Author Archive for Ben

12
May
09

Tips for Finding Internship

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Careers

I’ve just recently had the opportunity to move 30 + students from the classroom and off into the ‘real world’ and many of them had the same questions about interning and finding work ‘cold’.  I just stumbled across this very useful article on ‘10 tips for interns’ on the behance network, which I would suggest reading over to get some great ideas about the different things needed to get into your top studios.  Students: use your big creative brain mass and apply these ideas to finding a job that actually pays money as well as experience, not just interning. With Pixar looking to open up shop in our (proverbial) backyard, the time would definitely appear to be ripe to get into the industry!

Check out the link here!

-B-

01
May
09

The artist as a marketer

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Careers and creative business
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Here’s a fantastic post from LateralAction.com which I recently stubmled across via PSFK.com which features an interview by Hugh MacLeod.

Up until now, I have never heard of Hugh MacLeod, but I certainly enjoyed his perspective on the role of and needed abilities/attitudes for artists these days.  It resonates to a degree with Dan Pink’s view on the artist and creative type in the new economies, as explored in ‘A Whole New Mind’, although it sticks closer to the ‘artist’ still using ‘art’ as the medium.  None the less, well worth the read!

To my future students, take heed, this may be the view point and area of knowledge that you too must begin to take to succeed and step on the shoulders of your competition!

- B -

EDIT: Sorry, I didn’t even link to Hugh MacLeod’s website: gapingvoid.com – I just spent about 10 minutes wandering, and I can see he’s on the same path as personal favourite, Seth Godin.  Cool stuff!

16
Apr
09

In-The-Box Thinking

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising and Careers
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Car Dealer Ad Wars

A short post today regarding the advertising industry, and what you can learn from this for your own professional gain, mostly focused on breaking the ‘barriers’ associated with traditional marketing.

Everywhere we go, posters, commercials and billboards are talking to us, shouting at us, to listen to them.  (Some studies indicate that we are ’shouted’ at more than 200+ times a day in fact!)  So it takes some very creative thinking to stand out from the mass of shouting to really make an impact on the average listener (consumer).  This is nothing new.  So, I’ve always been curious about the ‘boundaries’ involved with traditional advertising, and the various guerrilla  methods used to get out to the listeners.  That’s why this ad really caught my attention.  That’s some great creative thinking.  It’s one thing to invent a whole new ‘guerrilla’ means of communicating through advertising, it’s another altogether more difficult thing to work within a well established form of communications such as this, and be so effective.  And most amazingly, to make it so simple (which most often the best ideas are; and that’s worthy of it’s own post altogether)

For those of you thinking about marketing or advertising yourself to get work (students and professionals alike), it can be extremely valuable to look around at the landscape and ask yourself, how can I stand out from this?  It’s similar to advertising when you think about it.  Dozens, if not hundreds, of students and professionals alike, trying to find work and catch the attention of employers.  Many of the students I teach are stressed something new and amazing way to capture employer’s attention, however that thinking can be both daunting and frustrating.  Why not take a cue from some of the best communicators out there – advertisers – and see how their ‘in-the-box’ thinking can help your ambitions?

So my question:  looking at your portfolio, resume, demo reel,  networking tools and even interview answers and presentation.  How do they compare to the mass of people out there trying to say the same thing you are?  What simple idea and attitude can you apply to your own conversation with the world that makes you memorable and valuable?  A small hint, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel; instead, why not make a truly memorable wheel!

As an added point of interest, I found this image and article on PSFK.com, a great site I’ve been frequenting quite often these days!  I’d recommend checking it out!

Would enjoy your thoughts on this article!  Why do you think these sorts of ads are so successful in capturing our attention?

- B -

11
Apr
09

What’s in a brand name?

By Ben 1 Comment
Categories: Entrepreneurship
Tags: , , , , ,

So, what’s in a brand name?  Well, it would appear that there is quite a lot and not a whole heck of a lot, depending on where you look.

What's in a name?

I’m working on a project with some friends that seems to have a lot of exciting opportunities and loads of potential … if only we could figure out a name.   We all think it’s great, but what in the heck do we call this thing?  A name will say a lot about our product, our ideology, our services, and how people will eventually remember, identify and incorporate this product into their everyday lives, not to mention, it has to be memorable, spellable, emotional, logical, scalable, available and clever.

So, with all of these various requisites, and after a few weeks of meetings, brainstorms, naming parties, and dictionary upon dictionary upon dictionary, we’re still in the air about what this thing will be called.  Interestingly enough though, it’s forced us to look at major brands and their names, to understand what thought processes have gone into the most successful brands.  Here’s a great link to the etymology of famous brands that highlights some of the really curious origins of some of your favourite brands!  (Top of my list so far is Asics, most likely because I’m on a Latin kick for the moment.)

A part of me feels like this should be dynamic and interesting, but not given too much analysis to the point that it loses its’ fun for function.  (Makes me think of a favourite saying: a camel is a horse designed by a committee).  Another part looks at some very ‘easy’ names on this list and realizes now that many of them were given lots of thought before launch (Nike is great example here).  Either way, once we have this sorted out it will be come a matter of branding and positioning the name, just like Nike and Coke and Apple, which is what brings us from just a name to a successful brand.

26
Mar
09

Career paths and ‘rails’

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Careers and General

It’s fascinating to think about the slew of options available to us in our career paths, both charted and uncharted.  Every Friday I get a chance to teach a group of really interesting students about career preparation, and how to get ‘a job’, and an underlying concept I have been attempting to convey to them is the idea that there are numerous paths to success in their careers.  As it happens, I read a great post this morning on Zen Habits that I thought I’d share, as well as comment on.  Food for thought!

Continue reading ‘Career paths and ‘rails’’

06
Feb
09

Why Bigger Goals = Less Competition

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Let’s look at Timothy Ferriss’ reasoning behind bigger goals.

Here is an excellent link to check out!

For those of you who are reading this from my class, use this thinking as an example!  Now go meet the most
important or influential person in the animation industry that you can think of; ask them a question and bring in your response to class.  Remember, you have a big goal in mind, so think of someone that could help you with your big goal, and something you can ask them that will help you towards your big goal!

Go get em!

B

12
Apr
08

Comics for Kids?

By Ben Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

After wrapping up a great class with the students I have been working with at Seneca College over the past four months, we ended up chatting about the new opportunities arising for artists around the globe and across the business spectrum. My previous article talked (briefly) about the idea that many large business look towards the skills held by artists as a means of communicating across the broad range of various aspects of their operations through simple visuals. This is only one of many dozens and dozens of examples of how artists may look towards new opportunities.

Continue reading ‘Comics for Kids?’

02
Apr
08

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?

By Ben 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Or it could be worth a few thousand dollars!  Here is an interesting (albeit short) article from FastCompany.com on the concept behind using visuals to help communicate ideas to large organizations, as well as more importantly, to flesh ideas out in short form.

Those of you in the animation industry, or other visual production industries, are familiar with the ‘thumbnail’ sketch as a method of creating ideas quickly that we can just as easily throw in the trash as we can build upon into the million dollar idea. This same thinking can be applied to businesses that aren’t creatively oriented, such as Wal-Mart, Microsoft and UPS. To name a few companies.

I’ve spent countless times around boardroom tables listening to and participating in discussions that involve some very complicated concepts, and a large part of the time, the discussion centres around understanding the concept at it’s fundamental level across the table vs. actually working on the concept itself. This is only one consideration for the above article. My suggestion to those of you working in the creative fields looking to expand your horizons: Look at articles such as this as a billboard from the right-brain industries! We need you to help us with our process. Can you?

Mayhaps.

- B

02
Apr
08

Let’s get Smart(ist)

By Ben 1 Comment
Categories: General
Tags: , ,

What is Smart(istry)?  This is a little idea we’ve been working on to help address the changing realm of the creative in the emerging (emerged) industries.  You see the deal is:  many of us are talented artists, but when you start engaging your unique creative skills, you can become a smart(ist) – someone who is capable of delivering far more than pretty pictures.

Hopefully this blog will help us out.

Posts here will vary from tips on business concepts for artists, emerging industries for creative talent, ideas regarding your own career options, recipes, articles from leading business and ‘right brain’ sources as well as user content and feedback.

Let the thinking begin!

- B

Are You The Smart(ist)?

Be Smart(ist) is a project to help merge 'arts' with 'smarts'. This site aims to explore concepts involving professional and career possibilities for creative types, and to provide a forum for discussing the shifting roles and opportunities for artists and creative types everywhere, both in business and beyond.

 

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