Menacing Plagues

"Advertising helps to keep the masses dissatisfied with their mode of life, discontented with ugly things around them," reported an advertising trade journal in the late forties. "Satisfied customers are not as profitable as discontented ones." (Heller)

I find it amazing that in the late forties advertisers realized that insecurity-marketing would prevail. By turning body odor, bad breath and acne into plague like issues, they convinced the masses that it was imperative to deal with these common nuisances.

This is still the case over sixty years later and it seems like things are getting worse. In addition to hygiene, we all must have expensive clothes, clear skin, a perfect body and of course the latest in electronics. I realize that technology has significantly advanced my field and I am very grateful that I am not using tech pens and illustration boards, but at the same time I, along with my parents generation, wonder if technology is taking things in the wrong direction. We now have to be insecure about having the right phone, computer and tablet, not to mention maintaining cars and houses.

The costs are adding up and sometimes I think I would have preferred to have been born 50 years earlier when there weren't so many things to buy to keep up with the Joneses.

Missing the Movement

For the past month I have been hearing a lot about the Occupy WallStreet movement online, especially through social media. I didn't realize that the idea was first brought up by Adbusters mid-July or that it was gaining such momentum until I looked into it further this weekend.

The Occupy Wall Street website states that, "Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."

One of the most recent speakers was Slavoj Zizek, he spoke about North America's lack of dreaming, the issues with the system and the need for patience. Below I have summarized what I found most interesting from his visit.

In China the government prohibited all stories that contain alternate reality or time travel, this shows that citizens still dream about alternatives and that there is a need for prohibition. In the United States there is no need to prohibit such things as the ruling system has suppressed the capacity to dream. It seems that we have all the freedoms we want but are missing the language to articulate the extent of the current non-freedom.

The biggest threat to the movement is that when everyone goes back to normal life there will be no changes. That down the road, protesters will meet up yearly to remember the nice time they had, not the changes they have experienced.

It is imperative to think about alternatives, we know we are not living in the best possible world, but after understanding what we don't want, we need to figure out what we do want. One of Zizek's final points was that people often desire something but do not really want it. Citizens need to really want what they desire to make a significant change.

"We don't want higher standards of living. We want better standards of living."

Amateur

Today at an interview I was told I was going to continue being an amateur until I was paid for the work I was doing. The interviewer did not mean it in a mean, "you are such an amateur" way, but more in a, "you should be getting paid" sort of manner. While I agree, I love the work I have been able to do as an intern, making it all worthwhile to me.

I bring all of this up because of an article I came across today. In simple terms Karen Howe, of Due North Communications, gives advice on how to get hired for the first time. Below are some excerpts from the article that I found especially pertinent.

Advertising is one tough business. Anyone who’s survived it has the scars to prove it. The only thing tougher is breaking into it.

Let’s start with your work. It has to be spectacular. You need to rise above this year’s flood of graduates. Once you land somewhere that trajectory needs to continue.

If you are a writer, show copy.

If you’re an art director, know more fonts than Helvetica.

Have range.

Attack on all fronts, the phone is not enough. In emails, be charming, brief and professional.

If you can’t get in to see the CD, interview with anyone who is willing to spare you the time. It gives you experience interviewing. It gives you feedback on your work. And it just might give you a back door into the place.

You hooked an interview. Now what? Confirm your appointment the day before, then show up on time.

What I took away from the article was to be persistent and organized. Working hard and meeting with as many people possible is bound to lead to a great junior job.

Smiley Face

While reading my Twitter feed today I came across this; "AUTHORS. Finish every sentence of your book with either a sad or happy face, to give younger readers an indication of mood." While it came from a comical author, it is fairly ironic. Younger generations have altered the English language with the addition of emoticons and acronyms.

I admit I use "lol" quite a bit while texting and I'm generally not laughing out loud. When I go back and think about how my language has changed with newer forms of media, I am disappointed. It should not be necessary to use emoticons to convey my feelings, or act as if everything makes me laugh. To me, these things seem insincere, I would much rather sit and talk with friends in person and see their true reactions than have them type it to me.

The Owl Blog

After finding out that I had a mild obsession with owls, my old classmates would often send me pictures and links they thought I would like. The best thing I ever received was a link to My Owl Barn, a blog with daily posts all related to owls.

I have seen a lot of tutorials and handmade owls on the blog and decided that I should submit my own owl project. I originally created my owl for an illustration project, but after getting a positive response from the writer of My Owl Barn, I decided to make a tutorial on how to make your own owl. I submitted my work a couple days ago and got the OK, keep yours eyes out for my owl!

Work and Webinar

Today I attended RGD's Through the Looking Glass Webinar with Michael Deal geared towards design students. While I'm not technically a student anymore, it was still very relevant. Deal spoke mainly about his career path and how he ended up creating his more famous work.

I was told many times that I would need to do something different to land an awesome job, I would need to somehow stand out against all of the other applicants. Michael Deal took that advice to heart and came up with a couple of really awesome solutions.

His first solution (which unfortunately I could not find an image of) was inspired by the work of one of his favourite studio's (Alphabet Arm Design). Deal took a number of their logos and used them to create a message asking the recipient to view his resume. By maintaining the colour and style of the logos, he was able to change the words inside, creating a unique cover letter for his resume.

The second time Deal approached the job hunt he was applying to be a designer for Zoo York. To make himself stand out he created a few t-shirt illustrations for the brand. This clearly demonstrated his interest in the position and helped him secure a freelance position.

The third story Michael Deal told about finding a job was a time when someone else came to him looking to hire him. When Deal graduated he had partially completed an infographic titled Charting the Beetles. After working on the project further he posted it on his website, this attracted clients and resulted in his project for Umbro.

At the end of the webinar the host asked a couple typical questions; "What do you wish you knew as a student?", and even more relevant, "What advice do you have for recent graduates?" At first he didn't know what to say, hoping to come up with something more original. Eventually he decided to pass on the advice that worked for him, do something unique and make yourself stand out. Deal spoke about how while he was working on these solutions he worried that he was putting too many eggs in one basket, he quickly came to the conclusion that it really does work. Putting as much effort as possible into an application can really make you stand out.

Check out his website or his blog for visuals.

Burning Questions

My last post was almost a month ago, but I'm still thinking about the same thing, a talk the RGD put on at the Design Exchange in Toronto about the future of book publication.

On the day of the event I arrived with many others to an already full room. More chairs were put out by the excellent staff and the event got on it's way. After rummaging through my purse for almost five minutes, I finally found my pen and notebook and began to furiously write things down. Throughout the talk I felt like I was nodding to everything that was said; yes the music industry did go through this, yes this could lead to wild add ons and yes, we don't know what will actually happen. I was surprised when one of the speakers noted that she expected significant change in six months, she thought that in six months we could better predict where the future of books was going. Before going to the talk I didn't realize that things were changing so rapidly, I did buy a tablet, but I thought I was the minority, not the majority.

During the talk I noted a lot of other things. For your reading pleasure and to help refresh myself, here is what I found more interesting at the RGD's Book: Burning Questions. (Don't mind the length, I just enjoyed almost everything that was said.)

• digital sales account for 27%

• can compare to the changes in music, but music was only one sense

(sound), books have more, need a visual to accompany the book

• new ideas for books: book trailers, incorporate videos into books

• books could become more of a premium product and design will

go up OR books could become extremely inexpensive and design

would go down

• Is this a cultural shift? Will it change the way authors write?

Kindles are similar, but iPad doesn't maintain the classic feel,

physical books give readers more control (forward and back)

• vooks: video book, can't be a long format with video, too much

going on at once

• books can be added to with separate elements, but incorporating

video into the book really changed the book

• e-books can eliminate editors and publishers, everyone can publish

• designers used to choose paper, margins, fonts, now with e-books

we have lost the ability to control how people see the book

• designing e-books will be like designing websites, have to make

them work on a number of devices

• users are gaining control over designers in how they view the book,

can change font and font size

• people steal music, now they could start to steal books, creates an issue

• Will younger people be more engaged with e-books than regular books?

• books used to be a snapshot in time, published one a certain date, books

will now be refresh-able

• art books may become more cherished, luxury item

• publishers are slowly starting to think more about the format

(book or e-book)

• real books may become more limited, smaller runs in addition to e-books

• after a good book you miss the characters like you would a good friend,

e-readers don't affect this

• "the train is already moving", "it is what it is", it's too late to stop e-readers

now, might as well go with it, make the best of it

• with book covers you have to appeal to so many tastes, each level of

approval presents a sort of gate keeper

• buyers have a challenging time, they need to continue to sell books to

survive in the market

• tragic that independent booksellers will go by the wayside

• for cover design we often get advice that has nothing to back us up,

no tools, no stats

• people have been liberated to self publish, many have a hard time selling,

they are missing the editor, editor has a very important role, they are much

more than proofreaders

• people still need editors and publishers even if they are creating e-books

• buying books online is so different than in a book store, online, books need

to be easily searchable, in person, people may just pick a book up because

it looks cool

• people will no longer be recommended books by bookstore employees,

similar to how record store employees knew regulars' taste and

made recommendations

• book publishing has been very slow to change over the last 100 years,

now things are changing every five minutes

• online people don't scroll, they don't notice pretty covers, they often

use "what others bought" section to decide

• for online, now they are starting to consider designing two covers, one for

in person and one optimized for online (preview thumbnail)

• a networked book may be created (see who is referencing the book,

what are people saying, how do they feel about it) to oppose the

traditional book

• books are currently a private experience, you dive in and use it to get away

• people will become more public with their opinions about books,

Tweeting and Facebooking as they read

• new choose your own ending may have a resurgence, Would authors

become more involved in creating additional elements? Will they

help with the design process? e-books make more sense with non-fiction

don't want to move to the Hollywood scenario with books

• Will content and design become more intertwined? co-production

• designers will have to help authors choose whether to do an e-book

or a physical book or both

• press jobs are now being traded for digital jobs, more designers,

less tradespeople

• people want designers to become technologists, but that is not our role

• when web first started designers did it all, now there are web designers

and book designers, soon there will be print designers and digital print

designers, there will also be hybrids

• Trends: fewer hardcovers, books will be more precious and expensive

(rather than cheap and digital ideally), books will now compete with

candles and home décor along with e-readers (Chapters, Indigo),

designers will have to create a reason for consumers to buy both,

digital vs. printed will need added features unique to each media

• hard to say what will be available a year from now for e-books,

will move past the cover

• music, now they have more niche bands that are very popular

but not top 40, Will this happen to authors?

• self-publishers will have a hard time with marketing, how will

they get their books in the hands of vendors

• e-readers will create interesting new hybrid careers

• Does pushing technology devalue the content? people put less

value on individual books because they they had to buy expensive

technology to get these products

• the cheaper the book becomes, the less perceived value

• open-source vs. copywrited books

• if you don't pay for content, there will be no content (quality content)

• in the beginning designers had to learn how to talk to typesetters, now

they have to learn to talk to coders

• print per order, printing only when a book is ordered will help publishers

save money (print on demand)

• Could adding characters on Facebook add more depth to characters?

• Technology will add more dimension, but will it create more revenue?

the internet is free, we don't want to pay for online

• the author's job is to manipulate the readers imagination, Will these added

features create a more true form or will it ruin things? Do we even need

added features for books?

• book vs. book movie, I don't like being told how to imagine the book, ruins

the book for me

• added features will only enhance certain types of books

• the experimentation phase may be very cheesy and distracting

• authors will write differently when they know they have added features

I hope you enjoyed these notes as much as I enjoyed the event.