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I've been working a lot with Guy Featherstone at w+k recently and one thing he keeps saying, which I think is advice worth repeating,
"No such thing as a bad photo only a bad crop".
He didn't invent that, someone else did, but I can't rememeber who right now. I'll get back to you.
UPDATE: Guy says it was Terry Jones from i-D magazine who said that. Bizarrely Terry's wikipedia page has been deleted so check out this Eye interview with him instead.
I keep seeing these all over Shoreditch. I have no idea what they're for, though I could probably find out if I spent a few minutes Googling. Whenever I see them I just think about Facebook.
But more than that, I somehow want to 'like' them for real. Walk up to them and press a button, like, like, like! They make me smile, they make me feel like liking stuff. I like them. I might put them on Facebook so I can like them.
There are other words that Social Media have stolen from us. Post is another obvious one. Post and Like, simple words with new added context. (Nothing wrong with that, just saying.)
Worth pointing out that Russell was on to this back in 2006.
This week and last week really as I've been ill in bed most of this week. But anyway.
It was National Cup Cake Week. Strangely ignored by Magic FM.
You can now get Pizza, On Demand! Which must be better than when you had to wait 20 minutes.
Soho is awesome. As ever.
Newspapers look good hung on a ladder. Who knew? Ruby knew that's who.
Romanians are a profound bunch.
The other day I had to get a train from Tonbridge into London.
In one of the waiting rooms these people were displaying some ads.
I think this is a smart idea and a good use of the space. Better than, you know, adverts.
It follows the advice, if you can't be beautiful and incredible then be useful. Lots of people would say useful is better any way.
I'll be in Boston on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th October. Anyone fancy a coffee?
I was at home ill today and I was watching something on the ITV iPlayer thing.
When the ads came on, this little graphic appeared in the bottom right hand corner.
Why don't they do that on real telly? That would be good wouldn't it? It would be helpful, useful.
It reminds me of something Clay did at SXSW that really stuck with me; at the start of his talk his said he was going to talk about three things and then listed what they were. That kind of sign posting is very effective. Smart and helpful. It gives you an idea where you are in the talk, it stops you getting bored. It helps pace your expecations. ITV could learn from that.
Framing shops, often expensive, inconvenient and rude. But oh so sweet when you get the end result back.
Lots has happened since my plea to 'make blogging good again'. The good news is it seems like blogging is finally making a comeback.
The above picture is from Iain who has joined to the campaign to start 'blogging like it's 2004'.
Warren Ellis is in too. Coincidently he'd written something similar to my plea earlier in the day.
Katy is in, although she wants to blog like it's 2000 as 2004 wasn't a good year for her blog. (No problem with that.)
Paul is in, he needs a redesign first though.
Russel, being the proactive type, has actually just started blogging like it's 2004.
And as a coincidence the day I wrote that post, Kottke built on my 'Helveticas to the moon' post which in turn got linked to by Boing Boing which sent hits through the roof.
I think blogging is back.
To celebrate I started the day by having breakfast with Russell. We discussed country hotels, constant rejection and Matt Le Tissier.
Then I had some time to spare before a meeting so I sat down by some water and did some thinking, sketched some ideas and sent a few emails.
Because one of the roles I hold is the Creative Director of the Guardian advertising account for Wieden & Kennedy I had various meetings at the Guardian and the Observer today. Too many too list here but I did manage to get a few photos.
This is the Reverend Dan Catt he makes digital magic. Here he is inspecting a camera I passed to him from one of my earlier meetings. He is not upside down he has a massive beard and a shaved head.
I think the Guardian would be a nice place to work. Everyone gets a parrot on their screen when they start.
Picture from Jason, obviously.
Then I cycled home missing my Personal Best by an agonising two seconds. Two seconds! It wasn't all bad news, I discovered Jason Kottke had written this awesome post based on my 'How many helveticas does it take to get to the moon?' thought.
A good day.
When I was copying and pasting quotes from that Esquire article mentioned in the last post it automatically added a link back to the article!
The internet eh?
Picture from Russell, usual stuff applies
I don't think blogging is as good as it used to be. It's lost a little magic.
I know this is down to rise (and ease of use) of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and all them but I miss blogging. Proper old fashioned blogging, like this and this and this.
So let's bring it back. Let's make blogging great again. Come on, we can do it.
I don't know how to do it, but I'm sure that just by writing this everyone will just start making blogging better. That's what used to happen. In the old days.
I've got some meetings today. I might start by blogging about them.
As spotted by Doug E Fresh, the man, the legend, the meme.
Come on, someone out there must know Ricky Ross? Anyone?
OK, to be honest this is a bit shit. But what's interesting is that Uniqlo have form here and they're trying to use Twitter as a direct sales thing. I'd lov eto know what the stats are.
Although this isn't quite right it intrigues me and makes me click on the emails. It also feels like it's in the right area. They could be on to something here.
And we're back. With a list. You know, that 5 things I'm thinking about right now thing.
1. Design as Algorithm
I should explain this properly in a post. Maybe I will. Russell and I have talked about this a lot, Matt has joined in and I started talking about it a little bit at IDSA. There's a new world emerging of frameworks and fuzzy rules. Flipboard is a recent example.
And then there's this from the latest Shirky book, "Creating something personal, even of moderate quality, has a different kind of appeal than consuming something made by others, even something of high quality. I was wrong about Geocities because I bet that amateurs would never want to do anything other than consume. (That was the last time I ever made that mistake.)"
And then there's this that Iain wrote in an NMA article back in March, "If we want to create provocative, challenging and culturally relevant digital work, we need to smash the hen-house and go free-range." Smart chap that Iain.
I'm aware that most of that probably won't make any sense. It's in note form. It's pretty random. I know what I mean. It's one of the things I'm thinking about right now.
2. Who's good? Right now?
Someone asked me this the other day. Difficult question. Especially hard to answer when put on the spot. But I said, Stamen (who I'm lucky enough to be working with on a forthcoming project), BERG and Someone. Not a particularly surprising list. Who is else is "good" right now?
3. James Bridle
Or more accurately "James Bridle". A new type of smart, nimble creator. A person who switches between real and virtual like Lewis Hamilton switches gears. A person you will want to employ but you can't employ. (You can hire him, you can't employ him.) A person constantly thinking of new clever thoughts that slowly push away at a much bigger theory. If you go and see his talk at dConstruct on Friday you'll know what I mean.
4. The BRIG
What is it? And all that.
5. What's next?
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