The 7 word rule.

As a copywriter simply love billboards. They're one of my favorite forms of media because you have to pare your idea down to the simplest concept – which is harder than it seems. (And as much as I love being an interactive copywriter, I am always SO excited when I get to do outdoor. Or radio.)  The classic rule of thumb is that if you're going to gain the attention of motorists whizzing by at 65 miles an hour (our customers drive the speed limit of course), that a billboard can have no more than 7 words.

Chipotle, purveyor of oversize burritos,  ran a great billboard campaign for years, usually featuring a shot of one of their huge burritos and a short, pithy line. Well, recently they took their advertising in-house and the gist of the campaign is that they don't need an ad agency. It's quite cute.

Which brings us to this billboard. Yes, I love the copy on it. But I almost got hit slowing down trying to read it. It's long and hard to read but I was rewarded with a chuckle for my efforts.

What do they expect? People to stop by the side of the road, take a picture and post it on their website?

The most important infographic of all time.

The year was 1972. Moon walks were recent history and space exploration was all the rage. (And glory of glories, Tang was still sold at the grocery store.)

NASA sent out the unmanned Pioneer 10 as a sort of calling card to the universe. It was the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. This plaque was mounted on Pioneer 10 to help aliens figure out something about the beings that launched Pioneer.

So we have a nude male and female. The man raises his hand in the classic "How" position. Even if the aliens don't know this is our way of saying hello, at least they'll be able to check out our opposable thumbs.

There's a couple of diagrams including "a schematic representation of the hyperfine transition of hydrogen, which is the most abundant element in the universe" and "hydrogen spin-flip transition frequency."

Then there's the nifty diagram of our solar system.

This infographic reveals almost as much about the era it was created in as about the location of our home planet.

If it was created today, would the content differ?

Hopefully the aliens will be able to figure it out.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day 2010

In addition to being Earth Day, April 22 was also Take Your Daughter to Work Day. So after school (it was just too exciting of a day to miss,) I picked up my daughter Gina, 7, and she joined me for an afternoon at Hivehaus, the creative collective where I have an office.

Since I am an interactive copywriter, Gina was going to join me for a day of wireframing and creating content for a website. First, we had to decide the subject of her site. She chose Cleopatra, one of her enduring obsessions.

Then she faced the realities of domain names. Cleopatra? Taken. Egypt? Taken.

So we settled on CleopatrasEgypt.wordpress.com

Then Gina and I discussed what pages she wanted and came up with:

Home | Alexandria | Egyptian Art | Games | Love Life

Gina wanted to use icons for navigation. But I told her that would have to be a Phase 2 sort of thing. (Way beyond my technical knowledge.)

Then Gina did a white board sketch for a homepage.

Originally, Gina wanted to include flash games on the Games page. Once again, I told her that might be a lot to do in an afternoon. I told her we could include links to games on other sites. Gina didn't agree, she said that would be disappointing for someone and didn't want to send them away to another site. So we settled on describing Cleopatra's favorite game.

Gina dictated all of the content. She wrote it from the point of view of Cleopatra. Even the homepage copy said:

I am Cleopatra, I am the Queen of all Egypt. This is my home on the Mediterranean seaport of Alexandria.

She was pretty consistent with that POV through the whole site. It made for some interesting content. She also selected the photos she wanted to use.

Of course, we also had to go to Java Jones, because getting hot chocolate is very important to the creative process. It was great fun and gave my daughter a better idea what my working days are like and it will be a pretty nifty item for show and tell at school.

You can visit Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt in all its wordpress.com template glory here.

The Power of a Creative Sabbatical: Off to Atascadero.

Last fall, Lindsay Preston and her fiance and fellow talented artist, John Zappas, traded palm trees for oak trees when they left San Diego for the tranquil beauty Atascadero to concentrate on creating art. Their mission: expand their horizons, stretch themselves creatively and assemble portfolios that would get them accepted into grad school. I recently chatted with Lindsay and asked how the change in environment influenced her work.

So tell me about your experiences with Yeller.

John and I were part of the art collective Yeller (in San Diego.) With Yeller, the concept was to create our own opportunities. We offered a first-time experience for many of our peers – buying art at an affordable price point. As a result, the work was created quickly and with the intent to sell, and promote an interactive experience with our community – prints, t-shirts and bags. It was a lot of fun.

What inspired you to apply to grad school?

I found myself wanting to focus more on making conceptually rich art. And the only way to do this is to give yourself more time. I wanted the experience of going to grad school. So John and decided to move to Atascadero (where John’s parents live) to focus on creating a portfolio to apply to grad school.

Atascadero just might be heaven on earth. How did the change in environment  influence your work?

Atascadero is amazing...although a little boring... It’s between Paso Robles and Moro Bay and is beautiful. There aren’t any distractions – which is good and bad!

There are oak trees everywhere, growing up in surburbia, it’s so different. That’s what a lot of my work is about now, that contrast between my childhood filled with planted palm trees and track homes with something more natural, more real.

A lot of it is just having more time and allowing myself time to think about concepts like that. A lot of the pieces I did were concepted over a period of weeks. Others I just thought of and busted them out. With every idea there are a couple of pieces that I started and never finished. You just have to go through that process.

So did you have any structure to your day?

During that time, we had a 9 to 5 schedule. We’d have breakfast, coffee and get into the studio around 9. I would check Google reader and the blogs of friends and designers, it’s inspiring to see what other people are working on. But then time for work.

Tell me about one of your favorite pieces.

Most were created and shot in studio. But for one piece I mended branches together with yarn and then we woke up at 5 in the morning and sneaked onto a ranch. We went out when it was still dark and set up my piece and got some awesome shots at sunrise. I left mine up there on top of the mountain.

Lindsay was accepted to the MFA program both at the acclaimed Cranbrook Academy of Art and the University of Michigan. (Touch decision!) She's accepted Michigan's amazing offer – full ride, a teaching position and the opportunity to study abroad – and will be starting there in the fall. It will be fun to watch where Lindsay's artistic adventures take her!

Check out more of Lindsay’s work at www.lindsay-preston.com

You can catch some of Linsday’s work at an upcoming show in Cardiff:

New Beginnings Art Show,

Art of Health Gallery, Cardiff, Saturday, April 24.

Of dragons.

Last week my family spent some time at a cousin’s ranch in New Mexico. We stayed in a 1860s adobe, saw the inner workings of a cattle ranch, explored ruins of a fort from the 1860s and saw Indian artifacts littered on the ground. For me, it was an eye-opening and educational time.

At the end of the week, I asked my six-year-old son what he liked best: “Playing with my dragon in the rock pile.”

A pile of gravel in the driveway, but to him that equals excitement.

It was just another reminder to me how different people can have different perceptions of the same thing. Working as an interactive copywriter, I have to constantly work at getting into the minds of the people I'm trying to appeal to – that's people – not users, consumers or customers.

Your portfolio: baring it all.

I've been working on revamping my portfolio site for quite some time with designer/illustrator Matt Luckey. The entire design process as been about stripping away the extra, giving emphasis to the work. Which brings me to a site where a copywriter literally stripped. May I present Lawson  Clarke, otherwise known as MaleCopywriter.com. His site, as well as his work is hilarious.

Of course, Lawson's site is even funnier when you realize his inspiration – Burt Reynolds circa 1972.

Lawson appears in Erik Proulx's Lemonade, a film about advertising professionals reinventing themselves. He also appeared as the original Straight Guy in the pilot for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. For not always quite work-appropriate commentary, follow him @malecopywriter.

1,000 words a day.

So if a picture is worth a thousand words, that's a pretty damn good blog  post.

Here's the challenge suggested by Shelly Bowen, one of my favorite people  and content strategist extraordinaire:  Take a shot. Every day.

It can be low-tech. (Hello iPhone!)

But the idea is to take the time to notice the small details, an interesting pattery or a new viewpoint.

Because the more I work as an interactive copywriter, the more important the visual has become.

Follow along here.

The Power of a Creative Sabbatical: Off to New York City.

As creatives, it’s our job to remain fresh and creatively inspired. How do you do that? Hang out with other artists? Go see a new band? Take a new route to work? Spend your lunch hour browsing in a bookstore?

Well, how about closing up shop for two months and going to New York City with the sole intention of soaking up the atmosphere and working only on personal projects?

That’s exactly what photographer and HIVE resident Chaz Cruz is planning to do. For the last few years, Chaz has run a thriving portrait and wedding photography business and has developed a reputation for getting shots that no one else does.

“I always ask my clients what make you you? What makes you tick?” he explains. “And then try to capture that.”

But Chaz felt in need for a little creative rejuvenation so he’s planning a two-month sabbatical to New York. “For the last two years I’ve only shot people. For these next two months, I want to shoot everything but people and do totally personal work."

Chaz was inspired by a TED talk given by noted designer Stefan Sagmeister who proposes the concept of the creative sabbatical. Sagmeister says taking time off from work to explore new avenues of inspiration can have big pay-offs in the form of higher levels of creativity and a renewed passion for your work.

Chaz is excited about the next two months. “I’ve already contacted a lot of photographers that I want to meet for coffee. I’ve seen their work and just want to get insights into how they work.”

Spending time on personal project should be a liberating experience. “Right now I just want to go out and shoot for myself,” says Chaz. “I want to grow as a person and an artist. Then my business can catch up.”

We’ll look forward from hearing from Chaz and seeing some work from his time off.

You can follow Chaz’s New York adventures at @chazcruz

Lessons from the art lesson.

I regularly volunteer as an art teacher for a second grade class. And sometimes, I think I learn more than the kids I am supposedly instructing.

A recent lesson was about the color wheel. We started out with the primary colors – red, yellow and blue – and then proceeded to mix secondary colors. Then the kids quickly sketched out ceremonial masks and then painted them. Some of the kids could have spent the entire sketching their masks but we gave them only three minutes so they could spend most of their time painting.

In class I find myself repeating the same phrases over and over, from lesson to lesson – many are applicable to my work.

“You guys, just go for it. Just get something down on paper, you have to start somewhere.”

“It’s art. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just wing it.”

“Don’t worry if you make a mistake, work with it. Make it part of your piece.”

“Coloring in between the lines is way overrated.”

Lessons to take to heart.

Collaborating during Friday Morning Brew

On Fridays, theHIVE hosts Friday Morning Brew, a time to get to know fellow HIVE mates better. Recently, Lauren Walsh of Citrus PR and I were talking how our writing has changed in the interactive realm and how our approaches were different coming from PR and copywriter backgrounds.. That lead to us working together on a blog post for SoCalPRBlog.com entitled "Pitching in an ADD-Friendly World.

You can read it here.

Girl, You’ve Got Cojones: Life Lessons Learned Surfing.

During a surf session out in the big and mushy waves last week, a crusty old fellow gave me the best compliment I could ever receive:

“Girl, you’ve got cojones.”

On my previous wave, I took a late takeoff and went straight down the face for Mr.-Toad’s-Wild-Ride. I barely made it. But sometimes, barely is good enough. That’s one of the valuable lessons I learn over and over surfing.

It always amazes me how much the ocean and surfing can teach me:

Live life. Now. Surfing isn’t like tennis or basketball where the courts are always available for a practice session. Wave conditions are a temperamental thing. When there are waves, you surf today. They may not be there tomorrow. The takeaway – don’t live life in the future, waiting for the time until you graduate, get that job, get that promotion, get that house. Life happens right now.

Live on the edge. A wave is a precious commodity. Yet, if you don’t push yourself, you’ll never get better. So when the board is locked in the face, it’s time to cross step and make your way towards the nose. (Guess what my New Year’s resolution is.) What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll fall and waste a perfectly good wave. But there’s always another wave coming.

Let it roll over you. A big holy-mother-of-god mountain of water appears right before you. What do you do? Turtle roll you and your board over and let the wave pass over you. Then you paddle like hell to get out of the way before the next one hits. Things in life don’t always run smooth, but the ability to let things roll by, then try to improve the situation is a nice skill to cultivate.

Sometimes you just have to go for it. If you think too much, you’ll miss out. A moment’s hesitation on the paddle and the wave can pass you by. Yes, it’s advisable to put a little forethought into things like having a kid or starting a business. But if you waited until you were 100% sure, nothing would ever happen.

Don't be afraid to look like an idiot. Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned. If I was that self-conscious, I would have aborted at my attempts at surfing years ago. It’s taken me years to become socially mediocre at the sport. And usually, people are encouraging. (Just don’t get in the way of their waves.)

Enjoy the downtime. Sometimes when you’re in between sets, you just have to sit, watch the horizon and wait. This is when the magic occurs. A young inquisitive seal may pop his head out of the water for a closer look or a pod of dolphins may swim by. You never know what might happen.

Savor the bliss. Feeling the wave behind you, carving down a face, it’s 10, 20 or 30 seconds of sheer heaven. After a wonderful morning session, I never feel more alive, more joyous or more blessed. And that’s the attitude I try carry with me throughout the day.

Deck the Billboards

It's the holiday time of year (and it has been since Halloween) when our favorite brands spread yuletide cheer with seasonal billboards. With a rich source of carols, stories and traditions to play off of, it can make for some interesting concepts. Here are some of my favorites around town. (I never realized that you can take your life into your hands when shooting a billboard.)

San Diego Zoo has a tradition of doing great billboards. I love the simple visual pun here.

Another favorite billboard that ran for a couple of holiday seasons was by Wells Fargo Bank. It was a simple classic shot of their stagecoach pulled by a team of horses. At night, the nose of the lead horse was lit up red. But this year they went for cookie cutter horses pulling a stage coach which was sort of cutesy.

Patron Great copywriting as always: "Eliminate regifting." Visit their site for more wonderful words.

This is a three dimensional billboard by IKEA where furniture spells out joy. The headline "Decorate for the holidays" refers to more than just putting up a tree and lights for the holidays. I would just hate to be standing below this billboard during an earthquake.

A novel idea.

I remember once for an ad assignment coming up with a concept involving a dress made out of paper. Here's the shot I was dreaming of.

Jolis Paons, is an amazing artist, just 21 years old. She designed a couture dress made purely out of phonebook paper.

Paons says of the paper dress she designed and created for her Creative Processes class, “I pleated, stuck, sewed, and glued everything by hand.”

Starbucks Via

I am a lazy coffee drinker.via_package

Face it, I’m not going to make coffee. At home I would have to clean up. At work, I would have to clean up after myself and somehow feel compelled to clean up the rest of the mess in the communal kitchen.

coffeepackage

So I thought I would give Starbucks Via a try. It’s packaging isn’t much more earth friendly than disposable cups. But it comes in these convenient little tubes like Pixie sticks and you can pour it into a cup of hot water or hot milk.

Works for me, even camping.