Usually this blogspace is reserved for my meanderings on tech, design, adverts and the communications world. Today’s post is a bit more personal. Two weeks ago I decided to make a big change and for the first time, leap before I looked. So of course, the “why”…

In essence, I simply felt the need to freely practice what I preach. I realize it’s never going to be perfect, but my passion for social ideas/innovation/behaviors drive me towards something new and different. Recently I was confronted with the question: “why are you so ‘into’ this social media thing?” After a quick chuckle, roll of the eyes and rebellious “duh?” –I realized it may not be so clear. It comes down to something I’ve said many many times before. It’s not “social media” persay–I’m interested in ideas that are social: social networks, behaviours and activities and the technologies that facilitate it.

I’m searching for the deeper insights into human behavior (which isn’t so unusual for a “planner” type). Not necessarily just the “purchase intent behavior” but connected behaviors. How we connect to each other, to what we call “media” and of course those other things we call “brands.” I stumbled on this fantastic quote from the amazing Nick Christakis’ TED blog post:

Fundamentally, I suppose this topic sits well with my perception of humanity. We are, first of all, not solitary creatures and second of all, we are deeply embedded in the lives of others. It’s very easy to forget that and to engage in an atomistic fallacy — where we think that all we have to do is study the individual components of a system in order to understand the system. That’s clearly not the case when it comes to social systems. This realization was very much to my liking, intellectually and otherwise. We cannot understand our humanity just by studying individuals.

Well, all said, I’m out in the world determined to help make great social ideas come to life and become a part of culture. Inspired by my peers, driven to help create something awesome, I truly believe this is the most exciting time ever to be a part of this industry. There are incredible people in it, amazing ideas out there and technology to make your every whim come true if you really want it. Let’s see what we can create together…

Image: from my little camera under the gigantic “thinking tree” in Balboa park…

Image (Emily Forgot for Selfridges, London)

Image: Pentagram for Endeavor Middle School, Brooklyn NY

(Image: NYC Library, wifi hotspot)

We always say “it’s about creating experiences” yet still relatively unexplored is the idea of incorporating rich digital experiences into physical spaces/design. Not just a “well designed piece” of technology (the slick LCD screen or touch interface), but truly having digital experiences built (mindfully) into the design. Will be amazing to see how we can start to “paint” with digital.

So Apple does it again ‘eh?  With orders for the iPad topping 50,000 in the first two hours of pre-order, earning a reported $75M in the first day, the iPad may just be the “next” iPod. Just what the world needs another gizmo right? Well, the cynic in me would love to say that (and who knows, five years from now, may look at this and laugh) but this could truly re-define publishing.

Many have questioned what makes this truly unique. Isn’t it just a flat, less versatile version of a netbook? Well, it could be unless publishers and advertisers don’t make use of the unique gestural capabilities. Faris Yakob’s December 2009 predictions alluded to gestures being a huge part of 2010, and lo and behold, here it is.

It’s not just going to be translating what was “paper” into an iPad interface, nor is it a banner ad of the 2000’s meagerly disrupting a user’s experience: this is about creating a new kind of user experience. This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to push our boundaries of creativity and push into a new “medium”–play and have fun again.

What is unique about this interface? A popular theme of mine, humanizing technology. The touch screen does just that. Makes it tactile. There isn’t that physical separation of space anymore–the direct interaction with information is electric and “bonds” the user to the machine (I know how strange that sounds). And of course being Apple, the design is exquisite. Beautiful and light, I saw one in person a few days ago, a young developer playing with it (in San Francisco of course). And it is quite magnificent.

Penguin books have consistently stayed fresh (reviving classic covers with fresh illustrations), but their iPad capabilities could take them into a space of recapturing those “lost readers”. They’ve “imagined” some of their future with the iPad. While the mainstream “grown-up” market will probably take the lions share of the attention once launched, I think the opportunities for children could be amazing. Making those wonderful children’s books come to life in this space could be amazing.  Imagine Harold and his purple crayon dancing, playing and drawing in the hands of a 2-year old–what an amazing outlet for creativity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And the magazines are seeing their futures perhaps a bit brighter with this innovation. Everyone from Wired, to Conde Nast to Sports Illustrated are giddy for where their pubs may go (and the money they may just revive).

And flighty and superficial as this sounds, as a consumer, I see this as a huge opportunity for a lighter travel bag. I cannot bear to carry around another September issue of Vogue or 500 page hardcover. This is gonna be good…

Inspired by a recent conversation with the most awesome Edward Boches, I wanted to take a minute or two and talk about the evolving role of planning in agencies. Granted there are countless posts on “what is planning”  from people far wiser than I, but I will make my little attempt here to talk about some actions we can start really implementing.

First of all awesome folks like Mr. Boches, John Winsor, Ben Malbon, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Mel Exon but to name a few are leading the charge to a smarter way to approach the strategic process. All of these folks inspire me everyday to push forward and continue to try to be that “catalyst for change” (urgh, gross marketing language. Apologies). Now it’s time to start taking what we’re learning and making the change happen.

As planners, we started understanding our profession as the “voice of the consumer”, which is still relevant in some respects. However, that has changed because the consumer has their OWN voice now (gasp, I know). So what to do? Well, we’ve evolved to embody a business consultant/strategist all in the neat little package of creative thinker/inspiration. Throw in some savvy research abilities in there and you have the role of a planner in many of agencies. Whoa.

At the nifty little planning conference back in October, the rally cry began for us to really start to CREATE more and bring more to the process. Adrian Ho and Rob White from Zeus Jones challenged us to think about Modern Brands.  How do we integrate all the “new” mediums, technologies and ways people are connecting into our work? Jason Oke and Gareth Kay redefined how we think about “Connections Planning”, Frank Striefler (with myself in a supporting role) reminded us that advertising doesn’t matter as much as we like to think and challenged us to create value by investing in people/ideas and breeding advocates. And if you were like me you started with SO much enthusiasm and excitement to “make stuff”. And then reality hit. And now it’s 6 months later…

I pose a few ideas that I feel have helped changed my perspective of what I do. I don’t want to sound preachy (but inevitably will), because I’m far from perfect. But I do feel that if we start thinking about things we can start doing we will unearth something really quite neat. I encourage you to chime in with your thoughts, it’s only the start of the list. And I hate the sound of my own voice…

Experiment, play and understand. Be a voyeur, better yet, be a participant…there are so many interesting experiments and fun things going on the interweb. Chatroulette terrified me, so I made friends try it for me and report back (some things scary, some things insightful) or participate in web experiments like the wildly awesome the3six5 project or little scraps of paper, (great explorations in lifestreaming and creative processes) or set up a Kickstarter project for your community. There’s so much to do, but you must be willing to  try. Inspiration for a great connections insight could very well lie in this kind of experimentation. And if not, it’s just fun. And no one can take this knowledge away from you.

Be social. Talk to your friends in the industry and almost more importantly, far outside of it (hello lovely people!). Engage in social media. Start talking, eventually people will listen. Or die trying. There are so many incredible people in the Tweetverse to learn from. Some are stateside, many from outside. I discovered Made by Many through Twitter, and find them hugely insightful and inspirational. Learn from new folks with divergent perspectives, it makes you better. Listen from within as well (media, PR, creative, digital, search…), insights are everywhere if you’re open to them.

Think content strategy. Now. Yes, it’s one more thing that we need to get a (fast) handle on. The essence is that we have a whole “changing world” of communications and social media is a massive part of it (duh). And if you’re anything like me, scrambling to figure out how to integrate it into your “normal” strategic processes. It’s building models to shape our thinking around creating a cohesive content strategy. Models that will likely need to change within the time you “start” the deck and finish it. Accept it. Breathe. Iteration.

Note, not talking about a “social media” strategy, but a content strategy. It’s less about the medium itself- it’s not *just* about having a mere “presence” in social, but doing something worthwhile in the space. Of course you have to understand where it goes to make something truly relevant and engaging (with the “right” people), but helping to shape those inherently ’social ideas’ (thank you Gareth Kay) that turns into content is hugely important part of what we can do.

Re-think the brief. It is what we do, I’ve come to accept it. Changing what a brief means can be a great means of starting to change the paradigm. Realizing that the “piece of paper” isn’t going anywhere (except for perhaps an iPad brief, which would rock my world), we’ve got to think about ways to express and inspire in fun new ways. A video montage?  An offsite? Perhaps dressing up and rapping a brief? OK, perhaps not the last one. But that would be awful entertaining… Also realize that there is no “passing of the baton” anymore–the brief is just the beginning for us. It is the era of the iterative brief. Evolve, be flexible, and know when to stand up for what you believe in when you have to. I know this is redundant, but it’s really about creating ideas/stuff, not just the set up or “the deck”.

Be genuine, treat your teams with the utmost respect. There was a disturbing article in AdAge recently that talked about  the brief writing process and it actually made my stomach turn. “Talk to the Creatives on Your Shop’s Team Like They’re in Kindergarten” Needless to say it was riddled with self-righteousness and ridiculous claims that things need to be dumbed down for briefing/development. There’s a difference between making things understandable and digestable and being childishly simplistic. We lose key ideas if we make things too simple–sometimes three words just won’t cut it.

Don’t be afraid to consider yourself “creative” You are by trade, in a creative profession. Some of you will think this goes without saying, but there are some who are afraid of tiptoeing over into creative strategy. While this is just my opinion, creative thinking should come from every orifice of an agency. Don’t limit yourself. If it’s an authentic part of who you are, don’t hide from creativity. Be fearless (you’re gonna get shot down a few times), be open to conversation and take the time to learn from your creative department.

Put some madness back into method. Wise words from Devika Bulchandani when talking about how planners are often seen as putting method into madness, the reverse is really what is true. Take a bunch of disparate pieces of information (consumer insights, connections insights, digital technologies) and try your hardest to pull together. It’s not easy and I can’t say that I’ve done it perfectly myself quite yet, but it is our constant challenge.

Again, I welcome more ideas, recognize that this list is HARDLY exhaustive, so let’s start creating together.

Recommended watching: RedScout’s series on the future of planning.  http://vimeo.com/redscout

(image via Behance Anna Rusakova)

Healthcare is one of the biggest issues facing North America right now–regardless on where you fall on the political spectrum health care (I’m Canadian, so it’s no real secret where I fall..) it is one of the few things we can TRULY say is a matter of life and death. What about designing a better healthcare experience? This is a massive question that designers and healthcare professionals around the world are attempting to address, and by no means will even come close to answering here, but I hope to at least get you thinking on it…

A great post from Frog Design started with this note from Florence Nightingale:

“It is a curious thing to observe how almost all patients lie with their faces turned to the light, exactly as plants always make their way towards the light; a patient will even complain that it gives him pain ‘lying on that side.’ ‘Then why do you lie on that side?’ He does not know — but we do. It is because it is the side towards the window.”

Healing begins and ends with a human experience. It’s something that rarely gets the attention it should. Whenever you enter a hospital-regardless of how “good” it is-it can be mind boggling how cold and as a result, downright frightening, the experience can be. But it doesn’t have to be. We know so much about designing better tools, better technology, better experiences, it’s about time we all start thinking about how to make the patient experience just a bit better.

Evidence Based Design is a term that’s incredibly important to this sector and essentially boils down to having any innovation be subject to a process as stringent as a clinical trial. Which makes some mind-boggling design innovation just a bit slower…but it’s not impossible.

Now I’m not talking about a Frank Gehry monument, it’s about using technology to design better experiences. London designers Priestmangoode propose hospital wards modeled on health spas and beds like those in first class airline cabins. It’s an interesting experiment, and in the least it gets you thinking about the future and what it may look like.  They have a compiled a great manifesto on health to get you thinking more about the impact of design on health care (here). It would be so amazing to see technology and design find that perfect intersection for the world of health care. And maybe, just maybe we can get a health care bill passed to boot (sorry, political undertones…)

Images via Deezen

Warby who?

Warby Parker people. And for all of us who relish in our four-eyed status (it’s the ONLY way for this gal!), but hate paying over $500 for a pair of new specks, these guys are a dream come true. Funky, vintage-inspired glasses for under $100. That in and of it self should be pure awesomeness, but hold on there’s more. Great value and good design? Check.

For every pair they sell they give one to a person in need (AKA the TOM’s model). Fantastic. Social goodness baked in? Check.

Now for their model. Completely web-based-tricky for something that relies so heavily on how it looks on your face. Their solution? Make it easy. You can try a pair on virtually-upload picture and see how the glasses look. Not perfect, so they also give you the option of having the ship up to 5 frames to you and trying them on. Completely free.

And if you need more awesomeness/”modern brand” talk. Just take a gander at their naming inspiration:

“We’ve always been inspired by the master wordsmith and pop culture icon, Mr. Jack Kerouac. Two of his earliest characters, recently uncovered in his personal journals, bore the names Zagg Parker and Warby Pepper. We took the best from each and made it our name.

Kerouac inspired a generation to take a road less traveled and to see the world through a different lens”

Enough said.

http://www.warbyparker.com

Nicholas Feltron, the amazingly brilliant designer dedicated to data, made famous by documenting his every action and encounter in extreme detail. While many of us chronicle our lives through our social media identities (facebook, twitter, foursquare…) for Feltron, it was something different. His mission is about learning and teaching. And the results are magnificent.

If you are smart enough to look beyond your own nose and wonder why on earth anyone would even care about such things, think of the kinds of things one could potentially LEARN from such an explorations. All kinds of information on motivators, behavioural triggers and emotion. Sounds more interesting now doesn’t it? A great quote from the WSJ:

Everyone creates data — every smile, conversation and car ride is a potential datapoint. These quotidan aggregators believe that the compilation of our daily activities can reveal the secret patterns that govern the way we live. For students of personal informatics, the practice is liberating because it shows that our lives aren’t random, and are more orderly than some might expect.

This isn’t a completely novel idea, it reflects the motivation behind Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue Chart-yet the final product he creates is mesmerizing-ly awesome. Feltron is an artist and he turns all this data into something of true beauty. Data visualization is such a fascinating art, and is growing in popularity by the day as we all become just a little more data obsessed in our everyday lives. Feltron is a true master of the art.

I’m waiting for my letterpress copy (yes, I’ve already ordered it).

Order yours here:

http://feltron.bigcartel.com/

Eagerly awaiting but until then they have shared a few images of the process:

(Images via: Swayspace Blog)

Hello all, resident Digital Misfit here.

Digital Misfit is a title I gave myself around work as I mess and muddle around with all things digitally good and try my best to be the best digital badass I can be (in the kindest, most Canadian sort of way). Apologies for being a bit silent lately, some potentially very fun things in the cooker, including a bit of an overhaul of this little blog space. As a result I may be missing for a bit longer (sorry mom). Can’t wait to share with you. It’s all delightfully scribbled on the back sheets of old briefs right now, all I need is a bit of technical prowess (yes techie friends, read: I’m coming after you for advice) I’m crossing my fingers it’ll work. And if not, I’ll be back on here soon, sharing more interestingness that comes my way.

In the interim, if you’re interested please follow my meandering thoughts in the twitterverse: http://twitter.com/thaz7

Technology began as an austere, cold concept. Technology as we understand it going into 2010 has evolved so far from those fearful notions of Y2K in 1999. In 1999 computers and technology were helpful parts of life, yet still feared. Uncertainty, uncontrolled-lest we forget the sheer terror of the clock striking midnight December 31, 1999? What is this machine capable of when the numbers changed?  But times are a changing as we shift into a new decade. Technology is yet again re-born with a more human face. And no, I’m not talking about Max Headroom.

But how and why did this happen? Well, it started when innovation found a soul and beating heart. And then the magic began. The machine became less…machine-y. Thanks to brands like Apple, technology became approachable and easy.  Designed FOR humans and the way they interact and behave rather than just pure utility. Techno-phobes, who were plagued with deep-set fears of being unable to program a VCR began to dissipate. Technology became our friend and trusted partner.

Then this little thing called social media emerged. And suddenly (actually not so suddenly) technology wasn’t so scary any more. It became what connects us to other people, places and things in our lives that truly matter. “Googling” became the way to answer life’s great questions. And soon enough, life without technology was a distant memory.

I don’t often write about a single campaign persay, but this is going to be an exception. The Google Chrome work is just too good to not talk about here. BBH Labs London/NYC and Glue have put together a fabulous series of video vignettes in support of Google Chrome-bringing to life the heart and functionality of the Chrome browser.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a case study epitomizes so many things that illustrate the “best in show” of campaigns: storytelling, a “big idea” (and to some degree, a series of smaller ideas that build into a big idea) and extraordinary creative execution.  Watching “the making of” is quite an experience. The meticulous (and potentially dangerous!) use of mercury, harpists delicately interpreting the finest motions (wearing a mask) and the absolute passion of the crocheting director is awe-inspiring. And it made cold technology something warm and inviting. It was a human experience. In that beautiful notion of life and art meeting technology. In a very Google sort of way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is a “google experience” –to anyone who attended the recent planning conference reading this, let’s go back to that session building apps for Chrome. We learned that everything about google is about solving user problems without ever disturbing the user experience. Seamless integration. But it always comes back to being about appealing to the most human needs in technology. This campaign is an artful, fun and approachable manifestation of that idea.

You MUST read this article from BBH Labs to get a true appreciation:

http://bbh-labs.com/google-chrome-behind-the-scenes

Now that we’ve been grounded in what this amazing period was about, it’s time to start connecting it to what’s going on right now. I believe the greater learning in studying the Bauhaus is rooted in the notion explored in 1923 by Walter Groupius: “Art and technology: A new unity“. This takes on a whole new meaning in the world we live in today, yet is just as profound and “new” a concept today as it was in 1923. This incredible convergence of these two massively impact filled worlds is yet again, changing the consumer world.

There is a growing desire to maximize this bond-fuse into something spectacular that yes, perhaps even is commercial. Commercial has the opportunity to find it’s way OUT of being a dirty word if it’s done RIGHT. Coming back to some planning language, this is contingent on what is core to being a MODERN BRAND. Modern brands will live at this intersection of art and technology and still have expansive commercial appeal. It IS possible. Great examples exist with brands like Method, Uniqlo and IKEA.

In a very simple and tangible example of Bauhaus influence is with IKEA. Mats Nilsson, IKEA’s design strategist, had mentioned in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, that the  company’s ideology is inspired by the Bauhaus, especially the idea that high-design objects could be affordable to the masses. According to Nilsson, “this was Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius’s ground-breaking idea, while the machine aesthetic he worked with in his days was a bit hard for many to like and accept.” The modern styling and mass creation is reflective of the Bauhaus clean, simple style and ethos is definitely defining to IKEA, but stopping to say that IKEA = Bauhaus would be an unfair assumption.

So many other influences of the Bauhaus exist to this day, many architecture and design as the Bauhaus faculty and graduates fled Nazi Germany, Groupius teaching at Harvard and spreading the ideals of Bauhaus to North America. Ideals of simple modern design are still prevalent in many of the most famous buildings in the world, as well as typographical impacts and the profound impact on the “fine art” world as well (still some of the most revered artists of our time came from the Bauhaus). The ideals of Bauhaus will live on forever, but the impacts should be taken in by ALL of us, not just our design counterparts. There is so much to learn and uncover for the future of great products and great thinking to come.