The Selfish Meme

The Moment Studio How are brands and their agency partners...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:44:44 +0530

The Moment Studio

How are brands and their agency partners meeting the rising challenge of content creation?

For starters, brands will have to leave behind organisations and thinking built solely around the campaign model, and instead adopt the defining characteristics of the real-time, data-driven newsroom — a model that’s prolific, agile and audience-centric.

Which is why I love the thought, and intent of The Moment Studio, brainchild of agency Deep Focus. A creative newsroom for hire, it’s a place where “creative and social staffers merge the zeitgeist with the brand ethos all day, every day.”

Am I Steve Jobs?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:28:00 +0530

Am I Steve Jobs?:

Quoted from the piece:

” Accuse me of overreading, but I propose a revision of the old adage: closed can beat open, but you have to be genius. Under normal conditions, in an unpredictable industry, and given regular levels of human error, open still beats closed. Stated a different way, a firm gets to be closed in exact proportion to its vision and design talent.”

Write like a designer

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:36:29 +0530

Write like a designer:

Must read post this.

All of us have may have our methods of writing. And it is something that is largely unique to us, devised as it is through trial and error based on our own quirks and habits.

But the basics never go out of style. And fresh perspectives are always welcome, like applying a design process to writing.

Couple of insightful quotes from the post:

From William Zinsser’s On Writing Well:

Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? … Simplify, simplify.

Then, Dieter Rams’s 10th Commandment for Good Design:

Good design is as little design as possible — Less is more – because it concentrates on the essential aspects and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

"On the few occasions where I’ve talked to film students, one of the things I stress, in addition to..."

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:26:00 +0530

“On the few occasions where I’ve talked to film students, one of the things I stress, in addition to learning your craft, is how you behave as a person. For the most part, our lives are about telling stories. So I ask them, “What are the stories you want people to tell about you?” Because at a certain point, your ability to get a job could turn on the stories people tell about you. The reason [then–Universal Pictures chief] Casey Silver put me up for [1998’s] Out of Sight after I’d had five flops in a row was because he liked me personally. He also knew I was a responsible filmmaker, and if I got that job, the next time he’d see me was when we screened the movie. If I’m an asshole, then I don’t get that job. Character counts. That’s a long way of saying, “If you can be known as someone who can attract talent, that’s a big plus.””

- Steven Soderbergh

"Everything is more likable when it’s funny, even philanthropy. I’ve found that if I have an..."

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:10:27 +0530

“Everything is more likable when it’s funny, even philanthropy. I’ve found that if I have an important message or idea I want to convey to my readers, the best way is to make the message as simple as possible and then saturate it with jokes about constipated goats, flamethrowers… things like that.”

- Mathew Inman, The Oatmeal

"How does Holmes come upon his solution? He not only opens his mind to the possibility of the..."

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:55:03 +0530

“How does Holmes come upon his solution? He not only opens his mind to the possibility of the nonlinear and improbable, the very hallmarks of creativity, but he makes certain that he has that mind stocked with the most esoteric of knowledge. It’s easy to remember Holmes’s famous rant to Dr. Watson on the necessity of keeping a pristine mind attic (Holmes’s metaphor for the human mind). Far harder is recalling the major asterisk that is attached to that warning: A mind attic is only as useful as its contents and how you use them. If you store only the essentials, and follow only the most obvious path, you can be a t-crossing, i-dotting Scotland Yard detective bar none, but aren’t likely to advance much beyond that. Your mind will never be able to make those elusive connections that could lead you to identifying a fish as a killer if you don’t have the requisite knowledge base to begin with—and if you aren’t willing to risk the possibility of letting a killer go free while you take the time to figure things out.”

- The underrated creativity of Sherlock Holmes, The Atlantic.

The future of learning Always thought you were just another...

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:29:24 +0530

The future of learning

Always thought you were just another brick in the wall ? :) Here’s an insightful video that you will connect with.

Essentially focusing on what ails the education system globally, the video also showcases how some pioneers are breaking away to try and do things differently.

Key takeout for me?

Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, points out, “you don’t actually need to know anything, you can find out at the point you need to know it. It’s the teacher’s job to point young minds towards the right kinds of questions. The teacher doesn’t need to give any answers, the answers are everywhere. And we know now from years of measurements, that learners who find the answers for themselves, retain it better than if they’re told the answer.”

Produced by Ericsson, it is the latest in its Networked Society short film series.

The Lester Dent plot

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:06:09 +0530

Read The Guardian’s articles on Ten rules for writing fiction?

Tucked somewhere in those valuable insights is a link to the Lester Dent plot.

Lester Dent was a prolific pulp fiction author, best known as the creator and main author of the series of novels about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage.

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words.

A must read for its ingenuity :)

The commonly understood moral of the story of Icarus is to play...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:20:14 +0530

The commonly understood moral of the story of Icarus is to play it safe, to obey authority.

In his new book, The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin makes the case for forging your own path, pushing beyond what is expected, and connecting with other humans by making your art–whatever it may be.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Loved this promo by Penguin promoting...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:49:30 +0530

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Loved this promo by Penguin promoting its Classics Series.

Also did not know that it was first published as ’ A Shilling Shocker’ :)

explore-blog: Wonderful short documentary about the future of...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:35:27 +0530

explore-blog:

Wonderful short documentary about the future of interaction design from Bassett & Partners.

(↬ Etre)

Fred Perry subculture Loved this initiative by Fred Perry to...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:59:07 +0530

Fred Perry subculture

Loved this initiative by Fred Perry to highlight music sub cultures. Insightful video featuring Don Letts, punk pioneer, film director and musician.

"Our primary goal is to create work that really connects with people. That’s our signature. Our..."

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:56:47 +0530

“Our primary goal is to create work that really connects with people. That’s our signature. Our belief is that unless it contributes or inspires, marketing is pollution. We look to work with clients that make a unique and distinctive contribution to society. Our role is to help amplify their authentic voice. The way we do this is through smart and artful storytelling through software — the digital media of most importance and relevance to our clients’ customers. It might be by creating better experiences for their customers to ensure a consistent brand voice across multiple digital touchpoints. Or it might be to help our clients transform their business, making the journey from experimentation to meaningful innovation at scale. Today, the canvas used to connect with audiences has more variations, and marketers have more tools available, so it’s an exciting time.”

- Ajaz Ahmed, Founder & Chairman, AKQA.

The future of storytelling is collaborative

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:22:04 +0530

The future of storytelling is collaborative

"In other words, we live vicariously through the actions and stories of others. It’s the reason..."

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:20:33 +0530

“In other words, we live vicariously through the actions and stories of others. It’s the reason we wince when we hear a disgusting story or feel our heart race while watching an action movie. It’s also the reason that ideas that evoke a specific narrative are more memorable — they invite empathy, which increases the likelihood that they will be accepted and adopted.”

- Sean Blanda, 99%

Photo

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:32:05 +0530

Storytelling in a digital era ” The best stories are the...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:10:49 +0530

Storytelling in a digital era

” The best stories are the ones where the audience can imagine themselves as the hero. Your ideal role is simply to be the force that helps them achieve what they want. And if you think about it, that’s the perfect way to describe what brands should do in the real world as well.

You are not the hero. You are the mentor.”

Jonah Sachs, co founder & CEO, Free Range studios

"You just have to put your nose to the grindstone. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but..."

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:49:23 +0530

“You just have to put your nose to the grindstone. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but waiting for inspiration to strike isn’t going to bring it about any sooner.”

- Jason Santa Maria, The Great Discontent interview

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,..."

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:41:26 +0530

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-light pop, and everybody goes ahh…”

- jack Kerouac, On the Road

Seven basic types of stories

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:52:15 +0530

Seven basic types of stories:

” From Shakespeare to Spielberg to Soderbergh, there are really only seven different types of stories, an Advertising Week panel hosted by TBWA suggested on Wednesday. The challenge becomes finding which one best suits your brand, and then telling it skillfully, believably and—if you’re going to invite consumers to join in the story—extremely carefully.”