Check out the link here!

-B-

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!

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 -

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.

Be it doing a different job in their industry (especially an area with fewer professionals but higher demand) or using their skills in a different industry altogether (animators in medicine or architecture or information and communications?), I think there are fewer limits on what we want to, and can do, with our careers than we imagine.  The article above also talks about how we get to that job.  I have talked with countless graduates about what they’re doing with themselves post-graduation, and a surprising number of them say ‘I’m thinking of going back to school to study for x’.  Always makes me ask to myself, and sometimes to them, ‘Why?’.

Is it because we’re trained to believe that schooling is the ONLY way to a successful career?  Is it because we are ingrained with the belief that there only specific tracks to our careers that we must follow, and that without some success early on, we are preordained to not succeed?   It’s less like we have career paths, and more like we have career ‘rails’, where we are lead to believe and follow these tracks that can’t be changed, lest we fall off the rails and fail.  Yikes!  Failure.  Don’t get me started on our failure-averse behaviours…

I have a strong belief that the schooling we receive, which I can compare to schooling in other regions of the world, can be very valuable, and our graduates are very capable.  But I also believe that what we teach our students, and our children, and ourselves, about what we do with our schooling and after school is still staggeringly out of touch with what is possible in today’s day and age. Even in a sliding economy.  In fact, more important because of this sliding economy!

So check out that post above, and maybe visit the site of Dan Pink and see what he’s saying these days.

I have more, but I’ll save it for another post.

Cheers,

Ben

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

When I talk with other artists and creatives about their career focus and the world of opportunities available to them, I see a trend that tends to focus on the traditional pathways to career success or fulfillment, and only sporadically meet those who are embracing non-traditional methods. Through my own professional, and personal experiences, I continue to see a growing need for artists outside of the normal arenas. Though I might have thought that this was a product of my own perceptions, it appears that there is indeed an established and growing need for artists, and ‘right-brainers’, outside of cartoons, paintings, theatre and performance.

One of the chief authors who has helped raise this level of awareness within my own professional career, and allowed me to consider these ideas on a larger scale outside of my own world, has been Daniel H. Pink, author of ‘A Whole New Mind‘ and the recently released ‘Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need’. The most unusual of these books is the latter, ‘Johnny Bunko’ which is a career guide written in the style of Japanese manga, which closely echoes the comic book format we are so familiar with as kids. ( I still have my issue #1 X-Factor if anyone is looking!).

Dan’s first novel, ‘A Whole New Mind’, follows closely after the concepts elaborated in ‘The World Is Flat‘ (Thomas Freidman which talks about the changing global economy and the potential effects it will have on Western industries). For the sake of not making this sound like a book review, ‘AWNM’ essentially provides an ‘answer’ to some of the problems posed in the ‘TWIF’; mainly that the so-called ‘creative class’ will provide the valuable services and commodity to replace that which is being lost to out-sourcing and automation. The main argument is that while it is cheaper to send work overseas, and to have computers manage more and more of our processes, there is a growing need in the Western hemisphere for products and experiences of substance and depth; something which left brain logical thinking has difficulty addressing, but the right-brain emotional thinkers can provide in abundance.

To prove his point, Dan released Johnny Bunko (which I haven’t read yet, although I will be at a Chapters tomorrow trust me). This is a career guide (left-brain) written in the style of a comic book (right-brain). It will be very interesting to see how well this book fares with the younger generation of students and professionals, as well as with the older generation of course, based on his theories in ‘AWNM’. To me, this signals another small yet significant shift in the perceptions of what uses arts in general can be applied to outside of the traditional channels.

This will continue to be a focus of postings on the besmartist.com website, however comments or additional thoughts to this post would be welcome! In the meantime, feel free to check out Dan’s article for WIRED magazine on the manga culture in Japan.

Ben

————-

P.S. – besmartist.com is looking for contributing articles from anyone who is interested in providing their insights into the life of professional arts as well as their observations on the creative industry and related subject matter! Interested? drop an email smartsforarts at gmail dot com

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

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