Printwit

Media: A Grammy-worthy protest song

printwit — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:05:09 +0000

Update: 7/22/09

“United Breaks Guitars” by Dave Carroll is now available on iTunes. Just got my copy.

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Occasionally, someone surprises me with a new level of excellence which leaves me awestruck. Dave Carroll, an unassumingly low-key personality if ever there was, has done it this time. His finally crafted song delivers a wonderfully clear message astride top-flight (pun intended) production values.

I hope this provokes a new award category at the the next Grammy Awards, as well as with the CMA (Country Music Association). It’s already topped 3.1 million views.

Play through sound system or headphones for full appreciation of the quality.

Go to Dave Carroll’s site for a full explanation.

Comments appreciated.

Outside the box is getting crowded

printwit — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:58:29 +0000

I hitchhiked to northern California, years ago, in an effort to find some Canadian friends with whom I had lived in Canada. I found them living with a swarm of people in the beautiful hills. After hugs, handshakes, and introductions, I asked for a cool drink of water. This topic shifted the conversation to a more serious tone.

Apparently, the water well plastic pipe connection to the old iron hand pump had come loose a week or more before my arrival leaving this somewhat nebulous group to borrow drinking water from neighbors a half-mile away.

For the duration of the broken pipe situation, attempts to retrieve the pipe, the top of which was eight to ten feet into the hole, were ongoing and varied. Yet the attempts to grasp the top portion of the pipe in order to haul the 30-foot, or so, length out of the hole, had basically taken the same failed approach: attempt to lasso the pipe.

The humorous definition of insanity was at work here: repeatedly doing the same things while expecting different results.

I was asked look over the situation and offer my two cents. To me, what did NOT work, was pretty clear.

Solution: Try the opposite.

By using nail, bent to form an off center mounting point for a length of lashing cord, I was able to secure and pull out the pipe in less than 15 minutes total. The pointy end of the nail was on the short side of the mount, so when suspended from a rope the pointed end would always be naturally higher.

The other key was to make the final length modified nail only slightly longer than the diameter of pipe. Then, feeding the makeshift device INTO the pipe, short end first, then yanking the cord to wedge the device against the inner walls of the pipe, a firm grasp in the pipe was established. The only tricky part was in feeding the device short end first into the pipe. We accomplished this with a temporary loose wrap of thread which held the long end of the nail against the cord giving us enough time to carefully feed it into the pipe.

How does this apply to design or marketing?

Sometimes a group dynamic is not a good thing; too many people standing around looking at trees without seeing the forest.

History shows that the best solutions don’t come from groups, from being stuck on stupid. Real change comes from those who don’t just THINK “different.” They ACT on their thinking, unswayed by those who think they’re crazy. Ask Steve Jobs.

Years ago, without the slightest hint that California would become my permanent home, I hitchhiked to northern California in an effort to find some Canadian friends with whom I had lived in Canada. I found them living in the beautiful hills with a swarm of people whose numbers and members seemed to change by the minute. My surprise visit created a happy reunion.

After hugs, handshakes, and introductions, I asked for a cool drink of water which immediately shifted the conversation to a more serious tone. The water well’s plastic pipe connection to the old iron hand pump had come loose a week or more before my arrival leaving this somewhat nebulous group high and dry.

The top of the roughly 30-foot length of pipe was located about 10 feet below the ground surface. Attempts to grasp it and haul it out of the hole, while varied, had basically taken the same failed approach: trying to lasso the pipe. The humorous definition of insanity was at work here: repeatedly doing the same things while expecting different results.

My Canadian pal suggested we look at it. What did not work, seemed pretty clear.

Solution: Try the opposite.

Using a nail fastened on the end of a long length of lashing cord, my buddy and I were able to secure and pull out the pipe in less than 15 minutes total.

The secret was to simply feed the device into the pipe where a firm yank on the cord wedged the device against the inner walls of the pipe, establishing a non-slip grip. This allowed us to pull up the string of plastic water pipe, with valve on the end, to where we could get our hands on it and finish removing it for maintenance and repair.

How does this apply to design or marketing?

Sometimes a group dynamic is not a good thing. It leads to too many people standing around looking at trees without seeing the forest. Reheating what everyone else is doing. Flocking to the latest buzz. Groupthink. Effectively, stuck on stupid.

History shows that the best solutions seldom come from groups. Real change comes from those who don’t just think “different.” They act on their different thinking, unswayed by those who think they’re crazy. Just ask Steve Jobs.

Sometimes when so many rush to think outside the box, they miss the obvious solutions inside.

I bet some of you have similar stories. Comments?

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Addendum

This recollection came to mind today as suddenly my inner light bulb came on regarding a current positioning project. It was one of those slap-your-forehead moments, lighting the way for a 180-degree approach to a client’s growing marketplace dilemma. My ego hopes that in the months to come I’ll be able to reveal what a grand success it was.

Addendum Part 2 — 6/25/09

More about Steve Jobs from a Fortune article at CNN.com

In 1985, Sculley orchestrated Jobs’ firing after a power struggle. And for the company: “Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company,” Sculley wrote. “This was a lunatic plan. High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product.” Of course, Sculley was dead wrong. — CNN Money “The Trouble with Steve Jobs” March 4, 2008[1]

Sculley’s firing Jobs personifies the “kill the messenger syndrome.” The corporate world is full of those in high places who feel threatened when they stand next to any degree of brilliance and vision. The typical reaction is to haul out the axe.

[1] “The Trouble with Steve Jobs” March 4, 2008

TFT: I wish I was a writer

printwit — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:51:23 +0000

If anyone were reading this, we’d hear, “We wish you were, too.”

If I was a writer, I could write about my daily pursuits and insights without switching gears. Instead, I find myself too busy making a living to talk about it, the “it” being writing a blog article, product copy that details the many uses of postcards, including the non-postal uses, creating simulated full-color illustrations for the cards, preparing tomorrow’s HTML newsletter for the same client, and let’s see…

It’s really nothing to tweet about. Indeed, I wish I was a writer. Oh yeah…”TFT” is thought for today.

The bigger picture: What we think we want versus what we really want

printwit — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:04:46 +0000

People seeking divorce think they want many things: money and retribution, to name only two. However, in most cases, what they really want is harmony restored to their lives.

Smaller organizations and clients think they want a website, brochure, or a logo. However, they often lose sight of what they really want: success. The paths they choose to facilitate their success go nowhere when they look only at what everyone else seems to be doing.

That’s why we look at the bigger picture.

A marketing person, looking at the bigger picture might notice that a client’s product is poorly positioned in marketplace. Manufacturing-wise, it might be more suitable to produce an entirely different product at a clear competitive advantage.

Success comes from efficiency, not effort. Throwing money at ill-founded concepts, no matter how popular, will still fail.

As designers, marketers, business people, or clients, we tend to lose our view of the big picture. We get bogged down halfway into the forest, looking at far too many trees…usually other people’s.

Both Web and print designers tend to forget that the primary reason people visit a website or look at printed material is to get information. If the information is obscured by too much glamour, or things vying for the viewers attention, even attractively designed pages will fail at their key purpose.

Sometimes it pays to simply step back far enough to see the big picture, then ask: “What do I really want to achieve?”

What do you think?

Microsoft “bing” wordmark: type atrocity

printwit — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:20:22 +0000

In the early days of desktop publishing — god, how I hated that term — one of the worst, yet most common design/typographic violations was to stretch type willy nilly in order to make it fit a space; some lunch-hour designer’s idea of “type fitting.”

Now, after more than two decades of excellent design education via many sources, Microsoft’s rendition of the “bing” (but it’s not Google)* logo recreates those days of old. The bing wordmark is a violation of everything good design should represent. It’s a camel: a horse designed by a committee.

To me it symbolizes a lowering of standards, typographical ignorance, and bad practice by desktop publishers of the 1980s.

I’m sure other designers have noted this already, but I’ve been too busy to tip toe through Twitterville in order to find out. So I hope some or, hopefully, many of you will weigh in on the topic. Am I wrong to be so…um, annoyed? Please let’s hear your comments.

*Note to Microsoft: “But it’s not Google” hardly defines the product, regardless of how good it may be. Neither is it Yahoo or any of the other search engines. Microsoft market positioning seems on par with Vista (from what many users and writers have claimed). I wonder if Vista was an acronym, too. Very Interesting Software To Abandon.