Archive for January, 2009
trendspotting will destroy your heart
21 Jan, 2009 • posts i've written • 4 comments
I’m at a conference in Florida right now. Generally, I’m not blown away. And I do so enjoy being blown away.
A specific session has left a disgusted look on my face now for 24 full hours. A very seasoned, very well trained former Creative Director and now head of all IP at a global brand got up and told us that trends are dead. In fact, no new ideas exist. Ok. Thank you for that thirty second tidbit. At this point, he should have walked off-stage.
But he wasn’t finished with us. This chap spewed vitriol over the erosion of his art, he maligned all of these people “that go to community college and learn how to use Photoshop.” He spoke with a general malaise over the lack of new ideas; everything was mid-century modern repeated to him. Of course, as all Creative Directors do, he swooned over architecture (“the only field that is creating new ideas”). He said design is not a craft, and he pretty much said D.I.Y. is best left to moms at Michael’s. He told an anecdote of painfully watching a couple trying to match paint in the hardware store to their sofa cushion and photos from magazines (when they should be consulting with a colorist). He gave lip service to recombinance, noting some was great but most was the work of obvious amateurs. Of course, he thought Louis Vuitton was cutting edge. He said Project Runway proved there’s no talent left. He said that he no longer finds traveling and staying in hotels as enjoyable as he once did, and that his trips to Tokyo were even leaving him wanting. He said he was bored. He said the inmates are running the asylum. He was scared. And the worst part, he wasn’t even charismatic in his cynicism. (something I strive for)
He built his career on traveling around the world trying to spot emerging trends. He has spent his life feeding on the creativity of others and ripping them off. His fiefdom is falling and his castle is crumbling. Rejoice.
We live in a world surrounded by beautiful and accessible design. We live in a world where creativity and ideas ricochet between us faster than we can even fathom. We live in the most fascinating world that’s ever been, and you say you’re bored. I truly pity you.
the cultural literacy of the digital remix
15 Jan, 2009 • posts i've written • 7 comments
Without an advanced literacy, T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land seems incredibly esoteric. You can still enjoy how Eliot strings words together, but you will not catch on to his downright brilliant thievery without years of study.
Like Eliot, Girl Talk remixes the work of his predecessors to create something new. But he does so within the digital world; and this world operates on one crucial principle. Everything can be connected.
Culture has always been recombinant; but now we’ve created a medium in which that recombinance can be transparent. We can splay open a piece of art or idea and follow its relationship to what came before. This new adaptation is challenging our notions of originality: in thought, creation, and even translation. But it’s also allowing us to create incredibly complex things that are simultaneously more accessible to explore. We’re enabling cultural literacy.
This was just a quick thought I wanted to share.
the value of music
14 Jan, 2009 • posts i've written • No comments
I want to write for your blog. Gratis. But you have to give me a great question or profound thought to ponder. Like Tom Williams did. Tom runs Hit Singularity where he writes about the intersection of music, business, and technology. Tom asked me to contemplate the value and price of music today.
The industry loves to blame the digital format and piracy for the erosion of their business. And as long as they do, they’ll continue to go the way of the dinosaur – and good riddance. Simply put, music is less culturally relevant today than it was in the 1950’s. Bob Dylan won’t be reincarnated. That popularity with that cultural message doesn’t happen anymore. Why? Well, for one, the industry today doesn’t think like John Hammond did. They aren’t looking for Dylans. Moreover, today’s mainstream is an emaciated corpse of its former self. Our interests and musical genres themselves have splintered. The industry saw demand slipping so they raised the cost of the concert ticket. They hope to sell the song for nothing so you’ll hear the band and want to pay the $50 to see them live. They practically asked for their own irrelevance.
Read the full post here.
