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I could certainly chime in with complaints about aspects of the conference. Heck, every conference I've ever been to has had flaws. They always do. You try to organize something of that magnitude! I suppose an intimate design camp in the woods would be a wonderful experience, but even that event wasn't as much focussed on the thrilling speakers as it was the networking and exchanging of ideas. This brings me to my point. Why I was really there in the first place. With recent world events on my mind, I returned home to Vancouver with a heavy heart as I too wondered "Is that all?" and "What now?". The event's tagline Why Are We Here? seemed a suitable question as I tried to make sense of the experience and was on my mind as I found myself questioning what the conference's theme "Defining Design On A Changing Planet" was about as we sat through the various presentations. But in retrospect, it was what happened BETWEEN the presentations and events that resonated loudest for me. It always is in situations like this. Lectures, seminars and events can be informative, powerful and thought-provoking, but the real benefit of the conference is connecting with old and new friends, sharing ideas and debating topics and issues that arise. Getting caught up in the attendance or whether a presenter had the style and grace of a skilled ToastMasters graduate is to miss the point entirely. Sure, not every talk was perfectly focussed on the theme or eloquently delivered, but I was moved and humbled by the skills, passion and dedication of those who participated. Some of whom had travelled half way across the world and struggled with their English as they expressed themselves. To overtly criticize them for their delivery seems somewhat hypocritical to me as I sometimes struggle and nervously fumble in front of a crowd, let alone an international design audience. Yikes. For me anyway, there really were some great moments and some valuable information learned during the week, but the new relationships formed with like-minded professionals from around the world were the real delight. I met designers young and old from countries as far away as Brazil, Denmark, Korea, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and Zimbabwe. Have you ever met a graphic designer from Zimbabwe? Me neither. Before the main conference began I was honored to attend the Icograda Regional Meeting where leaders from design organizations such as AIGA, GDC, GAG, IABC, AtypI, SEGD, UCDA, APDF and even UNESCO discussed trends, challenges, influences, education, and the future of our profession. It was a rewarding and humbling experience. I have to admit that I'd never even heard of some of the associations. Some of these characters were famous names in the design field, other people I'd only ever corresponded with via email or read their comments on blogs. Putting names to faces as we exchanged cards was terrific, but like much of the week, the conversations over lunch about other designers' lives and practices in other countries were the real highlights. During the rest of the week there were gallery shows, design exhibits, studio tours and receptions where we sipped glasses of wine with colleagues and new friends, discovering that we shared many of the same challenges and frustrations in our design practices. On the way to one such event our team literally had most of the bus singing along cheerfully. On another day we found ourselves in an impromptu international circle participating in heavy debate and discourse over issues such as globalization, inspiration and collaboration with designers in other cultures. I even heard introductions and conversations initiated in washrooms between lectures. During the day, I met dozens of wide-eyed students eager to learn more about opportunities in various countries. And at night, unique groups spontaneously formed such as the seven international design instructors I joined for a dinner hosted by Adobe. Good times, good food and plentiful drinks were balanced against serious discussions about cultural trends, technological developments, and global design education opportunities. In the Trade Show area, sponsor design companies such as Aquent, Microsoft, Sappi and IdN showcased their products and answered attendees' questions. This was yet another site where, between seminars, more connections were made and issues flushed out. And of course, the host city of Seattle provided copious opportunities of nighttime fun as friends and I explored the city's neighbourhood pubs, intimate local restaurants, electric jazz clubs and sketchy rock bars. One notable characteristic of Seattle I'd never noticed before was the proliferation of thoughtful typography and striking graphic design solutions. Even street signs seemed to be designed and typeset better than back home. Later in the week I had the rare opportunity to to tour the studios of well-known Seattle design firms such as Methodologie, Girvin, Fitch and Hornall Anderson Design Works. Some firms tried to create inspirational design spaces with ultra calm environments like Girvin's attempt at Japanese Zen meets Art Gallery, while others created a modern, clean space such as Hornall Anderson, who even had a typography room with a working letterpress for design staff to play with. But perhaps most interesting was the massive creative space occupied by Starbuck's design team as described by our friend Michelle Sourisseau. And then there was the drinking. Where you find designers, you will often find alcohol. So many great conversations were spurred on by double tequilas and bottles of Washington State Chardonnay. Not a good mix I came to discover, but many of the best social interactions and new friendships happened over drinks and laughs. They always do. I heard it before: professional conferences are as much about what happens in the hallways, bathrooms and bars as it is during the lectures and events. For me especially, the value of the Icograda Seattle Design Week was found in the new relationships forged, the sharing, the dialogue and the laughs that occurred between lectures and events - the stuff found "between the lines". That's where the real experience lies. That's why I was there. So I end this final entry about Design Week with this: The next time you arrive at a conference, try to remain receptive to the passion and dedication of the individuals that gave up their free time to travel long distances to share and learn, the experiences between the lines will be much more enjoyable. If you arrive at an event with a negative attitude, you will be predisposed to dislike the experience. Oh, and about that question, "What now?" well, I don't know. But I do know that design is more powerful and relevant than ever. And a brief look at history tells us that a simple poster can affect peace, social justice and environmental movements. Design can change the world. And the world has never needed changing more dearly than now. [post_title] => Between The Lines [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => between-the-lines [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-07-27 16:00:00 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-07-28 00:00:00 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/between-the-lines [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 3 [filter] => raw ) -->

Between The Lines

Words and Photos: Mark Busse The buzz of Seattle Design Week is fading and I’ve settled back into my regular work routine. We’ve already expressed some thoughts and opinions on the experience here, while others have expressed th [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 27th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 3 Comments »

We live in a fast paced and ever-changing world. This statement has become ubiquitous to the point of cliché in the post 9/11 21st century. It is often used as an excuse or as a dismissive explanation for the chaotic state of our existence. But what we were repeatedly told during the conference, the theme of which was “Defining Design on a Changing Planet”, was that as designers, we possess the skills and ability to create an order to our surroundings, to facilitate conversations with others and among others as well as the ability to inspire. What it all comes down to is that this ever-changing world is not an excuse for us; it is a challenge. One for which we need to make some commitments. The event was a partnership with the AIGA Center for Cross Cultural Design. Only 4 years old, they are a committed group of designers who believe in "not seeing borders" when it comes to design. The opening introduction on the Icograda Design Week website reads "Design should solve multi-cultural branding challenges, promote peace and stability, balance profits with human rights and create more sustainability." Lofty goals indeed. To explore these goals, 60 design students from around the world were invited to compete in the 2006 International Design Workshop. Breaking into seven collaborative teams, the students were mentored and guided by leading design educators and practitioners with daunting creative briefs provided by the United Nations with subjects based on the UN Millennium Development Goals such as combating diseases like HIV/AIDS, eradicating extreme poverty and environmental sustainability. Participants had 4 days to concept and develop innovative solutions to these issues in dramatic ways using poster design. All images, illustrations, text and compositions had to be developed by the students in the short period of time. A difficult challenge, but the student groups banded together to delve into various design process methodology and techniques such as rapid research, brainstorming, thought-mapping, prototyping and iterative processes in pursuit of effective solutions. Many of the students commented that although a monumental task, the workshops expanded their perspectives on design process and changed their lives forever. Final designs were showcased during the conference's Over the Fence Seminar, with Heather Anderson winning the best poster design for her innovative solution to addressing the issue of extreme poverty with an edible poster. For her efforts Anderson won a unique and valuable trial internship at Fabrica, Benetton's famous communication and design research centre in Italy - a privilege reserved for a select few with an 18 month waiting list. Set within the impeccable facilities of the University of Washington campus, the conference began with a unique gathering of some of the brightest members of the design community from around the world for the 2006 Icograda Regional Meeting. In a meeting room at the Faculty Club, representatives from international design associations such as AIGA, GDC, GAG, and many others met to present reports on the status of design in their respective jurisdictions; of global trends, influences, ethics, accreditation, education, and the changing definition of design and it’s role. Scattered among the expected regional reports about association histories, missions and accomplishments were tales of design's positive impact around the world. One moving story presented by the SEGD’s Paula Rees nearly had the room in tears as she told them about Lily Yeh and Alan Jacobson and their two year multi-dimensional art project, The Rwanda Healing Project, which won SEGD's 2006 Design Award for its work with genocide refugees in war-torn Rwanda. The overall message gleaned from this peek behind the curtain was that communication design is alive and well, healthier and more relevant than ever before. Those who attended left the meeting inspired and excited to learn more in the days to come about using design to make a difference in a changing global climate. The next day, Cheskin CEO Darrel Rhea delivered an inspiring starting point for this discussion by stating that designers naturally have more empathy and compassion than others in the world of business. In fact Rhea went further, declaring that you can’t be a competent designer today without empathy. "It is a core component of our work" he said, "to care about our client and their product". The 80’s image of the advertising agency concerned only with sales and the manipulation of the consumer has been replaced with an openness and an inclusion of customer insight. It has finally come around that doing the right thing is actually good for business. There is a growing appreciation for this movement in both the corporate world and among consumers. They talk of “meaningful consumption”, that people want to get something more out of all of their “stuff”. Furthermore, it is apparent that the global business world is more seriously embracing the business of design and designers and the value that we provide. Pentagram co-founder Mervyn Kurlansky expanded on this notion when he described the majority of humankind as innately existing in “a fixed way of being”. The example he gave was the classic notion of learning to ride a bike, something you never forget how to do, and something you will always essentially do the same for the rest of your life. The ease with which we cling to such habitual behaviour is a survival technique, a safety clause in our DNA. But somehow designers can look past this instinct, instead relying on our intuition, approaching situations with new perspectives and in the process creating change. Examples of designers bringing about such change were plentiful throughout the conference. We heard from Alejandro Quinto and Lorraine Gauthier, both of whom worked with Bruce Mau on his immensely important design driven art exhibit Massive Change before joining forces and starting Work Worth Doing, a Toronto-based company that considers the social, economic and environmental areas of design. We reveled in the contagious passion of Mo Woods, a designer and UW Design Instructor who has developed the Inneract Project, a program that teaches inner city youth "filled with potential but without opportunity" about the power of graphic design. We met Saki Mafundikwa, who started the first design school in Zimbabwe, encouraging Africans to discover and define their own graphic language. And we were deeply inspired by the eloquent story from Ravi Naidoo, founder of the Design Indaba (a Zulu word meaning “gathering of the people”) of how graphic design was embraced as a major force in uniting the people of South Africa in their new post-apartheid nation. Equally as inspiring were the more informal discussions with designers that we met from all around the globe, while eating lunch out in the sun or grabbing a coffee – Starbucks of course – during a break. Passionate people are doing some very inspiring and important things as a result of their understanding of design and the ICOGRADA Design week allowed them to meet others of similar mindsets and in many cases make the scope of their individual foci larger or more realized. But with this message of our new role as communicators of change came a stern reminder of our heavier obligation towards social responsibility. Linda Fu, who is currently completing her PhD thesis on “the visual representation of the Other in the context of globalization” stated that globalization has become the “term of our time” but it tends to remain undefined while being overused. It has, without a doubt created a smaller world, but with bigger responsibilities, one in which “the obvious is often false and the truth is often the exact opposite”.  She stated that we are currently in the third stage of globalization which she termed as Coca Cola-nization or the Disneyfication of the world. Both of these serve to comment on the grotesquely off-balanced position of American influence over other cultures. Fu told us that she fears the emergence of a homogeneous culture, that a global monoculture is very real and the weaker cultures will not survive. Her advice for us on this issue was to go out and see the world, celebrate its differences and, on the topic of indigenous cultures, "love them, and try to understand them." The notion of a shrinking cultural map was reinforced dramatically on Saturday when Andrea Marks presented her film Freedom On The Fence, a documentary on the Polish poster art movement that was born as both a result of and as a response to the Soviet rule of the country from 1952 to 1989. Through their bold and original works, Polish poster designers were responsible for bringing both joy and an acerbic political commentary to the otherwise crumbling and dismal streets of Warsaw and Krakow serving as bright flowers in a concrete garden. One cannot help but marvel at the seemingly natural proliferation of human creativity during such horrific and repressive conditions. The sad reality of the present is that with the fall of Communism and an opening up to the West, this unique cultural art form has quickly faded away to be replaced with the standard Hollywood and brand name fare. You can only wonder how many other micro-cultures are disappearing in a similar way but without the benefit of a documentarian to share their moment with the world. At the same time, it begs the question of what strange and wonderful cultures are germinating in our current perilous period of world history. It was the last presentation of the day that seemed to bring the main issues of the conference to a head. Earlier in the day, Henry Steiner had presented a thoughtful talk on cross-cultural design, revisiting some of the themes and ideas that he wrote about in Cross Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace ten years ago. In a globalized world, Steiner stated design is often the arena where cultures, either "fuse" or "crash", two extremes where disparate cultural aestetic and vernacular either merge to create new forms or collide to render them subject to abherrant decoding. He had begun by talking about the apparent arrogance of Starbucks opening a store in Vienna, a city already rich in coffee heritage and history. Interestingly, though perhaps not coincidentally, the final speaker of the conference was none other than Stanley Hainsworth, the Global Creative Director of the Starbucks Coffee Company located just down the street in Seattle. In an unprecedented move, when it came to the question and answer period, Henry Steiner was given the mic from the audience and readdressed his comments from the morning.  In his response, Hainsworth, played it safe, as he had throughout his presentation, assuring us that the main intentions of Starbucks were always to create communities and that in the end, it is “all about the bean.” It all screamed of towing the party line. And perhaps this was Hainsworth’s only major fault: that he didn’t engage us in a more genuine conversation about the challenges of a major international corporation in its attempt to “do good”. He seemed to be on the defensive, like the Marlboro Man in a cancer ward. We’ll admit that we were cynical. Most of us in the marketing world, who have pulled back the curtain generally are. And regardless of whether the Chinese government invited Starbucks to open a store in the Forbidden City or not, it still seems wrong. Like the real estate developer who looks out over a stretch of virgin forest and imagines suburbia, it would seem that the powers that be at Starbucks cannot walk a block in any city without envisioning its betterment by the presence of a round green sign. But to be fair, after giving it further thought, it also appears that Starbucks is sincere in its intentions; that it really is trying its best to apply socially responsible thinking to its decision making process. Hainsworth stated that whether they are opening a store in a foreign country or simply in a new local neighbourhood that they do so with “a sensitivity to the local culture” by speaking with the leaders of the community and developing a visual language that is complementary and relevant to the area. The Starbucks Studio, located just down the street in Seattle is set up as a designers' playground, each desk equipped with a large-screened Mac and an array of art supplies—paint, drawing pencils, markers, paper and ink. Hainsworth encourages organic and non-digital work for the Starbucks brand with few other limitations beyond five main criteria that hang as a checklist in the middle of the design area: handcrafted, artistic, sophisticated, human and enduring. “If the work produced is not all five of these things, we go back to the drawing board and try something different”, he explained. “We do have a list of corporate fonts (Clarendon, Trajan, Bembo and Trade Gothic) and an unchanging logo, but otherwise the world of creative possibilities is open." The reason that Hainsworth’s presentation was such an interesting finale to the conference was that it provided a concrete example of how the ideas and ideals that had been discussed in the days previous have actually been played out in the real world by a very large American corporation. Like every other manifesto or utopian vision, the social responsibility model that we had been molding over the course of the conference will always require amendments when it is put into practice in the real world. There is no defined line between absolute right and wrong and ultimately someone must make a decision that will reverberate through all levels of the corporate system, benefiting some aspects and taking its toll on others. At the same time, they are a business that has all intensions to make a profit and be successful. When it comes down to it, we can spend as much time as we like engaged in debate and discussion about how the world can be a better place and develop our visions of a designed utopia, but the truth is that it starts to become far more complicated when you actually apply those theories to a real life business solution. So where does all of this leave us? How do we define ourselves? It seems that designers are always asking that question and the stakes are higher than ever to describe our role clearly to both ourselves and the world. The Turkish designer, Esen Karol ironically pointed out that the very aim of the conference, of defining design on a changing planet was paradoxical, that it is hard to hit a moving target. Linda Fu chastised our present state of identity crisis when she said, “There is still not a clear definition of what a graphic designer is. Do you wonder why? Look around. We are getting what we deserve.” The solution to this, or at least a good start can be found in the advice of Darrell Rhea who encouraged us to start talking with other people about what it is that we do, and what we believe, and not only with other designers. But perhaps we should leave the last word on this matter in the more than capable hands of the conference's matron Sara Little Turnbull, who was honoured at the conference with the ICOGRADA Achievement Award and stated that “The designer is the conscience of the company. We can’t expect anyone else to fill this role.” In the end, we return to the state of world affairs that are playing out this evening with rumours of World War III guaranteeing a troubled sleep tonight and in the times ahead. As a point of consolation, we are reminded of one other pinnacle moment at the conference early in the proceedings that had actually served to set the tone for why we were there and assured us that what was to come would be worthwhile. It came in the form of Tarek Atrissi’s presentation on his use of Arabic typography in design. Born in Beirut, but currently working out of the Netherlands, his work was beautiful and it made us realize that up until that point, the majority of Arabic type that we had been previously exposed to was on the nightly news, as captions beneath the faces of “evil doers”, or wrapped in biased messages that encouraged the hate and fear of cultures that we don’t understand. In that moment, the power of design to change our perspective on things was personally felt. Even though we could not read what was written on the screen, Atrissi’s design communicated its message absolutely. Read Mark's follow up article Between The Lines [post_title] => Defining Design on a Changing Planet [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => defining-design-on-a-changing-planet [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-07-18 11:59:00 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-07-18 19:59:00 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/defining-design-on-a-changing-planet [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 7 [filter] => raw ) -->

Defining Design on a Changing Planet

Words: Kevin Broome and Mark Busse. Photos: Christopher Liechty (above), Matt SamyciaWood (below).As featured on the TAXI Design Network We have just returned home and begun an intensive recovery that is befitting of the work hard / play ha [...]

Posted by: industrialbrand on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 7 Comments »

IBC: How did you get involved in this project? BBS: I've been working at Mainframe Entertainment for 6.5 years. I started there as a Production Assistant running coffees for the Executives. I was pretty disillusioned with live-action and seeing all my friends working such long hours, so I thought I'd give animation a shot. I then went into the motion capture department and started working as a Grip, which led to Assistant Director, did a bit of mocap Directing, then went into production as an Assistant Director on a Max Steel movie. My Producer at the time, Gio Corsi, encouraged me to pitch Mainframe's CEO on new creative for the Tony Hawk property, which was at a stand-still as a project. So I met with Rick Mischel numerous times and got him on side. My boss, Kim Dent-Wilder then backed me up (thanks Kim), and as they say, the rest is history. Where did the Circus Freak storyline come from? BBS: We were playing with a bunch of ideas and gave the Hawk camp 4 concepts for movies. They gravitated to the circus freak kidnapping one right away. I then pulled some friends within Mainframe to bounce some ideas around with. Che McNabb, Mike Mckinlay (a pro skater in Vancouver), and I worked out the broad strokes and then I wrote the treatment over a weekend. We sent it off on the Monday to the Hawk camp and BOOM, we were approved and hit the ground running! It's kinda crazy how when the timing is right, it just happens. It's a trip! IBC: Boom Boom Sabotage has such a unique look to it. What were your inspirations in designing the film? What were your influences for the characters? BBS: Mainframe had an exchange program with a sister animation company in Israel and one of the guys on the exchange was given to the project. Gil Rimmer did some concept art and it really sucked and we were like "well, I guess that guy is not gonna work out." But then he asked for some specific skateboard details and a week later he had completely blown us away. It was like night and day! This relationship continued to flourish and Gil later earned the title of Art Director and Concept Artist on the movie. We were definitely inspired by the real world though, but exaggerating it to the point of ridiculous. Our main villain is based on John Cleese's silly walks style of over-the-top acting and Cleese in Faulty Towers. We really wanted the whole style kinda low-fi, haggard, and dirty / gritty. It just fits the skateboard world. Gil also took elements of the Gorillaz, Simon Bisley's "Lobo", skateboard magazines, and some of Vancouver's many extreme characters from the lower Eastside and fused that into the art for the show. IBC: How did you go about motion capturing all of the skate sequences? Were there new techniques used? BBS: The Vicon motion capture system that we shot with allowed us to have such flexibility in shooting. Most shoots are very structured, with a list of 50 to 100 moves per day and an Assistant Director managing the shoot, calling out the shots. We wanted to do completely the opposite; loud music, skate whenever you want to skate, no lists. And the Vicon system was perfect for that. We could identify the skater by the technical set-up of the markers on spandex shoot, so we had the freedom to just have a great 5 day skate-jam. I think that relaxed environment gave the skaters a comfort level to just skate, almost as they would at a skatepark… except they were wearing full skin-tight spandex suits. We also used MotionBuilder software for the first time to seam together all the skate tricks. This gave us the flexibility to take multiple skate tricks and blend them together to get a fluid skateboard line hitting multiple obstacles. We were able to add multiple cameras at this stage and really explore the editorial and directing. It was a GREAT stage of production! IBC: What was the most difficult part in the making of this film? BBS: Well, any production is like a full on endurance challenge on all kinds of levels. It's managing people and expectations and budgets and creative, kinda like bombing a huge hill on a skateboard... you just gotta grit your teeth and not get too sketched out or fear the speed wobble. STICK IT, STICK IT!!! But I think if I had to boil it down to the hardest thing, it was probably not getting enough sleep, because I was always waking up and going "CRAP! I gotta remember to put that stalefish over the hip in the movie!" This project is pretty much my dream project, so I was really married to it all. I'm sleeping much better now that the movie is in the can and we're getting a lot of laughs when we show it. IBC: Why do you think that skate culture has become as massive an influence as it has? BBS: Skateboarding is relentless on itself. Nothing is sacred in skateboarding. Your company, your riders, their skate style could be the hottest thing, then BANG! Out of nowhere, something new or contradicting shows up and changes it all, re-inventing that wheel. But that being said, there is a real nostalgia and historical respect, which is kinda the catch-22. So I think due to that, skateboarding stays fresh and doesn't let itself get stale. Skateboarding is also pretty ahead of all the bigger scenes and it grasps on to music, clothing styles, and artists before most people are calling it "cool". And I think especially with the whole fashion side of skateboarding, it's so popular and makes so much money, those companies can invest big bucks into the core side of skateboarding to keep it pure. IBC: How involved was Tony Hawk in the project? BBS: Tony was really involved. He wrote all his dialog, recorded all his lines, did motion capture for all his skating, and gave feedback throughout the whole process of making the movie. He was really supportive of making the movie very skateboard oriented and ensuring the authenticity of how skateboarding was portrayed. Motion capture was the ticket to this authenticity, which is one of Mainframe's specialties, so it was a great fit for the project. IBC: Who are the other pro skaters that worked on the project? How did you cast that group? BBS: We did a motion capture test about 3 years ago and I met Mike Mckinlay down at the Westbeach shop in Vancouver. Mike and Dave Priest were both shop riders for Westbeach and came out to do a shoot on a half-pipe. That test became one of the many developments Mainframe used in pitching the show over the years. Mike and I became friends and he ended up getting a job at Mainframe as a Production Coordinator on a Max Steel movie. During that movie, we developed creative and really just got on the same page for the project as a whole. When the Hawk movie was greenlit, Mike and I had made a short list of local Vancouver skaters that we would love to get in the show. Vancouver has such a great skate scene, it was pretty much pick of the litter. Our first choice was Alex Chalmers, who is just the gnarliest all terrain skater and one of Tony Hawk's favorite skaters. It helped too that Alex and Tony are friends and have toured extensively. Alex is also an accomplished stunt-man in Vancouver and does all kinds of film and TV work, so he was key to get on the project and would help the other skaters climatize to our tech world. At one point, he was giving everyone tips on what to do with their pay from the shoot, which accountant to go to, pretty funny. Alex did all the skating for the character Kud. Chris Haslam was another Vancouver skater that we just had to have. He's known for the most insane technical skating and is just a work horse. He constantly blew everyone away with trick after trick after trick. It was pretty incredible to witness his skating, especially a 2.5 minute mini-ramp run with pretty much every trick, then all those tricks switch (riding your wrong way). Haslam did all the skating for the character Sage. Keegan Sauder is another local shredder that we had to have. He's just got this flowey style and Mike and I were so stoked on his ollie alone, that we had to have him skate in the show. He's also got a great sense of humor and added that into some ridiculous tricks that made it into the show. Keegan did all the skating for the character Jesse. We rounded out the group with Russ Milligan, who is a very technical skater and did all kinds of sick switch stance "manny" pad tricks for the character Switch Mitch. Allison "Nugget" Matasi is another local shredder and did all the skating for the character Kit. Additional skating was provided by Jesse Booi, Mike Mckinlay, and Dave Priest. How is this movie going to be distributed? Will it be available anywhere online? Is there a website URL? BBS: the movie is being distributed by FUNimation Entertainment in the USA and Japan and Alliance Atlantis in Canada. It will be available September 12th everywhere. OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE: www.boomboomsabotage.com IBC: There are moments in the movie that would work perfectly in a video game. Are there any plans in the works in this regard? BBS: HA HA HA! That's a great compliment, as we all love the Tony Hawk video game franchise. No plans yet, but you never know how all these mediums may collide in the future! IBC: What's your next project going to be? BBS: I'm currently working as the Producer for the motion capture department at Mainframe, getting back to my roots for a bit. I'm also working on a few development projects at Mainframe that I can't disclose, but they are ridiculous comedies, so I'm super stoked. Mainframe has some rad projects in development right now, especially "Escape from Planet Earth" which is a feature animated movie working with the team that made "Hoodwinked" and being distributed by the Weinstein Company. IBC: Anything else that you would like to add? BBS: Keep checking out the movie website for more details on the show and upcoming sneak peaks. We'll be up-dating the website with lots of goodies as we head towards the September release. Special thanks to Mainframe's Rick Mischel and Kim Dent-Wilder, Tony Hawk, Pat Hawk, Jaimie Muehlhausen, and the whole crew that worked on the movie. [post_title] => Boom Boom Sabotage: The Ben Burden Smith Interview [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => boom-boom-sabotage-the-ben-burden-smith-interview [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-06-27 11:14:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-06-27 19:14:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/boom-boom-sabotage-the-ben-burden-smith-interview [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) -->

Boom Boom Sabotage: The Ben Burden Smith Interview

As a followup to our coverage of Vidfest, we caught up with Ben Burden Smith, the producer of Tony Hawk and the Boom Boom Sabotage after its world premiere screening and talked to him about the Hawk, the local pros and the challenge of capt [...]

Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 1 Comment »

A Digital Buffet Our experience at Vidfest started appropriately with a screening of an international selection of digital shorts, animation, and music videos. Very eclectic, often bizarre and sometimes ingenious, this sampling included the Vidfest Award winners linked below for your viewing pleasure: Trailblazer Award: Backbone Medley; Director: Pius Jung-kit Chan (Canada) Best Music Video: War is Beautiful; Director: Alex Rupert (Canada) Best Animation: The Paguey River; Directors: Ramon Pairs & Tere Castillo (Venezuela & Spain) Best Experimental/Mixed: TRANSREC; Director: Patrick Doan You played his games, ate his pizza and now he's going to set you up. We all have memories of breaking the high score on Missile Command back in the Eighties as our mothers called us to dinner. Chances are we are still somewhat bitter about that lost opportunity to get an even higher score. Until the keynote speech that opened Vidfest, the Atari 2600 game system Nolan Bushnell invented was just a little black and woodgrain game console that ruled our lives as pre-teens. Now we have met the man behind the box and his appearance is just as you might imagine the father of modern video gaming to look: middle aged, somewhat relaxed in that mega-success-I-don't-ever-have-to-work-again kind of way. Afterall, the guy invented PONG and then revolutionized children's birthday parties with his chain of Chuck E Cheese restaurants. Now he's bringing these worlds together with a concept called uWink, a restaurant based as much on social lubricants (other than alcohol) as it is on the food. Imagine a place filled with "scrumptious i-candy and a hip ever-changing environment". It's not clear if the "i-candy" refers to hot babes or technology, my guess is both considering the intention is to create a place where singles can meet other singles over games of six-player PONG. Seriously. Given Bushnell's previous track record of success, maybe it'll fly. It seems the various technologies being developed for the concept are the real genius, and their potential isn’t to all be stuffed into one (test) venue, but rather each could find more mainstream applications and spawn another half dozen enterprises on their own. But what the hell do we know, we have yet to make it to our first million. The Blogging Scene If we learned anything from the Bloggers at the conference it was that Flickr is a great way to document events like Vidfest in an almost real time fashion. Pictures can be captured on cell phones and uploaded to the site within minutes. But the other thing that we quickly learned is that the photos generally tend to just be pictures of other Bloggers. To be fair, there is nowhere on the internet that is evolving faster than within the social network apps such as Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, Blogger and anyone with a vidblog or podcast or, in the case of Roland Tanglao, over 25,000 images posted on Flickr, is truly breaking new ground. Tanglao, who is the Chief Blogging Officer at Bryght.com and Robert Ouimet of At Large Media presented a seminar on “Everythingcasting”, or “putting yourself online”. The idea is that if you have content, chances are that someone out there is going to be interested. Or, in the case of the anonymous videographer who shot The Evolution of Dance, over 25,000,000 people are interested. Such viral phenomenons represent a major paradigm shift in the way the public is viewing media and advertisers and corporations are finally sitting up and paying notice. The problem now is one of quantity vs. quality: with so much content available to us online, how do we sift through the noise to find what we really want? “Zed’s Not Dead, Baby!” That was the message that the CBC delivered on the closing of the second day of Vidfest. Indeed, after a long hiatus last year by the precedent-setting CBC Radio 3 and ZedTV, during which time terms like blogging and podcasting became household words, it has returned stronger than ever. They demonstrated this with a screening of original Zed content called "Burning to Shine". Billed as “Two Musical Worlds Collide” this documentary explores the friction, struggle and ultimate redemption over the course of 43 days when Canadian hip hop artist K-os collaborated in writing a song with the CBC Radio Orchestra. The film is shot in stark black and white, perfect for capturing the cold harsh climate of the Toronto winter and contrasting beautifully at the end of the film when the song finally comes together in a full colour performance.

The screening was followed up by an after party featuring the turntablist mastery of the three man hip hop squad, No Luck Club. More Buzzwords Terry McBride, head of Nettwerk Records made no new friends during his Keynote Speech with ex-head of Electronic Arts, Don Mattrick when he introduced the following buzzword to the design-centric audience: crowd sourcing. By 2010, McBride predicted, the record industry will have fired all of their graphic designers. A band’s artwork will be designed by their audience in a competition in which whoever gets the most votes receives a monetary award for their efforts. In essence, this crowd sourcing is just a fancy term for spec work, currently a very touchy subject in the design community. This comment immediately produced from the audience a new buzz word: fan-based sweat shops. And it got more than one of us thinking that McBride had it totally wrong: in the future, with music available online in a totally flat hierarchical system, musicians will more than ever need a good producer and a good designer to help them stand above the rest; what they won’t need is Terry McBride. Give it away now On a similar note, while speaking on a panel about digital content, the punk rocker of Flash design, Joshua Davis referred to an emerging band he was working with. He describes his reaction to the band telling him they were planning to give away all their music online. He was incredulous until they explained. "You see", he said, "the band realizes that the reality of signing with a record label is that they are on the hook for all costs the label incurs promoting them, and frequently ends up owing the label money." Hence, bands make most, if not all, of their money touring. So, they build up their own audience and then go on tour to make their income. Perhaps the only shortfall in that model is that the band will have to find their own source of financial support for the tour, but there are other places than traditional record labels to get that. As content moves more and more into the digital realm, bands and individuals are gaining a level of power like never before. In fact, if you develop a strong social network and a sphere of influence, your potential is limitless. Surely bands can tap into this in order to promote themselves as the next big thing. If they have talent, it will be recognized. In Tight with the Programmers For an event called Vidfest, there actually weren't all that many screenings, less than a half dozen. So, one has to wonder when even a single one is mediocre, or worse, how that happens. In the case of The Synchronized Dance of the Magnetic Peanuts, we left this particular screening shaking our heads trying to knock loose the tumour that was obviously blocking our ability to comprehend the film. One can take a certain delight in writing a scathing movie review. It taps some dark, angry place we all have inside ourselves. However, in doing so you also have to admit that you wasted time watching the damn thing. So, where to direct the rage? How about to the filmmakers who produced such self-indulgent and juvenile pap? In this case I'd rather blame the festival programmer. We just couldn’t believe this stuff gets an audience. We wanted to make a couple calls to get to the bottom of it, but figured we'd already invested too much time. Boom Boom Sabotage We will admit that by the end of the final day at Vidfest, we were too beat down and overstimulated to make it to the big Gala event. But we ended things appropriately with the world premiere screening of Mainframe’s animated feature Tony Hawk and the Boom Boom Sabotage about an evil has-been circus owner who kidnaps pro skateboarding legend Tony Hawk in an attempt to win back his audience. Over the last decade, Hawk has explored the various avenues of multimedia as fearlessly as he would a backside air. And he has generally landed all of these exploits flawlessly, always seeming to push the boundaries in the process. It would appear that this new movie “Boom Boom Sabotage” is no different. The skateboard scenes were filmed in the Mainframe studios and the motion capture process utilized more than 40 markers on body and board creating some hyper-realistic sequences. Producer Ben Burden Smith explains:

“The animation you see in the movie is actually REAL skateboarding. The exact movements of the skater drive the mocap of the animated character. So when Alex Chalmers did that huge booter stale-fish transfer in real life, our 3D character Kud is completely driven by the mocap from Chalmers. So it's real life in a 3D environment. It's pretty sweet to see the guys’ styles in the characters.”

Pretty sweet indeed. It is always best to end a conference on a high note. And so, with evil circus music swirling in our heads, new buzz words poised on our tongues, and an early summer sun setting over English Bay, we took our leave of Vidfest and bravely set out into the future. [post_title] => Buzzing with the Digital Crowd at Vidfest 2006 [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => buzzing-with-the-digital-crowd-at-vidfest-2006 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-06-21 16:07:43 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-06-22 00:07:43 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/buzzing-with-the-digital-crowd-at-vidfest-2006 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 5 [filter] => raw ) -->

Buzzing with the Digital Crowd at Vidfest 2006

Written by Ben Garfinkel and Kevin BroomeAs featured on the TAXI Design Network Conferences like Vidfest (the Vancouver International Digital Festival), which took place last week in Vancouver, Canada are excellent venues to meet people, nu [...]

Posted by: Kevin Broome on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006

Categories: Articles | 5 Comments »

IBC: Thank you for speaking with me Ze, I really appreciate it. Many might be surprised to learn that you originally studied neuroscience at Brown University, toured as a professional musician, and began your design career self-taught. How did you become the darling of online humor with your site zefrank.com? ZF: I don't think it is because of anything in particular or deserved in any sort of discrete way. The reality is that I sent out the "How To Dance Properly" clip that unexpectedly became incredibly popular because it had that viral phenomenon attached to it. So, I gained a huge audience with that. I think everything sort of follows from that in a way because I spent a lot of time in the following five years trying to figure out how to keep that audience and how to garner it, so I put a lot of work into getting into a position where I can do a bunch of different things. But it really was just taking a whole bunch of shots in the dark. There are probably 120 projects on the site right now, but that's maybe one third of the total number of projects that were released. So, there is a lot of crap, but there is a lot of skin shedding that went on and continues to go on. It certainly is a mixture of something accidental and a lot of hard work. IBC: People have tried to label you with terms like Performance Artist, Comic, Art Director, Web Designer among others. What do YOU tell people you do? Give us the elevator pitch. ZF: That's been problematic at times. I don't really have a set definition. My general philosophy in working forward from the site is to reveal very little about myself professionally and not to characterize the work in a particular way, allowing people to make what they will of it. That actually has an interesting correlation to just online work in general: the more you contextualize a piece - whether it is writing, humour, video, a toy or a game - the more you restrict the possible interpretations of your audience. It is the same thing with careers. If you have an interest and you pursue that interest, it is limiting to call yourself one thing. The short of it is that I try as hard as I can not to call myself anything and let people do it for me because I play different roles in different scenarios. Sometimes I'm hired as a comic, sometimes as a consultant, and sometimes as a designer. IBC: Your legendary email invite "How to Dance Properly" became one of the fastest spread viral campaigns in the history of the Internet. Let's talk about your experience with viral marketing. Have you ever heard of anything like it since? Or do you think it can be repeated? ZF: I strongly doubt that anyone could do it on purpose. People tend to look at these experiences in retrospect. Most people that create something that is popular have sort of a story about why it became popular. And it's not just them - the entire design and marketing community start concocting a mythology about the essence of what made it popular. I think it is a little more complicated than that. It has something to do with an underlying property of networks and this kind of power-law distribution of events. It is also a bit like lightening striking. Now that's not to say that there aren't particular aesthetics or rules that you can apply to work to give it a higher chance of becoming viral, but we have to define what that means. The formal definition is that it has an exponential growth curve at some point in its life cycle. How large that growth ends up being depends on how much time it spends at that exponential growth part of the curve. So massive outcome has to do with this weird synergy of a lot of small, tiny exponential growths all coming together. I don't think that that can be forced. Take for example Subservient Chicken. There were probably 300 campaigns that were trying to crack the viral nut that were all released at that time and one of them hit. And so now as a community we all say "Oh, well Crispin Porter has an idea about what makes something viral". But I'm not sure that is the case. It seems to help if you are funny or provide an excellent service like Hotmail did. It seems to help that it is simple and it helps if it is not purely language based. And it comes back to context. The more context you bundle in with the information, the less opportunity there is for audiences to re-contextualize it to make it important for them. I think that was a strength of Subservient Chicken - it was not branded even though it was a Burger King campaign. It really did have a sense of discovery. And this commitment to avoid heavy context leads to a lot of really interesting things. Despite the incredible past popularity of How to Dance Properly, people will still write to me and tell me their story of discovery. They really feel as though they've come across something in the wilderness that they then send to all their friends unaware of the larger context. IBC: In an era with celebrities such as Ricky Gervais now charging for his popular podcast and Adam Curry making buckets of cash with his Podshow Podcast Network, have you considered combining new technologies such as podcasting with your writing skills, comedy and reputation to monetize your site? ZF: It is certainly something I think about. My main concern these days is how I keep doing what I'm doing. I'm trying to release a weekly show that will probably first live online, but has the possibility of being ported out to cell phones or other platforms. The trick is to do a lot of things that you like and believe in and hope that everything comes forward from that. I don't know if setting out to make money is the best way to do what I do. Maybe I'm just a terrible business person! IBC: These days you consult for agencies and corporations helping them with the creative process. How do you define creativity? ZF: I think of it more as a verb than a noun. I just finished teaching a course called "The Creative Act" at NYU. It was a very deep and heavy exploration of how other people look at creativity - from philosophers and psychologists to managerial psychologists and artists. Any time you go through a process like that, you come out on the other side fairly confused. So, I don't have a straight answer for what creativity is, but I do believe it is a very highly personalized question. People have to figure it out for themselves. But in that search, the main things that keep on coming up have to do with the basic properties of thought: how you think; how you use metaphors; how you look for related and unrelated concepts around whatever you are thinking about. What prompted me to teach this class was an observation that most people use the word "creativity" quite liberally, and self-identify as creative, but they have no clue what it actually means. They sort of drift through the creative space which can be incredibly anxiety-provoking when you are challenged to be creative and have no formal methodology or access to different ways of doing things. I am constantly trying new things - even things that I am potentially bad at. But you just go ahead and do them. From that, you start to learn whether or not you like to do that thing. And you can find the core skills that you need to develop so that you can do that thing more often. So many people when they approach a new thing whether it is writing or playing music or designing something, they sit and fantasize about the things that they think are cool and sexy about it. Then they sit on that fantasy for a while and say that they will do that some day, but first they need to get better at 'X'. But it is important to just go ahead and do it so that you know whether or not you actually like that activity. And it could very well be that the majority of the work that you need to do is not 'x'. Writing for example is not just about having a huge vocabulary or understanding sentence structure. It has to do with a lot of other things, primarily the act of actually sitting down and typing. IBC: What are your favourite techniques for becoming inspired, for unlocking your brain? ZF: Well, there are two things. First, I strive very hard to get to brain lock as often as I can. I try the best I can to get all ideas out of my head and into some sort of a working form as quickly as possible. The best thing to do is to get it down in a two day version as fast as possible so it is not floating around in your head. The biggest impediment to my work is to have these little kernels of good ideas floating around that placate me. So becoming comfortable in that space of hyper-anxiety where you feel you have drained everything out of yourself and you might very well live the rest of your life like a potato not giving anything to the world is a good thing to do. I try to get to that place as often as possible. The second thing I do is just start working. If I don't have an idea, there isn't much I can do except just keep working. That could mean simply opening an application I've never worked in and starting to build something. I also try to focus on releasing a lot of stuff. Get it out into the public eye. I feel there is a good chance for other people to look at even just sketches of ideas and see them in a totally different way than you would ever see them. And even in the process of working towards releasing something you go through that third phase of the Disney Process, which is to look at your work as an outside audience member. IBC: Do you have a core group of peers that you do critiquing with? Some people you trust? ZF: I do. It's the million folks that come to the site every month. They are as much peers as anyone else. They know as much as I do about the stuff that I make. But it also depends on the genre we're talking about. If you are writing for a one-man show performance, it is harder to push that against people and in those cases, I just use myself. IBC: Some consider you one of the "Bad Boys" of Web design. Do clients ever expect you to be zany or perhaps even not hire you for fear of you not being serious or corporate enough? ZF: It's interesting that you'd say "bad boy". I don't usually come across that. Clients have used "Ze" as an adjective "we want it to me more 'Ze'", but I don't know what that really means. The one thing that I associate my work with is finding moments of anxiety in life, like when you don't understand something or you realize there are a bunch of social rules that apply in a particular situation, but you don't know what they are. If I write monologues for the web, the wish list monologue that I did for Amazon for example, that is the kind of place that I start. What are the little moments of anxiety that we have around a particular subject. I don't think I am a bad boy, and I don't think I am super avante garde either. My passion lies in making things that a lot of people will like. IBC: You've been quoted as saying "I seem to make people laugh by making an ass out of myself," yet you claim, "your stomach churned before releasing How To Dance Properly for fear of looking stupid". What have you done recently that made your stomach churn? ZF: There is that kind of cross dressing movie called Cause on the site that was kind of embarrassing to put out. You know, any time I put anything on film it is pretty awful. It takes hours and I kind of want to be doing anything else than that. It is really just pretty nasty to see yourself speaking and messing up lines. IBC: Let's talk about education again. Do you think art and design schools are producing the same high caliber creative professionals these days? ZF: Ahh, wow. I don't know whether I'd even agree that they had produced them in the past. Obviously there are amazing people that come out of those programs, but whether they can actually produce stuff is an entirely different question. You know, regarding curriculum, program length, etc, it's just really hard to compare modern programs with what was happening 30 or 40 years years ago in Switzerland, Austria and California. It was a very different profession: the world of print had a huge and very different kind of role and a lot of new stuff was emerging. The history of design is really quite short and there was a period in the past where a lot of manifestos were being written and some incredible explorations that were half intuitive and the other half had the structuralist component with heavy emphasis on grid layouts and so on. The biggest challenge for modern programs is that the notion of design is so much more amorphous now, starting to include other things, such as the notion of experiential design, asking questions like what are all the components that lead to people feeling rewarded or treasuring an object or those kind of things. Well questions in design have blown things wide open in this age, and this idea where the destination of your design is so varied; being on screen, in print or environments, has led to a kind of segmentation of teaching design. I think that in certain areas it's going to be hard to convince students to spend as much time in an apprenticeship model in order to gain the kind of incredible precision that someone like Stefan Sagmeister has. IBC: Where do you go to entertain yourself online? ZF: I really like this music site called Aurgasm and I like to go to hyper-curated blog spaces like that where people can give me stuff to think about in nice little packets. I'm an avid Boing Boing reader and I think what those guys do is absolutely fantastic. IBC: You've added a blog to your site which you update regularly. Yet other than a link to your host provider, you still avoid advertising. Have you found a way to cash in on your Internet celebrity and make some money or are you still just "doing it for the children"? ZF: Many would argue with me as to whether I am a blogger or not. I'm still just doing it for the kids. I'm not really interested in monetizing that kind of thing. What I'm looking to do is explore short format content in some kind of episodic way. Blogging is such an amazing craft of real-time unedited self-expression that belongs to a whole category of rising activities that really require practice both on the publishing side but also on the self-confidence side. I use my blog to post stuff that is particularly interesting to me and to talk about things that I have done, but as a vehicle to really connect with people I haven't found my stride in that space. It has to do with this idea of content that we were discussing earlier. I think to personalize that space to the point where it becomes interesting and readable, it takes on such as definitive form, whereas you'll notice that most of the things I release are not branded. There's no clear Ze Frank aesthetic. There's the potential for not even realizing where it's from. And that's the space where I feel the most comfortable. IBC: As busy as you are with your career, speaking engagements, and your sites, do you still claim to answer all your emails? How's that possible? ZF: I don't know what a weekend is. I think the trick is to find and explore stuff that you like doing. I just keep working and I like it. I'm always interested in people that want to work with me, notably there is a guy name Douglas MacDonald, who about a year ago contacted me and we've since created the scribbler robot and lotsofwires.com an online toy and art making site. So if anyone is interested in collaborating on something cool, give me an email. IBC: Are you still into virtual puppets? ZF: Yeah, I still do some stuff with puppets and it interests me a lot. There's a fun python engine that a guy named Dan Torup and I worked on that's been showed around. These days machinima really has a lock on that market. IBC: You once mentioned that you were in awe of the designer Nando Costa. Who are you in awe of these days who has influenced you creatively? ZF: There are so many people. My focus on visual design has ebbed a little and I'm less interested in beautiful things these days. I guess the people I'm in awe of now are people like Alex Steffen from WorldChanging.org or Cameron Sinclair who does Arhitecture For Humanity and Ethan Zuckerman, founder of GeekCorps. I'm inspired by people who seem to find endless time to devote to incredibly crucial issues in imaginative and effective ways. IBC: If you could switch places with another creative in any field, who would it be? ZF: Oh boy. It would have been Spalding Gray but he's dead, so I don't know if I want to switch now. I think it would require having a totally different skill set, but I think what Sacha Baron Cohen does with Ali G and his other projects is totally unbelievable. IBC: Have you ever considered doing a feature film? ZF: Yeah, hell I'm interested in anything. For the moment I'm focused on short format and television, but longer term I'd like to explore that possibility. IBC: What's on your reading list right now? ZF: I just finished Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta which I thought was absolutely incredible. And I'm just starting The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. IBC: What's getting the highest rotation on your iTunes? ZF: I actually don't listen to music. Well I do socially, and I'll go to sites like Aurgasm as I said, but I very rarely listen to music. It's one of those things where I can't do it in the background. I'm the guy who will tell you to shut up in the car because I'm listening to the music. It takes a lot of my attention away. I really live mostly music free. IBC: I hear you like eating really old pickles? What is the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? ZF: I don't even know what it was, but I think it was a blood clam. I had it in Honduras. It was some sort of a shellfish served in it's own blood. No one in my local fish store knows what I'm talking about, so I can't be sure. You eat it raw, squeeze lime on top of them and they contract. It was tasty. IBC: What's next for Ze Frank? ZF: I'm working on a show right now and hope to start releasing weekly episodes in mid February. I want to write up the Creative Act class I taught at NYC as there was a lot of good reaction to that. The other fascination I have right now is making online games for kids in the two to four year old range. Having spent some time recently playing with kids that age I realized that there really isn't all that much out there for them. IBC: That's a great thought to end on Ze, thanks. An entire generation a kids growing up influenced by you, looking for "brain lock" as often as possible reveling in the knowledge that living the rest of their lives like a potato is OK. Potatos go with anything. Who doesn't like potatos? [post_title] => Ze Frank Interview: Live The Rest Of Your Life Like A Potato [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => ze-frank-interview-live-the-rest-of-your-life-like-a-potato [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-03-16 16:15:02 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-03-17 00:15:02 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/ze-frank-interview-live-the-rest-of-your-life-like-a-potato [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 16 [filter] => raw ) -->

Ze Frank Interview: Live The Rest Of Your Life Like A Potato

Interviewed by Mark Busse If you browse the “Blogroll” list along the left side of this site, you’ll find a number of sites covering serious topics such as marketing, culture, literature and design. Then there’s a li [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 16th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 16 Comments »

The theme of this year's competition was "playtime" so our team worked hard to develop an idea that wasn't merely children's toys or game focused, but something more original. The final concept was to create a two-sided scultpure with a cat in a room chasing a mouse through a hole. The mouse would be visible on the backside of the wall with the studs and insulation showing. According to the competition organizers, the originality, innovation and execution of our concept won the judges over. There was some very stiff competition this year and we were all very surprised and humbled to win any awards as the overall level of quality had notibly improved. A big thank you to our generous sponsors and all the wonderful volunteers that made this victory and opportunity to help our local community possible. This year 24 talented teams competed, including 4 elementary schools, designing eight foot high sculptures out of non-perishable food items which all get donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. This is our fourth consecutive entry in the competition since it arrived in Vancouver in 2003. Previous entries can be viewed here. The sculptures are on public display from March 5th to 12th at the Cruise Ship Terminal of Canada Place. All visitors to the exhibit get a chance to vote for their favourite Canstruction, so please vote for the cat and mouse as we compete for the People's Choice Award! Note: As usual we'll post the development drawings and timelapse video, so check back for updates and more photos. Check out the timelapse video of the build. [post_title] => Canstruction 2006 - Jurors' Choice Again! [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => canstruction-2006-jurors-choice-again [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-03-05 18:56:25 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-03-06 02:56:25 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/canstruction-2006-jurors-choice-again [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw ) -->

Canstruction 2006 – Jurors’ Choice Again!

In an incredible repeat performance, the IBC and Legends Memorabilia team took home top hours for the second year in a row at the Canstruction 2006 competition. After tireless hours of scheming, drawing, shopping for “just the right c [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, March 5th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 2 Comments »

IBC: Mike, How do you define creativity? MG: To me anything that falls within the definition of breaking routine is creativity. It's a pretty broad definition and I think a lot of truly creative people don't even consider themselves creative. Which I think is the biggest bummer. The key is finding creativity in everything, no matter what your profession. People say "Oh, I don't have a creative profession", accountants for example. But there are accountants that do extremely creative things and come up with creative solutions to solve problems. Of course, one plus one will always equal two - that's not creative, but how you go about other parts of your job, whatever it may be - can be creative. It is the same from the opposite perspective as well. A lot of companies get this rep that they're really creative companies and people worship them, but when you look at the span of work that they've done, it's very homogeneous and not especially creative. I would say that's not a really creative company. They're riffing on themselves. But when you look at a company and the pieces that they've done are all really different and effective, even if not always super glitzy, then I would say that's the more creative company. IBC: You've said that your work does not have a particular style, though your projects seem to contain common elements such as intense layering, texture, organic rhythms and patterns. MG: When you work on a computer, it's inherently a very flat graphic style. I can go into Illustrator and pop up something and make something that looks very Zen, flat and minimalist. So, computers naturally flow towards that style. What they don't do is create beautiful compositions with many layers. That takes a lot of work. If you are a painter, that is naturally what you do. Painting is creating layers. You are creating things organically. For me, I'm trying to go against what a computer does and I use it more as a tool than as a solution for a particular style or look. We fight against the fact that a computer does dictate a particular style. The applications themselves create a style. Flash for example creates a very flat simple look only because it was a technology created to get things over the internet quickly, but as a result, a style was originated not because people were creative, but because the program defaults to that particular look. Everything I do is very organic and based in creating work that simulates what I see in nature. You know, white isn't ever just white. Paper is made up of a mesh of solid materials. A scan of a white piece of paper is going to look and feel different than if you simply create a white box on the computer. It's not something I can quantify, but subliminally I feel it and I try to get the designers to really use the computer as a compositing tool, but not a tool to generate anything. The process should be hidden. The result is all you are looking for. IBC: You are an admitted workaholic running a successful motion graphics and film production company, you're married with a child on the way and you often travel for speaking engagements. What do you do when you actually find some free time? MG: I spend time with my wife Lisa, travel or paint. We love traveling. We've been so many places because of Embryo. Work provides us with the opportunity for that kind of travel. We might be going technically for work, but it ends up being personal. Traveling is such a luxury. When you go to other places, you see how it really isn't that much different. You are going to find people who like a certain aesthetic wherever you go. You are going to find your own tribe to hang out with. Maybe they don't speak the same language, but you are going to find things to talk about and you are going to have experiences to share that everyone is going to relate to. IBC: Speaking of your film Embryo, your company's mantra is Dream. Create. Share. And Untitled:003-Embryo is all about dreams. What is the strangest dream you've ever had? MG: I never dream. Well, I never ever remember my dreams. My friends tell me about all these weird dreams that they have, and I think I'm really missing out on all these things. Maybe it's because I'm always dreaming, hallucinating and imagining things. If someone says something, I might go off for 5 seconds into this vivid recollection of some thing that has never really happened. IBC: What lessons can be found in Embryo? MG: Embryo for me was twofold. One was the goal was to make something that my mom could watch. The previous titles are very weird. They are very out there, heady and artistic. They aren't for the masses. Embryo is still very heady and interesting, but definitely for the masses. My mom could watch it, there are characters that people can relate to and they can think of how it is reflective of their own lives. For me it was hugely intense because it was the first truly narrative film that I'd done since film school. But we still wanted to make this inclusive thing that we'd done with the other titles. [Belief employed the talents of other motion graphics agencies for the dream sequences]. This may have been a mistake in hindsight. It could have been a much stronger film had we done everything ourselves. We could have made everything make sense, but it's my passion to experiment and fail, and that was the key with Embryo. Certain dreams really worked and other things didn't really relate to anything. And that is what makes it more experimental. But, it surprises me how well it works even with all that experimental elements. The collaborators did not know what the movie was about; we literally got these pieces and just slapped them in and thought "I hope this works!" We shot the scenes not knowing what the dreams were going to be about. We didn't know what the whole film was going to feel like when it all came together. That was the lesson. We decided that next time, everything should be controlled by us. The collaborative process works to a certain extent, but ultimately, great films have directors and great films have leaders that guide the audience through a narrative story. That is why interactive film will never work because you can't have an experience that is changeable. An interactive film is a world to explore that is different than a narrative story. Now, we've proven to ourselves that we can do it. Embryo was like a proof of concept. With Embryo, there were a lot of personal things going on in my life that I was dealing with. I wanted to make a love story - to me, ultimately, Embryo is a love story and it is about people overcoming their fears and it's about people trying to do what is right even though that may hurt other people. Embryo was also reflective of a break up of a partnership within the company. I was getting over the betrayal that happened with that and I was getting over the fact that we eventually saw the world differently. He wanted to take the company down one direction, and I wanted to take it a different direction. IBC: You originally trained in film, but Belief is best known for its motion graphics work. MG: Yeah, I totally got into motion graphics by accident. I tried to get a job at a company called Voyager that did the Criterion Laser Discs and I wanted to get a job there because you got to interview directors. I had no idea what design even was. When I arrived, they gave me this test on PhotoShop and I only knew a little about PhotoShop - this was back during the version 1.0 days by the way - and the tester was telling me to do this and that, but I really had no idea what to do. So I thought I'd never get the job, but I did. Very soon I realized I'd been hired to do motion graphics design. Voyager had this early application called CoSA, which later became After Effects, and when I got exposed to Kosa I realized this what I want to do. I realized I could create anything I wanted to - it was like PhotoShop, but with motion. And these were in the days of digitizing a frame at a time. To digitize a minute of footage took almost eight hours. Grueling work. And that was the world I was working in. It was completely foreign and revolutionary. I started working on a film called Convergence for three years all about the Internet, long before most people knew what the Internet even was. I ran out of financing, but showed the trailer for the film to the producers at NBC around the time that Jay Leno was just taking over The Tonight Show. They asked me to create a bunch of promos for the show. I didn't even know what a "promo" was! They offered us a lot of money, so we took the gig and that was my official business entry into motion graphics. Totally an accident. I'm a filmmaker at heart and even today my interest in motion graphics is about telling stories. Each of our pieces has a story, even if it's abstract, I can tell you the reason for each component and the logic for it in that world. I think that's crucial in design; to have purpose in what you're creating or communicating. IBC: In your film about inspiration and creativity Pollinate: Chain Reaction, you say "great design is art". Tell us about your definitions of design and art. Where does one end and the other begin? Do you think communication design can transcend its functional role and become art too? MG: We're doing this documentary about artists right now and part of it is on design. The funny thing is that I think it has flipped: design is now art and art is design. Art used to be about self-reflexive statements about our culture, but that seems the role of design now. Most artists now seem to feel it's about doing whatever they want making pretty pictures. At least in the communities that are becoming popular in the art world. More and more that work is less about statements and more about aesthetic. Whereas, the good designers are teaching the opposite: the function and the history of design and understanding the cultural relevance. IBC: Art history study shows how fine arts was really quite focused on the cultural psychology and events of a period and the affect that had on fine art. That seems now far less a matter of discourse in the art community as it does in the design community; the psychology of the target audience and zeitgeist and their affect on design and style. MG: Yeah, even when we interview students, we often can't tell what their own work is about or what they were thinking. And it could be something really good, but they didn't even see how their identity is personified in their piece. There's a total disconnect. IBC: Your short film Pollinate:The Common Desk offers creative professionals suggestions about items they could surround themselves with at work to create an inspirational work environment. What items would we find on your desk right now? MG: Right now? It's funny, because when we came up with the idea for The Common Desk, a good friend of mine, Richard Levine, said to me "The next film you make should be about the process of how you work. You should try to communicate to people about your creative process." So Common Desk became a version of how my desk does work at Belief. If you came to visit, you'd find that I have my mental maze above my desk, my petting zoo area; I have my emotional oasis, my crystals, candles, incense, I mean, we gave them funny names for the film, but they're all real. My desk is much cooler and more organic than the one in the film though. It's actually an antique Indian door with glass over the top. The goal of Common Desk for me, was that the audience for that video were people who work in some crappy TV station or design firm with a horrible boss, who is a numbers person and doesn't understand the creative process or environment at all. I think it was my experience when I worked at NBC that made me say, "Somebody has to wake these people up," these dropdown ceilings with fluorescent light and a really cold desk is not conducive for creative work. Even the best talent can't produce good work in that environment. IBC: In the film you also suggest some unorthodox methods for creative inspiration. When you're working on a creative project - either for a client or personal - what are your favorite techniques for developing ideas or unlocking your brain? MG: I often start at the bookstore. If you've ever seen Wim Venders' Wings of Desire, there are angels hanging out at the library, where they inspire people by whispering in their ears as they read. And I don't even really read very much. I'm actually dyslexic, so I read a book in spurts and put it down and pick it up again in a month later. But there's really something inspirational about being in bookstores. Just being in that environment is like the angels are whispering to me. It feels like there is so much energy and thought that has gone into every book, that every book on a shelf has magic to it. And if you surround yourself with thousands with those magical things, some of that magic is bound to spill off onto you. I honestly believe that you gain power from just having books around you. IBC: You say that passion is key to creative success, and in Pollinate: Chain Reaction you claim "passion is a magnet". What are you most passionate about? MG: My passion is to be constantly coming up with new ideas. I think that if you get a group of ten talented designers together and give them sixty seconds to come up with new ideas, you'd be surprised how little they'd come up with. People you think are really creative and talented can really struggle coming up with new ideas. There are different creative talents, and new idea generation is very specific and special. IBC: You've mentioned that one of your goals is to make more films. Do you agree with the argument that Hollywood has become obsessed with safe, formulaic money-maker films these days with nearly all new releases being eye candy remakes or copies. Where do you feel the future lies for Hollywood versus the growing Indie scene? MG: So many films created these days trade plotline, narrative and character development for glitzy computer effects. The recent third remake of King Kong is the quintessential example of what is wrong with Hollywood. It is amazing and beautifully produced in every way, yet it is completely flawed. It has no soul and didn't move me in any way spiritually at all. It seemed a movie so confused as to what it was meant to be. When the original King Kong was made, I bet it had huge relevance to what was happening in the world. This film, like so many others, is totally irrelevant. IBC: So how will you handle it when Harvey and Bob Weinstein or some other Hollywood production studio comes knocking on your door? Would you direct a film under the direction of a studio? MG: No, I would say that a big problem in Hollywood right now is that they are not making films that directors want to make. It's become a TV model. It used to be that directors had stories that they wanted tell and producers had very little power in Hollywood. And in TV, it was the opposite. The producers had all the control and directors were brought in and did what they were told. Feature films have become like expensive TV shows and we've lost that auteurship. The promise of digital filmmaking is that people with something relevant to say will get their messages. Hollywood is still operating under the assumption that there is a mass audience out there, but I don't think that's true anymore. I think the mass audience is disappearing. strong>IBC: You created the entire identity and brand for India's Zoom television network and your work was blatantly copied twice by both Chinese and Russian designers. Do you feel any flattery from this imitation? MG: I feel like our work has influenced people. I think that as an artist and designer – and again, remember that I think that design has a stronger impact on the world and toward influencing the way people think - that in Eastern Europe and all throughout China, there is work being shown that is derivative of our work is pretty wild. It's pretty exciting. IBC: You've worked as an instructor of broadcast and motion graphics design at the prestigious Otis College of Art & Design. Tell us your view of the state of creative education these days. MG: I think there is often a disconnect between Design School curricula and the needs of Design Studios - certainly in the broadcast field anyway. I really think a broad education in Motion Graphics and Digital design is different than a program in Broadcast design. For instance, I believe the program at VFS here in Vancouver is an amazing overview of digital design, but unlike film schools where writing, shooting, directing, editing and sound are so intermixed, I don't believe digital media works that way. For me, it's really about conceptual thinking and process. Predictable, repeatable process. At belief we have a set creative methodology and it's ALWAYS the same no matter what the delivery format of the job. Our process starts with the pitch presentation or being awarded a project and from there our focus is on concept development and style frames based on extensive research efforts. We only present the client with style frames to communicate the essence of the design and the soul of the story being communicated and get their creative buy in long before trying to figure out what animation or motion graphics will be required. Anything is possible with technology now, so we focus on the message and the conceptual visual language. Once we start planning and assembly, we present the client with progress work and get their feedback before moving to final production. So, if I was going to prepare students for the broadcast design industry I would teach everything involved with this process and little else. Understanding communication design such as logo development, typography, image compositing are crucial! So are techniques such as building things modularly so clients can make changes, or pre-rendering elements to save final rendering time. But do they really need to learn Flash or advanced 3D programs or character animation? Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and editing platforms like Final Cut or AVID are key technologies to learn, because many times graphic jobs require editing to fix timings and After Effects is NOT an editing program. OTIS is starting to follow this teaching model and the students are becoming more desirable hires right out of school, because they understand the real process. IBC: Any plans to go back to teaching in the future? MG: Yes, I would like to teach again. Otis hasn't invited me back yet as I developed a reputation of being a hard ass and super tough. But that's what I think is required. I would like to teach again. IBC: Who was the biggest influence in your life? MG: My grandfather, because he's the only one in my family who had his own business and encouraged me to go for it and not work for someone else. IBC: Who inspires you now or whom do you idolize? MG: The last thing that really inspired me was the Tim Hawkinson exhibit we saw recently in Los Angeles. He's an analog art genius and does amazing work. In terms of things I'd like to be able to do one day, I was inspired by Delaguarda which used to be a show in New York which had immersive experiences. I generally hate live theatre and didn't realize theatre could be so much more enjoyable. IBC: What is your favourite toy right now? MG: The baby. [Mike's wife Lisa is due to give birth to their first child this May] IBC: What's getting the highest rotation on your iTunes? MG: Music is one of my vices and I probably buy $300 of music every month, but I get it home, rip it and put it into my rotation and half the time I don't know what the names are. I'm really bad at names. I just recognize the songs I like. [looks at his iPod] Lately I've been listening to a lot of Mum, Eggmen, Cantoma, and I love The Necks. IBC: Goedecke and his gifted team at Belief continue bringing to bear the powerful marriage of progressive process with a passion to create great story telling, gaining even the attention of Apple Computers who recently profiled them. Belief seems aggressively poised to lead the charge into what Mike describes as an age of immersive experiences where the lines between imagination, creativity, technology and art blur to the point of disappearing. A culture based on what he calls "sensory perception". The studio continues to create cutting edge motion graphics for numerous broadcast clients, while Mike's Experimental division is gearing up for their first feature length film set to begin shooting in the near future as well as the next installments of the Untitled: and Pollinate: series. There is something about Goedecke's doctrine that is infectious; perhaps it's his passion. Or his energy. Regardless, anyone committed enough to refuse $2.5 million for the belief.com domain at the height of the dot-com frenzy is suitably committed to his own goals and beliefs. Belief: a fitting name indeed. SIDEBAR: So, what is this creative process that Belief practices?

1. ACCEPT a project commission or an invitation to pitch to a client, discussing project scope, deliverables and budget as well as the pitch fee (we no longer do free spec pitches, clients need to put up even $500 so we know they are serious, too many clients abuse this process)
2. DEVELOP the preliminary artwork such as logo identity if none exists already, always starting with basic B&W art and occasionally adding color if the client knows what they want. (this can often take more than a week just to nail this down)
3. CONCEPT a written direction and create 3 options of style frames, each with a story that a logical purpose to the final goal based on the creative brief and present to the client before any further work is dedicated to the project (If they have no brief we create one for them and then get that approved before starting)
4. REVISE the chosen set of boards based on client feedback. We might at this point cut it to scratch music or have a music studio work with us to create an animatic. This will lock down timings, but these timings are always known ahead of time.
5. ANIMATE the elements needed for the sequence. Begin to figure out what is needed to start animating. Do we need to shoot, stills or movie stuff? Do we need to scan in textures? Do we need to make background looping elements? (Breaking down each shot is easy when you have boards)
6. ASSEMBLE the sequence or components based on the approved boards, knowing what the order is and the ultimate color and feeling we are going for. (Timings are exact - if its a :30 second spot its :30 seconds and 0 frames long)
7. PRESENT the work in progress to get feedback from client. (The more clients are involved the more they feel ownership. Many design firms force things down clients' throats, which may work, but they will likely never do business again with that client)
8. POST the revised work online (learning how to optimize and compress for web is important)
9. RENDER We render high-res and send a DVD to the client. (iDVD works great for this, not sure what it would be on a PC)
10. DELIVER the finals either digital QuickTime or on DigiBeta or HDCAM.
11. EXPAND the developed identity into a broader brand styleguide for larger network redesigns/launches, repeating the creative process above for each deliverable component of their brand.

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Dream. Create. Share. Thoughts on Passion, Creativity and Design with Mike Goedecke of Belief

Interviewed by Mark Busse & Kevin Broome Dream. Create. Share. This is the mantra for Belief Inc, a motion graphics and digital design firm in Santa Monica, California led by Founder and Executive Creative Director, Mike Goedecke, whose [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, January 27th, 2006

Categories: Articles | 7 Comments »

IBC: I'm not sure if you are aware of it but we blogged your summer exhibition on our website. JW: Yes I was. It came up on the search engine. IBC: Oh cool. JW: Every last day of the month, I search my name to see what's going on. It gives me an understanding of where work is or what people are doing with it. IBC: Do you see the web as a good source of promotion for artists? JW: Actually I just got into it. I've been kind of shy about it because it is a digital format, so it doesn't show what a painting really is. First of all, there are the size restrictions. Especially when paintings are textured, you just never get that sense. There's so much more involved. So I was very hesitant about that. I think what happened later is that I saw more and more artists taking on their own websites and I started seeing their names with dot com after them. I checked out a lot of these websites. Interesting, but the platform becomes one of selling and not necessarily critical attention. But I managed to get a website up. There are no price tags, no sales, nothing involved in it; it is just a platform where people can go, look at the work and read the statements that people have made on the work. IBC: It does seem like your work requires seeing it in person in order to get the full effect. It is very much focused on the actual surface of the canvas and the process of painting in itself. JW: The surface is very important. I am trying to figure out what "surface" actually is. It can take any form or shape. It's playing with painting. It's art history. I can't separate what I'm doing from everything that has come before me or what's happening at the same time. There have been many discussions about where painting stood in the 20th Century. We're both a little too young to have fully experienced what that was really all about. But we can understand why the trends happened as they did with the influence of new forms of media coming into the picture especially with what's happening right now at an even bigger scale. So you do pick up on that. Going from there into your own studio where you have all these ideas which you want to put out to people, you realize that talking about it is one thing but how do I get people interested in something in visual form. You realize quite quickly that you are in full competition with everything that has come before in art history plus everything that is being pushed on you on a daily basis which these days is more and more. At the same time, there needs to be a conceptual side. Hopefully larger than just commenting on art history because that has been done so many times. I think what is partly happening in my work is that when there is a brushstroke or the application of a certain brushstroke it can make direct reference to a painting or painter before me. So I do feel that people need to have a certain understanding of art history. Imagery doesn't just come falling out of the sky. You have to have some understanding of what's going on while at the same time, especially in the abstract work, I try to find formal, contemporary visual solutions to concepts. IBC: You commented on where your work sits in relationship to what's come before. Where do you see painting sitting in the 21st century with all the different media and new technologies? JW: I think that painting is more relevant than ever. Once again. It seems that every 20 years or so painting re-enters the spotlight in full competition with whatever new media comes along. IBC: Similar to what happened with photography at the end of the 19th century. JW: Photography really was the first one that really started pushing it. Painters started to ask what am I really doing now that I have this competition. Which I think is great. It really wakes you up as a painter. But I also think there is something very primal involved in painting. You're pushing materials around, you're getting dirty with it. It has its origin in cave painting no matter how you look at it. No matter how it evolved, it is something which you can do with your own hands. You can do it anywhere as long as you have something that leaves a mark. IBC: In terms of your inspiration and your influences, as designers, we were commenting today that there are a lot of design elements in your work. There seems almost a typographic or architectural structuring in how you are thinking about your compositions. Do you have a design background at all? JW: No, I think what you see are simply influences from my surroundings. As soon as you become conscious, hopefully you start to investigate what's going on around you. New media are responsible for introducing new thought processes and new ways of perceiving that did not exist 50 years previous; the influence of television being a big one. So the editing of information is very much informed by the environment that I live in. When I do a landscape painting it is quite easy to say it came from the landscape that I just looked at. That's where the initial information comes from. As soon as you start manipulating that landscape, there is a reason for doing that. Either you are fed up with traditional ways of landscape portrayal, or there is the political situation which is exposed or laid over the landscape and you try to capture that and then the question becomes how do I capture that? It's a lot of trial and error and experimentation and just being in your studio. Other times, you have some sense of what's going on but the material does something different and the outcome is different again. So interpretations of the work are varied. I do believe that when you start painting, it's like anything else there is a certain structure underneath it. It is structured, there is a certain balance there. It needs to be something you can look at. At the same time you can also turn around and completely destroy that balance and completely destroy that structure so you get something else which is interesting. It raises questions. And I think for me, painting and now the video work too, is just an extension of questioning the world that I live in. And probably feeling very helpless by not being able to radically change anything. IBC: Right. I've noticed a sense of desolation in your work, but not necessarily hopelessness. There is a silence that is almost post-apocalyptic, as though the human race has long since disappeared and this is what we have left behind. JW: And something else is left to make the judgment. Yes, I think that my work is actually, well, I can't say it's happy work. It's not being interpreted like that. I've heard that a few times. People pick up on a certain darkness in it. And maybe that is just a sign of the times. You are being pushed to become highly individual and the desires are that you can survive by yourself without a structure or a network around you, be it family or co-workers or any social construction. So maybe that has a lot to do with it. Seeing that isolation, not just in myself but in a lot of other people as well. And a lot of times, there are issues that subconsciously you feel are at play and they come out in your work. A lot of the buildings I paint are stand-ins for what society is. It has its foundation, it has its pillars and a seemingly structural integrity built on top of that. But then it's left in such a state that you don't know if its just being erected or torn down. At the same time, you can walk up to those paintings and go "well I can see myself living on the third floor and doing all this interior decorating and it's really going to be a lovely place." But then there are these elements outside of it which kind of pull you back into the reality that we are living in so I do think that my work is actually very positive. It's just that a lot of people get somewhat put off by the darkness and the bleakness and the heaviness of the subject and the application of the materials. IBC: It's in your subtle use of colour that I see the optimism coming through. It is almost as though even in this dark world, you can find subtle moments of happiness or joy. JW: I think what it comes down to is that the beautiful is so awfully beautiful. And that's what we have to cope with. If you are aware of it, this can be a most beautiful place to live. But in another sense very hostile. I think we are alienated from that very biological sense of who we really are. And again, I think it probably comes back to that sense of consciousness: if you are conscious about your surroundings then you will pick up on the beauty and that beauty contains a certain poetry, a poetry that exists not despite, but because of an awareness of the darker side of reality. With my European background I was exposed to a lot of stories about the Second World War and the Concentration Camps. Even in those concentration camps art was still being produced. It is something which can't be dismissed. Creation is as humane as you can possibly get. I think it is also one of the main things that defines us as people. If you look at what happened in the Second World War for example the biggest prized items were works of art. In all this chaos, in all this destruction, the Nazis themselves would set aside or plunder these art pieces. The same thing is happening in Iraq as well. The first things that went were the big museums. That was where the national treasures were; it wasn't a certain amount of money, it was art. It defines a culture. IBC: Also in those instances, art was used as a balance of power. With the degenerate art exhibits put on by the Nazis for example. JW: And you see that it didn't work, that's the power of art, it just comes back with a vengeance. It is even stronger after those experiences. And for me, I find it interesting that somebody like Adolf Hitler would respond so strongly to art because most people basically will tell you "Well no, it is just art". If you look at history from an artistic perspective, you could argue that the entire Second World War was based on the failure of one person who wanted to become an artist and who became so obsessed with this failure that other venues were opened up. There are these underlying foundations in our history and they go back thousands and thousands of years. As an artist, I think I have to take that into account. There are consequences to what I produce. IBC: You mentioned your European background, you were born in the Netherlands and received your Fine Arts degree from Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts and then continued your education at Emily Carr, here in Vancouver. What brought you to Canada? JW: I'm not quite sure what brought me to Canada actually. I have family members living in Toronto who occasionally came over to the Netherlands talking about Canada. So the first time I came to Canada it was to Toronto. I got a Greyhound bus ticket for a month of travel and came out to Vancouver. It was a nice city, and I had this sense that if I ever had a chance to go back I would. At the same time, the European Union was taking more and more shape and form and I was a little bit worried about it. There was, and still is, the economical situation and the responses of regular people to what was going on and it almost seemed as though the Union was being imposed on them. I felt like I needed to see it from the outside instead of being on the inside so that I could get a clear view of what it meant to be European in light of all these changes. Also, the wall had just come down in '89 so that was a big shock and the changes progressed even more rapidly after that. Coming to Canada, for some reason felt as though things were moving at a slower pace and I had some time to think. So the year after I visited Canada, I got a scholarship to Emily Carr and moved to Vancouver. IBC: And do you feel that Canada has had an influence on your work? JW: Yes, Absolutely. I think it gave me an opportunity to explore my European identity away from Europe. It forced me into feeling physically and mentally lost, having no connection to my new surroundings other than a sense of rediscovery. And at the same time, all of a sudden I found myself in a different landscape which I completely didn't know. I have no roots here, I had no childhood here, so the distance really gives you better understanding of where you are. You start investigating what it means to be an immigrant quite quickly actually. And then you realize that this is pretty much a tradition in Canada. What is it to be an immigrant? How do you respond to that? More and more artists are responding to that immigration process, and I think it is kind of telling of what is happening all over the world: being displaced, either being an immigrant or migrating, or being forced to move in order to survive, or simply being displaced because you don't feel as an individual you fit into that specific locale anymore. So it comes in different forms and shapes. And I think in Canada the beauty of it is that this is very much a shared experience. You realize that you are physically not in the same space as where you grew up. You're pushed towards that faster than if you were, for example, still living in Europe. Sooner or later you realize that this is not quite what I envisioned, this is not what my childhood taught me was going to happen. So a bit of disillusionment sets in and I think that's what has happened for me in Canada as well. After so many years you get disillusioned, and then you respond to that and start to recognize certain emotions and you find that they are very universal. There are so many people going through that process. And the good thing about being an artist is that you actually have an outlet. You can do something with it and communicate it. IBC: Has most of your work been produced since you moved to Canada? JW: Everything I did in Europe I left behind. IBC: And that was a conscious move on your part, to start fresh? JW: Yes. IBC: From some of the things you've been saying, it sounds like you do have a political side to - at the very least - your thought process and philosophies. Do you think that is a prevalent influence in what you're painting? JW: I think it is more and more so. At the same time, I don't think I'm in a position to make straightforward statements because nothing is black and white. So if I respond to a situation, it's always going to be indirectly. Some part of the idea or the concept behind that painting will be rooted in, for example, the war on terrorism but when you are looking at the painting, it is not straightforward; there are other things at play as well. Somehow, it does creep in because it is all around me. I respond to it. It's the same with emotions, relationships and all those other things as well. They are in those paintings. But it's not just my personal relationships because I think that is actually quite boring. If I start telling my life story in my paintings, it doesn't go anywhere; there's not enough depth there. So you start to look for what is universal, what are we all subjected to. Everyone has his or her own interpretation but I have to start somewhere. And therefore, for me it is very important to hear other people's responses to the work. I am always surprised how many times people do pick up on what's been placed in there and sometimes they come up with something or see entirely different things and I think "Maybe that is what is in there and I was just not aware of it". You have to be open to multiple interpretations, it creates a certain freedom that you have to allow yourself as an artist and it's actually quite difficult. Especially in my case, because I am such a control freak. IBC: There does seem to be a sense of control in your work. I feel I can see the point in your paintings where you stopped. Is that a very conscious thing that you do? JW: Yes. It's the hardest thing. To start a painting is easy. The ideas are difficult but as soon as you start it is easy. The first so many hours, so many days so many weeks, you just work; you need to visualize what it is that you have written down or what's in your head. And then you have those last hours, minutes, days, where it needs to be finished and control shifts from me to the painting and the painting starts dictating to me what needs to be done. It's a very intense, very tiresome process. And very frustrating. So yes, I push the painting to a point where things fall into place. But what I am starting to do in my newer work is to push it until it falls into place and then very consciously destroy that balance and see what happens. I know how I respond to it, but I want to see how other people respond to it. This is something that happens in our culture too. You think everything is nice and pleasant; you think the way you perceive it is the way it should be but there is something nagging. And I just want to make it clearer that something is nagging, maybe something has been disrupted. And for me that is the biggest step in my work right now is to find almost a certain unbalanced ugliness in it and go towards that ugliness and be comfortable with it and present it to people with the confidence that I can stand behind this work. IBC: There is a juxtaposition of depth, in your landscape paintings for example, and then you have these flatter more painterly elements. JW: It's all about layers, one layer on top of another, on top of another. It's just like how you live your life. You layer pieces of information on top of each other. Sometimes it blends into the next layer and you make sense of it. The paintings I'm doing right now are going to be an overkill of information. But each single layer in itself is valuable. There's something to it. The next layer will disrupt it or give some other dimension to it in the same way as when you walk outside and you see an advertisement juxtaposed with something that was not meant to be there but the reading of the two gives it a third dimension. It becomes something different. So how many layers can I apply until its reading becomes so strange that you don't even know where to start anymore or so that it forms a dimension which is not in the painting but is the sum of all the separate components. And I am not sure if I can do that. IBC: It does remind me a lot of the stencil art that I am seeing more and more of in the streets and the way that sits on top of a rock poster that is then peeling away to reveal the poster below it. It creates something altogether new in itself. JW: The interesting thing is that where I currently live, you don't see that very often and perhaps that's why I am so aware of it when I do see it. It also has a lot to do with new technology. Photoshop for example, allows you to layer things and then flatten the image to create something altogether different. I simply feel more comfortable translating this into painting rather than doing it on a computer. For me it has to have that juxtaposition of tradional materials with a very modern concept. I do think that my work is very layered. It's the same with my video work too it's just layer on top of layer and it's almost like, "There you go. Now you figure out what's going on." IBC: What is your take on your contemporaries right now in Canada or the world. Are there some people that you are admiring? JW: There are always people doing very interesting work. As long as you are serious about what you are doing then I think it is justified right there whatever it is, whatever form it takes. It might be the complete opposite of what I do or what I believe should be in my work, but the quality and the investigation, the struggle is there. But one of the things that is nagging me is the lack of content. There is a lot of visually stimulating work but it is just that one layer. At first glance it looks very interesting and even the materials look interesting or the application of the paint is interesting and it gives you a good feeling. But you go back to that painting the second time around and it doesn't have that anymore or you think about it and it loses it. It is lacking a certain maturity. So I think what has happened is that a lot of beautiful work – but immature work – has been promoted as the next greatest thing. I see it with myself. I'm turning 33 and finally getting a sense that maybe my work is finally maturing. It wasn't ten years ago. Which probably comes down to life experience, getting through your rebel years and kicking against everything and then actually taking the time to look at it from every angle. Because I do see that the work I've always liked tends to be by people who are mature about what they are doing. They are professional; they are serious; they really go deep and they really delve into what it means to be human. And whatever form or shape it takes, it doesn't really matter. You can feel that intensity in the work. Whether it is a big abstract painting or a piece of poetry, or a film or whatever, you can see it's in there. [post_title] => Materiality and Ghostlike Lingering: An Interview with Jeroen Witvliet [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => materiality-and-ghostlike-lingering-an-interview-with-jeroen-witvliet [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2006-01-03 08:54:11 [post_modified_gmt] => 2006-01-03 16:54:11 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/materiality-and-ghostlike-lingering-an-interview-with-jeroen-witvliet [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 8 [filter] => raw ) -->

Materiality and Ghostlike Lingering: An Interview with Jeroen Witvliet

Interviewed by Kevin Broome When I first stumbled upon Jeroen Witvliet’s work at the Cristall Gallery in Vancouver – his larger landscape canvasses and the starkly impactful airport series – they immediately felt important; seemin [...]

Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

Categories: Articles | 8 Comments »

Warmest Wishes From IBC

The Industrial Brand Team wish you and yours a terrific holiday season and a successful 2006. We’re hoping to enjoy a little break over the holidays – and some BBQ, but if you’re feeling nostalgic, revisit a few of our Wis [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005

Categories: Articles | 2 Comments »

As the evening continued, the mediator's queries began to feel more like pleas for validation as a reaction to an identity crisis - a seemingly popular topic among Canadians. Don't get me wrong, I am very proud to be a Canadian designer, but it began to feel that the fundamental components of the graphic design equation, such as the brief, brand strategy, target audience, and creative process were passed over to focus too closely on the weak proposition that geographic or cultural idiosyncrasies in Canada would overpower our educations or design process. I'm sure all Canadian designers would be very proud to be recognized for a progressive style or design movement as an important moment in the history of graphic design, but do we want to credit our mountains, oceans, maple trees and colder climate for the way we use form elements and design principles in our compositions? A better argument might be that our ideology, politics and cultural biases tend to create an underlying tone in our work, but I think that might be more a result from the influence of our European ancestry and reaction to our 'Big Brother' south of the border as we struggle to find our own identity and voice. Canada is a very big country, but our population, just twice the size of most of the world's major cities, is concentrated primarily in three urban centres with vast bodies of water, prairies and mountain ranges separating them. Added to these factors are the dizzying array of cultures, religions and languages our mostly immigrant populace brought with them, it would be easier to argue that these geographic factors would lead to regionalism within Canada more than producing any common style. Perhaps any "Canadian style" is a direct result of post modernism and the mix of these many backgrounds, perspectives and cultural predilection for travel and exploration which makes us flexible, skilled (if not rather underpaid) producers of high quality design. This celebration of diversity is our key strength, and is arguably the only real Canadian truism. A great example of this would be the talented and acclaimed Wei Yew who has been producing effective and award-winning communication designs in Canada for over 25 years. He's not even originally from Canada. After practising design for many years in his native Singapore, Wei emigrated to Canada in 1976, forming his own firm Studio 3 Graphics in Edmonton, Alberta. Mr. Yew has extensive experience with a variety of regional design problems as well as international projects such as the Calgary 1988 Olympic Arts Festival. He was even commissioned by the President of the IOC to produce a centennial publication entitled The Olympic Image - The First 100 Years about the history of Olympic design. To browse through Celebrating 25 Years of Design Practice in Canada, the recently published retrospective of his body of work, is an humbling experience for even an accomplished Canadian designer. There exists in his designs the ever present focused message or strong concept alongside elegant, clean executions while at times becoming expressive and ornamental. Never does Mr. Yew's background or the local influence of living in the chilly environs of Northern Alberta affect the visual language solutions he created for his staggering client list - unless appropriate to the project itself. His work has won numerous international design awards and been profiled in various publications such as the prestigious Communication Arts magazine. So there it is. After another close look at this often contentious issue, it seems that Andrew Blauvelt's comments on Speak Up once again ring true.

It's difficult to locate [design] work that has a distinctively regional character. Most [design] work is informed by things happening around the world

Blauvelt is the Design Director at the prestigious Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he blends the actual practice of graphic design with opportunities to further interests in the history and theory of all design disciplines. His contention is that communication design in the modern, globalized world isn't as affected and regional as it once may have been. The application of visual language to create a focused message or concept to a particular audience is indeed influenced by a myriad of factors, but none uniquely Canadian other than the notion of diversity itself. Perhaps it's not our uniqueness as Canadians, but our diverse worldly perspective, ideology and willingness to take risks that IS what makes Canadian design so successful. I don't really think that our mountains, oceans, maple trees and colder climate cause us to use the basic form elements and design principles in any particular way. If an identity, advertisement, package, website or annual report design WORKS, then it works. If it pushes the boundaries and breaks new ground, that's great, but it has to be functional. Letting regional influences affect our design solutions are the evil nemesis of successful design - assumption and bias - clouding our ability to create appropriate, effective design solutions for our customers. Otherwise, it is just art isn't it? I'm happy to admit that influences such as geography and culture have a much stronger impact on fine artists such as The Group of Seven with their subject matter taking on a uniquely Canadian look. I love how their paintings of the "Great North" spread the message and showed millions across the world just how beautiful our great nation's landscapes are. But I don't think that means we need to put those same images in our work – unless our clients or audience ask for that. Though many attendees were left wondering what all the fuss about Canadian design identity about, many commented on how "authentic" and "unpretentious" the evening was. Others praised the GDC for hosting the best example of intelligent design discourse in Vancouver in recent memory. What were the expectations of the Graphex judges? Visually striking work? Yes. Conceptually strong messaging? Absolutely. Maple leaves, beavers, toques, bacon and beer? Uh, no. In fact, it was a thrill to hear these five experienced veterans of design competitions mention how strong Canadian design is overall, and that they would expect our submissions to perform well in international competitions. With the exception of Tan Le, who still claims he can spot Canadian design, the consensus from the judges was that there was nothing particularly "Canadian" about our design except its high level of quality. Congratulations Canada - whatever your style. Regardless of the outcome, it was encouraging to see this type of formal discussion taking place in Canada, by Canadian designers (albeit, alongside an international panel) and hope more designers get involved in future GDC events. Winners of the Graphex 06 competition will be announced in March, 2006 at the Gala event in Vancouver. More information and tickets for that event can be found online. Update: For the "official" GDC event review and photos, check out the GDC BC Mainland website. [post_title] => Is There Anything Canadian About Our Design? [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => is-there-anything-canadian-about-our-design [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2005-11-20 09:10:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2005-11-20 17:10:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/is-there-anything-canadian-about-our-design [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 9 [filter] => raw ) -->

Is There Anything Canadian About Our Design?

by Mark Busse Friday, November 18th marked the launch of the much anticipated Society of Graphic Designers of Canada [GDC] biennial Graphex National Design Competition. The panel of renowned international judges consisted of Rick Poynor, Mi [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, November 20th, 2005

Categories: Articles | 9 Comments »

The difference between then and now is in our approach to the technology as a medium, both in terms of our level of sophistication and its commercial potential. Yes, people and corporations will - and are - finding ways to make money in the blogosphere, but it's not on the same old terms. Sure you can sell advertising space on a blog, and others are getting paid to write about products (though usually with full disclosure), but the greatest advantage of blogging for businesses is in forming a dialogue with customers. And not just any dialogue: an open, honest, personal, relevant and appropriate voice for the company. Indeed, a blog is a phenomenal opportunity to build a business and enhance your brand by talking to people who actually want to hear from you. You know who's doing this so well they are the most often cited example of this? Microsoft. Specifically, Robert Scoble. Robert has carte blanche to talk candidly and critically about Microsoft without giving away corporate secrets. He has single-handedly changed people's perceptions about Microsoft and provided a personal face to what has been in the past an impersonal monolith. For a smaller company, blogs are truthful, honest representations of the people behind them and thus an important communication tool. As principal of a moderately sized and established design agency in Vancouver, I can safely say that we have never been described as impersonal or monolithic. In fact, we're quite the opposite. Like almost all other design firms, we feature a selected portfolio and profile on our website. To the trained eye, it gives a decent idea of our capabilities, but a visit to our blog (which you are already on) provides insight into what moves us, inspires us, makes us laugh, dream and desire. In aggregate form, it's a deeper peek into who we are, not just what we do. On this topic, Jim Coudal, partner of the design firm Coudal Partners, has this to say:

"...I answered the question 'should my business have a weblog?' like this. If you need to make copies of documents you should have a Xerox machine and if you have information about your product or service that needs to be updated regularly then you should have a blog. But the really interesting question is this, 'Should my blog have a business?' The old idea is to create a product and go looking for a market. 'If you build it they will come.' The minute we saw this equation from the other side we knew what we had to do. Without realizing it, we had already built the audience, now we needed to create a product for it. 'If they come, you will build it.'"

This was the case with our Industrial Brand blog as well. We had an audience with our Flash site and the content and culture to blog. We also had good reasons to build a blog: the advantages of better search engine rankings and it would allow us to inform, share and entertain with the same content we previously kept to ourselves. Not only that, it's archived so anyone can access it anytime either chronologically or with a built-in search engine. More than just regurgitated content from the world around us, our blog also provides a venue for us to publish our own opinions. We no longer rely solely on traditional media to position ourselves in the minds of our clients, prospects, colleagues and others. We've gone from having a relatively static Flash site with a small audience, to over 30,000 unique visitors a month, all within the space of ten months. With our growing audience and an increasingly confident voice, this is a perfect example of how blogging has given rise to a power shift from the business and mainstream media establishment to the people. Goliath, meet David. A distinguishing mark of a good blog is an informal style of writing often injected with the personality of the blogger(s). In fact, it's the personal voice, accountability and the transparent nature of blogging that has helped it soar in popularity over the past year or so. Free software like Blogger make it incredibly easy for anyone to have a blog, and a browse through a blog indexing site such as Technorati is clear evidence of this - over 19 million blogs and counting are being tracked there. With blogging so easy to do and the credible nature of blogs in general, corporations must take note that the balance of power is shifting to the consumer, and customer service issues are shifting from private to public forums on an increasing basis. Goliath, meet David. In the good old days - about two years ago - if you had issues with a company's product or service a well placed threat to boycott them and use the competition was usually all it took to get some attention. These days, threaten them with a blog and the reaction will be swift. That is, if they know what a blog is. Immediately following the release of Apple Computer's much anticipated iPod Nano, complaints began to surface about the susceptibility of the case to scratches and issues with cracking LCD screens. One individual took the issue straight to his blog. Titled flawedmusicplayer.com (mirrored here), the blog took no time to initiate and by all accounts was stirring up a blogstorm. So much so that Apple took notice. Clearly not naive when it comes to online culture and its cult-like, word-of-mouth-driven customer base, Apple took this seriously and reportedly made amends with this owner, who subsequently took down the site. However, Apple also quickly and proactively quelled this uprising with a public offer to replace similarly affected nanos. Blogs by their very nature are particularly well-suited for the purpose of consumer activism. They are also hubs for communication between like-minded individuals, and thus marketers will begin to look for ways to reach these easily identifiable targets. Yet, to succeed in blogging, corporations have to play by the rules or suffer the consequences (check out what happened to McDonalds with their Lincoln Fry Blog and Mazda's failed blogging attempt). Both of these fake blogs were trashed in the blogosphere and later in the mainstream media as thinly disguised traditional marketing efforts. In this new world of full-disclosure, these companies showed that they just didn't get it. Had they created fake websites I doubt anyone would have raised an eyebrow. So why did people react so negatively? Because blogs are about being truthful...at least for now. So, how else can corporations screw up in the blogosphere? Last year a story broke on the internet about how it's possible to open a Kryptonite lock in seconds using just a Bic pen. The story spread through the Blogosphere faster than a fire in a paper factory. In fact, several weeks went by before the mainstream media picked up the story and by then most of the damage was done. Hugh McLeod of gapingvoid provided this humourous play-by-play on the story that he's dubbed "The Kryptonite Factor":

DAY ONE: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are the best. DAY TWO: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are still the best. DAY THREE: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: Ummm... yeah I'm sure they are, but what's all this about some recent video on the net that's supposed to show how you can crack your locks in 10 seconds using a simple Bic ballpoint pen? DAY FOUR: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: Hey, I just saw that video on a friend's website. And I'm kinda ticked off because I just paid $60 for one of your new locks 3 weeks ago, and I'm wondering if a Bic pen can crack my lock or not... does the pen crack all Kryptonite locks or just one or two models? DAY FIVE: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: Hey, I just visited your website and saw no mention of the Bic pens. What the hell are you doing about it? Are you going to fix the locks? Are you going to give me a refund? DAY SIX: KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best. THE MARKET: No, they're not. You guys are assholes.

Blogging as a credible source of information How did this spread so quickly? Because blogs are conversations, and this was a hot topic. Because sincerity is the basis of blogging, the sources of information were seen as credible. Certainly more credible than the static corporate website. So far this has cost Kryptonite millions and millions of dollars and their reputation as the premier manufacturer of solid, secure locks took a serious hit. Had Krypotonite's management not drastically underestimated the power of the blogosphere, they might have been able to mitigate some of the effects of this PR nightmare. In researching this incident further, I had the good fortune to discover a blog entry by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble. It seems they are writing a book on how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with consumers. Kryptonite was to be the headliner in 'Chapter 10 - Doing it Wrong' until they had a conversation with Kryptonite's PR manager about the incident that offers some interesting and compelling insights into their side of the story. In hindsight, Kryptonite does admit they should have been more responsive to the blogosphere and their own website during the crises, and as a result may have become somewhat of a sacrificial lamb in the 'what not to do' category. However, this highly publicized episode has actually enhanced the rapid growth of blogging and helped corporations seeking entré into the world of blogging by giving a terrific case study. It shows that in a world with a blogosphere, corporations cannot rely on the old ways of thinking and traditional marketing and advertising techniques to communicate with consumers. It should be interesting to see if the blogosphere is as efficient at rebuilding a reputation as it is in breaking one down. The appeal of blogging is universal, from people blogging about their cat to large corporations having their say. Small businesses are discovering the benefits and opportunities, yet it's amazing how often I'm getting asked, "So, what is a blog anyway?" The shocking part is that these are people I'd have expected to have a blog or maybe reading a dozen or more by now, not asking what one is. Blogs aren't even a new phenomenon (techies were blogging in the late 90's). The other day my mother even asked me the same question. I knew right then the word "blog" had reached the mainstream and that the party has only just begun. As blogging emerges from its infancy, the likely scenario is that as corporations learn to navigate the blogosphere they will also figure out ways to manipulate and yes, even corrupt this mostly pure media form. For now, the power balance remains in the hands of the people and the most successful of the corporate bloggers will first work within the system and then play a role in defining its future. Blogging isn't really about the software applications that make it possible, it's about sharing ideas, having something to say and putting an authentic piece of yourself or your company out there whether the intended audience is one person or several thousand. Perhaps the answer to the question, "Should I have a blog?" is another question: "Do I have something to say?" SIDEBAR: So, what is a blog? If you're one of those in the dark about what a blog is, Wikipedia has a great definition:

A blog or weblog (derived from web + log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order). Although most early blogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations. They range in scale from the writings of one occasional author (known as a blogger), to the collaboration of a large community of writers. Many weblogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centered around the blog; others are non-interactive. The totality of weblogs or blog-related websites is often called the blogosphere. When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere, it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm. Additionally, Seth Godin, entrepreneur, author, "agent of change" and influential blogger, has composed a free PDF document titled, "Who's There? Seth Godin's Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web". If you're interested in more information and insight into blogging, it's highly recommended reading.

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Should You Have A Blog?

As featured in Graphic Exchange Magazine and www.gxo.com. In the early to mid 1990s the Internet was hitting the mainstream and clients were asking the same questions about websites as they are now about blogs and blogging, specifically, &# [...]

Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

Categories: Articles | 8 Comments »

It would appear that the makers of Pete Tong chose to ignore the usual means of promoting their film in favour of perpetuating the Myth of Frankie Wilde across the Internet. Using a combination of viral marketing and guerilla tactics not dissimilar to The Blair Witch Project, a Google search of Frankie Wilde immediately incites questions as to whether this movie is based on a true story or if it is entirely fictional. There are amateur fan websites, mp3's and postings on various dance forums purporting to have heard of this deaf legend of the deejay world. Ultimately, all of these points of reference lead to the official movie site.

The illusion is short lived for anyone who is wise to such strategies; but it is well executed and has stirred up confusion and debate among critics and fans alike. In the end, it has reached the audience that it needed to reach, ignoring the wider berth and bankroll of the mainstream, in favour of a focused few. They found their viewership. They nailed it with a bull's eye.

It has never been easier to miss the mark in such endeavors. These days, the traditional methods of advertising often prove to be ineffective and ignored by a young and savvy audience that more often than not is looking in a different direction altogether. One must note the topic du jour at the recent Cannes Lions Awards: "The 30-second TV spot is now an endangered species." There is no longer a front line; no easy target.

I know it has happened to me enough times now to realize that it is not some fluke event: while walking through the urban landscape, a billboard or bus shelter ad provides the answer to a question I was never asked; or delivers the punch line to a joke I was never told. I recognize by its design and post-ironic gait that the message is aimed at me, but somewhere along its campaign lifeline, the first part of the story never reached me. It was in a magazine that I didn't read; or on a bus that I didn't ride; or more commonly, on prime time television - which I rarely ever watch. Someone out there in the marketing world thought they knew who I was but they were mistaken. Someone out there misread the numbers, bungled the coordinates and started digging up the wrong yard.

Yes, people are still watching television, and they will no doubt continue to do so for the ages, but they now watch it on their own terms choosing viewing options such as TiVo, DVD collections and BitTorrent. Advertisements rarely make the cut in these new mediums. Because of this, we are starting to see such spots relocated from their natural habitat to circulate and more often debut online in the form of the viral ad.

It is interesting to note how the very same choice and freedom that is slowly killing the 30-second spot on the TV actually becomes its lifeline on the Net. No longer a bothersome necessity that one must fast forward through to return to the regularly scheduled program, an ad that receives buzz will be sought out by its viewers and held up as a work of art in itself. Indeed, there are numerous websites dedicated to showcasing quality advertisements as well as tracking their viralpopularity in the same way that pop singles are charted on the American Top 40.

And as Pete Tong shows, one is no longer limited to the 30-second spot, in fact the true depth of possibility on the Internet lies far beyond it. Consider the "Jeanine Salla" google search campaign for the movie "AI" for which users who entered the query suddenly found themselves embarking on a plot twisting trail of "murder, threats, intrigue, sentient robots and a future very close to our own". Or the Spike Jonze campaign for the Euro Volvo S40, which documented a small town in Sweden where a "strange phenomena" inexplicably made everyone buy the same car. Such ideas become entities and entertainment unto themselves all the while keeping the audience aware of the main message.

Frankie Wilde was the greatest deejay to spin at Ibiza: it all depends on knowing who you're talking to and how to reach them.

It would seem that everyone is "going viral" these days. It is certainly a low risk and cost for companies who know exactly who they are talking to. But be aware that it is just as much a risk as any other form of marketing. Regardless of how homegrown or unconventional a solution may seem, it should still be approached with the same consideration and strategy as any other execution. It is still your brand that you are playing with. Give good thought to what solution is right for you. And in the meantime...keep digging.

[post_title] => Digging in the right yard: The Viral Marketing of It's All Gone Pete Tong [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => There was little coverage to be found in the mainstream media prior to the release of the independent mockumentary It's All Gone Pete Tong. Not that it deserved to be overlooked. The movie, about an Ibiza deejay, Frankie Wilde, who has to deal with going deaf, is not your average party flick. Picking up awards at a number of festivals, it is beautifully filmed and touches on a far deeper level than just spinning records and snorting lines. There is redemption in this movie. And everyone likes a little of that in their lives once in a while. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => digging-in-the-right-yard-the-viral-marketing-of-its-all-gone-pete-tong [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2005-08-05 13:34:48 [post_modified_gmt] => 2005-08-05 21:34:48 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/digging-in-the-right-yard-the-viral-marketing-of-its-all-gone-pete-tong [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

Digging in the right yard: The Viral Marketing of It’s All Gone Pete Tong

There was little coverage to be found in the mainstream media prior to the release of the independent mockumentary It's All Gone Pete Tong. Not that it deserved to be overlook [...]

Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, August 5th, 2005

Categories: Articles | No Comments »

The same rules that bring structure to learning and form the foundation for knowledge need to empower you to go beyond them. Pablo Picasso was classically trained and the rules he learned from his mentors told him to paint in a manner (realism) with careful use of colour and light (chiaroscuro). However, as most innovators do, he felt compelled to follow his internal compass and, inspired by his travels and contemporaries such as friend Henri Matisse (Le Bonheur de Vivre, 1905-1906), began breaking those rules, eventually creating Cubism (Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907). He had to resist every urge to revert to classical techniques in order to paint like a child. This must not have been easy. It never is to be an innovator; just look at Vincent Van Gogh. His innovative use of intense colour and impassioned brush stroke wasn’t recognized until well after his death in 1890. He only sold one painting in his lifetime.Innovation can rock your world if you’re not expecting it. Renowned rock poster artists like Bob Masse and Victor Moscoso also chose to abandon many art school lessons in order to follow the new school psychedelic movement emerging from San Francisco in the 1960s. “It is still very hard today,” says Masse. “I have to fight the rules every time I sit down at my bench to draw”. These design innovators struggled in the early days to develop a new form of visual language by combining images inspired by the burgeoning Hippie Movement with Art Nouveau masters such as Alphonse Mucha.Often shunned by the art community, they persisted, hand rendering their flowing, organic letterforms and using unorthodox patterns and vivid colour combinations. They were very literally going against the training that brought them to that point as artists, but endorsements from musical legends such as Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors verified that these innovators had found their own style that tapped into and helped define an entire generation.


Visual language pioneers often borrow from surprising sources. Each year there’s a new trend, a new standard, a new rule to learn. As exciting as it may be to explore these avenues, it's often when you turn away from the mainstream and examine the less explored or long forgotten areas that will inspire innovation. For example, new rules come from old sources, such as Kyle Cooper's ground breaking opening title sequence for the movie Seven. His angst-filled images, roughly edited sequence and scratchy typography was so original and effective it has been copied a thousands times since. What many don’t realize is that he was paying homage to the obscure experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Brakhage, himself a dropout of the accepted “way it's done” paradigm, pioneered the shocking, raw type style Cooper borrowed by scratching type onto single frames of film. He created a simple, new way of creating film art, and in doing so created a new trend, a new standard and ultimately, new rules for those who followed. One just needs to examine any of the Hollywood films or TV programs of the last 10 years to see Cooper's influence. Other examples of breaking the rules using visual language can be found in virtually any of Björk's music videos directed by such innovative directors as Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and Lynn Fox. Each of these artists has taken inspirational cues from history, culture, art and the greater world around them, infusing their work with surprising new ways of communicating through visual language. These may well be the Picasso's of the 21st century, having long ago abandoned the rules in favour of innovation.

Some of the most compelling executions of innovative communication design can often be found in the most mundane places. True innovation doesn't always have to rely on new technologies or gimmicks to capture an audience's imagination. Look around you and consider new ways to use existing platforms without being cliché or resorting to cheap tricks. So often the test of a simple and elegant innovation is one that evokes the comment, "why didn't I think of that!". A fabulous example of innovation in a longstanding advertising format can be found in this billboard by New Zealand's Clemenger BBDO. A recent winner of a Cannes Bronze Lion award in the Outdoor category, the billboard uses over 12,000 aluminum pegs on a white background to to create images in the sun instead of conventionally printed media. When there is no sunlight the billboard appears to be blank (white on white), but in the sunshine a sunbathing woman appears. The halftone image is ingeniously created by varying the lengths of the pegs, each casting different sized shadows, creating the image from shadow as the sun moves across the sky. The simple tagline reads "makes sense when the sun's out." Considering the product being advertised is Sunsense Suncreen, this solution is not only incredibly innovative and rich in original concept, but completely relevant and appropriate. Brilliant.

It's important to know all the rules, but it’s often better to make up your own. Listen to your art or design instructor carefully. Study the styles and techniques of those that have gone before you. Learn the rules forward and backwards, but eventually ask yourself: Do I have to use that classic serif typeface justified left just because it's expected? Try it your own way. It may not work, but it just might. Can you imagine if David Carson did that with Ray Gun Magazine? Is Moroccan Blue really the hottest colour for 2005 just because Pantone says so? Forget that! Pick your own colours! Throw the rules out the window. Experiment with design and see what happy accidents occur. The point is that YOU may well be the designer who starts the next big design trend. Rules are great and are a valuable reference, but develop your own style and reputation as an innovative visual communicator and be ready with a smart rationale for why you made the choices you've made, but never apologize for trying to innovate. [post_title] => Innovation: Throwing Design Rules Out The Window [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => Sometimes rules should be thrown out the window. Often the most valuable lesson in art and design schools is ignored. For a visual communicator to grow and improve, you must be prepared to throw everything you just learned out the window. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => throwing-design-rules-out-the-window [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2005-06-30 14:40:42 [post_modified_gmt] => 2005-06-30 22:40:42 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/throwing-design-rules-out-the-window [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) -->

Innovation: Throwing Design Rules Out The Window

Sometimes rules should be thrown out the window. Often the most valuable lesson in art and design schools is ignored. For a visual communicator to grow and improve, you must be prepared to throw everything you just learned out the window.

Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, June 30th, 2005

Categories: Articles | 1 Comment »

One of the foundational components that drives Industrial Brand Creative is our passion and pursuit of inspiration. This site itself is a document of the way by which we extend ourselves into the community, both online and real world, in search of challenges and new experiences in the hope of harnessing what we find for our own work.

Our recent adventures in the blogosphere have introduced us to a number of interesting characters and opportunities. In particular, we have been working closely with Piers Fawkes of PSFK.com, skinning and contributing to a new project called IF.

In Piers' words:

"IF is a daily digest of inspiration for brand planners and creative marketers. IF is an Idea Forge. Whether you work in a marketing department, a communications agency or are just involved in the success of your business - we hope IF provides its members with fresh, effective stimulus."

Well said Piers'. Check out if.psfk.com and share with us what inspires you. [post_title] => When You Get Your Best Ideas [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => Our recent adventures in the blogosphere have introduced us to a number of interesting characters and opportunities. In particular, we have been working closely with Piers Fawkes of PSFK.com, skinning and contributing to a new project called IF. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => when-you-get-your-best-ideas [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2005-05-23 14:28:59 [post_modified_gmt] => 2005-05-23 22:28:59 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/when-you-get-your-best-ideas [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

When You Get Your Best Ideas

Our recent adventures in the blogosphere have introduced us to a number of interesting characters and opportunities. In particular, we have been working closely with Piers Fawkes of PSFK.com, skinning and contributing to a new project calle [...]

Posted by: Kevin Broome on Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Categories: Articles | No Comments »

Play.

Play is as important as work. In fact, imagine waking up in the morning thinking you are not preparing to go off to work, but play. That's a radical shift in thinking, and one with major implications. If you are in a job for the paycheque and not the passion, then this might not apply. However, the introduction of play, and even more importantly, the permission to play, could turn you into a more productive and happier person.

We've all heard the saying 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' and never has this been more true. The demand placed on us in the modern, downsized workplace is a vicious cycle of more work, and more pressure to get that work done so you can do even more work. Anything not directly related to getting tasks done is thus considered wasteful.

Enter the annual corporate river rafting trip: The CEO has his assistant organize an all-inclusive day out on the company in an attempt to relieve stress, have fun and make people forget how much work they are doing. All too often it represents a contrived and not particularly effective attempt to boost morale, strengthen teams and make amends for all the crap thrown at employees the rest of the year. The feelings of camaraderie and goodwill last about as long as it takes for your clothes, and liver, to dry out. And once they do, all that remains is a bitter reminder that nothing's really changed.

This is entirely the wrong approach.

It is not enough, especially in creative fields, to stick to the annual team building activities. Sure, it's a great reason for a day off work, and anything that promises you could be fishing a senior staff member out of class five rapids is something worth doing. However, it is far more immediate and effective to incorporate such team building into the daily routine and schedule. In fact, play relieves stress and clears the mind, allowing us to think freely and tackle problems with a fresh perspective. Rick Valicenti of 3ST recently told a Graphic Design Council audience that fifty percent of his studio time is spent at play. Kevin Carroll, former Nike Katalyst, now travels to conferences and corporations preaching on "the spririt and lessons of play to enliven and enrich work lives, enhance innovation and improve team dynamics and interpersonal communication."

So how do you integrate play into the work environment?

Say, instead of preparing estimates, tackling a market study or some other challenging task, you're figuring out how to build an eight-foot Snoopy out of canned food? No matter how creative the work environment is already, it's critical to recognize that our brains must have diversions in order to perform at optimum levels. Many a creative block has been freed by going to a movie or engaging in an entirely different activity or train of thought. It should be that easy. However, at the corporate level there must be a recognition that engaging in play often leads to an immersion in activities that motivate, energize and inspire us to greater work achievements.

Are play and inspiration the same thing? Yes, and no. Play as a diversion from work can free our minds to solve problems better and more efficiently than directly focusing on them. However, depending on the problem, the search for inspiration may be as much fun as it is work. For example, at Industrial Brand Creative, we recognize that inspiration can come from anywhere; music, art, news & pop culture, etc. We wanted to bring these experiences together to expose each other to new ideas, have some fun and team build for the good of the agency, and ultimately our clients. Because of this, we have become determined and dedicated to maintaining a close eye and open ear to what's going on around us. In addition, our more interesting observations and experiences make their way onto our blog" and all of this has created a permissive environment for play, positively impacting the corporate and creative culture of the agency.

Taking this further, the team at Industrial Brand have also begun to encourage play by holding a monthly Inspiration Day, where we step out of our daily workflow for the afternoon and partake in an activity that builds both personal and communal spirit as well as challenging our creative processes to grow. These excursions began with the acquisition of a DVD library and screenings in a client's deluxe presentation theatre. We also went to Bruce Mau's Massive Change at the Vancouver Art Gallery and then shared our thoughts over drinks. Recently we developed a game in which we all dispersed to different areas of the city to shoot digital photos of images that represented such ideas as CLARITY, BLUE and CHAOS. Arriving back at the office, we had to present another participant's work as if it were our own, offering both a defense and a rationale for each of the images.

Inspired to do even more? Team building and play as inspirational forces don't always have to benefit the company first. When we formed Industrial Brand Creative we felt that ethical operations should also include contributions to our community. We've lent our design services to good causes in the past, and still do, but three years ago we were asked to participate in a unique new event to Vancouver called Canstruction©.

That first year, we didn't have a good idea of what we were getting into. From concept to the final build, we had to step out of our daily skill set to design and execute an eight-foot high sculpture out of non-perishable food. Once we had a concept in mind we scoured the shelves at local supermarkets for just the right size, shape and colour cans, boxes and bags of food to see how we could make it work. It took us about four weeks of meetings, countless shopping trips, computer CAD diagrams and test building to get ready for the competition.

The contribution, aside from raising over $55,000 in food and cash for the food bank over the last four years, is a massive dose of play into our corporate culture. The awards we've won for our sculptures, including the top prizes in 2005 and 2006, further fuel our creative spirit. Yes, the demand on our time and resources sometimes makes it difficult to get involved in these kinds of activities. However, we've discovered it is yet another great way to inject passion, fun and shared experiences into our agency while exercising our talents for a good cause. Really, what's more inspiring than that? Plus, how many people get to claim building a giant Snoopy and Woodstock out of cans as part of their job description?

Go ahead, blur the line between work and play. What it all comes down to is recognizing that having fun and playing at work leads to sources of motivation and inspiration which are crucial components to any company, especially one that has creativity as its focus. Sure, sending the team into churning class five rapids with nothing but a paddle and a pep talk from the president might work temporarily, but we have to continually balance those times when we lose ourselves to the realities of budgets, deadlines and client demands. It's the only way to maintain our passions, mental health and create a sustainable work environment. So no matter what your job, wouldn't you rather jump out of bed in the morning excited not about getting to work, but rather, play?

View Industrial Brand Creative's current and past Canstruction entries here including time-lapse videos showing the building process from beginning to end.

If you or your agency would like more information about participating in CanstructionVancouver, please visit CanstructionVancouver. In other cities, visit Canstruction. [post_title] => Blurring The Line Between Work And Play [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => The problem with work is in the name. Work. From the moment the alarm goes off in the morning and we shake off the last of our slumber, we shift into autopilot as we prepare for our day at the office. It's often so routine that many give very little thought to the actual process. For some, every moment is a painful necessity, while for others it's energizing and a healthy component of their lives. So what's the difference? [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => blurring-the-line-between-work-and-play [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2005-04-23 14:35:33 [post_modified_gmt] => 2005-04-23 22:35:33 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/blurring-the-line-between-work-and-play [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 3 [filter] => raw ) -->

Blurring The Line Between Work And Play

The problem with work is in the name. Work. From the moment the alarm goes off in the morning and we shake off the last of our slumber, we shift into autopilot as we prepare for our day at the office. It's ofte [...]

Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

Categories: Articles | 3 Comments »