Pantone Pairings

I love this Instagram feed full of Pantone pairings. It’s such a simple and graphic idea. The colors and textures of the foods can be really inspiring. This is a really cool concept.

Tracy Wong lecture

I’m a huge fan of Tracy Wong, chairman and creative director of WDCW. His lecture in my media professions class freshman year was one of the main reasons I decided to try out the advertising major and I really enjoyed watching him on The Pitch (and definitely think “zAMbies” should have won). So when he came to campus for the grand opening of Allen Hall, I definitely had to go his lecture. He gave us some really great advice on how to be a successful creative in the advertising agency, but can pretty much be applied to most careers.

Here are his six pieces of advice from the lecture:

• Ego can hijack your career
• 99% of a great idea is strategy
• The greatest creative weapon you possess is your ears: have an empty mind, not just an open mind
• Embrace compromise
• Engage in the “Democracy of Good Ideas” – everybody needs to be involved and anything is possible as long as no one cares who gets the credit
• How to sell great work: Love your client like you love your dog

My biggest takeaways were that you are not your ideas and that ego can stop you from listening to valuable criticism. I think that this is really important and something I could probably keep in mind. I definitely have a tendency to get defensive of my ideas and it can probably stop me from growing and learning at times.

Follow Me To

When I saw this article about a Russian couple who documents their travels by taking the same photo in each location they visit, I was spellbound. It’s such an amazingly simple idea – holding hands and being led to new places – and the photo series is just gorgeous.

“The first photo happened in Barcelona while we were on vacation. My girlfriend was a bit annoyed that I was always taking pictures of everything, so she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me forward. That said, it didn’t stop me from doing photos while she was pulling me,” Murad Osman told the Huffington Post.

Create52

After writing this post on living a creative life, I thought I’d share a little about my own daily creative pursuits. I don’t usually have super specific New Year’s resolutions (they’re usually more of a general idea of things I’d like to change or do), but this year I decided to take on a specific goal. I have always been crafty and creative – my mom and all of my grandmas are very crafty and creative and so I grew up constantly making things with them – but it’s easy to let those things slip when things like school, work, and relationships take priority in your life. So my goal for this year is to make or do something creative each week. It can be anything from knitting or sewing to sketching or writing to DIYing something for my apartment. Basically, I just want to set aside a little time in each busy week to be creative and invest time in things I enjoy doing. So far, I haven’t really been documenting my progress in this, but I’d like to start so that by the end of the year, I can look back and feel satisfied with how I’ve spent my free time.

Living a creative life

The other day, I read this article by Bruce Nussbaum from Fast Company on living a creative life. This really hits home with me because I know that no matter what career I end up with, I want to be doing something where I can be creative each and every day. Nussbaum writes, “Creativity is in such demand today that when we apply for jobs, when we join organizations, or when we just meet other people, we are asked to present our creative selves. But we can’t do that unless we understand the nature of our own creativity, locate the sources of our originality, and have a language that explains our work. If you are one of the growing number of ‘creatives,’ or want to become one, you need to lead a creative life.”

The first step to living a creative life, according to Nussbaum, is to be mindful and disconnect. He writes, “Our time is spent responding, reacting to others or absorbing, taking in new information. But we often lack the space, the time, the moment to integrate that knowledge, connect those dots, generate that creativity. Slowing down and disconnecting provides that space. That’s why showers or lingering over that cup of coffee before starting off to work are good places to start your creative life.”

The second step is to understand and delve into the past: “Being mindful of the roots of your knowledge domain, your industry, your creative space can bring greater understanding–and more success–to your own creative efforts.” The third step is to be masterful of both knowledge and skills.

In a commencement address to the University of the Arts, Neil Gaiman gives these bits of advice to the graduating class:

• Say no to projects that take you further away from your creative goals
• Approach your creative labor with joy or else it becomes work
• Don’t be afraid of being wrong
• “Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.”

I also love this manifesto on living a creative life. All good stuff that I’m filing away so that I continue to be reminded of it and reflect on my own creative life.

There is art all around us

While I’m not a huge movie buff, I was really impressed by two recent films for no other reason than their creative opening credits. Credits are almost always pretty boring, accompanied only by some music, but I thought the intros into Skyfall and Breaking Dawn were visually captivating and dramatic, especially when viewed on a large theater screen (not the poor quality Youtube videos I had to find to supplement this post). I love the use of color and interesting detail shots – just a reminder that art and inspiration can be found everywhere.

Brand thinking: Interaction and building community

I’ve already talked about the importance of user generated content, but the companies that I think are cultivating it the best are brands like Free People and Ruche who are interacting with their customers and building a community around their brand. Free People just launched a social community called FP Me where people can become “stylists,” creating collections out of Free People items, post pictures of themselves wearing Free People’s clothing, and connect with others. Ruche invites fashion and lifestyle bloggers to submit posts to be published on their blog. Both brands tap into the immense fashion blogging community to create interaction with their brand. I believe this sort of involvement is what all brands should be striving to create with their customers.

Facebook’s Graph Search

A few years ago, Facebook was THE social media. Now, it’s sharing the spotlight with Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. I, for one, only check Facebook after I’ve already exhausted my Instagram and Pinterest feeds or when I’m looking for specific information about someone. With Facebook’s new graph search feature, they’re looking to capitalize on the latter by offering a new way to search for information. Users will be able to search for old photos, friends from a specific area, and people based on their interests. It will also allow users to find the restaurants, movies, TV shows, and music that their friends like. This means that it is more important than ever that brands have a social media presence, specifically on Facebook, and it adds value to being “liked.”

Clara Shih, of Adage, says, “Facebook business strategies going foward will need to include mechanisms to ensure that company pages contain accurate, high quality, and engaging content to not only build, but also maintain fan bases. Subscriptions, likes, and check-ins all count as implicit recommendations, and there is a risk that users will remove their connections (likes/check-ins/subscriptions) to brands that they do not want to be recommending.”

Thoughts on the second screen

It’s no surprise that smart phone users are attached to their devices. Our phones are the first thing we look at in the morning, always within arm’s reach throughout the day, and the last thing we touch before going to sleep at night. So it makes sense that brands and advertisers should try to follow their audience to this second screen. However, banner and pop-up ads placed throughout apps are much more irritating than effective. Social media, on the other hand, as proved by Oreo’s now-infamous tweet during the Superbowl, is a promising method for brands to take advantage of this second screen mentality. I think that the one thing brands should be aware of is that anything done poorly gets old really fast – so jumping on the real time marketing bandwagon without actually having anything to say is just going to add to the noise.

The Barbarian Group says, “It isn’t appropriate for every pop culture moment to be responded to by a brand. For example, a cleaning supply company shouldn’t just respond to the Oscars next Sunday because it’s timely, it should choose which things to respond to because it makes sense. Expect to see more awkward reaction posts from brands throughout the year as they try to sort out what their appropriate filter is. ”

Adweek talks about the importance of smart phones in our lives and how advertisers need to address that: “Coming up with ads that take advantage of the smaller mobile screen requires innovation from many parties—advertisers, digital publishers such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook that sell ad space, and mobile ad networks.”

Fast Company did an article on apps that are shaping social TV here.

Photo source

Social Media at NYFW

Photo credit: IFB

I already talked about the Vine app here, but during New York Fashion Week, it was put to (and passed) the test. Vine took sharing content from fashion shows to the next level and became the go-to social media tool of designers, models, and fashionistas alike. According to the Barbarian Group, “Whether Vine will become as popular as Instagram and Pinterest isn’t certain, but this year, the timing for Vine’s debut made it a perfect platform for Fashion Week.”

I, for one, enjoyed seeing the vines some of my favorite fashion bloggers from runway shows and behind the scenes. These six second video clips capture much more of the experience than Twitter or Instagram.

John Jannuzzi, a contributing editor to Lucky magazine, said in a post on IFB, “Vine gives fashion people another way to share what they’re seeing. Obviously, it gives an entirely different dimension than an instagram or a twitpic. Showing clothes in motion, getting a full view of a finale, and capturing a full look as opposed to a single shot is much more interesting.”

Annabelle Smith of Digital Brand Architects says, “Vine’s success could be attributed to its ability to capture the waning attention spans of millennials, offering super-short clips that are more entertaining than a tweet but still easy to absorb and browsable…The stop-start nature of the app makes it possible to showcase an entire fashion show atmosphere or hone in on intricate design details – all in a matter of seconds.”

Although I haven’t quite mastered the art of Vine myself, I think this new social media trend could be around for a while. Check out ten great fashion week vines here.