Update: I’ve launched an online reference for the brevity challenged at Texting Abbreviations. If you’re like me and not super into texting and/or online social networking tools then you’re probably unfamiliar with various web and texting acrynoms. I’m making a concerted effort to change that. And I’ve discovered that there’s a lot of online resources…
Came across this photo of an old journal entry dating back to 1999. It’s a poem. Just in case you can’t read the writing, I’ve provided the text below. I kind of like it! But I would make some edits, including some different line breaks and a change of a few words. But I’ve provided…
Organizations have brands whether they want them or not. Organizations have brands whether they manage them or not. This is the common wisdom of brand developers and advertisers as they try to show organizations how to be more cool, more authentic and more sellable. Don’t have a unique and memorable brand? No problem. Let’s just…
Cory Doctorow is a force to be reckoned with. I listened to a free audiobook of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. But he doesn’t just write science fiction. He also writes and lectures about contemporary and important issues surrounding publishing, copyright, and the future of information sharing. This…
It is entirely possible for the meanings we create to be beyond our intent and within our responsibility. I’ve said this before, here. You have to read down a ways to get to it, and it’s so fascinating, that I thought I would repeat it. In the wild of human to human interactions, more meaning…
Well I was going to sign up for a Yahoo account but it required that I sign up with my birthday and gender. And I’m not really into it. I really just wanted to be able to submit sitemaps to their search engine for indexing, which is easier if you’re a member (which also doesn’t…
A quick trip to the Black Stilt felt especially rewarding when I saw this poster for an upcoming event that they’re hosting. The Story of Stuff is a short film that made the rounds online, well, maybe last year or so. I was (and still am) really impressed by it. But I’m even more impressed…
Today is a good day to think about our life support system. Our life support is our earth. It’s a delicate mixture of gravity, various nuclear forces that hold our subatomic and atomic particles together, solar energy, some electrical forces that hold our molecules together, a chemical soup composed of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen1…
This just in. Photos by Jim Arnott.
One of the challenges of branding and marketing is working with and relying on the many subtle, implicit and subconscious layers of meanings that are formed in people’s minds. This can be particularly difficult for people who tend toward the more analytic, more pre-defined, or more explicit forms of communication. Let’s call the former maximal…
I don’t know how he does it. He has a kind of discipline that I don’t understand. If he didn’t have a wife and family, I would guess that he’s a monk. Good luck Jasper Blake. May the force be with you.
There’s a coffee shop in my neighbourhood and they do stuff there that I really admire. Yes, they also serve well-made, organic, fairtrade coffee. But they do more. I’m not a music geek. Heck I hardly even enjoy music. But I recognize the role that music plays in human communities. The Spiral Cafe people seem…
Spent last weekend on Galiano. There’s nothing better than sharing a cool island weekend with cool friends.
Okay, so it’s one thing to notice and criticize ads that are demeaning, racist or hateful. But I’ve been thinking lately that maybe I have a duty to also contact the owners of the ad that I wrote about here and also here, and let them know that I think their ad is racist. Or…
This thoughtful film appeals to me so much because I think the animation is really artful. It reviews the notion of a tipping point (important notion for people to understand) and it’s written and narrated in a way that doesn’t talk down to it’s audience. Also, he’s really clear that climate change is, at this…
These always make me laugh. XKCD
I like Good Magazine! They’ve been rewarding good ideas lately with some good video ads!
So last week I wrote about a bus ad that I photographed and posted claiming that it was racist. But I didn’t really speak to how or why it was racist. And it’s important to be able to say why.1 The tagline: “GREAT MEXICAN TASTE, WITHOUT THE RUNS” So the implication of this tagline is…
Just in case you ever wondered about the blackness (B) and hardness (H) ratings for pencils, I have provided for you this really handy chart.1 As an illustrator, I have a fascination for pencils. Not that I’m a pencil snob. Probably many other illustrators would have a good laugh at my meager collection of pencils….
We made this piece last year. We picked up a magazine off of the shelf in our neighbourhood grocery store. Yikes. I am very interested in the way we shape people through media, especially advertising. What I find interesting about magazines, is how any individual image seems unimportant. But what is the aggregate affect of…
This is a good ad. I love the copy. It’s folksy – the language is down to earth. Heck, it could be my mom talking, the voice of the ad is that good. “Fact is, truth is an essential part of any successful ad campaign. Smart advertisers have known this for years. That’s why the…
Between Vulcan and the Little Bow Provincial Park.
Advertisements push our buttons and our boundaries. Ad copy that once might have been rejected for being too risky or simply in bad taste is now often fair game. Companies and organizations work hard to create a brand that is irreverent, humourous and memorable. And that works for many organizations – especially if you are…
