Media is our vice. We are all strapped to it and bombarded with it on a day to day basis. Whether we watch TV every night, update our facebook wall on our mobile phone, or visit a website. You name it media is anywhere and everywhere. We cast our lives online, rush home for a new season of Entourage or play video games all night long. We are media junkies, strapped to it like never before in our history. Media gives me a career so I’m all for it, but do we really need to be so media centric?

I’ve been to a couple different countries in my travels and I’ve never seen another country so focused on entertainment and media as much as the United States. Movie stars are the highest paid people in our culture, not doctors or scientists, which is seemingly odd. In media’s defense, when you look at your day to day life, you’ll notice how much your life revolves around entertainment. The more money that is made of people clicking an ad or paying 12 bucks for a movie, the more those overpaid stars and entertainment companies get. Don’t get me wrong here, I love technology but I think we need to take the time to disconnect more.

Put your phone down, don’t update your status today, or shut off that TV for a night and just talk to someone face to face. We so easily fall into the outlets and social easements that many companies exploit everyday, why not fight the man and un-strap yourself once in a while. Life tends to slow down a bit when you take yourself away from all of what technology and media has provided for us.

Media advertising works. They taunt you to click, explore and buy. They put ads in video games, in you iPhone apps, over your videos, and who know where else. As time progresses more and more advertisers are finding new and unique ways to advertise. Although not all are are bad and can be useful, most are misleading or obtrusive. So say fight the man, turn off your phone, get off facebook for 10 minutes and try something more basic. Plain old conversation with no bells and whistles.

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Back Story:
One of my clients who just so happens to be very “strong willed” came into a bit of a conundrum. We have done a lot of work for campaigns, re branding, and other creative endeavors…. Long story short, there was a large open balance for creative that had already been released to them. Now I love helping my clients and always do my best to support them in any way I can, but with such a large balance I had to put all work on hold, even with deadlines fast approaching.

So now I’m at a loss, could loose the client could not but how do you handle such a situation? Ideally the payments would have been made promptly and all of this would have been avoided. So I put everything on hold and missed deadlines. Either way I think it was a bold but effective move. No one works for free and we stood our ground.

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Great article and hits on a a similar point. This would be classified as the hands on client, more like all up in your $hit client. As much as I don’t like to piss off my customers…as I love them dearly… they all should know that creative minds have an unsaid way about them. Maybe it should be in the contract…The best part is when they push you so hard to get everything done then drop off the face of the planet…love that… Bottom line…everyone works differently. Constructive criticism is encouraged, but when we talk about the “Client Push” this goes beyond constructive criticism, usually ending up in a complete loss of aesthetic.

It’s frustrating to see a great design go bad, and this is a result of the Client Push. If your new to the field or a seasoned veteran my advise, always stand up for your designs and hit them home with a nice summary of your ideas…otherwise…well you get the point.

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Atmospheric Creation…yea I’m making up terms again but its a great idea to keep in mind when designing. To create an atmosphere, a presence, and experience… That is what makes a site different and impactful. I’ve written about cookie cutter web design before which is the complete opposite of this idea.

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The popularity of blogs, the posting of random funny pictures of unusual antics by random people, the success of the media mentioned above are all proof that everyday people are becoming more interesting than the stars in Hollywood. It’s a free expression of ideas, and people love it. Sharing photos, videos and everyday life excites the viewer creating a new type of community online. The basis of the internet is the free expression of ideas, a voice to the world to say what you want with no limitations for everyone to see.

We can apply this concept to Interactive Media and capitalize on the draw that this type of idea creates. If visitors are able to customize and personalize, they attach a certain ownership to the media that they have created. Create a profile, pick out a picture to associate your account to, change the color, change the layout, control hooks the masses. X-Box Live does a great job of hooking its users by allowing the customization of gamer profiles, tags, pictures, slogans, motos, friend groups, a message center, and more. This type of engagement attracts people to keep going back and checking in time after time to see what more they can customize and change.

Forums and interactive user communities are another sample of this and add a sense of validity and ownership to a product or service they are attached to. In user forums people can speak their minds regarding certain subjects and or products and help guide the company to better serve their customers. Its the new type of customer service, a integrated database of user opinions, rants and free ideas. It’s the idea of transparency, allow your customers or people interested in your business to freely speak their minds and help guide others and aid to sculpt a company into a customer service powerhouse.

We are integrated with the web in our everyday lives. Lifecasting is the beginning of a new era of technology being fused with society. We can either embrace this new media or be left in the dust…

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As artists, we shouldn’t have to explain why we created something. But as “Creative Resources” in the business marketplace, every action or creative innovation should have a purpose and a function. Designers do not necessarily need to explain their creativity. They should understand the ideas behind the innovations they create. Collaboration with the client and explaining the full idea cultivated from various ideas, well thats the Creative Director’s job. This separation of tasks allows for the designer to focus on the task at hand.

Teamwork is essential in creating innovative work, as well as clients that are willing to take the plunge and trust the vision set forth by the project leader. We struggle to find focus when all team players are not working toward that one unique vision. Creation for the web environment it tough, requiring many different technologies merged into one to produce a successful end product. Many different specialty fields are required when creating unique interfaces. Designers, Flash Animators, Developers, Art Directors, Project Managers etc. All play a integral part of the design process. Yet conveying the main idea and goal of the project is the most important idea that all players should be working towards.

The main focus of my little rant here is to embrace the creativity that stems from your subconscious. Don’t design with the intention of explaining why you created something a certain way. Once a solid idea is produced, we may then reflect upon the idea and explain why at the point of revisiting. This process seldom works in reverse and can be a unique idea to gain focus when in a time of creative lows.

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Creativity is a flow that only comes when all other thoughts are put aside. The best work is done when the mind is clear and focus is tuned to the task at hand. When all energies are lined up the creativity flows through your fingertips onto the computer screen or whatever the creative outlet.

So what if your sitting, looking at that blank page and nothing comes to mind… Embrace the white space and feel free to play around. Maybe nothing will solidify into something substantial, but something I learned from one of my professors at college is to never throw anything away and save often! Apple + S is your friend. You can throw up creative garbage all over your canvas one day then organize it into a master piece the next, its all about state of mind. The clearer your thoughts the clearer your creative will output onto the canvas.

Something that people don’t know about creative people is that we like to feel inspired and love to create, at least if we love what we do. The quality of end product justifies the energy infused into the project. Take the time to clear out your frustrations and streamline creative energies, you’ll be glad you did and will benefit from the creative clarity.

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With regard to web creativity, it’s about setting a theme…a mood…each page on successful and captivating websites are visual experiences, challenging the reader to learn more about the content or company the site was created for. We hear this more and more that websites are no longer pages to display content, but rather a portal into the workings of a company, business, product or whatever the content might be. The mood that is set should encapsulate the mentality and focus of the company or content, a visual representation of their essential essence. Lets call it Essential Design Infusion.

In literal terms, fun, visually stimulating designs suggests a fun loving company not afraid to set a casual theme. Serious, structured, corporate themes suggest power and years of success. But where do these ideas stem from? We start with a logo, brand idea, a curve, a piece of clip art the client loves, any type of visual cue and run with it. This is our challenge as designers, to excite the brand or idea and interpret it into a visual experience that stimulates a presence.

Where does this visual interpretation come from…what is the mentality of the creative individual? Although each of our creative processes are different, most never tackle the subject, being very literal in their interpretations of design. Art Directors and Brand Stuarts set a structured idea and method to the madness in order to guide the creative minds working toward their goal. Although very important to developing innovative ideas, this is where we loose the spiritual aspect of design, art becomes business. Don’t get me wrong, as a Creative Director myself I am constantly changing, reviewing and setting structure to design, but at the heart of this thinking is a visual idea which is guided by a structured voice.

We learn the fundamentals of design in our schooling, content, form and layout principals, then set free to interpret any design or a idea into what we feel is the best visual representation. A line is drawn between artists and designers, yet designers are artists at the base of our being. No one sat back and told Pablo Picaso or Jackson Polick how to paint their works. Yet there are many important rules that go along with creative production and design that give way to structured designs that produce results. Polick was not trying to drive a business model, Graphic and Web Design is a product of a consumerist society. We artists have adapted to the changing times in order to survive in todays world. Artists become designers, creative professionals, creative machines making products come to life, creating movies that captivate their audiences, envisioning robust interactive experiences that leave a stamp in the mind of their viewers. This is our creative outlet, a new media in which to excite viewers and reclaim the infusion of art with society.

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