Creative Questionnaire: Monika Kim
Monika Kim was a classmate of mine at RISD and, after reconnecting via LinkedIn, I asked her to participate in the Creative Questionnaire series. Since graduating with a BFA in graphic design, Monika has gone on to work for companies such as M & Co., Donna Karan, Banana Republic and Kenneth Cole. In 2002, she opened her own studio where she continues to implement her less is more philosophy in brand development and design...
Zeitgeist des Jahres
Every year Google posts its year-end zeitgeist. Heres 2008!
Im always amazed at how general some of the queries are (i.e. how to write, what is love, what is art, etc.) and some of the relationships between the top two queries in various categories (i.e. in Fastest Rising US Searches, the top two are obama and facebook, respectively, or in Fastest Rising Google News, the top two are sarah palin and american idol, respectively).
Interview: Henry Copeland, CEO, Blogads
Henry Copeland is the founder of Blogads.com (our neighbors- theyre just upstairs). Founded in 2002, Blogads specializes in blog advertising and represents 1300 leading bloggers.
Graffiti: Art, Vandalism or Commerce?
Interesting article in the Times Online about Banksy, an (in)famous graffiti artist whose street art has appeared on walls around the world. The debate is a familiar one: is graffiti art or vandalism?
New Content for New Formats
Virginia Heffernan has a thoughtful column in the New York Times Magazine about how we need to learn how to properly adapt content to new forms of distribution. Heres a quote to that point:
People who work in traditional media and entertainment ought either to concentrate on the antiquarian quality of their work, cultivating the exclusive audience of TV viewers or magazine readers that might pay for craftsmanship. Or they should imagine that they are 19 again: spending a day on Twitter or following a recipe from a Mark Bittman video played on a refrigerator that automatically senses what ingredients are missing and texts an order to the grocery store (it will soon exist!). Then they should think about what content suits these new modes of distribution and could evolve in tandem with them. For old-media types, mental flexibility could be the No. 1 happiness secret we have been missing.Dont Blog Like a Company
I just read a good post from Josh Bernoff at Groundswell, which details the results of a study they did in the second quarter of 2008 on corporate blogging. They conclude that consumers generally dont trust corporate blogs. Heres a snippet:
Make no mistake. This is not a plea to give up on blogging. It is a plea to be thoughtful in how and why you blog. This means that if you blog, your goal should be to create a blog about which people say “I like that – I don’t think of it as a company blog.” For the most part, that’s a hurdle you need to jump to gain their trust. I don’t mean to hide who is writing the blog. I mean it has to be more about your customers than it is about you. Blogs exclusively about companies and products are what I think generate these low trust ratings. So don’t do a blog like that. Instead, adjust your strategy based on your objectives.Bernoff includes a graph detailing the various information sources that consumers encounter and how much they trust them. Lowest on the list, at 16%, were company blogs, whereas at the top, with 77%, was email from people you know.
Whats the Deal with Google?
Saw this today - a slideshare presentation on Googles business model. Worth checking out:
All about GoogleView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: google business)A Quick Point about Video
Our latest newsletter on video has performed very well; so far its the second most popular newsletter weve published (behind Time to Get Gmail). I also received some stronger criticism from a reader who works as a professional video producer. Here are some of his points, consolidated below...
Interview: Brian Johnson, Owner, LOUDESTink and Rock Your Resume
Since graduating the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Graphic Design, Brian has been a serial entrepreneur, starting three design-related businesses.
Video Just Got Easier
Back in 2006, Eric had to travel all the way to Los Angeles, rent a bunch of video equipment, and hire a team of people in order to make the three videos we feature on our homepage. Once the shooting was complete, he had to come back to North Carolina, edit the videos, do some audio work, convert them to a web-friendly format, and then have our developers embed them on our website. Just think about the time and money that went toward those three videos!