Synergy Creative

Blender's Eyewear Schools Budding Entreprenuers at AICA-SD

Ace of Shades Blake Jensen and his business partner Chase Fischer started Blender's Eyewear just over a year ago. Last week they visited a new class I started teaching this quarter on design entrepreneurship at the Art Institute of California-San Diego. They wanted to explain the options, challenges and advantages of starting your own business right out of college. Here is part one - note: the video was an afterthought so if you can excuse the shaky camera work on my part, I think you will find it worth watching. For more information on where to buy the sun glasses or to see their inspiring work, visit their web site: Blenders Eyewear

Left to right: Chase Fischer, Francesca Zanuso (who helped set up the visit) and Blake Jensen

 

 

I couldn't resist getting into the picture, I think the shades look cool on me don't you?

BECOME A PRO PHOTOGRAPHER -- USING YOUR IPHONE

Richard Koci Hernandez celebrates the art of iPhoneography—how to shoot, enhance, and share photos with an Apple iPhone. The course covers an actual iPhone photo shoot and includes details on how to select and edit photos using a variety of iOS apps and how to interact with the vibrant iPhone photo community by sharing photos using the popular Instagram app.

BUILDING YOUR BRAND BY TELLING YOUR STORY

I shared this FREE book Believe Me Story Manifesto for Change-Makers and Innovators by Michael Margolis on how to build your brand's story with the students in my Corporate Communications class. I think it clearly explains through the voice of many very successful individuals including Barack Obama; how being a master storyteller can lead to immeasurable success for your brand and for you.

Here is a link to  Download BelieveMeStoryManifesto_ReadandShare

The author writes:" If you are trying to influence, persuade or convince others to believe your message, you need to read this book." Michael Margolis.

The best way I can describe what is meant by brand story is that is a "truth" that is created and later becomes true, because it is accepted and believed by the masses (or your target audience). In other words, when the public agrees with the brand story, it is considered true until someone or something disproves it.

Consider this quote by Seth Godin author: Tribes: We need You to Lead Us: " Great Stories agree with our world view. The best stories don't teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place."

I highlighted some of the material I thought explains the author's points but I am sure you will want to read the whole thing. You can visit his website for more resources at Get Storied.com

Here is a link to Download BelieveMeStoryManifesto_ReadandShare

Born Magazine - Adobe InDesign Gives Birth to Interactivity

I was really blown away by what can be done with the new interactivity tools in InDesign. I thought this magazine project is a great example because it uses all the Belles And Wissells (misspelled deliberately because it is the name of the Seattle based creative agency that produces Born Magazine) in a way that facilitates communication, as opposed to having objects flying around the page just for the fad of it. If you want to read about the project you can download the PDF here. Below are a couple of screenshots but that really doesn't do the project justice because you miss out on all the interactivity so I suggest you click here on the link to go to the project and see for yourself.

John Maeda Speaks In Detail About Simplicity

I recently posted an article about Tim Ferriss and his eye-opening book the Four Hour Work Week. I am in the middle of reading the book so I will reserve reviewing it until I finish but I do recommend that you click on this link and view his blog regarding the four hour work week.

In the same vein, I also came across this video by John Maeda on the subject of simplicity, he did a talk at the TED conference and he wrote a free book that he discusses in the video. The book ws fone a couple of years ago but it tiesin with his theories presented in the video. In my opinion, it actually proves that we humans are obsessed with complexity rather than simplicity, but it is both entertaining and informative and I recommend watching below.

Paola Antonelli Treats Design as Art

Here is a talk by Paola Antonelli, design curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, who wants to spread her appreciation of design — in all shapes and forms — around the world.

So You Think You Want To Be An Illustrator?

If so, here is the scoop from a very successful Illustrator Yuko Shimizu who rocks the Magazine, Newspaper, Album Covers, Book Jackets and of course Comic Book Illustration world. In this video she covers her education, work, and how she got started in illustration. She tells interesting stories about various projects she’s worked on. She is very humble and makes a good case for starting a career later in life. (She didn't start when she was  20). Her first job was in marketing and she said when noticed that the people around her that had been in the field for many years didn't look happy. She also makes a case for the idea that you shouldn't be worried if your work isn't brilliant first time out. The video is a little over an hour but very much worth your time. She  is optimistic about the future of magazines and other "tangible" forms of journalism.

BONUS she is a fellow alumni of School of Visual Arts and she is very entertaining to listen to - kinda like the Saturday Night Live Asian lady in a very charming and endearing way!

Scroll down a bit for the video and if you want to see more here is a link to her work on her blog.

Book Review of Outliers - a must-read for success

I came across a blog post by Michael Johnson and could not pass up reposting it. It reviews the latest book by Malcom Gladwell best selling author of "Blink" and "The Tipping Point". It supports the point that "genius isn’t necessarily born, but cultivated by circumstance, luck and good old-fashioned hard graft..." He sites the careers of Bill Gates, the Beatles, Wolff and Olins and others to compare the qualities that successful people have in common.

But the thing I found most interesting is that he recognizes that in this fast paced - gotta have it now world - Graphic Designers emerging from art schools will find the point that it may take 10,000 hours before they start producing notworthy work hard to swallow.  I can attest to this because I teach young emerging graphic designers. Here is the link: 10,000 hours of graphic design? - the johnson banks thought for the week.

How to Custom Design Wordmarks

This week in Corporate Communications we are going to focus on on original wordmark design. In order to explain the process I use, I am showing some examples of my own work and some of the inspiration resources I use. Later this week I posted the entire process in the "Classroom" section of this blog. Below are some examples of my custom wordmark work:

Personal identity for collegue Richard Ybarra

Shag Baby: identity for clothing line

 

Preliminary Design for Creative Posse

For more of my lettering work click here.

 

And now some of the images I photographed for inspiration while in New Orleans. New Orleans is one of few older cities that have made efforts to preserve their buildings and architectural heritage, including the wonderful signage. So for two years I have going there to photograph the signs of New Orleans.

Here is an example of the type of images I shoot for reference. To see more Download Images_no.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did Twitter's Touchpoint Video Hit the Mark?

When tweeting about a free jewelry giveaway that I am running for Valentine's Day on Etsy I noticed that Twitter was featuring a video on their homepage about the new features coming soon!

Since we have been discussing "brand touchpoints" in my Corporate Communications class, I decided to post the video for my students to comment on. Let's see what they and you think about how effectively this video connects with the target audience.

Questions: What message was communicated and was it communicted clearly and convincingly? What did we learn here that we didn't know before about Twitter? How would you rate the video on a scale of one to ten?