ThoughtSpurs

Found this little ditty on the web. An interesting excercise to illustrate the way that prior experience - what you know you know - actually retards to creative process. The clip is 9 minutes long.

…it's voting. Can't remember who I'm quoting, but it doesn't matter This weekend has been instructive. Bumped into a chap who once rented space from me when I ran a company with the late Paul Jeffreys (I've talked about ths great, lunk before). It was immediately after Tony graduated from the design school at AUT (then ATI). We briefly spoke about Idealog. He suggested he'd have done a better job of designing the mag. Probably… Then I got a letter from a reader who was disappointed in what we had delivered with issue one. Really disappointed. I genuinely appreciated her feedback. In my reply I made the point that every issue is a prototype for the next. But there is something else that is important. We're not a magazine. Conundrum? Perhaps. Creativity has two parts. The first is concept - the idea. The second is execution. Both are crucial to success. Nature and nurture. Much of the feedback we have received has been about the execution. Bear i...

The holidays are over. In the next few days I have more to do than I care to think about. Starting with writing a couple of book reviews for Idealog magazine. Sisomo by Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi's sequel to Lovemarks and All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin - the bald guy who made us aware of permission marketing. I wanted to like the Roberts book. It has a nice feel to it. Design director Derek Lockwood and his team have made a go of padding the presentation into a book. Unfortunately the result, to borrow from Samuel Johnson leaves me with 'much to admire and little to enjoy. The thesis is sketchy: That the screen has become the predominant for of communication (in all its myriad forms - from TV to telephone). Hard to argue with that. My friend Steve Garton conducted a major research project in Asia that showed youth in Asia consume a marginal amount of media - single digit percents -from the printed page (can't confirm the stat at this point, but I'l...

Who ever invented New Year's Eve should be shot. Actually after New Year's Eve I felt that someone should shoot me. I have resolved to drink less this year. Shares in vineyards will plummet. The consequence should also be some weight loss. Having turned 43 it's a slippery slope if I don't tilt the landscape back in my favour. Other resolutions: 1. Finish my book 2. Start the next one 3. Fix the things I don't like about Idealog Magazine 4. Move out of Auckland city 5. Swim more 6. Get a motorcycle - tour the South Island That should do for now. Happy New Year to you.