Category Archives: creativity

Smoke screens?

We intend to achieve world-class process efficiency by implementing a systematic and quality-related improvement of processes and cost-efficiency in our production, sales and administration. We thereby hope to secure long-term competitiveness and generate strong cash flows that can be used for profitable growth.

This is a real-life statement from a high executive. Is there a hidden agenda?
Or is it merely a creative formulation of no other plan than sacking people?

FORM Magazines

Clever usage of Mag+

I have had the privilege of supervising two clever students on a thesis for the Bachelor Degree in Graphic Arts Technology at the Dalarna University. The pair of them, Kim Carlos Rehn and Agnes Forsell have addressed the topic Advertising in digital magazines: Placement and design of ads in iPad magazines. They made a video of how they transfered some of the print content of the Swedish FORM Magazine to the Mag+ format. Watch the video and enjoy!

FORM – Digital magazine prototype from Kim Carlos Rehn on Vimeo.

No more bowling…

Ninni Lindertz, Senior Marketing Strategist at Facebook Nordic, gave an inspirational talk at the “Guldägget inspirerar” event. Ninni put forward bowling as an example of how marketing used to be done. Taking a full-size bowling ball and trying to strike down as many pins as possible in one go. In a world of Social Media, bowling is not a preferred strategy. She mentioned Nike’s Write the future ad that first appeared on their Facebook page. Not being the official sponsor, one might still say that Nike won the branding championship. According to Business Week, Nike’s chief marketing officer Davide Grasso has stated that Facebook “is the equivalent for us to what TV was for marketers back in the 1960s.” The takeaway is that marketers should no longer try bowling, but going social by design. A working metaphor would be to play the pinball game.

För svenska läsare finns Ninnis presentation på Vimeo.

Being creative in She-left-you

Creative Summit is held in the North of Sweden where the nature is right on your doorstep and the midnight sun shines almost through the night. During two days in June, great minds from all over the world will gather to share, talk and think about how the communication industry will evolve in the future.

This will be the fifth Creative Summit and my plans are that it will be my first.

Will I be seeing you there?

Cityscape

Urbanized – an amazing story

Over half the world’s population now lives in an urban area, and 75% will call a city home by 2050. But not all cities are experiencing growth, some are actually shrinking.
Urbanized is a fascinating documentary about cities, looking at strategies behind urban design of some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. The film opened my eyes to several urban design projects around the world.
Housing, public transport, public space, people’s engagement, economic development, and environmental policy are universal concerns. Yet many of us feel that decisions on these issues are made by an isolated elite.
I feel that we all should be able to take part in these plans so important for our future life.

Clay Shirky at the TED offices, January 2012

This is Important!

Clay Shirky explains the real problem with the SOPA/PIPA bill that the US Congress is about to make into a legislation that threatens to close down the Internet. At the TED offices, Shirky delivers a proper manifesto – a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.

It may seem that this is a US only problem, but it actually is directed against the Internet globally.
Please watch the whole video and act!

If you’re on an iOS gadget you may click this link to watch the video.

Experience…

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Randy Pausch told us so in his now super-famous Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams that has now had more than 14 million views on YouTube. This even exceeds the 12,5 million views of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

Please view Randy’s lecture – be prepared for a one hour plus amazing session.