Ed Reilly

Rewind: Unfinished Work (and other recent Spheres of Influence)

GOOD Magazine's latest issue highlights Mark Lombardi's artistic work that uniquely depicts the transfer of funds and influence between shadowy individuals, entities and governments. Please see a sample of his work below. I originally wrote about Lombardi in October of 2008: http://bit.ly/q7mVwb.You can find GOOD's article here from their "Data" issue: http://bit.ly/q4tWYw. 

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Brad Thor is his recent novel intertwines financial warfare with his typical genre of terrorism. Sometimes non-fiction is scarier than fiction, because I'm also reading Shadow Markets currently. From the dust jacket, "The Pentagon has run simulations of financial warfare and the U.S. lost." Mark Lombardi captured these shadowy spheres of influence beautifully. I just wish he was still around to research and bring to light recent happenings.

 

 

Plot Development and Graphs (updated)

Kurt Vonnegut maps out the Shape of Stories (Infographic of the Day from Fast Company's Co Design).

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I recently rewatched Inception on DVD, and it reminded me of a piece I saw in Mental Floss a while ago. How can such an intricate plot be created? Short answer, it was plotted out on 1 piece of paper. We generally think of storyboards and screenplays, but everything began with this graph.

In a similar vein, J.K. Rowlings utilized a handwritten graph or spreadsheet to organize plot, subplots, and characters. Thanks again to Mental Floss for this find.

I'm a sucker for great storytelling, and I found this to be a particularly interesting peak into the creative process.

What did comics steal from Titian?

 
 

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I recently saw the Diana Paintings by Titian at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Wow. If you haven't gone yet, go. 

It took Titian three years to paint this pair in the 1550s.

Good comicbooks and Titian share something in common. Great storytelling. The Diana paintings are intended to be seen as a pair, side by side. Note, the stream that flows from one paining to another. Hint, the hunter doesn't appear in the second painting. Something happened. What? It isn't shown. Viewers have to imagine the action that took place between paintings, just like in comics. It draws the viewer/reader in.

One, go see Titian. Two, read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.

Mad Men on Wheels

Two car makers don't take full advantage of Mad Men cast members' character intricacies. 

John Slattery, aka Roger Sterling, promoting the new Lincoln MKX.

 

John's character is brash, masculine, and overbearing. In this commercial, everything from his glasses, clothing, and the copy speaks to sophistication and intelligence. It would have been inappropriate for him to promote anything besides an American automaker, because of his character's opposition to foreign car makers, specifically WWII enemies. With that said, my impression of him as a character does not mesh with the persona presented in the commercial. Lincoln would be better served if John was directed to take advantage of his masculinity and edge even if it's misguided at times.

Next consider Jon Hamm, aka Don Draper, as the new voice for Mercedes-Benz.

 

This choice makes me feel indifferent. At first, I was happily surprised when I recognized his voice. It's understandable that he has desirable Q scores as a celebrity on a popular series, but Mercedes-Benz doesn't seem to take full advantage of the depth of his public persona. Don Draper is mysterious if not secretive, and these commercials are without any hint of depth and fall flat. 

The novel use of miniatures (update 3.0)

Thanks to Josh Spear, I've been exposed to the work of Dominic Wilcox. Love it!

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Just stumbled across another amusing use of miniature figures on Flavorwire. Below is my favorite by Vincent Bousserez.

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Tumblingerstraße from yo man on Vimeo.

Reichenbachstraße from yo man on Vimeo.

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My good friend and mentor Darius sent along "The Sandpit". Instead of trying to make the small look big, this is an instance of making the big look small with tilt shift and time lapse photography. Awesome! -

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

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Every time I see miniatures used I am captivated and can't help but be intrigued.

I believe there is a real opportunity to use miniatures in storytelling.

Inception and Infographics

Fast Company has a wonderful contest going on now to encourage others to create inforgraphics explaining the movie Inception.

"Inception Infographics Contest: Searching for the Architect. Can you design a chart that elegantly explains the most complicated movie of the summer?"

Below is one of two examples Fast Company highlights.

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Fast Company is a bit critical of the above example, because they argue the movie is not a closed loop, because the movie doesn't begin where the movie ends. I disagree.

If you haven't seen the movie, don't read any further. If you have, join me in geeking out a bit. I've seen the movie twice in IMAX, and many of the below observations I didn't catch until the second time.

Do you think Cobb was dreaming the entire time?

I do.

1) Using Cobb's totem as a guide is unreliable. It depends on whose dream he is in, and you may remember it was even knocked over a couple times by accident. So I think that aspect makes it a toss up.

2) On the other hand, what else could explain the numerous times characters repeat themselves. For example, Seto in the helicopter urging Cobb by saying, "Take a leap of faith." Remember what Mau says shortly before she jumps? "Take a Leap of Faith." If all the characters in the movie are projections from Cobb, that would explain the repeating.

3) Yeah I get there can be a dream within a dream within a dream within a etc... But what about being stuck in limbo within limbo. Remember Cobb and Mau on the railroad tracks soon to be hit by the train? What happens when you die that many layers deep? You go into limbo, and I believe he's in limbo from the beginning of the movie until the end, from the seashore of his unconscious to seashore of his unconscious.

What do you think?

Data Visualization Resources and Examples

The Best Tools for Visualization

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Junk Charts

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The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

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Beyond the Pie Chart

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reMap

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Visual Complexity

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Ben Fry

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Daytum

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Wordle

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New York Times Visualization Lab

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Flowing Data

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Feltron

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Aaron Koblin

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Information Aesthetics

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Many Eyes

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Information is Beautiful

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Simple Complexity

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Natalie Hanson PhD on Data Visualization

Small Touches

Recently, I've stumbled across makers of two everyday consumer products who have been paying attention to the small details. -

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As many know, Old Spice's advertising has been getting a lot of attention. It's creating a lot of earned media and rightfully so.

Beyond their advertising, Old Spice surprised me the other day with a clever use of their clipper ship logo in a new deodorant scent they've introduced.

   

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It's hard to make it out in the above photo, but Old Spice has used the freshness cap to leave an indentation of their clipper ship logo on the top of the unused stick of deodorant. It was clever enough to make me stop for a couple seconds. It's a little detail you discover after purchase that once again reminds you of the brand.

Next, consider what Colgate has done with their "Tongue & Cheek Cleaner" toothbrush's packaging. 
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As you're browsing the toothbrush aisle looking at God knows how many varieties of toothbrushes, Colgate's packaging has what appears to be neon Velcro on the front. You can't help but touch this surface on the packaging with your fingers to discover the tingly bristles on the back of the brush. This is a small touch that goes a long way moving consumers up the purchasing consideration ladder. With this simple tactile demonstration, they've differentiated themselves from the competition and made shopping for an everyday item a bit fun.

A Tale of Two Commercials #2

Apparently, Geico insurance has a target on its back, because I'm noticing recent commercials from its competitors are rather overtly taking swipes at them. Below, I've selected two examples. The first that's clearly a lukewarm effort, and the second that has a little more teeth.

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So, the "give us 16 minutes and we'll save you 16%, yeah right" quote is not a very subtle attack. What troubles me deeply about this State Farm ad is that it is not built on a sound strategy. Where's the insight? Ok, 40 million Americans choose State Farm insurance. So what? Do they actually expect I'm going to ask a neighbor if they use State Farm? I don't think they do, but also, why would I want to follow the herd? Just because a lot of people may be overpaying for auto insurance isn't a compelling reason for me to switch.

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I think this commercial from Allstate is significantly better. From it you know what they stand for and what they're against. This is something I learned is important from David Murphy, Director of Brand Innovation at B'DM. You can read more about why it's important to communicate what your brand opposes on David's blog here. In the example from Allstate, they clearly oppose shallowness and impersonalization for deeper relationships where someone spends time with you, knows your name, and can help you on a personal level after an accident.

Unsummit4

A week ago today, I attended Unsummit4 conference at CoCo in St. Paul. It was great, and I'm sharing some of the nuggets I walked away with below:

Kirk Horsted should get props for not using PowerPoint. He has an admirable perspective on taking sabbaticals to recharge, and you can learn more about that here.

In true Unsummit style, Meghan Seawell and Andrew Eklund combined their workshops and presented together. Andrew spoke about the need for us to stop using social media terminology with clients.

• Followers = Hand-raisers
• Fans = Advocates
• Conversions = Referrals/Sales
• Tweet/Post/Message = Communicate
• Grow our Followers = Build Scale
• Community = Target Audience

There was a lot of emphasis placed on solving problems for customers. In other words, use social media to listen to customers and respond to their needs. It's an opportunity to turn your biggest detractors into your biggest advocates online.

"The 25 minute MBA: How to Do Strategic Business Consulting" with Rohn Jay Miller was very informative. One nugget is a business plan should be no more than 10 pages, can be explained in 20 minutes, and uses 30 point type font. Also, Venture Capitalists care about 1) Management Team, 2) Market Needs, 3) Management's ability to adapt when their idea is proven wrong, and 4) the actual business idea in that order. Finally, taken from McKinsey, the title of your slide should always be an insight. I also shared about John Boyd's OODA Loop which I just wrote about here.

Joseph Reuter presented the philosophy behind the software product he's been developing, Curation Station. One quote that really stuck me was by a museum curator, "(an exhibit) is a certain plan, thesis or idea that is given to the public as an enrichment (or as a performance)." I think Curation Station has an interesting business model  utilizing earned media that copies paid content. A version of his presentation can be found here.

"How's your digital identity?" with Pete Barry was thought provoking. One thing that really jumped out at me was the quote Pete often frustrates clients with "How well does your site work while someone's dancing?" It's not as crazy of a question as it may sound. You can learn more about Pete's perspective on digital identity here and links to resources here.

The final session I attended was "Escaping Wage Slavery: How can freelancers, consultants & creative shops get beyond charging by the hour?" with Don Ball. This was one of the most lively sessions of the day. Don opened by asking some provocative questions:

• Is what you're doing scalable?
• Do you earn while you sleep?
• Are you disability proof?
• Is your income recession-proof?
• Do you own your work product?

He challenged us to think about instead of just providing services and charging by the hour to think about creating a product, productizing our services, or delivering our expertise differently. He also quoted a founder of the Coudal Partners, that essentially said "build the audience and then create a product to serve them" which is opposite of what we currently do.

All and all it was a great day, and I can't wait to attend the next Unsummit!

La Grande Roue

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A few years ago, my father and I traveled to Ireland and France. While in Paris, we saw the above painter at the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre painting the La Grande Roue. Since then, my father has passed away. I'm trying to find this paining as a reminder of that trip and as a way to honor the memory of my father.

Inspired by "A Painting Finds Its Way Home" on NPR's The Story where a long lost painting is found by a procrastinating student, I'm devising a plan to bring this painting home. First, there was an iReport on CNN requesting travel snapshots from Paris, so I submitted the above photo with a request for help. My iReport only got a few hits, so I'm now moving onto a larger scheme.

Similar to my efforts to obtain an interview with Robert Stephens, I plan to create a social media blitz to find this painting of the La Grande Roue and to document my progress. So far, I've brainstormed the following methods:

1. Have a website and an e-mail attachment translated into French.
2. E-mail and snail mail art dealers in Paris the website with attached flier for posting.
3. Create ads for social networks in France.
4. Find a way to advertise to Paris residents in the cheapest way possible.
5. Find and e-mail groups and networks of painters (in whatever form that may be) in Paris.
6. Possibly find a sponsor who's willing to contribute a small amount of money for me to travel to Paris once the painting is found and for me to purchase it.

However, I need help. I do not speak French. I need someone who can help me translate content for a website and flier. If you or someone you know speaks French, please contact me. I hope to get my website dedicated to this effort up and running soon.

Process

Colonel John Boyd has been called America's Sun Tzu. After studying a few thousands years of armed conflict, he reduced effective strategy to what he called the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act). What I find particularly fascinating is that the broad outline of his process can be found in creative pursuits and in such things as the "design process."

For example, in Jennifer New's fabulous book, "Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art" is divided into a very similar process in the following sections: Observation, Reflection, Exploration, and Creation.
For those that want to dig a little deeper, Boyd's expansive study "Patterns of Conflict" can be found here. The Marine's guide to Warfighting borrows heavily from Boyd's theories on maneuver warfare, and that guide that references Boyd can be found here.

The innovation consultancy, Humantific, did a really interesting study by asking students from several institutions to visually represent their process. The following examples are from the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, Domus Academy in Italy, the National Institute of Design in India, and the University of Kassel in Germany. Notice the striking similarities between these representations and Boyd's OODA Loop and New's journaling process.

 

Humantific's full presentation can be found here. Not all examples followed Boyd's or New's process, but a remarkable number did. Humantific also insightfuly recognizes that many of the represented processes begin with the brief or problem already supplied. This is not what Boyd and New lay out. The creative process begins with observation where problems can be found and reframed. What's your process look like?

A Tale of Two Commercials

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It's hard not to notice Chevrolet's efforts to highlight quality during Toyota's recent times of trouble. The commercial doesn't mention "safety," but it's heavily implied. Then consider Toyota's recent ad touting their safety record. Note, the several wire drawings of brakes, an inspection of tire handling, and the screeching car coming to a halt at the very end. Not very subtle.

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Toyota made Deming's TQM (Total Quality Management) famous, and many companies have studied their methods to try and replicate their past success. It's still somewhat unclear what caused Toyota to stray away from their emphasis on quality, but I do like how Chevrolet is beating them at their own game.

Storytelling and Understanding the Universe

I'm really enjoying watching "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman on the Science Channel. It's hard not to notice how adept storytellers the featured astronomers and cosmologists are. These men and women do some hardcore math and grapple with some of the most difficult questions, and yet, they describe their complicated theories with very simple analogies.

For example, one related our universe to a computer simulation. If you observe this creation on the smallest level, it pixelates just like video games do.

Beyond the physics, there is truly a creative process at work with these scientists. They are inspired by everyday life to tackle the unknown. One thinks about the universe in terms of plumbing. Another surfing, and yet another, ballroom dancing.

As we are understanding more and more about how this world came to be, it's our age old ability to tell stories that makes the human experience so meaningful.

The Creative Destruction of Cities

If I remember my Economics 101 class correctly, Joseph Schumpeter was the economist who popularized the the theory of Creative Destruction. The theory goes something like this: new industries are born through innovation that ultimately destroy older and now obsolete ways of economic vitality.

I won't debate the merits of the theory, but I've recently bumped into some very sobering reporting on the destruction and attempts to revive some cities. If you want to get really depressed, read Detroit: the Death - and possible Life - of a Great City from Time magazine. This article is very heavy detailing the death of Detroit, and very brief providing Green Industries as a possible hope for resurrection.

A much more hopeful tone can be found in SHAREABLE: CITIES, Detroit, New Frontier. Abandoned buildings are being torn down to provide new green spaces and urban gardens. Detroit could potentially be the first city to be self-sufficient in terms of food production.

What I found to be even more encouraging is the influx of artists into Detroit and cities like it. It really is no holds barred, and quite an environment to create amidst destruction. John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock Pennsylvania - pictured, is trying to attract artists as a form of urban revival to the city built on producing steel. John Fetterman is the real deal. Although he looks like someone who could tear your head off in a barroom brawl, he has a Masters from Harvard, and his passion for Braddock is contagious. I've heard of cities trying to attract the Creative Class, and I believe there may even be an index for such. However, arts as a core component of urban revitalization is very encouraging indeed. The death of some industries and its effect on cities offset by the power of creativity.

Your Life in 2020 according to Forbes and Frog Design

The title of the piece "Your Life in 2020" found on Forbes.com does not match the spirit of the opening article "How to Create the Future." Besides one video that provides a very, very quick 3 step process for envisioning the future, all other content in the articles and infomercial style videos provide potential visions and not methods to create.

I give props to Frog Design for the "partnership" with Forbes. Frog is featured prominently in the videos as they should be. However, I'm afraid by their brevity and with lack of context the videos fall a bit flat. I see scenarios of use and a Homer Simpson persona, but I don't think this does the quality of work Frog does justice.

A couple other quick thoughts: John Maeda's piece has strong overtones of personalized production found in Chris Anderson's Wired article from a couple months back. I agree Craft will continue to make a comeback, but if more and more people are really going to make their own products to distribute they're going to need the right tools and expertise to use them.

Encouraging Participation

Apparently, CNN's iReport posts assignments on a regular basis. I found this past weekend's assignment fairly imaginative.

"Looking into the Past" has a pool on flickr, and put simply, the assignment was to find historical photos, match them to modern day locations, and upload the fruits of your labor. Sounds like fun.

The Ultimate Job in Ireland

I bumped into the following story on April 1st, and I thought it might be an April fools joke. Apparently, it's not, and the honeymoon tester is latest dream job.

Inspired by The Best Job in the World promotion in Australia, it's one of several such promotions that have gained an amazing amount of free PR on the news wires and blogs. 

Obviously, these promotional phenomenons are flourishing because they are tapping into a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current world of work and the possibility of escaping to exotic locations where the only responsibility is to blog about your wonderful experiences.

Connect that to another tidbit I recently read that there is a coming wave of turnover in the job market. Right now, a lot of people are just happy to have jobs, but after the job market stabilizes (which some believe may take a few years), workers will seek new opportunities in great numbers after feeling overworked and under-appreciated during the deep downturn.

It's hard to imagine now when the focus is on what industries will create the greatest number of new jobs in the coming years to switch gears to think about which industries and corporations will best retain workers.

MIA's Foot In The Door 4

I recently attended the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Foot In The Door 4 exhibit. It occurs every 10 years and anyone in Minnesota can submit a piece of art that fits in a one foot by one foot square. I believe nearly five thousand pieces were submitted this year. It is truly overwhelming. 

I missed the premiere event, but their Shoes in the Door promotion encouraging attendees to wear wacky shoes and donate socks to a good cause looked like a lot of fun. I really liked how this year artists were encouraged to also submit 80 second videos on Vimeo. What a wonderful way to tie in new forms of media into the exhibit.

I was really amused to learn after the fact that the YES/NO/MAYBE button blocks counted how many individuals pressed each. I was really tempted to press them, but I mistakenly thought "art" should not be touched.

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Below are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibit.

 

I found it interesting that pieces hung on the wall were not constrained by two dimensions, and many made an effort to take advantage of depth. I also found it interesting how some pieces made a concerted effort to use framing to add to the context of their work such as in the following piece. 

Finally, I think it might be fun to find the misplaced art in this exhibit. "Not all locations (of the art) have been determined." In other words, create an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) that pits teams against each other to find the first piece of art whose location is unknown and/or the most pieces of art whose locations are unknown. To make it easier, you could provide maps of the known locations of pieces, and if large enough teams were assembled and if you approached the game in a systematic way, it could be a really fun way to win prizes.

If you're in Minneapolis, I highly recommend you visit Foot In The Door 4. 

Peoplescape

I heard about an interesting social exercise on NPR's "The Story." It's called "Peoplescape" that involved making a meaningful connection (in person) with someone new for 365 days. There's an increasing amount of publicized experiments in "offline" human connectedness not to mention the mix between "on-line" encounters leading to face-to-face interaction. Also, projects like Bookcrossing and others invole real world experience without direct human contact. Not sure what it all means, but it's very fascinating to me.

Recent studies have found Americans have 1/3 fewer friends than 20 years ago, and a quarter of the U.S. population reportedly does not have a single close friend. These are puzzling figures given that we are in the midst of the social media revolution. In fact, today a record number of people are airing their most intimate thoughts and emotions through blogs and social networking profiles, and an equal number of people log in everyday to read them. But are we really connecting with each other?

From June 2007 to June 2008, Maria made it her mission to have a significant social exchange with someone new each and every day, a task that took anywhere from 20 minutes to 12 hours. She documented each interaction with a photo and a narrative based on the circumstances of the meeting and the connection that occurred. Persevering day in and day out, armed with a camera and a notepad,