Love Your Mind

Happy World Mental Health Day people!

What does that really mean? The Mental Health Foundation & many leading charities focus on  awareness of mental illness - which is an important cause nonetheless, however I support a campaign run by Mindapples that encourages everyone to look after their minds, whether they have had experience of Mental illness or not. The campaign asks people to think of their individual 'Mindapples' - an activity/task unique to them that they can do to make them feel better. In the same way that we are taught to look after our bodies, Mindapples wants everyone to look after their minds on a daily basis, by thinking of the '5-a-day for their mind'. The campaign has a really nice approach, that is all inclusive - people from all ages and backgrounds need to take care of their minds, and be aware that we are all vulnerable to stress and anxiety, that can lead to further problems if we are not more aware of our mental wellbeing.
So this World Mental Health day, think of what you like, what makes you happy - be it going for a walk, hugging a friend, singing a song, baking a cake or having a beer - then go forth & enjoy! For it really pays to LOVE YOUR MIND.

Sisters are doing it for themselves

Monday saw Shesays holding the first of it's 'TEDx' style events at The Hospital Club for SuckerPunch - all about women making a change in how business is run.

Pamela Ryckman, journalist and author of The Stiletto Network, really set the tone for an energetic and motivating evening. In her book, she has researched and discovered mini networks of women all over the States and UK, gathering together and becoming a force to be reckoned with.
 She told how formidable ladies from a range of industries, formed natural friendships, through meeting for dinner, then going on to either provide support or form strong business relationships. These meetups were informal, friendly and open to whoever was interested. In an organic and female way. Women were genuinely seeking to help eachother out, form bonds, trust and create a more balanced working society.

She realised this was happening all over, with small groups thinking they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, not realising they were part of a growing phenomenon.
By creating this sort of interaction, women were now feeling empowered to set up on their own, or challenge themselves in the workplace, not being afraid to move up the ranks. They now had someone they could call on they could relate to. Women could be professional, yet feminine - without trying to conform or fit into a male orientated industry. It became a strategic support network. She cited examples of the likes of Kim Moses - Founder of one of the most downloaded apps for Warner Bros, and other female leaders now at board level in their companies.
Pamela explained, by achieving this sort of status, women will change the way business is run. They have a different attitude. A different way of looking at things, and a different approach to business. they are the ones writing the cheques. They will invest in other women. They will donate time and energy to female related causes. They will push forward laws that see a more equal balance in the workplace, and in society. Women will change the world.


"We’re moving away from the corporate model. We’re coming into an era where women have the skill sets and core value systems. Being collegial, collaborative, leaving your ego at the door… being able to work in a non-hierarchical environment, listening, attuned to intuition." -THE STILETTO NETWORK


And this is exactly how Sarah Bradley and Karla Morales-Lee of The Art of New Business, approached eachother and came up with their company idea. Meeting through twitter, they found through a shared viewpoint and experience in various advertising and design agencies, that there was a massive yet obvious gap in the market when it comes to how agencies approach clients for new business. They found hours of sifting through client lists and cold calling was alienating and not the kind of strategic approach they would take. Their background knowledge, and cries from fellow new business professionals across the net all agreed things had to change. Targets cannot be met when you just bowl into a company and brag about how great your agency is, and how they should work with you. Even in this fast paced, changing industry, it seems inside agencies it is all still the same. And CEO's and board members aren't even concerned; in fact, they admit that their own self branding, marketing is crap. But why? Clients are even noticing it now. In a competitive market where budgets are tight, you'd think companies would be more strategic in their approach to new business. How can you boast your creative offering when your own communication is tired and blends in? Sarah cited W+K's attitude to new clients as an example. Neil Christie, MD of the London office has revealed to them how they approach new clients by really understanding their product, their business model & what needs to be achieved. They then present to them a unique creative offering in the form of a a personalised book, video or magazine. This way, clients really feel special, and above all, understood. 
Sarah and Karla have tapped into this, and now run workshops and events providing professionals with a better understanding of what needs to be done to make a change in their agency. They encourage networking, and helping others much in the same way as Pamela mentioned; this being a more fruitful way to get ahead.
If clients are conversing with each other & requesting case studies of effectivity, MDs really can't afford to change their ways. And financially, with the UK ad industry spending almost £780k PER PITCH - our economy can't afford it either!
So it's time to approach new business as an art form, and no longer a numbers game.

The third lady making a change for the better in the design industry is Emma Sexton, founder of Make Your Words Work. Her consultancy aims to show clients that design is not just there to 'make things pretty' as an afterthought, but that it really is necessary for adding value. We are visual beings. And we're surrounded by thousands of images on a daily basis - and we respond to those visuals on an emotional level much more than words. Through her design expertise and interest in psychology, Emma ensures businesses talks to their clients in the right way, using language they understand and using beautiful design in a meaningful way. That's not to say content still isn't king - it should just be captivating and inspiring so that people remember you.

As an art director who has worked on many a pitch all of this really rings true. the number of times I am asked to just drop in the 'creative' to a 50 page powerpoint presentation, that to me, just goes on and on. Don't get me wrong, strategic thinking and storytelling are key but MDs & planners really need to step back every so often & look at the bigger picture. No wonder clients in the pitching process are waiting for the 'exciting' creative bit. The whole thing should be creative surely? Being freelance it has not always been my place to say - however the sheer confidence of these three women has certainly inspired me to go forth and speak my mind. For when you really have seen it over & over & it's staring you in the face - it's time to make a change. And there's no reason why it shouldn't be the women driving that.

Monstrous update

I'd like to give a little nod and hoorah to the Ministry of Stories where I volunteer occasionally. It's been going for six months now and all involved have done a fantastic job in getting it up & running, spreading the word and making it it a huge success already. The Hoxton Street Monster supplies is fast becoming the place to go in the East end, (five-eyed creatures have been seen to queue up in an orderly fashion of a saturday afternoon). And the kids who visit benefit hugely from the many workshops held to assist their reading and writing skills and generally provide them with a fun place to go to get excited about books. The children from the drop-in sessions have published their first title, "Green Wobbly Things Dancing", which I myself found to make an entertaining night-time read. A group also worked on and produced a local newspaper, The Hoxton A.M. over the Easter break. Interviewing locals along the market and reporting on the history of the area.
The volunteers all got together for a knees up recently and were graced with entertainment from a variety of talented literaries. My favourite was a few performances by acclaimed poet/actress/writer/illustrator and all-round funny lady Laura Dockrill. She spoke and rhymed in character with such wit, it totally changed my sterotypical view of performance poetry.

Writers and design agency WeMadeThis have all been nominated in the upcoming D&AD awards in Writing for Design category for all the wonderful products and branding that make up the Hoxton Monster Supplies.

So please visit, volunteer & purchase anything from this wonderful project & keep the Monster work going!

What does a Storylook like? : part II

A short delay for my follow up about The Story 2011 - I just like to leave you hanging...

To start from the beginning, click here. And if you're a start in the middle kind of person read on, that's cool...but you might be missing something good!
Basically I took part in a one day conference where top speakers presented what they believe makes up a story.


Nick Ryan specialises in sound design and he introduced us to his now successful, audio game "Papa Sangre". I actually wrote a piece about it here, but it was great to hear the thinking behind it in full. Nick explained how by setting the scence & immersing players in a room of complete darkness, the sounds played to them allow them to visualise in their minds their own story. The senses are heightened once you remove sight, and the experience powerfully dramatic .

He also made an interesting point how we, from a very early age, associate different sounds with visuals automatically i.e like being shown in a picture book a cow and being told it makes the sound 'moo'. This in a similar way narrows our imagination of what sound can be, in the same way that adults become stifled by education, and are less imaginative than children. So similar sounds & effects are often used in film for instance as familiarity sets the scene for us.

Next up Lucy Kimbell took us through her personal project where she collected & documented the results of a questionnaire she sent to friends and colleagues, asking "What am I Worth?' It was interesting how obedient people were when asked to fill out a form, answering often personal questions about a person, that you may hesitate to do in person. She then created a complete audit of the results, and created "Lucy's Index" (or LIX), turning her own feelings and actions into measurable factors. The website then portrayed her as a commodity to float on the stock exchange, providing a daily figure based on factors affecting her that day. It was a fascinating approach to data, especially how we are obsessed with updating out status' and moods on social media sites. This project was done before sites like Klout and Datum, but it really does makes you question how much of your 'worth' you want to disclose to the world.

Mary Hamilton completely lightened the tone by shooting foam bullets from her Zombie LARP machine guns. The what? yeah, I wasn't familiar either. LARP stands for Live Action RePlay - a gaming term for, well live gaming. (Which to the average joe is just, playing a game). So everyone gets together, is put in a room with toy guns, fake blood and people dressed as Zombies, and participants kind of make up the game as they go along. Her angle was that the game is like a 'story - machine', and the really interesting bit happens after when everyone "froths", and people recall what has just taken place. Her presentation was put together by these wicked stick men slides:

There are two more speakers to mention, but since one is the great Martin Parr and will probably take up a long post, I think I'll do a part III. Like all good stories, there should be a Beginning, Middle and End. So stay tuned... 

When I think words may be better than pictures

Ok, so the latest trend going around is all this visual notetaking at conferences and seminars. Cool huh? Well yes and no. Take these done by Eva Lottchen at The Story 2011 that I attended. These are quite detailed and beautifully presented; in fact they save me on reporting on what happened since I haven't written up part two of my notes yet!

However, looking at some of the notes on Ogilvy's new 'notes page' where people can upload their visual notes, and I can't blimmin' understand them. I wanted to find out what had been going on at the SWSX conference everyone's tweeting about, but check this - it all look's more interesting than a page of writing, but I can't make head nor tail of it. It is some else's shorthand and summary of the day - perhaps a great reminder/ nudge for those who were there, but to the outsider, not the best solution.

Nora Herting

So as an avid visualiser and illustrator I'm still on the fence about this. Maybe I need to watch last year's seminar on how to do Visual Notetaking to understand why it's so great. Let me know.
fgfghghghjghfg
fgfghghghjghfg
fgfghghghjghfg

Pombardment!

The local elves have been at it again - For on 8th March I awoke to this delightful decoration on the tree out on the green by my flat. Yes the Stoke Newington W.I. have been beavering away, crafting brightly coloured poms poms made of wool and recycled plastic bags. Aswell as bringing a smile to the faces of the many passers by, it is their unique way of highlighting International Women's Day - celebrating inspiring women all over the world. I hope the decor lasts as long as last year's creation.

What does a Story look like?

Is it piece of music, or collection of sounds? Perhaps objects or collection of data (personal or otherwise).
Or it is a person's experience recorded, played back or re-enacted through a game, play or written word?
It can of course be all of these things, and it was a collection of talks about individual projects like this that I heard about at last week's conference 'The Story 2001'. Top speakers took to the stage to tell us of their own (or others) stories, and it was a superbly awe-inspiring day.

First up, were Lucy, Ben and I to showcase the wonderful project, The Ministry of Stories, that I regularly mentor and illustrate for. The aim of the Ministry is to provide children with access to free writing and storytelling workshops, to unleash their creativity and give them the confidence to believe in themselves and their potential.
As a mentor, I certainly see first hand the difference of a young shy child, or someone who has no self-belief, open up, have fun and enjoy being creative. The school trips also involve a refreshing break for kids to experience the Monster shop and mystery of The Chief behind closed office doors. It's great fun, and I enjoy going as I get to be a bit of a kid again!
I also illustrate for these youngsters, who challenge me with their wild ideas of creatures with fans for faces, eight legs with upside down knobbly knees and inside out toes! We put this simple task to the test at the conference, giving the audience the chance to create their own monster. They too were certainly imaginative. And there it is: The Pedicurist.

It's eyes, round and yellow like pickled onions; it's mouth as vicious as an amoeba with a head cold, with teeth as hairy as a hippy's armpits.
It has three nostrils, all of varying sizes and its arms are as irregular as the Lib Dem's coalition promises. It's body is wrinkled like
a condom stuffed with walnuts, and it's tail, long and sharp. It has extremely beautiful feet.

Karl Jones contrasted the morning with his very powerful and emotional Dialogue Project, whereby he collects and records conversations with individuals. He is more of a story listener than a storyteller. He talked about the power of listening, and that all we have after listening is the change it has created : be it the support it has provided, reassurance, or focus it has given the other person. He played extracts from conversations that were very moving, about schoolchildren who felt isolated and and treated like "something on the bottom of their shoe". Yet there was a feeling of hope for these kids as they realised as they were being listened to, the respect that they may not receive could be a result of respect they don't give out. So if we're better story listeners, it may well affect the outcome of the stories that are told.
Next we had Turner prize winning Cornelia Parker. It was great to see her talk about her work so modestly, yet also to hear the explanations behind her 'stories' first hand. She talked about her beginnings as an artist, and how she loves used objects - how they all have a story to tell. It's the life & death of objects that she was concerned with in her well known artworks of an exploding shed, fragments of ashes from a church spire & bricks from a building, adding "Friction starts a good story".

In 1997, she decided she'd take a closer look of Einstein's theory under a microscope. The piece makes the chalk marks from his board almost look like fluffy clouds (a much lighter hearted way of looking at it).

This was just one example of how looking at objects (or pieces of art) can be interpreted differently. each person has their own version of the story to tell. For instance she displayed a two beautiful metal shapes cut to form a Colt gun the pro-gun brigade thought it was “beautiful”, the anti-gun lobby were pleased Cornelia had “aborted” the gun before it became a dangerous weapon.
Another example of her dry wit was her piece in the Tate where she wrapped Rodin's famous sculpture, 'The Kiss' in rope and called it "The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached)". Her sideways approach really shows that objects are not necessarily what someone says they are - you can give it a whole new story.

Right, I've been rambling on so much, I think I'll have to finish this report in parts. Stay tuned!

Outside/Airside

A few things worth a mention at last week's Glug. The whole evening was presented by Airside who gathered together a mixture of designers, philosophers, illustrators and publishers to do quick talks about inspiring things.

Sean Griffiths from FAT architecture showcased some unusual projects, including my favourite: The celebrity couple bathroom suite. Pure kitsch.

Then the girls from Visual Editions talked about the interesting books they publish. They believe the visuals are as integral to the storytelling of a book, and so work on projects that are intellectually and visually interesting. Their latest collaboration is as much a work of art as it is a book. You can imagine the printer's nightmare at all those die cuts!

Lastly was Richard Hogg. An illustrator/designer who is a better speaker than he realises. He intrigued us all with his description of himself as a 'Contraryian'; (someone who always seems to hate everything that everyone likes), and the plus side to this: On the flipside, he usually finds he likes everything others hate, in an upside down kind of way and ultimately he reaches  his own contrarian utopia. Geddit? Interesting guy.

Travel and play!

One of the amazing examples of digital advancements that made me sit up at the Scamp conference last week was the presentation by Katie Lindemann about the early development of a data capture game using Oyster cards called Chromaroma. In alpha form, users can join up and play the game which measures & rewards points for travellers who make faster journeys, visit regular stations or work as part of a team. The competitive and fun side of it means it's almost like playing monopoly when you're commuting to work anyway - that's what I like about it; it's so simple. In it's early form, Chromaroma work in partnership with TFL, which actually provides them with useful information which they can then use to improve services (i.e by monitoring congestion areas..) Users information is not shared with any other company, and the designers behind it are adamant it does not become a big brother style operation. Cynics out there will suggest otherwise. (yes some of us did discuss how there's probably an app being developed out there right now for stalkers..creepy) But I thought it was a great example of how all this data capture can be interesting, useful and FUN!



Chromaroma Visualisation from Mudlark on Vimeo.

I also note it is a more sophisticated and up to date version of my Pacman based game 'Con-Man'.

I'm Notworking

So I went along to my first glug event the other night to see what it was all about. It's one of these growing trends of 'meetups' where online communities encourage members to meet face to face with like-minded individuals - like the good old days of networking before the rise of the internet. I'm all for this as I'm a real people person and you just don't gauge what someone is like just from an online conversation. (besides I'm much faster at talking than typing!)

Glug meets once a month in London to bring together designers, creatives, clients and friends to chat, watch talks and glug down a few drinks. It was set up by Ian Hambleton of Studio Output and Nick Clement of Made Studio and seems have have grown enormously over the past year or so. Last night was more of a general eet strangers and have a good night, as it was primarily aimed at Graduates in collaboration with the D & AD New Blood ceremony earlier in the day. However I had a great time chatting to randoms and meeting members of Glue, Wyld Stallions animators and the illustrations of Agency Rush doodling away throughout the night. I expect there'll be photos and more on their site here - see you at the next one!

Knitting graffitti

I was really pleased to come home this weekend to the beautiful knitting graffitti on the green outside my house - all in the aid of International Women's Day which is 8th March. It is similar to the trend I mentioned in an earlier post here. I love it so thank you whoever did it!

Shesays

For those of you interested in advertising, I went to a talk last night organised by the lovely Ale and her friend Emma of Shesays; a project set up to encourage more women into digital advertising. Since I'm having trouble finding work in ABL and Integrated where my experience lies, I'm trying to venture into digital and adjust my portfolio as so. It's actually a lot of fun (maybe because it's new & the novelty is still there! ) and I feel a lot more up to date with what audiences are doing and bothering to interact with, advertising wise. It's about being a bit more clever with your way in and not annoying - I for one can't stand the endless emails I get from brands that have got my details from something else I signed up for.
Anyway, Wednesday's talk was all about how to work better with clients and productively achieve what you both want. The general consensus was that there needs to be more development of the briefing at an early stage and collaboration with the other aagencies involved, so that the digital arm doesn't end up having to just create an extension of someone else's idea - I tell you - if you were from an ABL agency you would have got trampled on by all the digital girls with their broomsticks! All in all it was a good evening , I met some lovely people and look forward to the party !!!

Incidentally - here's an article I saw in Thursday's Evening Standard promoting the very point that Shesays is all for: