Design is everywhere

My family and I recently took a weekend trip to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, (amazing by the way, very much worth the short drive down) with a group of my daughter's playgroup friends.

Our common interest in the group, and how we all know each other, is that all of us moms work in the design industry. So you can bet that design would somehow work its way into the conversations of the weekend.

  

We all agreed that the design of the zoo was superb. It is so unlike many other zoos. You can tell that a great deal of thought and care went into making sure visitors were left with a lifetime of memories. It's a wonderful experience design on the part of their architects and site planners. There are so many opportunities to get up close and personal with the animals, being in their environments, and even interacting with them in some instances.

One thing that could add to the experience is their zoo map. We consulted this jewel at almost every turn. Being the planner that I am, I had to make sure we saw everything we wanted to in the most efficient way, all in the time we had allotted. What would be a great addition to their map is a time-based planner and color coded routes. If you have X amount of time, follow the red route, and so on. They could even paint the colored paths on the roadways!

We left with lots of pictures, lots of memories, and a stuffed monkey that our 2-year-old HAS to have with her at all times now.

Perhaps the funniest moment I remember though, was when the husband of one of my designer friends was instructed to take a picture of their little boy and my friend by the giraffes. Their son was busy looking at the animals and didn't want to turn around to say 'cheese' so Dad said teasingly to Designer Mom, "It's OK, I'll just take it from behind, it'll be artistic. I'm getting all 'graphic designer' on you... Oh that was a good shot, I can't wait to get that home and play with it in Photoshop (as he snapped the pic from a disposable camera)." Thanks, Kyle, for the laughs, even if it was at the expense of all of us designers.

Downtown Sioux Falls in 3D?

Insight was approached by Downtown Sioux Falls to create a new trailer for Moonlight Movies, which is a series of family movies shown at Fawick Park.

The trailer is more for informational purposes than entertainment value. With messages such as movie dates, event dates and rules, we had to make sure that the content was first and foremost. However, knowing that there would be a lot of children at this event, we also wanted to make sure that it was entertaining and fun.

In the brainstorming of the trailer, we kind of settled on a crazy kind of carnival idea -- a magical place where things were not quite normal, and we definitely wanted to work in elements of Downtown Sioux Falls into the piece . After a little ribbing from my Creative Director, the decision was made to create the spot entirely in 3D. We ended up using the open source software Blender 3D, I've been a fan of Blender for many years but have never really worked it into my professional workflow until recently,

Downtown Sioux Falls was great to work with and gave us total creative freedom, and this was the outcome. We hope you enjoy viewing it as much as we did creating it.

Downtown Sioux Falls from Insight Marketing Design on Vimeo.

Submitted by Matthew Muldoon, Broadcast Producer

How to get a job in advertising

Many people in advertising are looking for jobs.

No -- and sorry -- we don't have any openings right now. But if we did, we'd be looking first at resumes like these, at Web Designer Depot, via Quipsologies.

The folks who created these resumes clearly thought about the design as though it were a client project. What is the purpose of a resume? Who's the target audience? What does it need to communicate?

The results are unique and delightful.

In general, it's tough to know anything about a person by looking at their resume. Especially in the case of recent graduates -- all the resumes say pretty much the same thing. Given the huge volume of resumes, it's important to provide a compelling reason why yours should receive special consideration.

In other words, it's just like the marketplace. You've got to create a piece that stands out and delivers your message in an engaging and memorable way.

Most important of all, don't forget the needs of the target audience. I've seen so many cover letters that focus entirely on the applicant. Remember to consider the employer's point of view. What do you bring to the table? What can you offer?

And as with all communications, if you can show it, not just tell it, you're ahead of the game.

 

European Advertising

I recently went to Europe, traveling from Barcelona to Nice and finally to Pisa.

While I expected everything to be older and on a grander scale – and the architecture was stunning – I didn’t expect everything else to be so much smaller. The elevators, for instance, usually carried two people at a time. And the streets were so narrow that there was barely enough room for a pedestrian and one Euro-sized car (that’s smaller than our compacts) to pass at the same time. And, while the coffee was stronger, it came in much smaller doses. At one café in Italy I asked for a “double” and thought the server misunderstood me when the cup arrived about one-fourth full of extra strong caffeine. She assured me that there were two servings in the small cup.

The advertising, though, was larger than life. Instead of our ever-present billboards, the Europeans advertise directly on buildings. In Barcelona huge building wraps sold everything from sunglasses to automobiles.

I found attention-grabbing advertising in other places, too. This ad in the Rome airport is an interesting twist on the Romulus and Remus story. 

Of course, I saw some familiar names, too. I snapped this shot outside a shop in a small village in Italy. 

And, each night after a day of sight-seeing, I’d return to the hotel room, switch on CNN (the only English-speaking channel) and see this ad for Turkish Airlines.

It’s true, I guess, that American movie stars really are mega-stars in Europe. At least Costner thinks he’s a star.

SculptureWalk

If you haven't had a chance to check out the SculptureWalk around Downtown Sioux Falls, you owe it to yourself to take the time over a lunch and take a stroll.

Here's the link my shots from today's excursion.

Turn Big Problems into Bigger Opportunities

I recently read a story over on the consumerist blog - Bridal Gown Vanishes From US Airways During Flight To Wedding

To sum it up quickly, a bride-to-be was flying home with her wedding dress. Somewhere along the line, her dress was stolen from her checked luggage leaving her sans dress for her wedding in eight days.

Of course, you can imagine how the rest of the story goes.

• Bride gets angry and accuses airline of theft
• Airline says they'll open a report and an investigation will start in seven days
• Bride is forced to find a new dress at a local shop, pay a ton of money to have it fitted same day

Overall, it ends with the bride about $1,000 down with a dress she is not happy in, putting a severe damper on a day that should have been one of the highlights of her life.  Oh yeah, one more thing...she's telling everyone she can about how terrible her experience has been with the airline and how much it ruined her big day.

Which gave me a thought...could someone have turned this situation around?  When you think about it, yes, quite a few things could have gone differently.

First let's look at what the airline could have done better.  With millions of bags and items traveling through their system it's not surprising that a couple of items get lost (or in this case it sounds more like stolen).  So I'm sure the associates have dealt with this before, but couldn't they have done more?  Make some calls, check with her departing airport...it seems unlikely someone could hide a wedding dress easily, let alone walk out with it.

But let's say that it's gone.  What should the airline do now?  Get some details.  Assign someone to find the same dress. Where was it purchased?  Who was the designer?  Get in contact, get the dress over-nighted, and have it re-fit.  Give the bride the cell phone number of the person who is tracking it down for her and give that person the bride's cell phone.  Let them update each other on progress.  This may seem like a lot of work, but look at the outcomes.

• In outcome 1 the bride is utterly miserable and gives the worst recommendation of the airline possible.
• In outcome 2 the bride realizes she should have never checked something so important, but is so impressed that she tells everyone at the wedding her story.

So let's assume there are 400 people at the wedding.  How much would you be willing to pay for 400 people to hear the most positive reviews your company can get from someone they trust?  How much would you pay to keep them from hearing the worst review?  Probably a whole lot more than the cost of a dress.

But there is still a bigger opportunity here!  What if the store the bride bought the dress from was on Twitter and was following her updates and learns of this situation?  They fly a tailor down to her wedding with a replacement dress.  How impressed would that bride be?  How many people would she tell that story to?  She’d probably mention your company in her speech!  And of course when she goes back home she’ll be telling everyone about you.

How good would your company feel if you were able to turn a bride's nightmare into a dream fulfilled? How many future brides would want to work with your company after hearing this story?

This is the power of social tools on the web and we'd like to help you use them.  Give us a buzz.

Big Omaha - Tech Conference

Above: Gary V records the "Thunder Show" live from Big Omaha

I've just returned to the office after attending the very first Big Omaha tech conference. What a great event.

The conference was executed seamlessly, which one would not expect, this being the first of its kind ever held in Omaha.

And there were some big time speakers too...HUGE!

• Jason Fried of 37signals
• Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless
• Ben Rattray of Change.org
• Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV

These plus other great speakers delivered solid advice, answered questions, and really motivated everyone in attendance to "Crush it" (line borrowed from Gary V).

I found Ben Rattray's presentation the most interesting.  His main point was that there are too many big problems in the world for us to be focusing on the trivial.  Instead we need to get smart people to put their brains to good use.

Overall I found the show to be very beneficial, even if I did feel like the least "tech nerdy" person there.  See you at BigO 2010!

It's Wedding Season!

Congratulations to Matthew and Ashley on their wedding this Saturday!

Great Minds + Great Design = We All Benefit

OK, so now I've had some time to process the wonderful gush of pure creative brilliance from the minds of Joe Duffy at AIGA and Alex Bogusky with SDAF this week. The design samples and creative process insights from Mr. Duffy were overwhelmingly inspiring. The quality work of Duffy & Partners speaks for itself. The refreshingly insightful and focused ad strategies of Alex Bogusky leave a lasting impression. The campaigns of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky are pure genius.

Finding the common threads of success among these heavyweight industry champions is not difficult at all, and can be roughly summed up in two points:

1. Include your client in the creative strategy at the very beginning. Trust their instincts to help lead the creative. Listen to them. Partner with them in their marketplace presence. You'll both benefit immensely in the end.

2. Really great design = long-term market impact and success. It is an investment in the future of your client and your own creative agency. No brainer.

So, thanks Joe Duffy and Alex Bogusky for being so transparent and wonderfully inspiring in your presentations in Sioux Falls this past week. It is apparent that you both seek to elevate and improve the standards of design and advertising in our community and abroad.

We're all the richer for it.

Dear Alex Bogusky,

First, I want to say I’m really excited to see you on Thursday – when you address the South Dakota Advertising Federation this Thursday at 11:30 at CJ Callaway’s (shameless plug).

Second – along with thousands of other copywriters and artists, I very much admire your company’s work.

Thanks for the inspiration. For making us smile and even laugh out loud. For setting the bar so impossibly high.

And thanks for having the balls to stand up to client requests for softening the creative – and then proving yourself right.

Which leads to one of the questions I’d like to ask you.

How do you get your clients to take chances?

I mean, I can just imagine trying to sell Subservient Chicken. “You want to do what? Put somebody in a chicken suit – on this Interweb thing? And just how will this increase ROI?”

Is that what makes Crispin Porter Bogusky so great? Is it the awesome creative? Or the fact that you’re able to sell it?

I have more questions. Lots. Like:

• How does your creative process work? Do you push your staff until they come up with great ideas or are all the great ideas yours? 

• Your brilliant work for Mini Cooper involved media innovation. Do you include media people in creative meetings?

• In all the photos I’ve seen of your company’s leaders, there are never any women. Why not?

• Microsoft. How’s it going?

• Microsoft again. Are people at your shop using PCs yet (see Fast Company, May 2008)?

• Burger King spot with SpongeBob, the King and the boxy-bottom girls. I see these spots during NBA games at 10 pm, but they seem to be aimed at kids. Who is the target?

• We only see the work clients agree to use. How much of what your shop creates sees the light of day?

• Looking back – is there any campaign or project you’d have done differently?

• Looking ahead – is there any client you haven’t yet had the opportunity to work with that you’re coveting?

• And finally – do you have any advice for us earthlings?

Thanks for coming to Sioux Falls – and we’ll see you Thursday!