A creative kick in the ass.

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. – Thomas Edison

For some interactive copywriters, art directors or graphic designers, coming up with a creative idea isn’t that hard. Executing it, however is another matter.

The 99% Conference is founded on the notion that there are plenty of conferences out there focused on inspiration. The reality is, some creatives need help making those ideas happen.

The 99% was the most thoughtfully planned conference I have ever attended. Since I want to actually remember what was said in each talk, I tried to sum each on up in just one phrase (pretty hard to do!) Here's a few:

Beth Comstock: You have to tell a story before you can sell a story.

Linda Rottenberg: Stalking is an under-rated start-up tactic. If someone asks you if are you crazy, take it as a compliment.

Laura Guido Clark on self-realization: You can't ask a client to do something that you haven't asked yourself.

Andrew Zuckerman: Asking someone to engage with your project is asking a lot. You can’t get to wonderful without going through okay first.

Simen Senick: A spirit of generosity, what can I do for that person, is a new way to conduct business.

Scott Belsky: Organization can be a key competitive advantage for creatives.

And perhaps my favorite which came via Dr. Michael Johnson: Pain is temporary. Suck is forever.

Do you want to be involved in projects that you don't respect the integrity of?

Why I love the Y.

The gathering of the faithful.

Design conferences are kind of like old-fashioned tent revivals that southern churches use to hold. Once a year, you need to re-energize your faith, stand up and say, "Amen, I believe, sistah!" So once a year, I take some time out, turn off the email and drink some of the creative Kool-Aid at the AIGA Y16 Design Conference. As a self-employed creative with well-trained clients that I communicate with via email, it's all too easy to work in a vacuum.  I have to go out of my way to collaborate and reconnect with other creatives. The Y is one of the the best ways I have found to spark my  creativity  and remember the reasons why I got into this business to begin with.

Design by Aaron Draplin for print screening with Sezio.

Makin' shit.

The Pacific Northwest made a strong presence at the Y with Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Company. (Tagline: Midwesting the Northwest.) Aaron charmed everyone with his candidness and ability for telling it like it is. He is a big proponent of doing creative work whether or not you have a budget. “There’s equity in helping people,” he said. He encouraged designers to “be the client and make shit happen.” We were challenged to get out there and get dirty. He closed his talk and set the mood of the conference with these gems:

  1. Work hard and love this shit.
  2. Say yes maybe a little more than you say no.
  3. Do good work for good people.

The shape of design.

Fellow Portlander Frank Chimero took a more cerebral approach to design, asking the questions behind why we do the things we do:

  • How vs. Why.

How is about being capable and taking your tooks and forcing them to your will. Why is about the reasons we do things, and often, this part of the conversation is neglected.

In the relationship between message and format, designers deal with the tone.

  • Message (what you’re saying)
  • Tone (this is the area designers deal in, the bridge between message and format)
  • Format (what is the medium: web, poster, print, ad, brochure)

Frank urged designers to explore beyond the tone and become the client – becoming responsible for content. “If I’m assigned an article and it’s crap, I can’t come up with a good illustration.”

Other speakers were fabulous. Illustrators and design duo Sarah Labieniec and Ryan Meis of Lab Partners were simply delightful in their story of how they work together. (Love my husband but I could never work with him.) Peter Kragh shared details about his job – swimming with great whites while filming IMAX films. (What's his life insurance like?)

Thinkshops.

Thinkshops were smaller, more intimate workshops. To balance the creative inspiration of the mainstage speakers, I selected more practical Thinkshops. Luke Mysse of Crossgrain led a Thinkshop on how to hire clients and the steps you can take to market yourself to attract the type of clients you want. The insights I gained from this workshop were the most important ones I took home from the conference.

Thomas Marchesello of Nine Multimedia shared how to create killer aps. The secret to good app design he said was “ to think in layers.” Thomas mentioned why you always have to entertain with an app: “Just think about it, what’s on your phone is personal –  it goes in your pocket.”

Hanging with fellow design freaks.

But perhaps the best part of any conference is what happens outside the auditorium. The sharing, the interaction and meeting of fellow design nerds. Who else would agree to try out a new restaurant just because the graphics were so cool?

Why go to the Y? I guess Frank may have said it best, “We come together to get better.”

Words and pictures together.

I've been a big fan of graphic facilitators like Sunni Brown and Image Think who create large scale graphic recordings of sessions. Here are a couple they did this year for various events at sxsw.

As an interactive copywriter, I'm committed to the power of words and the importance of telling story. But frankly, nothing is an intimidating or uninviting as a solid page of text. Yes, subheads and bullet points make copy more scanable, but words + pictures create an even stronger story and involve more senses and create more emotion.

Well thought out visuals just don't add eye candy,  if you're taking notes yourself at a meeting, seminar or conference and add pictures to your words, your retention will increase by up to 30%.

See a whole slew of graphic recordings on Image Think's site here.

Spark your creativity.

I have had the honor and great pleasure working on communications for the upcoming AIGA San Diego Y-Conference. Justin Skeesuck of Seen & Noted and Tracy Meiners of StudioTM headed up the design efforts. This year's theme is Spark. Spark an idea. Spark a conversation. Spark a revolution.

Check out the website here.

Tracy did an amazing job on the mailers, which are designed at matchbooks. (Kids, don't play with matches but you can light a match.)

How do you keep the heart in your art?

One afternoon this week at theHIVE I had a serendipitous chat with artist/painter/blogger/music wonder Susie Ghahremani of boygirlparty.com. I am always fascinated watching Susie work because there is no computer on her desk at the Hive (Oh, she’s digital all right with a site, shop and blog.) In the morning she was doing preliminary sketches in a journal and in the afternoon had the paints out.

Susie mentioned that she had a little time before beginning a new project and was using the downtime to do some personal work. She said something like, “ “If it is passion for art that inspired me to become an artist, how do I retain this passion when I paint for a living, how do I keep art from becoming something I have to do rather than something I love to do?

The answer is simple, mix it up.

Susie mentioned she was enrolling in a session of the Artist’s Way, which would involve writing

Likewise, as an interactive copywriter, when I’m looking for some creative growth, the last thing I want to do is begin writing the Great American Novel. In past year, one of my greatest creative outlets has been volunteering with Art Corps, a group that brings art into the classroom. Volunteer teachers attend a workshop where we make the project ourselves first before teaching it to the kids. These workshops are a uplifting opportunity to make art and chat with other people, most of who aren’t “artists” either.

What do you do to mix it up and keep your work your fresh and the passion strong?

Image copywright boygirlparty.com.

A dashing collection of holiday billboards.

As a freelance interactive copywriter, I still always welcome the challenge of a billboard. You have only seven words and half a second to get your message across. (How many times have I slowed down just to read a too long message.) The holidays are an especially fun time with plenty of holiday carols, motifs and traditions to play off of.

This billboard by the San Diego Zoo is a visual pun on the sleigh pulled by Santa’s reindeer. This billboard ran last year as well, proving that some holiday traditions are worth repeating.

One of my favorite holiday billboards is this one by Wells Fargo which first ran I believe in 2007. It plays off the iconic stagecoach, with the nose of the lead lighting up red at night. Simple, clean and clever without being cutesy. It ran for numerous years and then last year was replaced by the billboard below which runs more on the cutesy side.

TEDx San Diego. People spreading ideas.

Well, TED came to San Diego yesterday. It was a mind-blowing experience.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. You've probably heard of the people who speak at the flagship event held every year, major leaguers like:  Bill Gates, Seth Godin and Bill Clinton. The TED website is one of my favorites where you can listen to or watch riveting talks by remarkable people.

Yesterday's local event was TEDx San Diego (x = independently organized.) How do I describe the day? My brain is overflowing. 22 speakers each gave a 15-minute talk offering inspiring new ideas. Some of my favorites included Marty Cooper, inventor of the cell phone and Bill Toone, who brought a new twist to conservation. Jake Shimaburkuro simply rocked the ukulele.

I had high expectations for TEDx San Diego and was so delighted when TEDxSD completely exceeded them in every way. I was completely unprepared for the community aspect of the event. The tagline of TED is “Ideas Worth Spreading.” The speakers were only a springboard. We were encouraged to meet new people and form new connections. We were asked to sit in a new seat next to people we didn’t know for every session. And instead of asking the typical what do you do questions, we were encouraged to ask “What do you love to do?”

These were some of the amazing people and fellow San Diegans that I met:

David Michael Bruno is the manager of online marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. He started inspiring blog called 100 Thing Challenge, a project focused on breaking free from the constraints of American-style consumerism. He has a book about 100 Things coming out by HarperCollins.

Jamie Miller is an architect and founder of Urban Fabric Architecture. He proposes building office space out of shipping containers, so the building can grow with the needs of the company.

Joanna Wasmuth loves connecting people and resources to reduce poverty. Over lunch, she talked about her travels to over 25 countries where she saw unimaginable poverty. She is currently a strategic microfinance consultant at World Vision.

Sunni Black was a childhood hero of mine. She was a trainer and performer for many years for the Bird Show at the Wild Animal Park (now known as the San Diego Zoo Safari Park but don't get me started on that.) I loved that when I asked her what she studied in school she said she was an art major.

TEDx San Diego closed with the idea that what happens after the conference is what’s really important. We were encouraged to keep in touch with those new people we had met and encouraged to make a commitment to do something, whether professional, personal or volunteer in the upcoming year.

More stories on TEDx San Diego : TEDx San Diego draws top thinkers to San Diego.

TEDx San Diego wants ideas to turn into action.

The joys of co-working.

Co-working at theHIVE has been so rewarding. I've met so many people and have learned so much from meeting people in different industries. I love the creative sparks that fly when passionate people come together.

Seth Godin recently wrote a post entitled Good-bye to the Office. And he states that with technology people can work from almost anywhere. So why have an office? He gives 7 reasons why people still cling to the idea of an office.

  1. That's where the machines are.
  2. That's where the items I need to work on are.
  3. The boss needs to keep tabs on my productivity.
  4. There are important meetings to go to.
  5. It's a source of energy.
  6. The people I collaborate with all day are there.
  7. I need someplace to go.

Well, as a freelancer, almost none of this applies except 5 and 7. I do need a source of energy and I do need someplace to go (otherwise I may be wearing the same black yoga pants for days on end.) What I missed most about the agency environment was the collaboration and interaction with my fellow creatives.

Recently, some gals from theHive started a Creative Breakfast. We're almost all self-employed and share the desire for camaraderie and accountability. Good friend and fellow Hiver Alexix Rodich spoke so eloquently about our breakfast in her blog for the Washington Post. I left our breakfast motivated and so very inspired.

I'm not even at Not at BlogWorld in SD.

(Courtesy of wearethedigitalkids.com)

No, I'm not at BlogWorld. No, I'm not even at Not at BlogWorld in SD hosted by @interactivem and @downtownrob. (That would be #bwe10sd.)

But some of my favorite blogs right now:

MOTY Notes: Stories of Imperfection

Great tales of motherhood and life by Kathryn Proulx, wife of Lemonade the Movie creator Erik Proulx. Kathryn has a wicked sense of humor. (I dig Erik's blog Please Feed the Animals too.)

We are the Digital Kids

Insights by Amanda Mooney, a digital kid and account supervisor for the strategy team at Edelman Digital. (I also like how the photos in her masthead always change.)

Frank Chimero

I'm so insanely jealous of designers who can write.

Taking the lessons of art to heart.

ArtCorps from Anne McColl on Vimeo. Volunteering with ArtCorps is one of the most rewarding activities I participate in. It's a group dedicated to bring more art into the classroom. The kids try so hard and sometimes they get hung up on perfection. The big lesson always is just go with it.

So being an interactive copywriter, I just had to make a video. No, it's not perfect but I have to remember the mantra I always repeat to the kids, "You have to start somewhere. Just get it down on paper." Produced using an iPhone and iMovie.

Luerzer's Archive and the Death of Advertising

Years ago as a young copywriter, I used to subscribe to Luerzer’s Archive, a great magazine filled with the latest uber cool ads from Amsterdam, Latin American and even upon occasion, the United States. I stopped subscribing after something called the Internet was invented. Why look at pictures of a broadcast spots when you can actually watch the actual clips on the Internet.

A few days a go, a big, beautiful, fat 24-page direct mail piece came in the mail, urging me to subscribe once again.

The cover read: A glimpse into the future of advertising.

Then I look at the tagline under the masthead: Ads, TV and Posters worldwide.

Ads, TV and posters? Is that really the future?

Luerzer's does have every print campaign since 1984 and every broadcast spot since 1985 in their online archives.

Get a free one-day test of Lurzer's Archive Online Service. Enter this code: LAFOL

May the Force be with You

I proudly tell my Star Wars-obsessed children that this is my client. (And one of the funnest campaigns I ever had the joy to be even remotely part of.) The response: "When are you working on barbie.com?" This is a great example of a viral video, over 2,000,000 views on the Darth Vader video. A good Was supported via email, facebook and email as well as site.

Fun at boygirlparty.com

One of the most amazing things about coworking at theHIVE is meeting all the diverse creatives that work here. Of course that means a simple trip to the kitchen can take a 1/2 an hour because you have to stop and chat and check out their latest projects. One of the newest Hivers is Susie Ghahremani of BoyGirlParty.com who can often be seen hunched over working on her fabulous illustrations. She paints. Yes, she paints!

What I admire about Susie (well besides the fact that I LOVE her illustrations) is how well rounded she is.

First of all, she's a successful editorial illustrator who's worked with the likes of Martha Stewart, the New York Times and Craft: Magazine.

She's got a great website where you can view her work and shop.

And she still has time to do her own work to participate in shows. You can catch her creations this Saturday, July 10 at Ray at Night, an art event in North Park. Her art opening is hosted by Warp 9 Imaging at 3820 1/2 Ray Street. She'll be showing 25 minature paintings and other work.

You can see all of Susie's work at boygirlparty.com.

Follow her on Twitter @boygirlparty

photos courtesy of boygirlparty.com

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.