Entries Tagged as General
19 December 2011
Discomfort is the New Comfort Zone
Tom Friedman of the New York Times writes eloquently about the effects of globalization and technology on governments and companies. In his excellent Sunday Op-Ed, titled, “Help Wanted,” he talks about today’s era as one of the “great unravelings,” on par with the periods after the two World Wars, when countries, even continents, were being reborn amidst uncertainty.
Though he is speaking of the current, bottom-up rise in power of connected individuals to topple dictators and change previously immutable governments, he notes that this same bottom-up movement is also enabling individuals to shape their careers out of the traditional mold. And businesses that once pushed products and services on their own terms, now engage in a two-way dialogue, as the power has shifted to the individual consumer.
As a Baby Boomer, I’m accustomed to change being on the menu every morning when I get to work. I interact daily with a client mix of other Boomers, Gen X’rs and now Millennials, the first generation to come of age in this century. One of the reasons some Boomers I see are struggling to find a comfort zone is a lack of recognition that discomfort is the new comfort zone.
I was at a party recently for a rising technology startup and met a young man who had recently graduated as a creative writing major from a liberal arts college. I asked him how he landed in a job and at a company so unrelated to his major.
“The best two things I learned in school had nothing to do with creative writing,” he said. “I learned how to ask the right questions and I can learn software pretty fast.” I nodded my head. “Oh, and I like change,” he added.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 9:00 AM | 1 Comment
06 October 2011
Steve Jobs and John Lennon
I called my wife after leaving an after-work event to ask her to boil some water for the pasta. “I can’t believe… Steve Jobs,” she said in the middle of my request, having heard nothing.
The last time I felt like this was the day my best friend called to tell me John Lennon had been shot. We were living in New York then, just out of college. Lennon was a founding member of the soundtrack of my life, and was always a part of my world, even as his star had faded some. The next morning, in a silent vigil with over 100,000 people in Central Park, I shared the emptiness of not having his presence in the world, the only sound being the news helicopters circling overhead.
My feeling for Steve Jobs may be a bit less personal than it was for John Lennon, but I hold him in as much awe, respect and admiration. Maybe more. When I reflect on how one individual changed the world — across generations and cultures— in so many profound ways, I almost can’t wrap my mind around it. So much has been and will be written about Steve Jobs, which isn’t really my goal here. It’s just a bittersweet moment to reflect on human greatness and mortality. Both men died too young, both live on.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 7:43 PM | 13 Comments
26 August 2011
Steve Jobs' Best Quotes
In honor of the revolutionary and now former Apple CEO, the Wall Street Journal has put together a list of Steve Jobs' best quotes.
Here are some of our favorites…
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the time to do that.”
“That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone.” (Feb., 1985)
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.”
“When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
For a complete list, check out the WSJ article.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 11:17 AM | No Comments
28 April 2011
Five Characteristics to Seek When Choosing an Agency
There are tons of "5 Best Reasons…" blogposts about what to look for when hiring an agency, so I'm going to try not to do the done thing. When I think about what makes a firm worthy, I think the issue of character is often sublimated in favor of what an agency does, what name brand clients they have, how slick their portfolio looks or maybe how embedded they are in social media. The characteristics that lead to great work and strong relationships are, in no particular order, Awareness, Curiosity, Empathy, Humor and Objectivity.
Awareness: I had the good fortune to attend a fantastic art college called Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, CA. It was in some ways like a Boot Camp for artists. We had a class called "Head Drawing," in which we spent we spent six hours every Tuesday sitting on butt-numbing stools and sketching the heads of live models, or manikins displaying bones and muscles. My classmates were some of the best young artists in the country and while their talent seemed to grow, I became increasingly despondent about my own work, which wasn't getting better fast enough. My instructor told me bluntly that I was lacking awareness; I wasn't "seeing" what was in front of me. This went on for months. One day, I noticed something I'd never seen before, that the model's eyelid was casting a shadow over her eye, so I drew it. And with that seemingly tiny revelation, my drawing came alive. I felt my heart start to race — I could see!
It takes an open and active mind with the ability to see the big picture yet focus on details and filter out noise, to maintain a keen awareness of the world that can be tapped at any time for creative ideas and strategic insight.
Curiosity: I think that in most cases it's not critical for an agency to have deep experience in their client's field. Sure, it's more comfortable and appears safer to choose the firm that's done umpteen versions of what you will hire them to do, but that doesn't always translate into the most inspired result. Assuming the agency demonstrates intelligence, interest and motivation, the possibilities for excellence often open up when taking the less predictable path.
Most, or at least many agencies are made up of individuals who chose the agency path because the challenge and satisfaction in working with clients in a variety of industries is the opportunity to learn about interesting worlds vastly different or occasionally similar to our own. The challenge of mastering something new and bringing it to life is what keeps creative people fresh, and it starts with being genuinely curious about the world.
Empathy: Chemistry is often cited as a key reason a client chooses one agency over another. "We just clicked," you might have heard someone say, or "I just feel they 'got it.'" There are many possible reasons for that click; maybe relevant past experience, a positive recommendation from a trusted source, a shared sense of humor or great quality work. Underlying it all, you'll often find empathy, that feeling that an agency actually cares about your business, and maybe identifies from personal experience the hoops you have to jump through to do your job, and generally makes you feel like they're a trusted partner.
Humor: Humor and I have traveled an interesting path together. Growing up in a house with a father who had a rapier wit kept me on my toes if for nothing else than to avoid becoming the foil for his sometimes cutting edge. While my sense of humor grew from a defensive posture, it has over time grown into my greatest ally and usually leads me along the path toward not taking situations or myself too seriously.
As the owner of an agency, I find that having a sense of humor always puts clients at ease and brings a human dimension and calm that often diffuses the pressure we're all under. We've had quite a few clients tell us that our projects together are the fun part of their job. That's how it should be when you're collaborating to create something new. Look for the agency that will not only do the best work but will make the process enjoyable.
Objectivity: The most challenging and sometimes frustrating projects are often the ones you do for yourself. The most painful creative assignment I ever had was designing the RainCastle logo. While it looks simple, the amount of crap I generated before I saw the image in a dream — no kidding — almost cured me of my love of design. Creating our own website has also been at times contentious. Even though we're a firm that client's seek for our objectivity, we'll consult an educated outsider to validate or challenge our assumptions on tone and content.
Similarly, when choosing an agency, you need to feel certain that you can trust their objectivity and intelligence, that they can see the forest through the trees, and bring insight that will cut through the clutter that happens when you are to close to something. That kind of objectivity can be found in an agency that is grounded in business and strategy as well as creative and technology.
As I write this, I realize that there are a number of other important characteristics. Lest this become a novel, I'll save them for another post. I'd love to hear what characteristics you believe are key and/or anecdotes about your own experiences in choosing an agency partner.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 12:51 PM | No Comments
25 April 2011
Smart Phone Sociology
“The Really Smart Phone” is the title of a really interesting article by Robert Lee Hotz, in the Saturday (4/22/11) issue of the Wall Street Journal, .
The article goes deeper than the discussion of privacy issues we’re all reading about. Evidence is mounting through work being done at MIT and other places that the behavioral data derived from smart phones constitute a vast sociological map from which things like stock market trends, voting patterns and consumer trends, not to mention our personal behaviors can be predicted. The ramifications are not all clear, but this article is the ten thousand foot view, and worth a read.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 9:00 AM | No Comments
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