Ellisism

The Imagineering Way

From the publisher: Disney’s Imagineers reveal the secrets to creating an environment that fosters explosive creativity and allows the things we dream about to become real. Famed for making dreams come true, the Disney Imagineers are world renowned for their incomparable creativity and their ability to turn fanciful ideas into reality.

They approach all projects, problems, and questions in a very unique way—they assume from the start that they will undoubtedly accomplish the task set before them. They are not constrained by traditional thought processes. When Imagineers consider a question, they don’t worry about the pieces fitting precisely together in a predestined way as with a jigsaw puzzle, but rather challenge the tried-and-true to create new, more exciting solutions.

Do Good Design by David Berman

I’ve gone through a few copies of David Berman’s ‘Do Good Design‘ because I push the book on anyone who confesses a little guilt about using creative powers for evil not good.

When the guilt sets in, when the easel gently weeps, when the manuscript doesn’t leave the bedside table and a 1% VYA increase in sales doesn’t jibe with the opportunity cost of creative energy spent, some of the ideas in this book will make sense.

Watch the video. Buy the book. Use your powers for good not evil.

Why would someone working in the creative department read a book about the troubled relationship between marketing and finance when there’s so much good shit on HBO these days?

It’s simple.  Clients hate it when we “don’t get it.” They have to account for every dollar and digital marketing is pretty easy to measure, so connect the dots for yourself.

Vulcans Earthlings and Marketing ROI is a recommendation because David Rutherford and Jonathan Knowles have made it easy to understand some pretty complex issues.

Or watch Pillars of the Earth. It’s pretty cool.

Moby Dick, Herman Melville

The level of description that is often criticized in Melville’s work is actually what we call “experience” in the digital age. (Just lost the IT guys).

Smoke this shit: The first Killer Whale in captivity lasted for two days in 1961 before it killed itself. Melville was writing in 1851. No one had seen a whale, except in paintings, and very few people knew what life was like on board a whaling ship. Marine Land didn’t exist. There was no Nature Channel. No one could google the skeleton of an orca. He had to create the experience of hunting, killing and harvesting whales in detail so that people could transport themselves into that life. This was fascinating stuff.

The chapters of Moby Dick are no different than episodes of Dexter or Hung. With no electricity, people read themselves to sleep by candle light, looking forward to the next chapter. Back then, books were really expensive. Readers wanted them to last. Tolstoy sure figured that out. (As did our generation’s Patrick O’Brian.)

Taking the time to read this masterpiece will force you to put your devices down and lose yourself in an experience that can last for weeks. I took me the summer 09 to complete it. Think about what you’re getting from the experience. Imagine yourself in a world without the web. Imagine life  on-board the Pequod. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be one of the few people who can say, “Yes. I read the whole thing.” Moby Dick hasn’t lost it’s relevance as a story of friendship, hardship and obsession. It’s the “buddy flick” of it’s time. Give it a go. It beats vampire porn.

Bottom line: Melville nailed descriptive copy.

Groundswellis an easy-to-read snapshot of the digital space. It’s current (for now) and provides a lot of great discussion points. This is a great book for clients, account managers and creatives to read and discuss.

Recommended reading.

What I found refreshing about the book was its level of organization. Chapters build sections. Sections build the story. Sections reinforce each other. Nicely done.

Blurb: Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and re-cutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. Most companies see it as a threat.

I’ve been recommending this book to all of my clients and colleagues. Love to hear what you think.

“I recommend advertising to all, especially if you have no apparent academic skills. It’s easy money, and whatever small abilities you have can be put to good use somewhere in an ad agency, whether it’s your charm and wit for client hand-holding, technical talents suited to the complex world of media buying, or if you must, writing slogans and soundbites for power-hungry politicians. Mad Men seems to move at a snail’s pace but its evocation of the early 1960s is very nicely done. It bears no resemblance to any second that I have ever spent in advertising.”*

* Pg. 94. ‘My name is Charles Saatchi and I am an artoholic.’ Phaidon Press.