Cute idea Yorkdale. I get it. Little race cars for the kids.
Attention Yorkdale shoppers: DO NOT PUT CHILD IN BAG! Seriously?
And the thing that offends me the most is the exclamation point. Does the message need the help of an exclamation point?
Maybe a smiley face?
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Daily Rituals is being published in the U.S. and Canada by Alfred A. Knopf, in the U.K. by Picador, and in Brazil, the Czech Republic, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey by fine publishers in those countries.
I’m glad to see that so many writers stick to routines. I always found that my most productive days happen when I hit the keyboard at 8am and avoid opening email until 9:30. This hour and a half is quiet and productive. My actual output is closer to what I might achieve in 4 hours during the busier times of day.
Here’s a good review of “Daily Rituals” on Good Reads.
Kafka is one of 161 inspired—and inspiring—minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks. Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”. . . Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day . . . Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.”
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Because it won’t be mind any time soon. Sun Life Financial has spent big and planned well for this version of branded content that I found from a link on a retirement site. The link was well placed in a relevant article. The content is simple. Visitors are always a click or two away from going deeper into a planning module.
No doubt, the future of communication for financial services will include a lot more watchable content. What the Sun Life site proves, and what we all know, it that watchable content appeals to every demographic.
TweetDescription ripped from the AdWeek website: How many times have you busted out a well-known advertising slogan because it seemed to be the wittiest thing to say in a conversation? Never? Fine, wordsmith, but the rest of us are guilty of falling back on at least a few marketing clichés. A new indie flick, called And Now a Word From Our Sponsor, takes this lazy practice to extremes. The befuddled hero, an “ad genius” played by Bruce Greenwood, reappears after a mysterious absence spouting only fast-food, shampoo, cereal and seatbelt-safety taglines. His dialogue in the trailer alone spans several decades of commercials, piling up more brand references than even most TV babies could quickly identify. Having the script mostly crafted by Madison Avenue must have saved the writers a lot of time. The movie, which could double as a drinking game or trivia contest, also stars Parker Posey and Callum Blue. It premieres May 6 on VOD and May 10 in theaters. Check it out if you feel like you deserve a break today.
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From the sketchbook of John Ellis. See more at www.AnIncompleteThought.com.
From Co. Design, March 27, 2013. Andrea Dezsö is a Transylvania-born, New York–based artist teaching at Parsons the New School for Design. The requirements for her sketchbooks are many: “I am very particular about the kind of paper used, the feel of it, the smoothness, the shade, the transparency,” she says. What fits the bill? Muji lined notebooks, the covers of which she decorates with everything from stickers to paper cutouts.
The Fast Company team has once again published some great pages from the sketchbooks of top creatives. This is worth a visit to see what people are doodling in meetings. It’s great stuff.
If you’d like to see what I’ve doodling over the years, check out An Incomplete Thought, my harmless musings on life in the digital age.
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Camus himself may say, “Why bother reading Camus?” The Wheatsheaf Literary Society is currently exploring the work of Albert Camus, a self-described anti-nihilist writer who denied any involvement in the french existentialist movement. He knew Jean Paul Sartre, the great existentialist, and the two men agreed that Camus was not an existentialist. But does it matter? Should you get past the intellectual bullshit and read Camus? Yes. Once you start, you’ll find yourself in used book stores buying up all of his short, remarkable clear, memorable works. ‘The Stranger’ is as good a place as any to start. You’ll find an excellent review in the New York Times.
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When I get briefed on branded content it’s usually because a client has little money. Here’s what Dupont was able to do with its enormous budget. Hey, why not create a television series?
TweetI haven’t blogged in a while because I’ve been busy with a project taking place in Memphis. That’s how I came across this little guy. I don’t know if he wrote all the words but they sound pretty sensible to me.
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Nothing says love like a DEATH MATCHDeath Match pits two writers against each other in a battle of public opinion. It doesn’t take long to read the competing stories and vote for the winner. If you’re brave, leave a comment. I used my real, full name. I may regret that.
Death Match is brought you by Broken Pencil.
Founded in 1995 and based in Toronto, Canada, Broken Pencil is a print magazine published four times a year. It is one of the few magazines in the world devoted exclusively to underground culture and the independent arts. We are a great resource and a lively read! Broken Pencil reviews the best zines, books, websites, videos and music from the underground and reprints the best articles from the alternative press. Also, ground breaking interviews, original fiction, and commentary on all aspects of the independent arts. From the hilarious to the perverse, Broken Pencil challenges conformity and demands attention.
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George Lois has earned the right to look this way.
If you’re a small business owner wondering where to start on your new website, or why the one you have sucks, take some advice from a guy they call ‘the original Mad Man’, Mr. George Lois.
When young art directors ask me to reveal my “formula” for creating advertising, I answer … start with the word! This advice, with a biblical reference, is carved in stone–my first commandment. Art directors, presumed by many to be illiterate, are expected to think visually–and most do. They sift through magazines to find visuals, however disjointed and inappropriate, to help them “get started.” Most art directors, unfortunately, do not sit and try to write the idea: They usually wait with their thumbs up their ass for a writer to furnish the words, which usually are not visually pregnant. By contrast, a handful of great art directors are authors of some of the finest headlines in advertising–or they work intimately with gifted writers as they conjure concepts together. Conversely, even when a writer works on his own, his words must lend themselves to visual excitement–because a big campaign idea can only be expressed in words that absolutely bristle with visual possibilities, leading to words and visual imagery working in perfect synergy.*
From ’10 Tips For Success From George Lois, The Original Mad Man’, an online article published by CoDesign and available here at the time of publication.
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