Tweets that make a difference

13 Jan 2010
5 Responses

I’ll keep this short and sweet.

A couple of days ago I popped out the back door for a smoke, only to realise I’d left my Zippo lighter in my other jeans, which I’d just put in the wash. Panic striken, I ran to the washing machine and gazed mournfully at the soaked denim spinning around. It was gone, game over.

As is the case with anything slightly more remarkable than staring at a wall, I tweeted my anguish for all to ignore. Because that’s what you do.

Redswish:
Nooo! Just realised I’ve left my zippo in my jeans in the wash!

You can practically hear my cries of devastation, no?

Within a couple of hours, Zippo themselves, who I had no idea were even on Twitter, replied to me:

Zippo:
Remove cotton & wick. Let dry. Replace. Refuel. Good 2 go. RT @Redswish: Nooo! Just realised I’ve left my zippo in my jeans in the wash!

As it happens, I’d salvaged the sodden lighter from the wash and left it to dry on the radiator. A couple of hours later I slotted it all back together and to my astonishment it sparked up first time. This was before I’d noticed Zippo’s tweet.

This is, in my mind, a simple but powerful example of how a great product and great customer service go hand in hand. Zippo didn’t have to spot my tweet and reply, but doing so proved to me that the care about their customers. They’ve reached out to create a connection with me, not by trying to sell to me or bullshit me, but by being genuinely helpful. In doing so I now have more respect for them and am happy to act as an advocate for them.

It took Zippo maybe 20 seconds to see my tweet and reply, but in turn they put a smile on my face and impressed me so much that I’ve gone to the effort of throwing this article together. These little efforts can add up to a lot. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

If you care to, Zippo are here.

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On creativity

7 Jan 2010
One Response

An interesting, and rather long-winded question posed to Dave Trott on creativity caught my attention today. Dave, likely flabbergasted by such an exhausting query, posted it on his blog and allowed the world to share their views instead.

Amongst the ramble, several tricky and often avoided questions emerged:

Can you train your mind to be more creative and have better ideas?
Are there any exercises to develop creative thought processes?
Is creativity really ’99% perspiration and 1% inspiration’?
Is creativity a teachable/learn-able skill of coming up with good ideas consistently and on demand?

Some of the remarks in the comments section addressed these questions from several different viewpoints, all putting up very good arguments. I’ll look at a few excerpts shortly, but first I think it’s important to consider what creativity really is.

What is creativity?

I’ve always believed creativity to be far more than just ‘coming up with ideas’. Although this is often seen as a genuine starting point; the big bang, the light bulb, the ‘Eureka!’ moment – I’m sure there’s far more to it than that.

I believe creativity is an amalgamation of many traits that when honed, revised, expanded and fused together can create dramatic results.

Problem solving, empathy, social awareness, imagination, inspiration and taste, passion, logic, technical understanding, critical thinking, general knowledge, research and an open mind.

I feel that real creativity, the stuff stories are made of, requires fear, and the ability to overcome that fear.

That may be fear of failure, fear of competition, fear of loosing your job, fear of displeasing someone.

Taking all of this and much more into consideration; creativity’s a little more than ‘having good ideas’. In environments such as the ones we work in, it’s often the case that we’re required to solve a problem, sometimes without even realising it exists.

The big idea

We need to perform research, share thoughts and ideas with others, put pencil to paper and put ourselves in the position of those we’re designing or building for. Ideas may come and go, some may seem brilliant first but are later pulled apart either by ourselves or others. Perhaps there is never a ‘big idea’ moment but a bunch of smaller ideas can be fused together to form fantastic solutions.

On occasion, there is a ‘Eureka!’ moment. I’ve been in meetings with some fantastic creatives and have truly been blown away by some of the ideas that appear to have popped out of thin air. I’ve even felt jealous and angry at myself – “Dammit, why didn’t I think of that!” and in circumstances have been afraid of failing to come up with ideas, of failing to ‘do my job’.

This fear will only hold creativity back, but the desire to overcome this fear can motivate us to come up with even greater ideas.

Can creativity be taught?

Honestly, I don’t think it can. But it can be learned. I believe many of the various facets of creativity can be taught and trained, such as general knowledge, social awareness, problem solving etc. But the other elements are what I believe are generally considered as ‘creative traits’. The ability to honestly empathise, a keen imagination, passion for what you do and an open mind are qualities attributed to our personalities.

They are in some respects part of our nature, but also the product our of lives, the people we interact with and the media and literature we consume.

So in some respects they can be learned, but only if we choose to, and work hard at it.

So 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration? I don’t quite agree with that. I believe that a lot of work is involved and that ideas don’t simply appear from nowhere, but inspiration also plays a much larger role.

A few other thoughts

It’s worth noting that I’m still very young to this industry and in a few years, or even months, my views may change radically. That’s why I’d love to hear your thoughts.

However here are a few excerpts from comments on the original post that inspired the inspiration for this article:

“It’s the abstract connections in *your* brain that do the creativity bit. The more things you stuff inside your brain to connect to other stuff, the better your creative leaps. And no one but you can teach you that.”
Jonny

“In general terms, I would say creativity derives from curiosity.”
John W

“Having ideas shouldn’t be a problem. The real genius is in spotting them.”
Ben Kay

“Encourage fearlessness of being wrong. When it comes to being creative, some people can barely put pen to paper due to an innate fear of doing something ‘wrong’.”
Paul F

“The brain is lazy. It will also take the quickest route. Go the long way. Get lost. Try routes other people would take. You may find you really enjoy it. That’s when the ideas will start to happen.”
Deborah Khan

“Being creative to me is about seeing abstract patterns in human behaviour and identifying, absorbing and learning from them.”
Sunitha

“Creativity is nothing less than a mystery. It’s as profound and complex as life itself. So enigmatic, in fact, that the great artists themselves cannot agree on what it is. Still, the artists seem to fall into eight categories:

The tormented. The courageous. The lovers. The dreamers. The mad. The spiritual. The stumblers. And the juvenile.”
Per Robert Öhlin

What are your views on this? What do you think defines ‘creativity’? Is it something that can be taught, learned and trained, or is it a natural talent? Have your say below.

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I don’t understand Twitter

15 Dec 2009
One Response

Recently I’ve found myself having to explain, much in the manner of instructing a blind child how to play tennis, what Twitter is, how to use it and why it’s such a fantastically useful tool for online brands. Introducing new users to the service, whether they be clients, coworkers or friends has proved to be quite a challenge. “I don’t get it! I’m just supposed to talk about what I’m doing? Like washing the pots, what I had for breakfast, when I go for a poo?”

A brief history

For those of you, which is quite probably most of you, reading the post that use Twitter on a regular basis, this may have been your initial attitude as well. It certainly was mine 2 and a half years ago when I first toyed with the service. Back then I struggled to see it’s value. It wasn’t clear who I was supposed to follow, what I was expected to write and what real value was to be gained from it.

Fast forward 18 months to the end of 2008 and Twitter really started to sneak it’s way in to the public conscious. Radio presenters were discussing it, celebrities were expanding their reach across it, advocates such as Steven Fry and Jonathan Ross were coating Twitter with a layer of star appeal that began to draw the masses. Twitter began to grow at an exponential rate; in terms of usage at least. An indicative measure of Twitter’s success presented itself in November 2008 when Facebook offered to buy the service for $500million worth of FB stock, a serious, although slightly imaginary figure. They turned the offer down, believing bigger things were yet to come.

A year on Twitter’s userbase has continued to expand dramatically, although research is showing that a large portion of users are signing up and giving up before they’ve really made the effort. Hence a large majority of Twitter’s userbase is dominated by practically dormant or spam accounts. This doesn’t bother me though. Because there’s still a mass of inspiring, innovative and interesting individuals and companies out there taking full advantage of the benefits Twitter offers: the ability to connect and converse with a range of people you’d never normally get the chance to meet, provide support, insight and share experiences with a massive audience that can grow to care about what you have to say, and more importantly to learn from and listen to others.

Why it works

The key to Twitter’s success is grounded in the constant devotion to the original principle that the service is designed for people. Not to make money, not to intrusively advertise and infuse sneaky viral marketing campaigns. It is a simple concept made powerful by user-generated communities and content.

It’s addictive, easy and enjoyable to use, resourceful, accessible and provides a core functionality that people can explore, adapt and extend to their own needs and purposes – it’s this that attracts and commits people to Twitter. Abusing the trust and shared social understanding that makes Twitter what it is could potentially snowball out of control and ruin it, for everyone.

Everybody’s talking

If you own, or work for a company with or without online presence, there’s the probability that people are talking about you. The bigger you are, or the more remarkable you are, the more people will likely be talking about you. I hate to state the obvious but 10 years ago if someone had a bad, or great experience with your business, they may tell a few friends who may tell a few more friends. Now, they can write a blog article, mention you on Twitter or Facebook, publish photos to flickr or Posterous, even go to the effort of filming and publishing a video on Youtube discussing you, or your business. In only a few minutes we can now reach literally thousands of people. I’ve talked about this before many time, as have plenty of other bloggers so I want rave on, let’s quickly scamper back to the Twitter subject.

If you’re using social media to promote your brand, whether that be an organisation or just yourself, you may be getting wrapped up in the marketing bullshit – strategies, ROI, KPIs, monitoring analytics etc. If that gives you a kick then go for it, but if you’re like me, it tends to bore me to death. How about just using such services for the reason they were designed – social networking. That means dialogue, a 2-way conversation, as opposed to shouting your message at people. If that’s your style then go hire some TV advertising time, I hear that’s dirt cheap nowadays.

‘Social Media’ requires you to be just that – social. Twitter is an ideal platform for such activity. That’s one of the reasons I love it, it’s one of the reasons we persist in advocating it to new people. We see the benefits, we reap the benefits. But it’s very much a case of you get out what you put in.

Be real

We need to forget ‘commercial’ and consider ‘personal’, we’re turning old marketing principles and trends on their heads, they have no business here in this dynamic, always-connected, real-time personal webspace. Instead of tarnishing user’s experiences with intrusive advertising and ineffective, instantly forgotten viral campaigns, we need to encourage, enhance and develop meaningful experiences by approaching potential consumers on a more personal level.

Our lives are overloaded with information from every angle and it’s getting harder to filter the signals through the noise. By harnessing the power of simplicity presented by Twitter, we can make it our responsibility to clear the noise and speak directly to consumers, speak directly to friends. This can lead to trust, it can lead to loyalty, it can lead to a sustained interest, sometimes it can lead to money and recognition, but it doesn’t always have to.

The endgame

Money is the endgame. It always is. Don’t pretend it isn’t. If, as a brand, you approach social media with this aim, there’s a high chance you’ll fail. And you bloody well deserve to you greedy capitalist whores! Only joking. But on a serious note, financial targets are not the way to win the game. Caring about consumers, trying to establish meaningful relationships, providing support and respect will go along way, and everyone will benefit in the end.

Business aside; those who use Twitter purely for personal reasons, as many of us do, to keep in touch with friends, to learn and meet new people, to share and discover – chances are we’re putting this beautiful, simple service to far better use, and likely getting a lot more out of it than large organisations employing social media executives and strategists. Because we mean it, our mission is honest and authentic, our approach largely selfless and open.

Let’s drop the bullshit. How about a little consideration? Let’s start creating experiences, let’s think personal. We want engaging, we crave fun, we desire escapism.

Let’s start thinking differently.

Are 140 characters enough to make a point? I think so.

Nathan

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The new site

10 Dec 2009
One Response

Hey folks.

A dash of the past and the road ahead

My tardyness is beginning to precede me and I’m tired of apologising for it. Aside from complaining about how busy I am and continuing to craft weak excuses as to why the site’s upkeep has taken a nosedive over the past 6-8 months, backed up by tedious promises of upcoming content; I’ll instead bestow you with a little update of where Redswish will be heading in the future and hopefully inspire you to stick with me and stay, if only mildly, interested.

The site started off as an experiement nearly 2 years ago, a blind date with blogging. I discovered that I enjoyed it and apparantly so did those taking the time to read my babble; so I stuck at it and tried to figure a solid direction for the website. However, as Redswish is almost exclusively the ramblings of a sole young fluttering designery type, me, a solid direction has been difficult to establish as my own direction in life tends to waver all over the place (future employers beware!).

I’ve realised it’s best to concentrate on topics surrounding what I do on a day-to-day basis, which ranges from creative and marketing strategy through web design to front-end development, and even a dabble in backend on occaision. But I’m not keen on writing about code; there are more than enough resources on the web to cover all those bases, and I learned early on that tutorials are better handled by those with more time on their hands than me. Lists… lists are the bane of my fucking life. On only the rarest occaision do I find lists of any relevance or use.

So seeing as though I tend to like the sound of my own voice so much; I’ve decided that, as it has very much over the past 10 months or so, the subject matter of the site will be mostly opinionated articles discussing online marketing, design, advertising, web culture, life experience, business and hopefully almost everything else that slips in the gaps between those delicate topics.

Design direction

At the time of writing there are still a few areas of the site requiring a tidy up, these will be addressed this weekend. Most designers will agree with me; no matter how hard you try you’re never happy with your own work. Especially at my age and level of industry experience I’m progressing at a pace that causes me to, on a rather regular basis, look back at my work of the past 3 months / 6 months / year and yell ‘what the fuck was I thinking?’. That thought had been creeping into my head for a while regarding this site. It was getting messy, it needed a new coat of paint. I could do better.

Hence why I refer to the new site as ‘a new site’. The content’s still the same but the direction has been redefined, the visuals have been refreshed and, after 3 months traveling and falling out of the circuit, it felt time to respark Redswish. Although we’re now drawing to the close of this year I intend to be putting a lot more effort into decent quality writing next year.

I’ve maintained some of the aesthetic values of the previous iteration of the site, notably the red/beige/white colour scheme. However, in an attempt to draw more attention to the content itself, I’ve included a ‘featured article’ banner at the top of the homepage and scaled back the clutter of the sidebar. I’ve also attempted to harness the power of whitespace to draw the eye to the post content itself, and made the personal decision to opt for serif typography as opposed to more monitor-friendly sans-serif fonts. The reason for this, I feel, was to establish a connection with written word on print, plus I feel it looks more ‘mature’ – more professional.

I added the red swirls in the header to break away from the site seeming too minimal or bland. Plus I like swirls. In 6 months I’ll probably hate them. The new logo on the other hand was for entirely personal reasons. I hated the old one. I felt a tug of regret in my stomach every time I glanced at it. “Christ I’ve got to get rid of that”. Hopefully I won’t be saying the same for the new logo in the future but that remains to be seen.

The Law

Redswish hasn’t, and never will, display ads. I’ve never blogged for money, and every time I visit industry blogs crowded with the same awful banners and mulicoloured sidebar ad blocks clamouring for space I’m filled with a sudden urge to hit my monitor. Don’t expect competitions or giveaways and I wouldn’t hold out for polls, surveys or comment comps. Not to sound old fashioned but I simply want to express my opinions on the industry, spare advice, experiences and stories that others will hopefully find interesting and relevant, and in turn provoke readers to share their own feedback and thoughts on such matters.

I’m more than happy enough to collaborate on articles and introduce guest authors, in fact it’s quite an honour. So if you fancy a natter give me a shout and we can sort something out.

Thanks, once again, for reading,

Nathan

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What is a brand?

20 Nov 2009
8 Responses

tumbleweed
Your logo is your brand!

Yep, that just about sums it up. Everyone knows that your company logo encompasses everything you stand for, your past, present and future, your ethos and vision. That’s why it’s so essential that your logo commands as much real estate as possible on your website and every facet of print advertising you generate.

Unfortunately this pretty much sums up what many people still consider as ‘a brand’. For those of us working in the creative industries, whether it be advertising, logo design, graphic design, online and especially those specialising in branding; this frustrating notion plagues us on a regular basis. I don’t need to even bother linking to the ‘Make the logo bigger’ sites, videos and memes that have floated around the web for years – we’ve all seen them, we’re all aware of the issue.

Branding, however, can be difficult to define. Explaining to clients that their brand is far more than a logo, colour scheme and slogan can be daunting and a trifle difficult, not because the concept itself is that hard to understand, but because the misconception has been drilled in for years. Although I’ve personally only encountered a few instances where I’ve had to struggle to convince clients that their logo does not need to dominate half the browser window, I tremble with fear at the thought of the day I’ll have to stand in front of a boardroom of ignorant corporate bigwigs and explain why their logo doesn’t need to be enlarged further.

Defining a ‘brand’

I’d love to craft a beautiful definition of what a brand is, but I’ve already been beaten to it by, among many other great minds, Eric Karjaluouto of ideasonideas. In his new book, Speak Human (which is proving to be a fascinating read by the way), he effectively addresses the question of what a brand is and how immensely important a solid, focused brand is to businesses.

I think what sums it up for me is the idea that “a brand is all aspects of the organisation; it’s the body, mind, spirit, character, sounds, smells, and feelings we have for them”.

It is the complete experience.

It may indeed seem that the term ‘brand’ is then a catch-all for anything to do with your company; a loose term thrown around odds and ends in some attempt to classify their relevance to the business. It couldn’t be further from this.

For example, when you’re dealing with your phone network provider – every interaction you have with them forms an imprint on your mind of who they are. Their logo, TV adverts, billboards, radio ads, magazine spreads and pricing schemes are only a tiny portion of the equation. What about every time you visit their website, log in to your account to check your statement, every email, SMS and print correspondence, their customer support when you phone up. Do they go out of their way to provide an enjoyable experience – do you feel like you’re appreciated as a customer. Do they listen to you?

The experience – your audience is part of your brand

Every possible channel through which you communicate with a company or even individual provides you with a impression of their brand experience. And in these days of mass social, connected lifestyles, it can take only one poor experience, one ruffled customer and word can spread across the web in a matter of minutes – “you suck”.

There’s absolutely no way to combat this. You can’t, you’d be a fool to try. You can’t put a ‘spin’ on negative news and feedback, you can’t cover it up – you have to embrace it and use such feedback to improve your product – improve your customer’s experience.

We’re moving very rapidly into an age where companies can no longer talk at their customers, but must engage in a dialogue with them. In fact, we’re not moving there – we’re already here, and we’ve been talking about this for quite a while now. The massive implementation of social media and networking tools on a near constant basis means that your customers are very probably talking about you whether you like it or not. Word-of-mouth is the new(old) marketing, people are talking and people are listening.

So it’s your job as business to ensure that your product is so brilliant that people want to talk about it and it’s your job as a designer, advertiser, marketer etc to ensure that the part of the brand experience you’re crafting for your clients, whether it be their website, mobile app, TV adverts, brochures, customer services, product design and development etc is equally brilliant and compelling; because it is indeed part of that product, part of the experience, part of that brand. So try not to screw it up!

How do you percieve a brand?

I could rant on for ages, but unfortunately I have work to do. I think Eric sums up what a brand is nicely with the following analogy:

“My perception of the Coca-Cola brand isn’t limited to a wordmark, Pantone colour, or ad campaign. It’s also not their tagline, the crisp “snap” upon cracking a can open, the bubbly carbonated dance on my tongue, or the caramel aftertaste. It’s all of these things and more. It’s an idea, a belief, and a feeling. It is organic and transforms daily. It is a part of our individual personal histories whether we like it or not.”

Agree, disagree? Feel free to discuss below!

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Choose your own adventure

13 Nov 2009
3 Responses

Flame‘s very own Dom Rodwell spoke at the North event – Rule of Thirds (I’m not sure why it was called that). Not to seem biased, or to be sucking up to my boss, but it’s a bloody good presentation looking at how the communication of narrative has fundamentally changed in the age of digital media; how you can no longer talk at consumers but instead craft compelling and engaging experiences worth talking about.

This isn’t another waffling rant about clients getting board with social media – it looks at the entire process of how creative digital agencies work with clients and their clients’ clients to develop irresistable, functional experiences, and what skills and structures companies need to face up to the undoubted challenges the rapidly changing communications landscape will bring.

New site design critique

9 Nov 2009
11 Responses

Hello all,

Aside from persuing the standard activities of any sociable teenager in my evenings and weekends; I’ve been squeezing in a bit of time to work on the concept and designs for the new Redswish blog. I’ll be looking to scale back the irrelevant nonsense (to some extent) and ensure a steady stream of personally crafted, but objective and hopefully inspirational posts on the subjects of web design, digital marketing and life experience etc. Although this isn’t a drastic change from where I’ve slowly been taking the website, it will become clearer, the tone of voice and theme of the new site will hopefully be obvious.

Redswish is however a site built and maintained for you, my loyal readers. So I thought it only justified to provide a sneaky glimpse of the design approach I’m using to construct the new site. However I’ve hit a slight slow patch, that’s right – I’m stuck. And I want your help.

Please take a look and come back to me with the harshest critique you can. I can take it, come on! I want the new site to be as good as it can be, and your feedback will be an important part of achieving that:

Design 1:

Design 2:

Thanks,

Nathan

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Letting the computer influence design

4 Nov 2009
4 Responses

computer design
In this month’s Computer Arts, a particular quote from an inspiring interview with legendary designer Milton Glaser stood out to me:

“I find a lot of students beginning to resent the computer as too powerful to use without thinking. They now describe it the same way; they say, “Before I start to do anything, I make notes and sketches and draw because otherwise the computer dominates everything I do”.”

Although I believe he’s more likely referring to graphic design as opposed to web interfaces, it’s an important point to consider. Personally I never open Photoshop before scrawling away, pencil on paper. It’s a faster medium on which to lay my ideas and visions as they appear in my mind, without the distractions of colour, typography, design trends and the concern of “How it will work – Flash, AJAX? Scroll right, fade in? Pop-up or slide down?”. It’s just my ideas, the pencil and the paper.

I’ve never been able to draw in the slightest. It’s a flaw I’ve always been ashamed of. I tell people I’m a designer but can barely draw a cartoon dog. Thus I never used to touch physical drawing tools – I’d hop straight into Fireworks or Photoshop and practically will the design into existence. It took me quite a while, too long really, to realise the ignorant error of this approach. As powerful as computer-based design tools are, they do indeed seem to impose a certain level of conformity, structure and precision that’s simply not natural

On another tangent – does computer design software make us lazy? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve pursued designs in my head in Photoshop, but stumbled upon a particular brush set, font or shape that ‘does the job’, and as opposed to pursuing the vision in mind, I’ve simply settled for ‘nice’, but second best, because it was handed to me on a plate by the click of a mouse.

As per usual I may sound like I’m exaggerating the issue, but it’s certainly something worth considering. Do you feel that your designs, whether they be website layouts, application interfaces, banners and posters, branding etc. are in anyway influenced not just by experience, design understanding, trends and client briefs; but by the software you use?

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