes people want to reach out to the screen and touch it…(is it something like this, perhaps?) Digital suffers many of the same limitations of TV and video – we can show moving picture and sound, but we cannot create smell, taste or feel – but we have one huge advantage. We can interact with audiences.

There are limited examples of online advertising that really interact with the viewer. Somewhat surprisingly (considering the capabilities of the medium), the majority of concepts choose to go with the same stock standard banner ads, pop up displays and adwords. As the internet becomes more cluttered, however, there is going to have to be a shift in thinking. We’ll have to think outside the screen, so to speak. Beautiful websites just ain’t gonna cut it anymore, unless they are capable of something really cool. People will want to be surprised, delighted and intrigued; they will want tools and tricks that allow for this. Here’s our chance to make an online experience that is more than just beautiful and user-friendly. It can be memorable.

Alternatively, we’re just going to have to be really, really f*@cking funny. Either will require innovation.

Let’s get to it. And apologies for the use of italics, I was feeling overtly emphatic today.

Today marks the end of an era for me (unfortunately a relatively short one) at my first job in the way out world of advertising. Turns out it was not all that way out, but it is certainly turbulent.

Tomorrow I start my new job at interactive agency Visual Jazz, possibly one of Melbourne’s best interactive agencies, and I am terribly excited. For this reason this post shall follow a theme of things that are fresh, clean, new and good. And so they shall be.

For instance, how about a fancy new pair of chopsticks that double as weapons. Or perhaps some fresh insight into the lyrisicm of hip hop. I have even found a new found respect for the latest ghetto names.

A new method for finding stolen bikes, a new found aversion to tweeting too much, and a new love of cats (and stick figures).

Here’s to new beginnings, new journeys, new people and new experiences. I’m excited. Stay tuned for the next episode…

Just a quick one, for I have been frantic at work and at play. I have delved into the criminal world, built and ingested colourful things and started on slightly more academic indulgences (that’s right, I be book learnin’) as the winter months creep in.

But it was only recently that I discovered a new favourite blog – the fabulous photographic witterings that persuade me to look at this fucking hipster. I was always taught that looking smart is about possessing style, not being fashionable (of which I am neither, not fashionable nor stylish, in the conventional sense of the word) and so this website has brought me endless hours of pleasant bemusement and bewilderment. Is it cutting edge style? Victimless fashion? Do people truly have time to look so incredibly hideous?

Simultaneously, as I continue my quest for a more profound and precocious blogging style, it was with some delight that I discovered this story about the success of blogs being turned into books… one of them being my new found and fabulous documentation of hipsterisms. After long analysis of the development of print into hypertext and beyond, the communication of ideas and stories through digital platforms such as blogs, we often circled back to the question – could a blog be produced as a book… and would it work?

The general consensus was that as a book, blog content lacked all the qualities that made it so very intriguing – its ability to be conversational, easily disseminated, accessible, interactive, media rich and transient. But perhaps blogs that are predominantly image-based are different stories (pun intended). As mentioned in the article, we also have blogs such as the famous stuff white people like and the tasty this is why you’re fat being translated to print, perfect for bedtime reading.

It will be interesting to see what else transpires, and whether we might soon have Boing Boing: An Unabridged Directory, or Dlisted: True Tales of Horror. After all (and as the creator of latfh.com pointed out), why wouldn’t people want to buy a book of images they can get online for free??

The possibilities, it seems, are printable. Now please excuse me, I need to go and reserve my copy asap, for the eight copies of this will surely sell out fast.

What a fabulous concept and website this is from a digital agency that has just come to my attention, based in Sweden and known as Daddy.

Combining a beautifully designed website with all the things that are exciting about digital: interaction, discovery, accessibility, reach, integration, strategy and conversation… not to mention the inclusion of some of my favourite things – small trees and big words.

I am a little slow on the uptake (I missed the experiment, afterall) but needed to give props for such beautiful work. These are the kind of ideas and executions I want to be working with… Why must all the good things come from Sweden??

I am not sure such an accomplished digital agency exists here in Australia, but I am searching for it. Meanwhile we will continue to tinker with overworked web developers and under resourced digital strategy departments… sigh.

Big props to crackunit for bringing this lovely job to my attention. And for his unrelenting advocacy of the importance of digital. It feels good.

The japanese are the best purveyors of quirkiness. And frustration. I bought a birthday present for madcaow, but it wasn’t until we got it home that we realised you had to assemble it yourself… And thus, our friday night was made. Felt rav tbh. I think we did ok, for a first attempt. (No bloggers were harmed in the making of this series).

The production line had it all – disgruntled and embattled workers, harsh employment conditions and even some bloodshed. I am surprised there wasn’t calls for a union to be formed (must have been the ready supply of wine), but to our astonishment the final product somewhat resembled that which appeared on the box. It was a short moment of great pride. And then we found this:

Yes. It is true. Thank you for raising the bar, little brown bird’s dreams. I bow down to your felty goodness. (In our defense, she is from Singapore, which is closer to Japan than here). I feel there may be more inspired felty treats to come…

I have struggled a little this week, and so I went trawling the internet for some inspiration. Unfortunately I found some…

An inspiring place to work…

An inspiring piece of work… (although not unlike a hallucinogenic experience I had once, which makes it also somewhat alarming)

An inspiring diatribe on why you must keep creating….

And an inspirational artform (thankyou to the beautiful Sophie)…

I am trying to keep these in mind, and my inspiration alive, in this first week of dreary winter in melbourne… more to come.

Pardon me, but this is so fucking cool.

Yes, as indicated it is a Wes Anderson Film Festival. Currently only in conceptual stages, but I see no reason why it couldn’t be.

Props to you Alex Cornell. I only wish (like with so many things in my life) that it wasn’t hypothetical. Take over the world with well designed words.

This is where I work now.

Unfortunately I imagine that this is poignantly relevant to all creative organisations. All aboard the train to the CCO. Via Fubiz. Thank you for brightening my day despite speaking french.