Aiden.Kenny.Blog

A novel feature idea for iOS

2011-11-25T14:01:00.001Z

iOS should present a default device owner’s avatar image to any apps that request one.

Getting started on a new social media service – or on the majority of apps which increasingly require an initial login to create a presence within the app’s community – is now a pretty efficient and streamlined process. If you don’t want to login with your Facebook or Twitter identity [1] then you just need to provide a user name and a password (sometimes an email is not even needed any more) and you’re all set. You get a generic avatar icon to speed your way into the service: completing your profile by adding a photo and any other information can happen at any time later. Because including the photo/avatar is not part of that initial on-ramp work flow you can see a lot of default avatars in the early stages of community building.

In the last year I have started using the same head shot icon across all the social media. (Currently it is my eight-bit alter ego from some ZXSpectrum-themed alternate universe.) I think it’s a useful idea to present a standardised visual to the various audiences. That must be my background in corporate identity coming through...

It strikes me that it would be a useful feature in iOS if I could set an image file as my default avatar for all new social media services, and more broadly all of those apps that require a login and that create a presence for users.

I imagine most people don't store a dedicated image file within their Camera Roll for such a purpose. Which is the hack you need to do at present. Surely the iOS can help out here.

The personalised owner’s entry in Contacts.app seems to be the most obvious starting point within the current system. I would add an option in the edit pane for the user’s personalised head shot that then presented this image as a default avatar for any apps that requested one. An auto-complete for avatar images if you will. Then when setting up relevant apps the iOS could present a dialogue box with a “Use This Photo” option to securely evoke the default image without exposing any confidential information and a “Take Photo” option to evoke the camera.

Finally, I have never been convinced with the current iOS configuration of treating your own information as just another entry within Contacts.app. There is a logic and simplicity to this approach in one sense, but I can envisage some kind of centralised, dedicated and enhanced ‘My Information’ or ‘My Identity’ section in Settings that would allow for increasing connectivity and granular access of the iPhone owner’s information with the various clouds and super-platforms. Today our phones primarily identify us and accredit us to services like social media, but in the future they will allow us to pay for goods and services, travel on public transport, even unlock our front doors etc. How our phones handle identity is going to become increasingly important.

[1] Thinking about this further, now that Twitter is so tightly integrated into iOS perhaps Apple really do want us to adopt that as our identification layer for apps. If I were to set up all apps using my Twitter accreditation in future, I wouldn’t need a dedicated avatar image to be served by the OS. But, down the line, I don’t see myself logging-in to my secure digital wallet or my home security system with my Twitter credentials. Do you?

What Is It That You Do Again?

2011-11-17T13:27:00.001Z

“Designers like to play with shapes and colours.”
I had a really strong negative reaction when I read this statement in an article about differing perspectives between information architects and UI designers. So much so that I wanted to quickly analyse why I should be so bothered by a seemingly innoculous and thoughtless throwaway line like that.

One of the downsides of calling myself a graphic designer is that everyone I encounter has their own different take on what that is, what I can do and how I may be useful to them. (My formal job title ‘Brand Director’ also suffers from the same subjectivity.) Of course, in many ways job titles are not all that important, but it is always worth asking – as communications professionals – how well do we communicate what we do to our clients and other interested parties.

When I look in at the web design world I see division of labour amongst specialisms: Information Architect, UI Designer, UX Designer and so forth. Then looking back at the world of the traditional, non-web, whatever-you-call-them-now, design and branding companies where I have worked, the convention has always been for hierarchical titles: Junior Designer, Senior Designer, Design Director, Creative Director etc. So what is really communicated is experience level (and, by proxy, an indication of hourly rate). Different areas of expertise or specialisation are generally not acknowledged. Although that information can be implicit where the company itself specialises, as with an FMCG packaging design consultancy. There are also a few intra-industry specialist titles like Artworker (remember those?) and Typographer (in the strict sense of a designer of typefaces) which would almost never get exposure to clients.

Two factors inspired this thinking on the lack of utility of titles within the graphic design sector. Firstly, some recent conversations I had with potential clients and other business people about their confusion when purchasing design services. Secondly, from observing that what I do best, and where I add most value, often seems to be some hybrid combination of the skills of Information Architects, UI Designers, UX Designers and Copywriters. (To co-opt some web design terminology into an off-line context.) Perhaps that is what a graphic designer is these days; but I’m not so sure...

To take just one example, I spent a lot of last month analysing, rewriting and designing an integrated system of complex application forms. I find this kind of all-absorbing, holistic design thinking challenge very rewarding. There are particular kinds of projects which can be most successful and efficient where one person is responsible for the language, the logical structure of the content and the visual expression. (I so wish there were more of those projects.)

To resolve the optimal solution is like playing Mr Spock’s four-dimensional chess: remembering the location of all the pieces on all the chess boards all the time (if you’ll permit me to use an uber-nerdy metaphor). Rewriting all of the language from the perspective of the applicant completing the forms, rather than the bureaucrat processing them, was an exercise in tone and editorial choice. Deploying a visual cue or affordance through typography allowed me to remove a line of instructions. Changing one of the design parameters might require me to rewrite some classes of text. Conversely, deciding on a global change to the language might force me to alter some aspect of the design. (Repeat and iterate that process for three weeks).

Is it still appropriate to call this a graphic design project? To me it has become something more. Most graphic designers I have dealt with would be uncomfortable taking on the responsibility for rewriting, sub-editing and standardizing all of the text.

It is definitely a world away from “designers like to play with shapes and colours”.

For now, I think I am going have to live with my ongoing dissatisfaction with how to encapsulate what I do best. I don’t see myself handing out business cards that say: “Systematic, Analytic, Information-Savvy, Content-Sensitive, Graphic Designer, Word-Wrangler & Brand Consultant”.

Desk

2011-10-17T17:56:00.001+01:00

I have worked at this desk for over ten years now.

Tomorrow we move into our new studio space next door. I am not permitting a lot of my paperwork, old files and other general cruft accumulated over a decade to make that move with me. Sometimes it is important to let go of the past. Decide what is important and worth taking forward and jettison the rest.

Time for some new perspectives I think.

Steve

2011-10-06T14:04:00.001+01:00

What a day. What a day. We all knew this day was coming. But now that it has we are still surprised. No, far more than surprised: shocked.

Steve relentlessly championed design. He cared about beauty in form, he championed simplicity and elegance in operation.

In my career, I have always used and loved his creations. Not only have they transformed the design industry, but they have repeatedly redefined the possibilities of what each of us could achieve as designers ourselves.

In recent years the true scope of his ambition has been realised and (without overstatement) has reshaped society.

He wanted to leave “a dint in the universe” and is one of the few who have actually changed the world: my world, your world, all our worlds.

Thanks Steve.

POSTSCRIPT

These were the three best Steve Jobs inspired posts I read yesterday. I would like to share them with you. Gruber | Calacanis | Dediu

Some Thoughts on Gamification

2011-10-05T13:36:00.000+01:00

I unlocked the ‘client-friendly’ badge on GoldenLadder (or did I?)

I have been joining some dots between the automatic sharing functionality now being enabled in Facebook and the practice of utilising game theory to increase participation within social networks. Facebook’s new frictionless sharing model generates micro-posts based on current activities: I’m listening to a song right now or I’m reading an article right now, etc.That seems of limited interest, and something best experienced in the ‘river of news’ format of the new ticker. But from there it does seem only a short step to generating more interesting aggregate posts that may give stronger signals about what we are focused on.

It is too easy to scoff at the achievement badge notifications showing up in my Facebook news feed: Fred is the mayor of his favourite coffee shop; Daphne has unlocked the Jobs badge for three check-ins at an Apple Store; and Velma has gone to more than five museums in the last month, etc. I think that something interesting is going in beneath the surface that is worth thinking about a bit further. The gamification model is currently most associated with location-based check-ins, but what other possibilities could it lead too? So setting aside all of the incessant buzzing about privacy, Facebook and Google being “just creepy enough” and the related conversations about advertising metrics and monetisation, let’s take a look at some thought experiments.

At the most basic level now envisaged, we will become able to activate degrees of automated logging and trend-based sharing of aspects of our digital media consumption. Reading articles on The Guardian’s Facebook app being the canonical example in this launch phase. Looking at what might become possible, I have no doubt that I will be able to allow my Amazon Kindle easily generate badges based on my reading patterns. Something like this:

I just unlocked the DFW_Stamina Badge on Kindle, with 100% of Infinite Jest.

Looking at that you can easily imagine ad-hoc reading groups becoming a possibility, and the discovery of friend's similarities in taste you may have been aware of, along with other network benefits. On the downside, will the smug satisfaction of being more well-read than your peers be enough to counteract any minor social shame associated with your holiday poolside techno-thriller reading?

Then looking to broadcast media, it could be possible for us to set our Sky+ box to generate achievement badges based on our viewing patterns at home. Which could get you into some amiable competition with friends who share your viewing interests. What if:

I just unlocked the Whovian_2011 Badge on Sky+, watching all 13 episodes of Doctor Who, series six.

Now there are already plenty of competing web services that let people manually track their media consumption in this manner. But what tiny percentage of us have the time to manually log anything, never mind the inclination? I have played around with Feltron’s Daytum app, but I could never make a habit of it (and I would be on the side of the bell curve most likely to stick with that). Zuckerberg’s insight is that it is only when these activities become automated, as under the new Open Graph, that the meaningful numbers kick in.

It seems to me that the engineering data-driven basis of all of this can run head-first into any disparity between the personas we choose to portray socially and the reality revealed by our actions. Let us assume that the belief of those constructing such systems is that both persona aspects align for the majority of individuals. If that turns out to be true, then these online behaviours will gain increasing traction and benefit from network effects. If humans turn out to be a more duplicitous lot, then there shall be a finite limit to adoption. In this case the real numbers will tell the true story over time.

Therefore, that leads to the realisation that all choices about what to measure and what to reward in the game mechanics become critical to its success. What class of signals could aggregated achievement badges possibly transmit? For example:

I just unlocked the Too Cool For School Badge on iTunes, listening to 10, unsigned, Icelandic, Post-Rock, acts in September 2011.

I can easily imagine Credibility Farmers: a cost-efficient crowd-sourced workforce similar to today’s Gold Farmers toiling away within World Of Warcraft. Yet instead of outsourcing the levelling-up of their in-game avatars, people could outsource the consumption of higher-credibility media content to counterbalance their actual consumption of more middlebrow fare. (Without sounding overly dystopian, perhaps in twenty years time, Ireland’s call centres will be replaced by credibility farms with cost-efficient Irish workers listening to hours of high-brow Chinese theatre and business audio books to enhance the credibility metrics of middle managers in Sichuanprovince…)

On a more short-term timeline what happens when our evolving publicness embraces our careers and professional responsibilities? If there is any one area where game theory operates, it surely has to be on our career ladders. Could we start to see many of our friend’s business achievements and little victories appearing in our activity streams? And what might that read like?

I just unlocked the Client-Friendly Badge on GoldenLadder: with five client meetings outside of BFK Studio this month.

It will be interesting to see how the redefinition of the old private/public boundaries that we see taking place in the personal sphere will translate into our professional activities. Obviously, my quick mock-ups only maps readily to the quantitative aspects of our roles and responsibilities. The intangible value-added we all bring wrapped up inside our own black box can probably still only be shared with a story, whether over coffee or in a blog post. There is no auto-generated metric for “I just delighted my client with a novel insight that neither of us expected”.

That said, I can see these kinds of applications of gamification and automatic sharing migrating towards the realm of our working lives. It is not that people seek validation from an auto-generated 64-pixel image file being appended to their Facebook database. It’s that we are social animals and letting people know what we are doing and what interests us is built into our mental models. We are in the midst of a grand experiment which is taking that to an unforeseen scale. Exciting times indeed.

Postscript
Since I wrote this article there has been a lot of discussion about frictionless sharing. These four posts give a representative sense for all sides of the debate.
— Starting with How Facebook Is Ruining Sharing by Molly Wood.
— Then Why Facebook’s Seamless Sharing is Wrong by Marshall Kirkpatrick.
— Richard MacManus responds to both of those posts with Facebook Hasn’t Ruined Sharing, It’s Just Re-Defined It.
— The last word (for now) has got to go to MG Siegler, who cuts through a lot of the hand-wringin with Pushing The Envelope, Not The Share Button.

Blogger iOS App: What Took You So Long?

2011-09-09T08:45:00.001+01:00

Blogger UI compared with Google+ and SquareSpace apps. (Oh, and guys. Orange? Seriously?)

I just downloaded the first official Blogger iOS app from Google this morning. I am posting these initial thoughts and reactions while trying it out.

Firstly, I have to note that it is surprising that it took Google so long to launch this product. They introduced an Android version of the app earlier this year. The iPhone is four years old and plenty of third-party Blogger client apps have sprouted in that time, so the demand has been there for a while. Leaving aside the current antipathy between The Big G and the House Of Steve, the iPhone has a substantial user base that must be well worth serving. I don’t think the shine has gone off mobile blogging yet.

For a long-awaited product this app is very rudimentary. Google’s services, including Blogger, have all been getting a badly needed update of their (admittedly now much improved) UI over this Summer. There is little evidence of that kind of design thinking in this app. The recent Google+ app has been criticised in my circles for lacking functionality, features and finish. It's a work of art compared to this.

My only experience to date with a blogging app is the official SquareSpace client that I use for our company website. The difference in both appearance and functionality between the two apps is stark. This Blogger 1.0 app is such a bare bones client.

Given they have taken so long to provide this minimal app I wonder how aggressive their update schedule is going to be and how much focus, attention and support Blogger is getting within Google. This product needs iteration.

Some people are all about their blog analytics and I expect that they will be a strongly requested feature for the next release, but I will be asking for Markdown support in version 1.1. Pretty please.

Atomised, exploded and socially-filtered: that’s my new daily news

2011-07-14T22:08:00.006+01:00

After one month without reading a paper-newspaper, some initial observations on going digital-only and on the influence of physical construction as a prompt to reading.

Two recent events inspired and inform this post. We cancelled our work subscription to the Irish Times in May, and last week I received the final printed edition of Design Week in the post. I have been reading the printed versions of both of those publications for over twenty years. Now that I have the opportunity to reinvent my reading experience of each, it is worth observing the initial changes in my reading patterns and whatever advantages or disadvantages I have encountered in switching to all-digital consumption.

As an avowed early-adopter and tech nerd I consume 90% of my news digitally anyway, so the prompt for writing this was the removal of my last vestigial daily and weekly analogue news sources. A not insignificant event. So I am contributing this post as one very small data point towards the larger discussion about “whither news media” and reinventing the news and so forth. A disclaimer: I’m keeping away from the all of the nostalgic, non-rational “I love the smell of the newsprint” distractions. So lets take it that, yes, I do understand that I can’t wrap my chips in an iPhone and that you can’t line a budgie cage with your iPad. I am also not getting into overall industry issues such as monetisation, advertising, and “analogue dollars to digital dimes”. Those are best left to more expert commentators. Consider this a dispatch from the front lines, one reader’s point of view.

The most significant behavioral change I have found relates to the fact that the physical newspaper encourages the reader to treat the contents as one aggregate whole and to engage with it on that basis. When I had five minutes to skim the Irish Times over a coffee, I would read the top layer of news: the front page, an editorial, an opinion piece, a few letters etc. When I had a longer stretch of time over lunch, I would browse deeper into the whole paper (except the sports pages). My more leisurely perambulation around the sheaf of pages would take in the secondary news articles, non-news articles and all of those miscellaneous content barnacles newspapers have accreted over years. Honestly thinking back, a lot of material I really only browsed because it was within the total package. Habit was surely another factor here as well.

In contrast to the paper’s definite boundaries, the topography of the online edition is hazy, and its edges are fractal-like. On the internet all pages have parity and are theoretically adjacent. So each post and article on the Irish Times site competes equally with all of the other feeds, posts and pages clamoring for my attention and only a few keystrokes. The immediate effect of this is that my experience of reading the Irish Times online has become both more atomized and yet more tightly focussed.

I rarely, if ever, start at the home page and navigate from there anymore. Accepting Jarvis’ principle whereby “the news comes to me” means that I now primarily start reading at a particular post.

There are two primary patterns that now lead me there.

Firstly: a Facebook friend shares a link to a post from today’s Irish Times. If shared early on in the day, it will already have accumulated comments, endorsements and likes which can further encourage/discourage my clicking through to read. Interestingly, where the summary and headline don't grab my attention enough to click through on its own but there is an active debate going on underneath then I am far more likely to go ahead and to read the article. As an aside: Miriam Lord is the most shared writer amongst my circles. Perhaps colour writing is a more shareable from of journalism?

Secondly: on Twitter someone tweets a headline and its link. Twitter has less cumulative social influence, but if a link gets a lot of RTs then the effect is similar to the Facebook factor. The more bare-bones factual news reporting is preferred on this platform, rather than op-ed or colour pieces.

I toyed with the Irish Times iPhone app, but never kept with it.

Once at the post’s page on the Irish Times web site, my pattern has become far more “read it and leave”. A stark contrast with the “read and browse” affordances encouraged by the physical composition of the paper edition. Articles surround other articles on the physical page. So in choosing one to read, you need more awareness of those around it which you are either going to read next or not at all. That the online posts are surrounded by outward links to other articles, rather than by those article's content is worth exploring sometime.

Primarily what has happened is that my old mental construct of ‘the Irish Times’ as one aggregate container of disparate classes of content has exploded and replaced with a new construct where the article has become the quantum of news rather than the edition. (I think that is why the app version never became a habit.) So, operating with that mental model then what is a newspaper now, an attitude, a tone of voice, a stance?

The definitive net result of all this is that I now read a _lot less_ of the total content available within each edition of the daily paper. This turns out to be a good thing from my perspective, but not so good for the long term prospects of second tier journalists.

I surmise that the downside for certain journalists is that – with the article/post/page as the new atomic unit of news – there is far more accountability and where someone’s reporting is not engaging, insightful, contributing new knowledge or other useful value to the ongoing conversation, then that is going to be blatantly obvious.

I think that this is a win for me, as using social filters to surface the key articles every day means a more efficient reading experience. For now I am happy to keep within the filter bubble of Pareto’s 20%.

— Obviously this is a multi-faceted topic, and one that bears returning to. So I am off to get my hands on this week’s Economist which coincidentally has a supplement on the macro trends and disruptions in the global news business.

#analysis #irishtimes #media #internet

Seven Years Of Blogging: A Quick Reflection

2011-06-15T13:49:00.010+01:00

This blog is seven years old today. I am ever so slightly astounded by that fact. While the core essence of blogging as an activity remains little changed since 2004, it is chastening to look back at how limited the Blogger service’s bare bones feature set was back then. It is also interesting to think about some of the innovative related technologies that have come on-stream since then. Here is a quick list.

One of the main reasons for setting up this blog at that time was simply just to have somewhere to put stuff online. So my early posts included disparate kinds of content, such as links to books that I wanted to buy, probably more-so than the opinion pieces I concentrate on now. Today we have access to an incredibly broad range of useful dedicated services for all of our different sorts of content—which helps keep the blog focused. I quickly dropped the archival link posts: moving those to Delicious early in my blogging days. I also spun out a link-blog in February 2007 as a place for design ephemera, illustrations, cartoons, visual reference, cultural detritus and any other trivia that I thought would be too lightweight for the way I was developing this blog. Since then a good proportion of that activity has moved even further downstream (upstream?) out into the social media services.

When I started using Blogger it did not even support images within posts. I needed somewhere to host them; which led me to Flickr; which then got me more interested in recording events through photos as well as words. Something that has kept me busy ever since.

There was no baked-in tagging functionality. I was hacking out hand-coded Technorati and Delicious tags onto the footers of my posts for the first couple of years. (Which activity lead to me writing about topics like folksonomy too. Ahem. Hopefully no-one will do a chronological buzzword analysis of this blog any time soon.)

I couldn’t embed video in this blog for a while either, as I was waiting for someone to invent YouTube.

In 2004 I had decided not to open a Friendster account. I was not aware of Facebook, and even if I was, I could not have signed-up as it was limited to Ivy League scholars at that time. Micro-blogging did not yet exist, and Twitter was not even a glimmer in Jack Dorsey’s eye.

In 2004 I did not actually possess any digital music. Ripping N-hundred CDs was just something that you had to work through in those days. Also, there was some interesting talk about embedding MP3s into RSS feeds to lash together some kind of a “sound-casting” service...

While I had a Palm PDA back then, and used it to draft blog posts, I had no way to connect it to the Internet. (I had to sync posts as text files in the Palm desktop client and then paste into Blogger.) I had a basic Sony Erricsson mobile and did post by email on day one. Meanwhile Warren Ellis was uploading text and photos from his PDA in a pub in Southend-on-Sea and posting missives about this novel activity called “moblogging”...

Aside: for years I was the only digital nerd on the daily train commute pecking out blog posts with a Palm stylus. Now I’m writing this post on an iPhone in a carriage packed full of touchscreen-swiping commuters. How times change.

I wonder what changes will have taken place in the blogosphere when this blog’s next seven year anniversary rolls around in June of 2018?

#blogging #blogger #twitter #facebook

My Presentation To SIFII REAP Professional Postgraduate Seminar

2011-05-30T13:28:00.003+01:00

I have blogged about the year I spent gaining my Masters degree to an unprecedented level of detail (mostly here and here.) However I never wrote any summary or reflection on the whole experience. So being asked to speak at the recent SIFII REAP Seminar on Professional Postgraduate Programmes gave me the incentive to put some thoughts in order two years after the fact.

One benefit of a fifteen-minute speaking slot is that I was forced to be concise. So this palimpsest of a more thorough retrospective may be of interest to anyone who is weighing the options of taking on a part-time MA and maintaining a professional career at the same time.

It is May 2011 and I am standing in Dublin at a podium in front of a room full of academics and Higher Education professionals and I am saying these words.

Good morning everyone,
I was invited to speak to you here today about my experience as a working professional who took on the challenge of a completing a one-year part-time Masters Degree. I intend to give you some insights from the perspective of a participant and to outline some of on my own learnings that hopefully may have broader application.

Firstly, I will give you some context on where I was at in my career that brought me to a professional masters. Then talk about why I took on the MA and what attracted me to this particular MA. I will outline the key challenges that I faced. My specific examples of what worked best and what did not work for me may allow you to draw some general findings. I will finish up with a review of whether it was worth it and what I gained.

Where I was in my career
I work as a brand consultant. I began my career as a graphic designer. I received my undergraduate degree in Visual Communications from the National College of Art and Design back in 1991. So I have been working in the design sector in Dublin for the past twenty years. In the late nineties I began to specialise in the field of corporate identity. I became involved in teams working on large-scale corporate identity programmes for blue chip companies and larger state agencies: examples relevant to this audience would be the brand identities and communications for both UCD and NUI Galway. Over time my expertise grew beyond just the visual expression of organisational identities and covered more of their total brand messaging, values and expressions. Therefore, I found myself giving presentations to — and working with — the Board, the CEO (or the University President), as much as with the Marketing Manager.

Also, within the branding company, I was now leading the design team. So I was getting involved in HR issues such as hiring new talent, managing their career reviews and their training requirements. I was also involved in all aspects of the business from client liaison to costing projects through to longer-term planning.

Why I took on the MA
I found that I had a business-orientated mindset, arguably more-so than the typical graphic designer, and over the years I had self-educated myself about the broad fundamentals of business to a useful degree. My MD used to jokingly introduce me as the “only designer in Dublin who subscribes to The Economist”. So the more challenging class of strategy-based branding work suited my interests and my abilities — as I needed to think far more about the corporate realities that were driving my client's businesses.

However, I also found that — given the nature of my undergraduate qualification — there were gaps in my knowledge of business, and so I decided to achieve a more formal understanding.

I had been thinking about and looking into the various research masters programmes offered by the Dublin design colleges, but they seemed primarily concerned with theory or with craft. None addressed the business side of operating within the professional design services sector. I do completely see the value in, and do support, the kinds of advanced über-specialised technical explorations of typography and the sort of socio-cultural historical analyses that tend to be completed within those MA programmes. However, that was not a pathway I wished to pursue at that time…

What attracted me to this particular MA?
I set myself the goal to expand my knowledge-base and gain more business expertise: such that I would progress my career vertically within the professional design sector (or closely-related sectors).

I had thought about taking on a UCD Smurfit School MBA, but I realised that — given both the small scale of the overall professional design sector in Ireland, and the size of companies operating within it — that would be overkill (and would also most likely shift the overall track of my career to somewhere too far outside of the professional design sector).

I was aware of the Design Ireland Skillnets, and had attended many of their traditional one-day courses over the years. I kept myself actively up-to-date on whatever new courses they offered each year. I even briefly sat on their Steering Committee. So DIT's introduction in 2008 of the One-Year Part-Time Masters in Professional Design Practice, in association with the Design Ireland Skillnets, seemed to be something that was worth committing my time to.

The fact that the course content was to be specifically tailored to the particular needs of the professional design sector was a decisive factor for me. I wanted to be confident that the time I was going to invest into this would be spent on relevant material and that I would achieve as much applicable learning as possible.

I was also engaged by the fact that — while my background is in visual communications and branding — other participants would be working in a mix of complementary and tangential fields, such as architecture, interior design, fashion and craft design. So the mix and interaction amongst the class was something that ought to engender its own insights and learnings. I was sure that — while many of the creative challenges we dealt with in our professional lives would vary — there would be a lot of commonality in the business challenges that we faced. And therefore much that we could learn from each other.

What were the key challenges that I faced?
My first challenge was my own family situation going into the Masters programme.Our second child was only six months old when I began my course-work. We also had an energetic three-year-old. So my hands were already pretty full even before I took on this commitment.

The majority of my class-mates were in similar situations, juggling their work and family commitments alongside of their studies. Indeed, when we began the programme by looking at our Concerns, Expectations, Hopes and Fears, the fear of being overwhelmed by the workload was the group's primary concern. So it is important for the university to be aware of the context which we are working from.

What I found was that the amount of work, time and effort did exceed my original expectations. However — working within a one-year time frame — it is easy to keep your eye on the prize. Working late every night, on morning commutes and lunch-breaks and dispensing with all of the many distractions which we all indulge ourselves with, it is amazing how productive you can become. You really do need to dig deep and find that resource of 'single focus' within yourself.

In my professional career, the MA programme did not create any direct challenges or conflicts. At the trivial level: all of the formal time commitments fell outside working hours. At the more substantive level, rather than being too burned-out and distracted by the programme, I found myself brimming over with new ideas and learnings that I wanted to apply within the company and to my associates.

What did not work for me
(These are probably quite minor in the grand scheme of things, but I was asked to contribute something under this heading…)
In a one-year scenario I knew I needed to hit the ground running and that every week was going to count. If I fell behind at any stage, then catching up was going to be a significant challenge. So a completely accurate and detailed timetable of milestones, deadlines and events for the year would have really helped me with my planning. Instead: what we did get was a schedule of classes and a pretty broad outline of what would 'roughly' be happening throughout the year. That did not work for me, I felt it was under-delivery. In retrospect, I think there was an intention of giving us phased information on a need-to-know basis and not overwhelming everyone with the scale of the commitment that they had taken on. But I take the opinion that we were all grown-ups and we could have taken it on the chin. So I believe that operating with complete transparency and providing as much detailed information at all times is the best approach to take when dealing with professional students.

In a part-time MA you probably have less than twenty class days together on-campus. That means that, in practice, a lot of the inter-student team work and student/lecturer interaction takes place over email. So if you have any lecturers who are not email-savvy — who lose email addresses and *even* email messages — well, that is only going to generate counter-productive friction. Professionals are bringing along a whole set of expectation with them, based on the way they are used to operating (although they are not all likely to be InBox Zero fanatics or GTD ninjas). So as an action point: ensuring all all lecturers are adept and efficient in their communications outside of the lecture theatre can really bring disproportionate benefits

What worked best for me
One unspoken concern of mine about "going back to college", was the notion of becoming a student again. I was very unsure how comfortable I would be within some kind of a pupil/lecturer relationship. (I was a long way from being twenty-one any more.) Thankfully the team at DIT had a very strong awareness of the sort of relationship they wished to establish with their professional students. Which was much more of a peer-to-peer scenario. Given that this was the first year that this MA programme was being run, I imagine that they were willing to learn a lot from us.

My experience with the team at DIT was that they were flexible and very open to dealing with us on our own terms and happy to take our suggestions on board. To take one example, the DIT Student Intranet — which we were all supposed to use as a central repository — seemed pretty limited and (honestly) clunky compared to the ever-expanding range of web services and online tools we were used to using in our working lives.

So — mirroring the well-noted trend observed in the business world where the fast-moving innovators are circumventing the more counter-productive dictates of their IT Departments — some of us were able to route around the Student Intranet and apply novel approaches and methodologies from our professional work to our course work.

For example, an ongoing Learning Log was a key component of our continuous assessment. I had already developed a writing habit over the years by maintaining a blog of my thoughts and insights on branding and corporate identity topics since 2004. I wanted to co-opt this blogging reflex and to use it to my advantage in my studies. So I set up an online blog-based Learning Log for myself and gave passwords to all of my tutors. This gave me all of the well-documented advantages of 'ubiqituous notation'. I could be editing my log or adding new paragraphs at any time using my phone: be it when I was commuting home on the train, or while having a coffee somewhere. This approach also benefited my tutors, as they always had access to the most up-to-date version of my log. While this was not an approach that anyone had proposed before, DIT were happy to come on board. I just checked back with the team at DIT while preparing this presentation and it turned out that — in their estimation — this methodology meant that I gave my tutors five times as much content as they were used to dealing with. (That figure surprised me, as I am a pretty ruthless editor.) Still it must have been on the better side of the quantity/quality spectrum, as they were pretty more than happy with it.

Linking back to my hopes about how the class participants would work together and what we'd learn from each other. That turned out to be one of the most successful aspects of the year: one that provided a lot of learning-by-doing. Firstly, there were a lot more team-based projects and activities than I expected. For what was a pretty individualistic group (in the good sense), the challenges of those team-based projects meant that we had to learn to work together very quickly to maximise our efficiency and effectiveness. A deeper understanding of the ways that different people have of learning and of their preferred roles and strengths within any team was the most valuable output of that process. Something that paid immediate dividends for me in my professional responsibilities.

Having said that, the one aspect of my MA which provided both the greatest challenge and the greatest reward was the most individualistic: writing my dissertation. I did my research in the area of business blogging and uses of social media within the Irish professional design sector. I saw this topic is an area of expertise that I wished to develop, and a specialism that would complement my existing work as a brand consultant. I intended to gain expertise in this area to bring added value to all of my clients.

In my professional career it is the intellectual challenge of wrestling with complex strategic branding issues that gets me to my desk in the morning. So the level of mastery gained in amassing a comprehensive body of knowledge about my chosen topic; interrogating that; constructing a comprehensive, cogent argument; writing, editing, rewriting and finally producing that great big tangible slab of research was a process that totally engaged me. (Having taken that journey, I think I have the resources I need for whenever I eventually get around to writing my book, some day...)

Was it worth it?
Yes, it was completely worth it. I have found that the MA brought many concrete actionable outputs for the company – in that I had new ideas which we added into the mix and also new skills and knowledge I got to implement. So I have become actively involved in management at a more substantive level, both in terms of my responsibilities and in the opportunities that I have to input.

I also believe that the overall meta-topic of “Learning To Learn” was equal in importance and value to the formal content of the programme and the topics that we covered.

What did I gain?
It would be hyperbole to claim that I was a 'completely different person' after completing the programme. Rather, what I can say is that personal development was it's overarching outcome. I do believe that particular implicit traits and under-emphasised aspects of my personality were put under the microscope, drawn out, honed and sharpened in the intensity of those twelve months.

So that now I:
— Think more critically.
— Query my own assumptions.
— Query the assumptions of my associates and my clients.

Which is supported with:
— Greater self-awareness
— Enhanced self-management
— A greater desire to learn
— A stronger core of self-reliance

All of which, in my opinion, fall within that master set of central personal attributes that each of us needs to internalise and embody; to carve out success in whatever individual field of expertise we choose to excel in.

Thank you.

#analysis #dissertation #learning #management #presentation

Implications Of Multi-Variant Brand Mark Systems

2011-05-03T13:13:00.005+01:00

Technology now supports the implementation of complex brand identity systems where the most fundamental elements, such as the brand mark, may have multiple variations (examples include MIT Media Lab, Aol and London 2012 identities). In practice, what is the trade-off between the flexibility and freedom of expression and the overhead of time and resources needed to make such systems work effectively?

Firstly, wearing my Creative Director hat, I find the potential for experimentation, opportunity and innovation in this novel class of technology-enabled, procedural, multi-variant identity systems to be very exciting and challenging. Creating and implementing a branding system along these lines is the kind of project which my own skill-set is totally suited to.

Secondly, putting on my ‘How do we deliver this project on budget’ hat, I cannot help but ponder what overheads such multi-variant branding systems place on their marketing teams and subsequently on to their branding and design partners?

In my experience, a company’s goal is often to remove as much extraneous variation as possible from within their brand identity system. Every quanta of variation added into the system brings some management overhead. Each is one extra thing to discuss, debate and approve: yet another straw on the camel’s back. In a business environment where marketing budgets and departments are shrinking, marketers are trying to conserve their time for big-ticket, strategic marketing decisions by standardising and codifying as much if the supporting visual expression as they possibly can.

In practice, one vital outcome that Marketing Directors invariably want when they commission a brand guidance system is to draw a line in the sand. They wish to record all of the key choices made and the decisions taken about the visual expression of their brand. They want to clarify for all of their internal audiences what is on and what is off the table. Therefore, one of the key benefits gained from their investment in brand guidance systems is enhanced focus and clarity added to many internal discussions.

Having an agreed branding framework allows the Marketing Director to more efficiently move past irrelevant feedback and get internal parties to contribute where they give must value.

“I’m sorry. I realise you have decided — given your vast experience creating your own PowerPoint decks — that Trebuchet is the best typeface ever designed. However our corporate typeface is SomeFontName. If you refer to page 44 of our brand guidelines..."

“I know that your wife painted your en-suite in that colour and it ‘never worked for you’, but this colour is from the agreed secondary palette associated with your department, so we are going to run with it.”

“Now, what I really need your valuable input on is, firstly, the headline and image on this cover. Does this accurately express your positioning and departmental message for this year?”

And so forth. Working within this operational methodology, the brand mark is one of the first discussion points taken off the table.

So what happens when your brand mark has N possible permutations? The counter-productive scenario I imagine is discussing a literature design commission like these three Melbourne covers for example. Using a procedural, multi-variant brand mark, I envisage the most resistant internal party* asking: “Can you guarantee this is the best of the N possible brand marks that works with that cover image for my brochure?” Somewhat inevitably followed with “Can we evaluate that layout with the ten next best brand mark versions.” (*Too often, there is always one.)

How does the company ensure that one innovative systemic decision by their branding consultants does not have wide-ranging impacts on the decision-making time lines (and therefore the budgets) of multiple design projects downstream?

The successful implementation of a branding system of this nature must therefore depend on a powerful willingness of the organisation to accept that some expressions of their brand are going to work better than others. Success also hinges on the internal culture and personality of the organisation — it is more interested in control and standardisation, or more interested in freedom of expression and variety?

Following on from my line of thinking in this post, I asked this question on Quora: ‘In practice, do multi-variant brand marks (such as MIT Media Lab, Aol and London 2012) introduce much additional management overhead on their marketing teams and design partners?’ You can track any answers here.

References
MIT Media Lab identity in Fast Company
Aol identity in Fast Company
City of Melbourne identity on Behance Network
City of Melbourne on Brand New
London 2012 identity at Wolff Olins
Wikipedia ‘living brand’ concept by Moving Brands

#branding #corporate_identity #brand_architecture #marketing #master_branding #masterbrand

Rebranding The Office For Social Media Effectiveness

2011-04-05T13:24:00.016+01:00

I wrote this fake news story for April Fool’s Day 2011 and we hosted it on the BFK site for that one day. I still like it, and want to archive it here.

Social media solutions within the civil service and the broader state sector.

We have just completed a major rebranding programme for The Office For Social Media Effectiveness to help them deliver on their strategic objectives. Established in 2009, the role and remit of the Office has expanded alongside the adoption of social media solutions within the civil service and the broader state sector. From today it is relaunching as “Status:State”.

We created this new name to express the breathless potential for communication possible through the simplicity and clarity of the now-ubiquitous status update. This name researched 23% better amongst key stakeholder groups, as opposed to other candidates such as “@Ireland”, “Like:Ireland” and “Status-Up!”

Our brand mark design builds on the new name by leveraging the visual tropes and aesthetic conventions of social media in a unique, memorable and captivating manner. It forms the basis for a comprehensive visual system. Richard Bar, Director of Outreach for Status:State, says “We are confident this new brand will resonate with our clients and key stakeholders and that they will really ‘Like’ it”.

This rebranding is not a cosmetic exercise, it reflects the ongoing activities of the Office. Our design work is informing and supporting these initiatives being rolled out in 2012/13.

1: Mentoring Activities
Status:State are now running introductory four-day workshops and in-depth 23-week courses in social media best practice. These certified programmes will ensure state employees have the skills to operate in the new ‘Social 2.0 Sharing Economy’. We designed a suite of easy-to-use workbooks and 140-character flash cards to deliver these programmes.

2: The Bi-Tweet
Status:State are working with Facebook, Twitter and their peers to implement technological solutions resolving social media's shortcomings in complying with the Official Languages Act. They have authored the OLA-240 protocol that will ensure all state-generated tweets shall be bilingual in future. BFK provided user experience and interface guidance to this project. “We expect most Irish people will install the software patch* enabling the Bi-Tweet” says Donal O’Auth, Head of Linguistic Enablement.
(*Initially Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian; other platforms pending review and phase two roll-out in 2013.)

3: The ‘Social Media Driving Licence’
This initiative will deliver a set of standard benchmarks and transferable skills. Our licence designs incorporate holograms, QR codes and RFID tags and are graded to reflect skills acquired: from the bronze-coloured ‘Noob’ all the way up to the gold-coloured ‘Scoble’ licence.

More information is available at the Office’s upgraded and enhanced web site: Status-State-Online.ie

#branding #brand_architecture #masterbrand #graphicdesign #graphic_design

Dan Cobley’s Ten Paths To Innovation — #dws5

2011-03-19T21:00:00.003Z

Image by Dublin Web Summit.

Dan Cobley, marketing director at Google Europe, gave the keynote at last week’s Dublin Web Summit. He outlined ten principles Google have adopted that could make your company more innovative.

1: Hire the right people who fit your ethos.
He showed a great example of a Google recruitment advert. It was essentially a blank billboard containing {complex equation}.com, if you had the smarts to resolve the equation and find the URL, then you could get a job interview.

2: Ideas come from everywhere.
Don’t always look to product experts: look for the passion.
Google has an internal Dragons Den programme where new initiatives can be proposed and mentored. They also run an Ideas-based online forum. He cited Google Mapmaker initiative This is crowd-sourced map-making overlaid on satellite imagery, which is generating high quality detailed maps in countries that never had good ordinance survey.

3: Share all information.
As an example, within Google itself, not only are everyone’s KPIs public, but their grades and scores are available online as well.

4: Data drives all decisions.
An engineering mindset based on data-driven testing is a core attribute at Google. For example they tested 42 different shades of blue on the link headlines in adverts. (OK, so that makes the designer in me cringe *a lot* but the eventual outcome of that process adds $230m to their bottom line annually...)

5: Launch early and often: kill fast.

6: Balance your resources.
Google spends 70% of their time on core business, 20% on related extensions on that core and 10% on future-looking exploratory work (such as their electric car initiative). You need to ensure you shall be relevant in the years ahead.

7: Prioritise ruthlessly, based on potential and efficiency.
Four quadrants:
Lean Execution | Scale Agressively
Kill Quickly | Test Quickly

8: Do quirky stuff.
Google coded a fully-working Pac-Man game into the logo on their home page. People ask him why his company would invest n-thousand man hours to create something that wasted approximately 4.8 billion global working hours?

9: Put users first, then look at money.
Build it and the money will come...

10: Bet on the future (and on Moore’s Law).
When Google bought YouTube they were advised that the bandwidth costs would cripple them over time. Similarly with Gmail, at launch they offered significantly more storage than all other cloud mail services. But in both cases they have crested the technology wave and stayed ahead of the game. Bandwidth costs have dropped as YouTube adoption and usage has soared. Gmail memory allocations are increased week on week.

When asked to focus within this list, Cobley choose one, four and ten as his key points.

I have been blogging some of my notes from a selection of the presentations and roundtables at dws5.

Building Brands Roundtable Panel — #dws5

2011-03-14T13:00:00.005Z

Photo by Dublin Web Summit.

The second panel at last week’s Dublin Web Summit featured Ray Nolan of Hostelworld, Breon Corcoran of Paddy Power and brand consultant Noel Toolin.

They talked around the topic of creating a brand for your start-up. The main trust of their conversation focussed on elevating the audience’s thinking on brand beyond visual expression and into the realm of behaviour and culture. Along the same lines of conversations I have with my clients.

I captured this (paraphrased) bullet list of opinions and ideas.

On branding
RN: Brand is everything.
RN: Build the brand upwards and outwards from your staff.
NT: Brand is behaviour.
NT: You don't have to be the best, you just have to have the best reputation.
NT: When you boil it down, this branding stuff is so simple even an engineer could do it.
RN: Your brand should be something you would happily tattoo on yourself.

On market share
NT: Focus on where you are not doing well and ask why are you not exceeding there. Then act on that.

On naming online services
RN: These days names need to be short, onomatopoeic and alingual. Neither too hard to spell nor too hard to guess how to spell. How would a customer in China spell your name?

On competition
NT: Who are you going to displace?
BC: Who are your future competitors?
Don't just focus on your existing competitors or just within your vertical. For example Paddy Power now has to compete with Zynga now for their customer’s attention and spend. (Far more aggressive competition than corner betting shops, I assume.)

On approaches to brand implementation
NT: If your product is truly outstanding then you can support a flexible branding approach. You have the luxury of it not always having to be about consistency. The default example is the Google home page.
BC: Although their “do no evil” motto sounds a bit dull to me …

I am blogging my notes from a selection of the presentations and roundtables at dws5.

Jerry Kennelly’s business axioms — #dws5

2011-03-11T13:23:00.024Z

Photo by Dublin Web Summit.

Jerry Kennelly, founder of Tweak.com, was the third speaker at this week’s Dublin Web Summit. His concentrated presentation distilled some personal business axioms that he had developed over his career.

1: Are you making life better?
Does your company have a greater vision beyond anything wholly based around money. For Tweak.com, his vision is to democratise design: “To bring Madison Avenue to Main Street USA.”

2: Operate in a business with high margins
His first company Stockbyte had a margin of 94% on some images and was delivering two million in profit per month before he sold it to Getty Images.

3: Know your competition
Understand where you fit in relative to them within your industry’s ecosystem. Specifically: what is your company's reason to exist?

4: Disruptors can quickly become disruptees
He sold Stockbyte before the companies coming in underneath him overtook him and the market value stock images hit equilibrium at about $10 per image.

5: Are you moving fast but not fast enough?
The reality of business online is: Faster, Better, Cheaper. Don’t wait for perfection when building your service; get in front of customers and start transactions fast.

6: Take the easy money
Build partnerships for channel sales. He has a white-label version of Tweak.com that he is partnering with print companies and stock libraries.

7: Use talent pools
Hire globally. Don’t fool yourself that all of the great skills you need can be found in Ireland. The best people are all over the world. Related to this: fire them fast. If someone is not performing after two months they are unlikely to change.

(Update: it turns out that Jerry presented nine axioms, but I didn't note them all.)

I am going to blog my notes from a selection of the presentations and roundtables at dws5.

Get Your Blog On

2011-03-01T09:35:00.001Z

A friend of mine has been talking about setting up a blog, and talking and talking about it some more. A year later and there is still no blog. Here is my advice for anyone stuck at that point. In true blogging metier, I have composed this as a ten-point list (ironic or not, you decide.)

1. Firstly, go and set up a blog right now. It costs nothing and you can start straight away at WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Tumblr.com or Posterous.com. Take your pick. (Each platform has its pros and cons, depending on the nature of your intended blogging activities, and that is a separate post for me to write. Also at this point, when you don’t have any blog, their differences are irrelevant.)

2. Pick one of the default templates. Don’t spend any time customising or fiddling around with the various design and layout settings. Which will prove to be a complete waste of time if you discover that blogging is not for you after a month or so. This will also delay you getting to step four below.

3. If you have a smartphone, then download the blogging app associated with your chosen service. Do this straight away. It will allow you to blog whenever you have an idea. Which removes another impediment to you starting to write.

4. Start writing. Write one post every day for two weeks. You will suck, but you will get better.

5. Don’t tell anyone about your blog at this point. That way you can relax, assured that no-one will find it amongst the millions of blogs being set up every day. Write what you like, try things out, learn, unlearn and relearn. No-one will read it except you, so you can review your writing and begin to improve. You can also observe which themes bring out your best writing. (And did I mention that you need to keep writing.)

6. You can always go back and edit or delete your early test posts and any embarrassing first steps

7. Keep writing and posting. (Thinking about doing it is not the same as doing it. Buying a pair of trainers is not the same as going running.)

8. Now when you do decide to tell people about your blog and add links from your social network via your Facebook and Linked-In profiles and such-like, your blog will now have a body of posts, Hopefully some of them will be worth reading.

9. Keep writing and posting.

10. Start today. (What is stopping you?) Do this now. Why are you still here?

Perception Is Reality

2011-02-23T13:00:00.006Z

I followed the Twitter back-channel commentary that ran alongside both last week’s five-man and yesterday’s three-man leadership debates on RTE. It is insightful and eye opening to see just how much the preconceptions people bring with them effect their interpretations of such a shared communal event.

If you look back over the #rtedeb stream and you will mostly find alternating Tweets giving diametrically opposite comments about each participants performance. One viewer’s “statesmanlike demenure” is another's “wooden immobility”. Every robust exchange on-screen is followed by a flurry of tweets counterpointing “MM really stuck it to him there” with “MM is acting like a petulant schoolboy again”. The pattern was repeated for all leaders and for all points raised.

I have to acknowledge the self-selecting aspect of the set of people choosing to comment on such political debates in real-time. That many have also chosen to declare their political allegiance in their Twitter avatars suggests a higher than average level of engagement offline. Unfortunately it also reveals (to me) a disinclination to see all sides of the debate.

It's disappointing how predictable the responses are. How refreshing it would be for someone with an FG-flavoured avatar to say, for example, that Gilmore made the better argument about some point. (Particularly when market research and the prevailing mood both indicate an FG/Labour coalition as the preferred electoral outcome.) Surely no-one has the monopoly on good ideas.

Applying these observations to my own area of expertise, one has to ask what preconceptions are people bringing with them when they think about your brand?
— Who tends to see you in a good light, no matter what your failings?
— Who always sees you in a negative way, despite your best efforts to explain otherwise?
— How do you address each of those audiences?
— Which do you spend most of your time focusing on?
Something worth pondering on.

Books On Branding

2011-02-21T15:24:00.003Z

I have curated this short list of recommended books on brands, brand design and branding issues for a lecture on corporate identity and branding that I am giving at the School of Art, Design and Printing in the Dublin Institute of Technology. I am sharing it here as it may be of broader interest.

Marks of Excellence — Per Mollerup, 1999
Comprehensive and exhaustive, the standard by which all future works on brand marks will be measured. ISBN 0714838381

The New Guide To Identity — Wally Olins, 1996
Difficult to find these days, but this concise guidebook covers all of the stages of an corporate identity project. ISBN: 056607737X

The Brand Handbook — Wally Olins, 2008
This latest book by the master of brand identity thinking is this more accessible primer. A good place to start. ISBN: 0500514089

On Brand — Wally Olins, 2004
Olins attempt to synthesise all of his thinking into one comprehensive textbook. Not without its flaws but definitely essential reading if you are serious about understanding branding. ISBN 0500285152

The Invisible Grail — John Simmons, 2006
Simmons’ impeccable work on the role of language in establishing and sustaining brands. ISBN 9812618325

The Brand Gap — Marty Neumeier, 2005
A short, concise read. Full of insightful brand thinking, presented in an interesting way. I recommended this to my MD and he bought one hundred copies! ISBN 0321348109

Purple Cow — Seth Godin, 2005
Godin's concise, opinionated manifesto for reinventing marketing and focusing on remarkable differentiation. If you only read one book on marketing this year... ISDN 014101640X

My Sister’s A Barista — John Simmons, 2004
All of the books in Cyan’s series Great Brand Stories are a good read. This one by John Simmons is a great place to start. ISBN 1904879276

Brands And Branding — The Economist, 2009
Branding dissected from a far more business-orientated perspective. Well worth the effort if you are up for it. ISBN 1846681197

I have found all of these books invaluable at one time or another, and can recommend them to designers and marketers alike.

Tasting The Bacn

2011-01-25T12:11:00.003Z

Email is not a marketing channel I have given much thought to over the past few years. A quick review of my own email consumption behaviours, habits and patterns proved informative about the utility of the subscription emails in my in-box.

Inspired by both this month’s resurgence of the debate on the death of RSS and the idea of auditing and optimising one’s Personal Knowledge Network, I have done some tracking and analysis of my inputs and outputs. Currently, I still get most of my information via RSS. So I wanted to begin with email, as that is more manageable. I reviewed the bacn, those one-to-many periodic email communications that I allow into my attention stream. Beyond unsubscribing from particularly egregious, annoying or tedious specimens, I have never reviewed or actively managed these before.

My review has revealed that the bacn which retains my attention has the following characteristics:
— Educates me rather than informs me.
— Improves me rather than promotes you.
— Is opinionated rather than diplomatic.
— Is really well written (or, failing that, is really written the heart).
— Is exclusive email content, rather than re-purposed from other channels.

The more it delivers on those characteristics, the more likely I am to read the majority of the email communications. I also have found that the ideal volume of content is related to the frequency of publication.

For some more specifics, I have grouped some example bacn into five categories, from high to low engagement.

Prime Bacn — Where I read all of the emails I receive.
Here are two informative examples, interesting for how different they are as well as how similar.

Seth Godin’s email newsletter. These are short, pithy fortune cookies for businesses, published on a daily schedule. This is a blog delivered by email. I could just push this into my RSS reader, but then I would end up reading four or five at once. The one-a-day metronome is key to why this works for me. Reasons for reading all: great content, personal tone and consistently challenging ideas.

The Jason Nation mailing list. These are essay-length emails, each covering one topic in depth, published on a loose monthly-ish time line. There is definitely a length of email to frequency of publication ratio at work here. When one of these lands, I know it's going to be a long read and I need to set aside some time to digest it. My reasons for reading all of these: this is newsletter-subscribers-only content, with exclusive ideas not published under different channels. Great content with opinionated, provocative writing. (This has just been rebranded with a new name: Launch, and a new focus. It was always the Jason Nation email list until now.)

Sub-Prime Bacn — Where I do read all, but do not necessarily finish each email.
My reasons for not reading all of these are that there is usually too much volume to keep on top of, along with a variable signal-to-noise ratio. Examples: Quora Updates, GTD Newsletter, Linked-In Groups Updates,

Aggregated Bacn — Where I skim through the emails.
These are automated emails delivering summaries of content posted in the last week/month. Content is list-based rather than in prose form. Usually I have subscribed in cases where I don’t visit the site regularly, but grabbing the RSS feed would sent way too much content my way. I skim the contents of each email, but generally don’t follow up on most of the web links. Examples: The New Ideas Report from PSFK, ChangeThis, Fluffy Links, Fast Company and BrandChannel.

i-Bacn — Where I may either read or delete based on the email headline.
Mostly updates from online services and iPhone apps that I use. Examples: Linked-In Blog, Foursquare Blog, 37Signals Newsletters, Moo Newsletter, Field Notes Newsletter.

Bacn Schmacn — Where I usually delete without opening the email.
Generally these are newsletter-style updates from photographers, illustrators, printers, and image stock libraries I have used in the past. Really I should do these people the courtesy of unsubscribing. This category of bacn can easily become digital barnacles that need to scraped off periodically.

What works for you?
As a reader, which bacn emails are most useful to you? If you publish periodic email communications, what kinds of content and frequencies of publication give you the best results against your goals?

A (Very) Concise Review Of Offset 2010

2010-11-02T08:44:00.002Z

Offset 2010 was a three-day event celebrating creativity and the power of the creative process. It was held in the Grand Canal Theatre on the first week of October.

Now in its second year, the independently-financed conference was more expansive this year, with a larger venue, more attendees, and an ambitious programme of presentations, interactive sessions and many related events taking place throughout Dublin. As with last year’s conference, one of the unique charms of Offset is the breadth and variety of its contributors. While some speakers may align with your own preferences and interests, there is always the possibility of discovering engaging presentations by unfamiliar speakers. Given 24 main presentations and 17 secondary sessions, the following are unavoidably brief highlights.

Irish designer Aiden Grennelle acquitted himself admirably with a considered presentation on his influences and career. He combined a low-key presentation style with a determined rigour and understated passion for his work.

Scott Daditch on stage. Photo: Aiden Kenny.

Scott Dadich from Wired magazine inspired and intrigued with a behind-the-scenes look at the development of their iPad app. He was savvy enough to recognise that – although magazine apps are cousins of the dead-end CD-ROMs of the nineties – today’s technological landscape should ensure they avoid that technological cul-de-sac. He was especially interesting on the operational challenges of producing the interactive version of Wired in parallel with the printed edition, both within the same 28-day work flow.

The weekend’s only serious misfire was nineties wunderkind David Carson's ill-prepared and over-long session. Starting out as quirky and amusing, he quickly descended into shambolic tedium.

Veteran designer Lance Wyman's career retrospective concentrated on his environmental graphics, particularly his striking work for the 1968 Mexican Olympics. Unfortunately Wyman proved a somewhat reticent interview subject at his later Q&A session.

George Speaks. Photo: Aiden Kenny.

Offset’s undisputed heavyweight champion was George Lois; the septuagenarian ad man earning a standing ovation for his barnstorming presentation on Saturday evening. He followed that by breezing through an extended Q&A session the next day. His no-nonsense conversational style, pithy anecdotes and uncompromising can-do attitude were a refreshing antidote to the economic gloom in that Sunday's newspapers. He also challenged some prevailing design reflexes by embodying a creative approach that focuses on outcomes above artefacts.

While the individual presentations in the main auditorium did not permit audience engagement, that was facilitated in a second room with complimentary interviews and themed round-table discussions. Saturday’s ‘Future of Publishing’ session was the most insightful and engaging, addressing the many ways digital distribution channels are disrupting archaic business models in the publishing, design and media industries. The four-man panel [Scott Dadich, Stephen Heller, Adrian Shaughnessy and Hugh Linehan) tackling a topic fully deserving of it’s own three-day conference. That both the digital evangelists and the print advocate agreed on print inevitably becoming a niche channel as the larger proportion of all audiences migrates to digital was particularly telling. Videos of all sessions from both rooms will be posted at iloveoffset

Future of Publishing Session. Photo: Aiden Kenny.

It is worth noting that – alongside the creative possibilities of digital futures – Offset provided a beneficial counterpoint with a strong sense of historical perspective also informing the event. Those sessions featuring evergreen design work from the sixties and seventies were amongst the most inspiring of the weekend.

The Small Print have delivered on the ambitious goals they set for themselves with this event. Offset now sets the standard for all other Irish design conferences and festivals to aspire to.

This article also appeared in the Winter 2010 edition of the Institute of Designers in Ireland newsletter Ratio.

We Are All Semi-Geeks Now

2010-09-21T09:06:00.001+01:00

Waiting on a friend in a bar the other night, I noticed that all of the conversations going on simultaneously at the three nearest tables (it was a small bar: everyone was pretty close together) were all about tech and/or social media. Now this wasn’t a tech crowd, it was a typical off-Grafton Street Thursday night shopping crowd.

One woman was showing her friend how to use Facebook on her smartphone and explaining how she could use to keep up with a greater number of her friends far more effectively and (this was emphasised) without paying mobile operator text messaging fees.

At table two, an American guy was explaining the concept of the Slingbox product and service to his Irish friends and wondering why it wasn't available over here. (A good question.) He was using it to keep up to date with the fourth series of Mad Men from his Irish hotel room.

Finally, at the third table, a woman was quizzing her companion about apps on her iPhone and in the iTunes Store: “How come there were so many of them?” and “Does Apple make them all?”.

OK, so a lot of these people were learning more about, or grappling with, the tech, rather than geeking-out about it. Let's call them semi-geeks. Even so, it is fascinating to me how quickly these sorts of pretty geeky conversations – that were very early-adopter niche topics on the TWiG, TWiT and MacBreak podcasts* as recently as two years ago – have now completely tipped over into the mainstream. So much of this is driven by the utility and ubiquity of the revitalised smartphone marketplace.

I know this is anecdotal and based on a sample of one, but even in the midst of the most crippling recession, the amount of smartphones I am seeing around me in Dublin is growing week on week. Five years ago I seemed to be the only person on the morning commute with a PDA, tapping out blog posts on my Palm in Graffiti Script with a stylus. Now most commuters are reading, writing or viewing on some class of smartphone device. That’s a massive reversal in a short time period.

As all of this technology and software filters out to a far wider demographic beyond the early adopters and the corporate users, it surely puts evolutionary pressure on both hardware and software creators to simplify and clarify everything they do. Listening to those conversations, I can see that something like the idealised version of the notional ‘Facebook phone’ would be so appealing to so many people. It could be as easy as buying the phone, logging-in to Facebook and having immediate access to all of their contacts and content. It would not appeal to me, but could be a seriously compelling proposition for all of those semi-geeks out there.

*Actually, how MacBreak Weekly effectively morphed into ‘iPhone Weekly’ and how This Week in Google is more like ‘This Week in Android’ these days is another blog post altogether...

Sharing Your Sign-up (or Twaring Your Twign-up, even)

2010-08-24T14:12:00.002+01:00

Here is a novel UI pattern. I was investigating a new Twitter-related service called Twournal* yesterday. I was applying for a beta invite to see how it worked. The ‘Request An Invite Code’ button did not take me to a page requesting the usual level of authentication (typically an email, a Twitter login or a Facebook login). Rather, to request this particular invitation, the process required me to activate the above viral tweet that would let all of my followers know that I was making the application.

I can see the organisational logic of how this would quickly propagate initial awareness of a new service. But I wonder how much this practice also serves as a potential retarding agent on adoption rates.

What do you think? Would having to tweet your sign-ups when testing new services like this make you less likely to proceed further? (Irrespective of how likely the name of said notional service is going to get you needled by your friends. You know who you are.)

—
‘Twournal.’ Ouch! That’s the best they could do? Its a name that epitomises the convention skewered so well in the recent Twitter Movie parody video: “I’m drinking twhiskey.”

Splinternet in the wild

2010-07-30T14:09:00.001+01:00

I have been thinking about the views expressed here and here by Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research about what he calls the ‘Splinternet’. One other aspect arising from his thesis is that Facebook is becoming (has become) a de-facto second internet alongside the primary internet. There are many connections between the two. But it is becoming increasingly common for many people to spend the majority of time online within Facebook’s walled garden. This is therefore increasing pressure on organisations and businesses to communicate within the confines of Facebook.

Examples of this happening are all around us. Walking from the train this morning I passed a shop with a ‘Find us on Facebook’ sticker in the window. Then this Carlsberg bus shelter advert had a prominent ‘Friend us on Facebook’ banner beside the traditional URL.

A 98FM-branded car parked further down the street had incorporated versions of the Twitter, YouTube and Facebook icons into its livery. As they have done in their press advert in today’s paper shown here.

All of these examples indicate organisations responding to incentives/pressure to be active within these social networks. I wonder if most will end up having to replicate much of their online content within Facebook Pages micro-sites as well as on their own dedicated websites?

I am also interested in the overhead of time/personnel organisations will need to bring to bear on their social media activities. Given that the important word in social media is ‘social’ its a given that cross-posting content into Facebook is not a useful strategy for anyone. If they are going to use Facebook to engage with their customers and have actual conversations, what resources are required? The idea of a Facebook page were the organisation only replies between nine and five on weekdays might seem logical to certain classes of organisation, but is nonsense in the real time web. Depending on the size of the organisation is 24/7 uptime required? How many people do you need to resource up for that? What do you think?

Become an editor of your user base

2010-05-17T13:45:00.000+01:00

Some good insights in Jack Dorsey’s deadpan presentation ‘Three keys to Twitter’s Success’ at the 99% conference. He explains some interesting findings from his experience (starting at around 10:50), particularly how Twitter has grown by being “more or less an editor of its user-base and an editor of the usage”. He recalls how they initially resisted a lot of the innovations being created outside of the company by their users. In the end they succeeded by being open enough to adopt the position of an editor and absorb all of the feedback and input, and then act on it and use it to drive rapid iteration and improvements.

Its only the map, not the territory

2010-05-17T08:23:00.000+01:00

Here is a cautionary counterpoint to all of the blog-love that I can post here. Its something I came across in this Reuters feature on Larry Ellison over the weekend.

Ellison says he learned that Sun's pony-tailed chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, ignored problems as they escalated, made poor strategic decisions and spent too much time working on his blog, which Sun translated into 11 languages. “Really great blogs do not take the place of great microprocessors. Great blogs do not replace great software. Lots and lots of blogs does not replace lots and lots of sales” said Ellison.

It is always worth remembering that a blog is an adjunct to your core activities. Having a great blog is of little use unless you also Do Great Work.

Ten DBI member companies blogging in 2010 (of 50)

2010-05-13T08:39:00.004+01:00

I reviewed all of the graphic design companies listed as members of Design Business Ireland on the DBI website and identified which have a link to a company blog on their primary company website. This does not preclude their being such a blog, but where none is visible on the company website an inference can be made as to how the blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

The DBI now has 50 member companies listed on its website (accessed on 31 March 2010). 44 of which were included in last year’s review. Three companies have left the DBI since 2009: Affinity, BFK and Design Factory. Four companies have joined the DBI since last year: Clickworks, Design Tactics, Janus Design and mxbrandcom.

Ten of the 48 relevant DBI member companies are publishing corporate blogs, an increase of four on last year’s six. Fifteen DBI member companies now have corporate Twitter accounts, an increase of 13 on last year’s two. Three DBI member companies are also now publishing corporate Facebook pages compared to none last year.

The following ten member companies now have a link to their corporate blog on their company web sites. These six were not included in my 2009 DBI research.

Baseline Their Knowledge Centre was established in May of 2009 (their corporate website was surveyed prior to that, in April of last year). It is a collection of business and marketing tips.
Creative Inc are now publishing the Creative Inc Blog.
Design Tactics are now publishing the Creativity With Purpose blog.
DrawingInc are now publishing the D’blog.
Frank are now publishing the Moving Ideas blog.
Neworld are now publishing the Ireland Inc blog.
Details about these six blogs will be found in the Irish graphic design company blogs page linked in this blog’s masthead.

The following four member companies were included in my 2009 research.
Penhouse Their Fresh Air Blog links from their home page, with comments and an RSS feed, but no social networking features.
The Brand Union An ‘Our Blogs’ link from the international home page leads to the Dublin office blog, with comments and an RSS feed, but no social networking features.
Rain Communications Their blog links from their home page, with comments, social networking features and an RSS feed.
20-20 Vision The news section of their website is in a blog format.
(Regarding the two other blogs included in my 2009 findings, Creative Media have abandoned theirs and BFK are no longer DBI members.)

These 40 member companies had no link to a corporate blog on their company web sites.

01 AKGraphics [www.akgraphics.ie]
02 Big Fish Design [www.bigfishdesign-ad.com]
03 Blink Design [www.blinkdesign.ie]
04 Catalysto [www.catalysto.com]
05 Clickworks [www.clickworks.ie]
06 Creative Media [www.creativemediani.com] Note: their 2009 blog is now inactive.
07 Dara Creative [www.daracreative.ie]
08 Dcoy Design [www.dcoy.ie]
09 Design Associates [www.designassociates.ie]
10 Designbank [www.designbankltd.com ]
11 Designers Ink [www.designers-ink.ie]
12 DesignInMind [www.designinmind.ie]
13 Designworks [www.designworks.ie]
14 Drawinginc [www.drawinginc.com]
15 Eamon Sinnott and Partners [www.sinnott-design.com]
16 Form [www.form.ie]
17 Fuse Graphic Design [www.fuse.ie]
18 GSDC [www.gsdc.net]
19 HamillBosket [www.hamillbosket.com]
20 Huguenot [www.huguenot.ie]
21 IDEA [www.idea.ie]
22 Janus Design [www.janusdesign.ie]
23 Konnect Media [www.konnectmedia.com]
24 Martello Media [www.martellomedia.com]
25 Mesh Design Consultants [www.meshdesign.ie]
26 mxbrandcom [www.mxbrandcom.co.uk]
27 Pica Design [www.pica.ie]
28 Positive Design Consultants [www.positivedesign.co.uk]
29 Principle [www.principle.ie]
30 Profiles Design and Marketing [www.profiles.ie]
31 Proviz Design and Visualisation [www.proviz.ie]
32 Rain Design Partners [www.raindesign.com]
33 Raven Design [www.ravendesign.ie]
34 Red Dog [www.reddog.ie]
35 Roomthree Design [www.roomthree.com]
36 Source Design Consultants [www.sourcedesign.ie]
37 Totem Visual Communications [www.totem.ie]
38 Zebedee Marketing and Design [www.zebedee.ie]

Two remaining DBI member companies are product/furniture design companies and would have fallen outside of the scope of my original research which concerned graphic design companies.
39 Dolmen [www.dolmen.ie]
40 Shane Holland Design [www.shanehollanddesign.com]

This list does not capture any company design blogs which are not linked from the company’s primary website, or any personal blogs maintained by company directors or employees.

My twenty primary iPod/iPhone apps

2010-04-30T08:48:00.003+01:00

As people do seem to be asking me about iPhone/iPod apps quite a lot these days, I am posting this here so that in future I shall have something I can link to. Borrowing the format established by the excellent First and 20 I have listed the twenty apps that are most useful to me and thus have earned a spot on my home screen. I am forever adding and subtracting apps off my iPod, but this core set remains very consistent and a new app needs to really make an impression on me to knock one of these twenty off my first screen in SpringBoard.

Default Apple apps
Seven of Apple’s default installed suite of apps still remain on my home screen: Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Music, Safari, Settings and the App Store. (I use an iPod, so I don’t need to reserve any of the available slots for phone, SMS or camera apps.)
— Settings remains really only because I use this every day to switch the Music app in and out of it's ‘Spoken Word’ equaliser preset when alternating between listening to podcasts and music.
— Safari is still hanging in there, but is almost on its way off my home page as I mostly open websites from links within Tweetie, Reeder and Instapaper now. I go online directly using this Safari icon less and less these days.
The other five Apple defaults seem pretty self-explanatory to me, so let me skip ahead to the thirteen non-Apple apps.

Instapaper
Everything I come across that I want to read gets piped into Instapaper so that I can review it when I have time commuting. I use this app every day. Also, I just really like the way it strips out everything from a website except what I need to read. You are probably using this already. If not then start today. Get the free version if you like, but I would just go straight to the premium version, it doesn't cost much more than a cup of coffee after all.

Reeder
I took a break from RSS readers in my post-MA blog-burnout phase. Reeder brought me back into the fold, allowing me actually make use of my Google Reader account. Its integration with Instapaper seals the deal for me.

Evernote
Turns your iPhone into your outboard brain, to borrow Mr Ellis’ phrase. It is fantastic for organising multiple disparate inputs. I basically organised all of my Masters dissertation research using Evernote. Its equally useful for something as simple as your weekly shopping list. The server-side text recognition within photographs is amazingly useful too. The iPhone version has come on immensely since I started using it, but it still feels like its not quite there.

Simplenote
A superior replacement for Apple's bundled Notes app. Aesthetically Simplenote eschews the yellow legal pad and handwriting font of Notes’ UI and delivers a white page and sans-serif text. This has the benefit that what you are writing feels more substantial and worthwhile already — before you start having to do the actual work. Total win! Seriously though, the real secret sauce is the seamless syncing with the online Simplenote service. This means my notes are backed up and editable on the desktop at all times. (If you also learn Merlin Mann's neat QQQQQ hack you will get even better use of this app.)

Tweetie 2
Without a doubt the best Twitter client app to date (believe me, I have tried way too many of them). That I have paid for this twice when there are hundreds of free Twitter clients in the App Store is a testimony to it’s utility. The good news if you are not using it yet is that it's been acquired by Twitter and will soon be available for free once it is rebranded as the official ‘Twitter for iPhone’ app.

Kindle
Simplicity, utility and cross-platform integration keep me using this app. On my morning commute this lets me continue reading on my iPod from the point where I stopped reading on my Kindle unit the night before. Technology indistinguishable from magic, as George Hook might say. If you are not beholden to Amazon's infrastructure then Stanza is an equally good e-reader also worth checking out.

Tumblr
I can probably file this one under ‘distractions’, but I do enjoy browsing my Tumblr dashboard using this mobile interface. I never seem to ever post anything to Tumblr from my iPod though.

Wikipanion
Having tried a number of Wikipedia front-end apps, I find this one the best. Once you put a Wikipedia app on your homepage you will end up using it far more than you would expect.

Zenbe Lists
I have resisted the urge to invest in a serious GTD-enabled task manager like OmniFocus and Things. Of the bare-bones agile task managers available, I find that Zenbe serves my needs. Both the iPod version and it's online counterpart limit my options so I don't get bogged down in tempting fiddly meta work like colour-coding or over-categorising tasks.

Facebook
I am well familiar with all the arguments for keeping my content out of Facebook. But the social momentum behind it has well passed its tipping point by now, such that *not* using it means excluding myself from a lot of familial and social interactions. So for better or worse this app is my portable access to my FB stream. This app seems in need of another major reboot at this stage, I expect that OS4-enabled functionality shall deliver that sometime this Summer.

LinkedIn
We have started using LinkedIn much more in work so this app gets a fair amount of use. This app has seen significant improvements in the last two years, but again now feels like it needs a significant step-change.

Flickr
I find the iPad interface for Flickr is the best way to add tags and titles to my photos. I will often do a bulk upload from the iMac and then use this app to tag the photos later.

Pastebot
I love all of the Tapbots apps, their pixel-perfect UI details are worth the price alone in my opinion. This little functional app beefs up your copy and paste, allowing you to store 100 copied items and preform edits and transformations on them. Also syncs to a Mac client so you avoid having to email pasted content to yourself. I am interested to see how this app is going to develop under OS4.

Proviso
My selection of home screen apps is optimized for my Wi-Fi-only work flow. As my iPod does not access 3G networks, my own preference is for apps that can cache their data locally. Allowing me to process and manipulate that data while commuting and then sync back to the cloud once within Wi-Fi coverage. Your mileage may vary.

Observations
In preparing this list it is interesting to note that the majority of these apps are clients to cloud-based services. It looks like what I want from an app is secure off-site data that I can manipulate from whatever device I have to hand. Also I expect that I will be revisiting all of this in the Summer when the iPhone OS gets it next major update. The ability to run multiple apps at once is bound to effect the way that I use all of these.

Recommendations
While each one of these apps are more than useful to me, to give you some general recommendations it’s safe to say that if you are not already using Instapaper, Simplenote or Evernote then those three are definitely worth installing today.

And finally...
So what indispensable apps have I omitted from my home screen? What are the apps that you can’t live without which I ought to investigate? For example, although having eight screens of apps, I have no ‘OnePassword’ style app or a household budget app. (Also, lacking 3G on my iPod makes location-based apps like Foursquare slightly more redundant then they actually are.) I am fascinated to find out what you think.

How micro is your ultra-nano niche?

2009-11-06T13:34:00.001Z

In researching blogging I have identified a frustrating quandary, a Blogger’s Dilemma. I can best frame it in this way.

For clarity I am going to discount blogging as a hobby and just refer to ‘Business Blogging’ — still a broadly-defined and imprecise term itself. One including both blogs owned by businesses and blogs written by individuals where their persistent topics are primarily concerned with their field of commercial expertise. In my research the two relevant sets are the blogs of Irish graphic design companies and of individual Irish graphic designers.

While the aims and objectives of such blogs are as individual and unique as their creators, in achieving their aims they all have to address attention and reputation, which are the two currencies of the Internet. To maximize attention and gain the best (reputational) return on their efforts, it is worth asking whether their best approach to go ultra-narrow in focus and become the recognised expert of a very unique and specific area? Become Ireland’s expert blogger on the design of corporate identity systems for Irish state agencies for example, or designing literature systems for Irish third level institutions or bilingual design conforming to Official Languages Act, the scope is endless.

Following this approach to it’s conclusion, the end state would be a deep reservoir of focused experts, all discoverable via the Internet. Given that most of the blogs reviewed in this research are generalist is their approach, being far more specialized may be a viable way of lifting Irish design blogs out of obscurity.

Summary analysis of the uses of business blogging within the Irish graphic design sector

2009-10-24T12:29:00.007+01:00

Today I am releasing this summary report of the quantitative aspect of my Master’s research. This research analyses the uses of business blogging by graphic design companies and graphic designers in Ireland and evaluates that usage against current best practice.

Existing Irish graphic design blogs are surveyed, details of their activities and characteristics are collected. The data collected on each blog is categorised. The category data for graphic design companies and individual graphic designers is compared to identify any differences in emphasis and approach between them. The category information is analysed.

In conclusion the current state of the Irish graphic design business blogosphere is evaluated. Recommendations on policies and strategies for business blogging and micro-blogging are given. An increased focus on listening and engaging with stakeholders through blogging and social media is recommended.

Please feel free to share this report and pass it along to anyone you think may be interested.

Blogging in the Irish Graphic Design Sector

Online behaviour of Irish graphic design companies

2009-08-12T22:35:00.001+01:00

Before analysing the blogging activities of Irish graphic design companies, it is useful to give an overview of the relevant norms of online communication. How the form and tone of the graphic design company websites contrast with the norms of business blogging is relevant to this research.

Much marketing of graphic design services is still constrained within the paradigm of the portfolio. Websites predominantly feature images of the outcomes of the company’s work: brand marks, brochures, packaging and so on. Even on websites making the most use of explanatory text, this is an invariably a condensed project summary of the brief and deliverables, with little explanation of the analytic thinking and exploration underpinning the creative work. This approach is symptomatic of the Old Economy mindset characterised by Krishna De as being “too afraid of giving away their insider knowledge” (De 2009, interview).

There are examples in the international graphic design industry of business blogs delivering the benefits outlined in the literature review. They enhance the understanding of the initial creative thinking that informs the design work and the personal and organisational interactions that shape its eventual form. Although they are experts in visual communication, a review of the websites of Irish graphic design companies gives little real sense of the personalities of the individuals behind the creative services being offered.

Limitations of customised website systems
Client’s baseline expectations for interactivity and engagement constantly increase and arguably now include some level of participating, commenting and sharing. None of which have yet become common features of Irish graphic design company websites, many still being online portfolios with few inbound or outbound links. Research has shown that design companies still de-emphasise community or link-based functionality that can play an important role in the business utility of their websites.

This research has observed personal free-hosted blogs delivering a far richer media experience than professional design company websites, many of which are unable to easily embed RSS feeds and other media content and cannot easily be updated with social media tools or other methods of client interaction. Rather than using standardised platforms with large installed user-bases and active developer communities (such as WordPress) the majority of websites reviewed are one-off builds incorporating Flash elements with little semantic value. This suggests that being constrained within bespoke-developed website solutions may be one technical reason limiting the adoption of business blogging by Irish graphic design companies.

Irish graphic design company blogs 2009

2009-08-07T21:50:00.000+01:00

This post is a detailed listing of all 24 Irish graphic design company blogs analysed during my research project in 2009, giving details about the nature and characteristics of each blog. Any additional blogs added after September are not included in the research analysis. The full 2009 list is after the jump.

[UPDATE: The 2010 list now has its own separate page in this blog, see the ‘Irish graphic design company blogs’ tab at the top of this page.]

Company: Atomic
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Atomic Particles
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: November 2008
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 4 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Social bookmarking widget for posts
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 5 with comments 25 without comments
5 comments on 5 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://www.atomic.ie/particles
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: BFK
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: BFK News
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: 1999*
Date reviewed: 16 May 2009
Number of days since last post: 5 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? N/A
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Strata3 Publisher
Website address for the blog: www.bfk.ie
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/BFKdesign

*Some content imported into blog format from earlier iterations of the site.

Company/Group: Candy Collective
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Candy Collective News
Blog type: Design organisation blog
Published since: May 2008
Date reviewed: 27 May 2009
Number of days since last post: 5 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 2 with comments 28 without comments
3 comments on 2 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: www.candycollective.com/index.php?/news
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/CandyCollective

Company/Group: Centre for Design Innovation
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Design Innovation Blog
Blog type: Design organisation blogPublished since: December 2006
Date reviewed: 01 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 4 days
Predominant class of post content: Design commentary, Academic research, Notices of eventsInteraction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts 11 with comments, 29 without comments
16 comments in total on 11 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? YesSystem used for the blog: Wordpress
Website address for the blog: http://www.designinnovation.ie/blog
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: Chuffey Media
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Chuffey The Blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: October 2008Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 211 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog www.chuffeymedia.ie/blog
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: Creative Media
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: News Blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: August 2007
Date reviewed: 01 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 21 daysPredominant class of post content: Own design projects, Professional journal, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? N/A
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: www.creativemediani.com
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: Design Inch
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Design Inch blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: June 2009
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 6 daysPredominant class of post content: Own design projects, Image reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.designinch.ie/wordpress
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/designinch

Company/Group: Design Research Group
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Design Research Group
Blog type: Design organisation blogPublished since: March 2008
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 98 days
Predominant class of post content: Design commentary, Design analysis, Design reference, Design research
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts)
12 posts reviewed. 10 with comments 2 without.
45 comments for 10 posts. (One post had 24 comments)
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: Wordpress
Website address for the blog: http://designresearchgroup.wordpress.com
Group Twitter page: No

Company: Design Tactics
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Creativity with Purpose (was ‘Design TicTacs’)
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: May 2009
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 1 day
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Tumblr
Website address for the blog: http://designtactics.tumblr.com
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/designtactics

Company: Ebow
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Ebow Blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: 01 January 2004
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 214 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Studio journal, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 4 with comments 26 without comments
13 comments on 4 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.ebow.ie/blog
Company Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/ebowdublin

Company: Ion Design
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Ion Blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: N/A (No dates on posts)
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: N/A
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Software reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: http://www.ion.ie/blog
Company Twitter page: No

Company: Neville Design Group
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Neville Design blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: March 2009
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 72 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
If yes which? N/A
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://nevilledesign.wordpress.com
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: New Graphic
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: New Graphic News
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: March 2008
Date reviewed: 12 September 2009
Number of days since last post: 57 days (18 July 2009)
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received
12 posts reviewed (all). 0 with comments 12 without comments
0 comments on 0 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://www.newgraphic.ie/news/index.php
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/NewGraphic

Company: Paper Lantern Studios
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Paper Lantern Studios
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: 22 June 2008
Date reviewed:03 June 2009Number of days since last post: 50 days
Predominant class of post content: Studio journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
If yes which? Google Friend Connect and Blogger Followers
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 5 with comments 25 without comments
5 comments on 5 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Blogspot
Website address for the blog: http://paperlanternstudios.blogspot.com
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: Penhouse Design
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Fresh Air
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: January 2009
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 4 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Link-blog, Design commentary, Image reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
If yes which? Facebook link
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): 5
30 posts reviewed. 3 with comments 27 without comments
6 comments on 3 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://penhousedesign.wordpress.com
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/penhousedesign

Company: Rain Communications
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Rain Communications blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: November 2008
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 97 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Design commentary, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
If yes which? Social bookmarking widgets on each post
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 1 with comments 29 without comments*
2 comments on 1 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: www.raincommunications.ie/blog.aspx
Corporate Twitter page: No
*Six other posts had one comment each which was garbled comment spam and discounted for the purposes of this research.

Company: Spoilt Child
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog Name: Pinstripe
Blog type: Design company blogPublished since: September 2005
Date reviewed: 03 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 6 days
Predominant class of post content: Promoting events, Promoting services, Design commentary
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? N/A
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
If yes which? Social bookmarking widget on each post, Recent Readers widget in sidebar
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 8 with comments 22 without comments
14 comments on 8 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: Textpattern
Website address for the blog: http://www.spoiltchild.ie/pinstripe
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: The Brand Union
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Dublin blog
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: December 2008
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009Number of days since last post: 13 daysPredominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
20 posts reviewed (all).
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://blogs.thebrandunion.com/thedublinblog
Corporate Twitter page: No

Company: The Creative District
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: Our Blog / Studio News
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: May 2009
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 3 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
If yes which? Social bookmarking widgets on each post
Volume of comments received (based on or last 30 posts): 43
17 posts reviewed (all). 10 with posts and 7 without.
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.thecreativedistrict.ie/blog
Corporate Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/CreativeDistric/

Company: 20-20 Vision
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: 20-20 Vision News
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: January 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 106 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Add posts to Del.icio.us, Technorati or Digg
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: http://www.2020vision.ie/news
Company Twitter page: No

Company: Threesixty
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Threesixty News
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: 28 January 2009
Date reviewed: 28 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 4 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: http://www.wearethreesixty.com/ee/index.php/news
Company Twitter page: No

Company: Whitenoise Studios
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: What’s New Pussycat?
Blog type: Design company blog
Published since: 10 September 2008
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 3 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Professional journal, Studio journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed. 8 with comments 22 without comments
21 comments on 8 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://www.whitenoisestudios.com/blog
Company Twitter page: No

Company/Group: Workgroup
Individual authors identified by name: Yes
Blog name: Workgroup
Blog type: Design collective blog
Published since:
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 2 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://workgroup.ie
Company Twitter page: No

Company: X Communications
Individual authors identified by name: No
Blog name: X Communications Blog
Published since: May 2001
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 16 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: http://www.xcommunications.ie/Blog.aspx
Company Twitter page: Yes at twitter.com/xcommunications

Irish graphic designer’s blogs 2009

2009-08-05T21:58:00.000+01:00

This post is a detailed listing of all 22 Irish graphic designer’s blogs analysed during my research project in 2009 giving details about the nature and characteristics of each blog. Any additional blogs added after September are not included in the research analysis. The full 2009 list is after the jump.

[UPDATE: The 2010 list now has its own separate page in this blog, see the ‘Irish graphic designer’s blogs’ tab at the top of this page.]

This list is sorted alphabetically by surname.

Author: David Airey
Blog name: David Airey’s Blog
Published since: October 2006
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 3 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Design analysis, Design commentary
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Delicious, Stumbleupon and Twitter options for posts
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 30 with comments 0 without comments
1580 comments on 30 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://www.davidairey.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/davidairey

Author: Conor Clarke
Blog name: Design Thinker Dublin
Published since: January 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 148 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Google Friend Connect
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://designthinkerdublin.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Laura Colgan
Blog name: Laura Colgan Design
Published since: June 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 4 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Google Friend Connect
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
17 posts reviewed (all) 1 with comments 16 without comments
2 comments on 1 post
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: www.lauracolgan.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Simone Crowley
Blog name: Simone Crowley’s Blog
Published since: May 2008
Date reviewed: 03 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 50 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Professional journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Google Friend Connect
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
25 posts reviewed (all). 7 with comments 18 without comments
7 comments on 7 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://simone-crowley.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: James Cullen
Blog name: Fffvound’s Blog
Published since: December 2008
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 131 days
Predominant class of post content: Link-blog, Design-reference Image-reference.
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://fffvvound.wordpress.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/jamescullen123

Author: Cornelius Dorgan
Blog name: Graphik Attik
Published since: March 2009
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 24 days
Predominant class of post content: Link-blog, Design reference, Image reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Social bookmarking widget for posts
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.grafikattik.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Jennifer Farley
Blog name: Laughing Lion Blog
Published since: 22 May 2005
Date reviewed: 12 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 5 days
Predominant class of post content: Software tutorials, Own design projects, Design reference, Image reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 28 with comments 2 without comments
100 comments on 30 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://laughingliondesign.net/category/all/
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/Laughing_lion

Author: Pawel Grabowski
Blog name: Paper To Pixel
Published since: April 2009
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 27 days
Predominant class of post content: How-To (Informing graphic designers about web design)
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
15 posts reviewed (all). 3 with comments 12 without comments
4 comments in total on 3 posts.
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.papertopixel.org
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/pawelgra77

Author: Paul Guinan
Blog name: Our Bees Make Honey
Published since: October 2007
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 3 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 4 with comments 26 without comments
10 comments on 4 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://ourbeesmakehoney.wordpress.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/PaulGuinan

Author: Paul Guinan
Blog name: Paul Guinan Blog
Published since: 27 Feb 2009
Date reviewed: 26 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 2 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? N/A
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Tumblr
Website address for the blog: http://paulguinan.tumblr.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/PaulGuinan

Author: Hilary Kenna
Blog name: Type4Screen
Published since: March 2005
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 55 days
Predominant class of post content: Design research, Design commentary, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 2 with comments 28 without comments
2 comments on 2 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://www.type4screen.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Con Kennedy
Blog name: Con Kennedy Design Blog
Published since: 13 May 2005
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 115 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Design commentary, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Google Friend Connect
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://conkennedy.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/conkennedy

Author: Aiden Kenny
Blog name: ThoughtPort
Published since: 15 June 2004
Date reviewed: 21 May 2009
Number of days since last post: 3 days
Predominant class of post content: Design commentary, Design analysis, Professional journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Facebook, Linked-In, Technorati and Delicious widgets
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://thoughtport.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/aidenkenny
[Disclaimer: this is one of my own blogs.]

Author: Aiden Kenny
Blog name: ImpressionStream
Published since: February 2007
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 1 day
Predominant class of post content: Link-blog, Design reference, Image reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Tumblr Followers
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Tumblr
Website address for the blog: http://aidenkenny.tumblr.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/aidenkenny
[Disclaimer: this is one of my own blogs.]

Author: Osmand Noffe
Blog name: These Were Fields News Blog
Published since: February 2009
Date reviewed: 06 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 11 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Professional journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Google Friend Connect
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Blogger
Website address for the blog: http://www.nowitsfullofthis.blogspot.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/acatisacat

Author: Gary McGinty
Blog name: Design Thinking
Published since: 03 June 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 7 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Design reference
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? Yes
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Flickr widget
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
6 posts reviewed (all) 1 with comments 5 without comments
2 comments on 1 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://www.garymcginty.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/garymcginty

Author: Daragh O’Toole
Blog name: Roughbeast
Published since: June 2007
Date reviewed: 01 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 7 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Tumblr Followers, Flickr Widget
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): None
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Tumblr
Website address for the blog: http://roughbeast.tumblr.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/daragh_ot

Authors: Timothy Phelan & Youssef Sarhan
Blog name: White Ink Blog
Published since: January 2009
Date reviewed: 01 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 13 days
Predominant class of post content: Professional journal, Design analysis, Own design projects
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
— If yes which?
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 29 with comments 1 without comments
160 comments on 29 posts
Do the bloggers answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: www.whiteinkblog.com
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/youssefsarhan

Author: Garrett Reil
Blog name: Design Research Journal Blog
Published since: 25 May 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 10 days
Predominant class of post content: Design research, Design analysis
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received:
16 posts reviewed (all) 6 with comments 10 without comments
26 comments on 6 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: Rapidweaver
Website address for the blog: http://garrettreil.ie
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Garrett Reil
Blog name: Signs & Portents
Published since: 20 August 2008
Date reviewed: 1 April 2009
Number of days since last post: 7 days
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? No
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts): N/A
Does the blogger answer comments? N/A
System used for the blog: Tumblr
Website address for the blog: http://visualblog.garrettreil.ie
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Richard Seabrooke
Blog name: The Small Print
Published since: 09 March 2009
Date reviewed: 11 July 2009
Number of days since last post: 1 day
Predominant class of post content: Design reference, Image reference, Link-blog
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? Yes
— If yes which? Flickr widget
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 6 with comments 24 without comments
10 comments on 6 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? Yes
System used for the blog: WordPress
Website address for the blog: http://alwaysreadthesmallprint.com
Also on Twitter: No

Author: Eoin Stanley
Blog name: Eoin Stanley Blog
Published since: March 2007
Date reviewed: 26 June 2009
Number of days since last post: 20 days
Predominant class of post content: Own design projects, Professional journal
Interaction elements allowed:
— Commenting turned on? Yes
— Trackbacks enabled? No
— Social networking tools enabled? No
Volume of comments received (based on last 30 posts):
30 posts reviewed 4 with comments 26 without comments
14 comments on 4 posts
Does the blogger answer comments? No
System used for the blog: Custom
Website address for the blog: http://www.eoinstanley.com/blog
Also on Twitter: Yes at http://twitter.com/eoinstan

On blogger’s antipathy to corporate-speak

2009-08-03T13:50:00.000+01:00

One interesting theme emerging from my literature review is the evolving etiquette and norms around the appropriate tone of voice for business blogging. There are many recurring lists exhorting bloggers to be honest, be yourself, be truthful, own up to your mistakes and such-like. This propagates a misconception that no companies ever communicated in these ways before business blogging arrived.

Dave Winer, one of the originators of blogging, is an anti-corporate iconoclast who believes blogs should only ever represent the unique voice of an individual (Israel et al 2006, page 59). His stance is indicative of the observed antipathy within the blogosphere to what is characterised as ‘corporate speak’.

Although prominent bloggers can draft, rewrite, parse and craft their words as obsessively as any author (or Masters researcher!), many have an undisguised aversion to what they perceive as the inoffensive, committee-written, homogeneous language of much marketing communications. Particularly when it is used within the blogosphere.

These bloggers often self-identify with that idea of the ‘unique voice’. Le Meur relates this to blogging initially flourishing in cultures where people are “accustomed to expressing our thoughts as individuals out in the open” (Israel et al 2006, page 115). Silicon Valley software developers, engineers and technology entrepreneurs, or “religiously libertarian anarchists with ponytails” (The Economist 2003), brought a counter-cultural mindset with them which typified the early phases of blogging. Israel and Scoble also perpetuate this distinction between bloggers being ‘authentic voices’ in comparison with the majority of other corporate communications, which they denigrate as an “oxymoronic hybrid of cautious legalese seasoned with marketing hyperbole” (Israel et al 2006, page 14).

Any attempt to define one ‘true voice’ for blogging can only be an exercise in futility. Any more than saying that there is one correct way to use a telephone or to write a letter. Particularly any effort to establish a certain mode of blogging as ‘authentic’ based on the characteristics of the early adopters only highlights the cultural, social and even geographic characteristics of the first cadre of bloggers.

Humility and metacognition

2009-07-27T13:48:00.001+01:00

Seth Godin and Tom Peters riffing on blogs and blogging.

Three ICAD member graphic design companies blogging in 2009 (out of 48)

2009-07-15T13:55:00.006+01:00

I reviewed the websites of all members of The Institute of Creative Advertising and Design listed under ‘Graphic Design, Identity Design and Packaging Design’ in the Member’s Directory on the ICAD website (accessed on 20 June 2009) and investigated which have a link to a company blog from their primary company website. IDI membership is individual, so I have aggregated this list by company name.This research does not preclude their being such a company blog, but where one is not visibly linked on the company website, then an inference can be made as to how such a blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

This list does not capture any company design blogs which are not linked from the company’s primary website, or any personal blogs maintained by company directors or employees. Some companies are members of all three Irish design organisations and therefore appear on the three lists.

 Methodology
The list was processed in the following manner. All IDI members who did not supply a valid URL were first removed from the list. Then all repeated URLs were then removed. Any URLs checked which were not graphic design companies were also removed.

 Members with business blogs
Of forty-eight relevant ICAD member companies these three have a link to their corporate blog on their company web sites.
 The Brand Union An Our Blogs link from the international home page leads to the Dublin office blog. 
Threesixty The News section is a blog, with an RSS feed, but with no comments enabled. 
Whitenoise Studios A link to the blog on the home page.

If you are a relevant ICAD graphic design member company with a blog that is not on this list, please let me know and I will include you.

 Members without business blogs
These forty-seven member companies had no link to a corporate blog on their company web sites.
01 Arrival [www.arrival.ie] 
02 Atelier David Smith [www.atelier.ie] 
03 Baseline [www.baseline.ie] 
04 Begley Hutton [www.begleyhutton.com]
05 Bennis Design [www.bennisdesign.ie] 
06 Brandcentral [www.brandcentral.dk] 
07 Carival Advertising and Design [www.carival.ie] 
08 Catalysto [www.catalysto.com ]
09 Conor and David [www.coranddavid.com]
10 Creative Inc. [www.creativeinc.ie] 
11 Dcoy Design Ltd [www.dcoy.ie] 
12 Design Factory [www.designfactory.ie] 
13 Designers Ink [www.designers-ink.ie] 
14 Designworks [www.designworks.ie] 
15 Detail Design Studio [www.detail.ie] 
16 Dynamite [www.dynamite.ie] 
17 Dynamo [www.dynamo.ie]
18 Finn Creative (Australia) [www.finncreative.com.au] 
19 First Impression [www.firstimpression.ie]
20 Form [www.form.ie] 
21 Fresh Design [www.fresh.ie]
22 Fuse Graphic Design [www.fuse.ie] 
23 GHQ [www.ghqdesign.com] 
24 Huguenot [www.huguenot-xmi.com]
25 IDEA [www.idea.ie]
26 Kunnert and Tierney [www.kunnertandtierney.com]
27 Language [www.language.ie]
28 Paragon Design and Advertising [www.paragondesign.ie] 
29 Persona Design [www.personadesign.ie] 
30 PH7 Design Ltd [www.ph7.ie] 
31 Raven Design [www.ravendesign.ie]
32 Red and Grey Design [www.redandgreydesign.ie] 
33 Red Dog [www.reddog.ie] 
34 Rodney Miller Associates [www.rodneymillerassoc.com] 
35 Sans Studio [www.sansstudio.com ]
36 Scale [www.scale.ie] 
37 Slater Dublin [www.slaterdesign.com 
38 Source Design Consultants [www.sourcedesign.ie]
39 Studio Richards [www.studiorichards.com ]
40 The Design Suite [www.designsuite.ie] 
41 Totem Visual Communications [www.totem.ie] 
42 We Make Design [www.wemakedesign.com] 
43 White Chalk [www.whitechalk.ie] 44 Zest Design [www.zestdesign.ie] 
45 Zinc Design Consultants [www.zinc.ie]

Nine IDI member graphic design companies blogging in 2009 (out of 71)

2009-07-15T13:45:00.006+01:00

I reviewed the websites of all members of Institute of Designers in Ireland listed under ‘Visual Communications’ on the IDI website (accessed on 03 June 2009) and investigated which have a link to a company blog from their primary company website. IDI membership is individual, so I have aggregated this list by company name. This research does not preclude their being such a company blog, but where one is not visibly linked on the company website, then an inference can be made as to how such a blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

This list does not capture any company design blogs which are not linked from the company’s primary website, or any personal blogs maintained by company directors or employees.

Some companies are members of all three Irish design organisations and therefore appear on the three lists.

Methodology
The list was processed in the following manner. All IDI members who did not supply a valid URL were first removed from the list. Then all repeated URLs were then removed. Any URLs checked which were not graphic design companies were also removed. The original list was sorted by member's surnames. This list was resorted alphabetically by company name and all duplicates were removed.

Members with business blogs
Of 71 IDI members, these nine member companies (and individual designers) had a link to their corporate blog on their company web sites.
Chuffey Media Link to blog in the About Us section. (However it only has three entries, the last being 07 November 2008.)
Design Inch Link to blog on the home page.
Design Tactics Link to design reference blog on the home page.
Con Kennedy Link to blog on the home page.
Neville Design Group Link to blog on the home page.
Penhouse Design Link to Fresh Air blog on the home page.
The Brand Union An Our Blogs link from the international home page leads to the Dublin office blog.
Whitenoise Visual Communications Link to blog on the home page.
These Were Fields The News link on the home page leads to the blog.

If you are a relevant ICAD member company with a blog that not on this list, please let me know and I will include you.

Members without business blogs
These sixty-two member companies had no link to a corporate blog on their company web sites.
01 AK Graphics [www.akgraphics.ie]
02 Atelier [www.atelier.ie]
03 Baseline [www.baseline.ie]
04 Begley Hutton Design [www.begleyhutton.com]
05 Bite Design [www.bitedesign.com] A blog is listed on the homepage, but the link returns an error.
06 Brandcentral [www.brandcentral.ie]
07 Boyd Freeman Design [www.boydfreeman.ie]
08 Boyle Design Group [www.boyledesigngroup.com]
09 Carton LeVert [www.cartonlevert.ie]
10 Creative Inc [www.creativeinc.ie]
11 Cronin, Conor [www.conorcronin.com]
12 Cronin Designs [www.cronindesigns.ie]
13 Dara Creative [www.daracreative.ie]
14 Darling [www.hellodarling.ie]
15 Dcoy Design [www.dcoy.ie]
16 Design Factory [www.designfactory.ie]
17 Design HQ [www.designhq.ie]
18 Design In Mind [www.designinmind.ie]
19 Design Image [www.designimage.ie]
20 Designworks [www.designworks.ie]
21 Dynamite [www.dynamite.ie]
22 Eamon Sinnott and Partners [www.sinnott-design.com]
23 Fire Design [www.fire.ie]
24 First Impression [www.firstimpression.ie]
25 Form [www.form.ie]
26 Frank [www.frankbelfast.com]
27 Fresh Design [www.fresh.ie]
28 GHQ Design [www.ghqdesign.com]
29 Hamill Bosket [www.hamillbosket.com]
30 Huguenot [www.huguenot.ie]
31 InputOut [www.inputout.com
32 Joseph Group [www.joseph-group.com]
33 Kilkenny Design Consultancy [www.kilkennydesign.eu]
34 Language [www.language.ie]
35 Loman Cusack Design [www.lomancusack.com]
36 Márla.ie [www.marla.ie]
37 Martin, Geraldine [www.geraldinemartin.com]
38 Mitchell Kane Associates [www.mitchellkane.com]
39 Mxbrandcom [www.mxbrandcom.co.uk]
40 New Moon Graphics [www.newmoongraphics.com]
41 Neworld Associates [www.neworld.ie]
42 Nolka Design [www.nolka.com]
43 Origin [www.origin.ie]
44 Persona Design [www.personadesign.ie]
45 Positive Design Consultants [www.positivedesign.co.uk]
46 Principle [www.principle.ie]
47 Propeller Design Consultants [www.propeller.ie]
48 Rain Design Partners [www.raindesign.com]
49 Red Dog [www.reddog.ie]
50 Rodney Miller Associates [www.rodneymillerassoc.com]
51 Roomthree Design [www.roomthree.com]
52 Sharp Design [www.sharpdesign.ie]
53 Southern Advertising [www.southernad.ie]
54 The Little Red Hen [www.littleredhen.ie]
55 Threesixty Marketing [www.threesixty.ie]
56 Trigger Communications [www.trigger.ie]
57 Totem Visual Communications [www.totem.ie]
58 Twisel River Studios [www.tandemdesign.co.uk]
59 Vermillion Design [www.vermilliondesign.com]
60 White or Cream Visual Communications [www.whiteorcream.ie]
61 Yap Brand Consultancy [www.yapbrandconsultancy.com]
62 Zinc [www.zinc.ie]

About my dissertation blog

2009-07-01T08:39:00.001+01:00

This is the text from the about page on my dissertation blog, explaining its purpose and content.

[UPDATE: All of the content from that blog has now been migrated here to ThoughtPort in March 2010.]

About
As part of my Masters Degree in Professional Design Practice from Dublin Institute of Technology I have conducted research into business blogging in the Irish Graphic Design Sector for a dissertation submitted in Autumn 2009. I have established this site as a central location for those facets of my research that may be of interest to a broader audience.

Research question
This research seeks to analyse the usage of business blogging by graphic design companies and graphic designers in Ireland and to evaluate that usage against current best practice. The study aims to usefully articulate potential strategies those companies can adopt to participate in business blogging in a more effective manner that will benefit their businesses, and ideally the whole sector.

Hypothesis
The research starts from the hypothesis that business blogging is a beneficial activity for professional services firms and that it can play a significant role in enhancing the professional reputation and authority of Irish graphic design companies and graphic designers.

Aims and objectives

To establish a working definition of business blogging and choose which sub-sets of blogging shall be included within the research.
To identify the key potential benefits that business blogging can bring to the marketing of Irish graphic design companies and graphic designers.
To discover what Irish graphic design blogs currently exist and collect data on their levels of activity.
To categorise and analyse this data to identify whether those business blogs are effectively achieving any of the identified benefits.
To compare the business blogging activities of the Irish graphic design sector against established international and Irish best practice.
To identify effective business blogging strategies for Irish graphic design companies.

Site structure
I have divided this site into three parts,

The Journal is where I write all my thoughts and analysis.
The Blog Lists page has all of the primary data information that I have gathered on Irish graphic design blogs.
In Assets you will find various online video and audio resources that relate to my research topic. For a list of text resources and links you can refer to my Del.ici.ous page in the sidebar.

Ambient Intimacy

2009-06-21T11:53:00.001+01:00

An interesting take on the status update.

Status updates explained from quub.com on Vimeo.

Five years later

2009-06-15T22:09:00.006+01:00

This blog is five years old today, which is somewhat difficult to believe. Where did the time go?

It is interesting (to me) to look back over the history of this site and see how its content and direction have evolved in that time. Although this last year has been somewhat exceptional. For most of the time since last September I have been blogging on a closed private site, as I have been writing material for my Masters. I have cross-posted some of that content here so that this site does not lie fallow for the whole twelve months duration of the course.

At present I am working on my dissertation, ~~which now has its own blog as well~~. As most of my time has been spent so far on researching and drafting literature reviews and the like there is not as much content on that blog as I would like. Now as I move into the later stages of my dissertation project and more material is finalised you should see more content populating the pages there.

As part of my research I am collating a list of Irish graphic design blogs ~~which will reside on a dedicated page within that site~~. I am currently processing and analysing the list, but a subset of the total are already in place there. Any comments and feedback on the content of that site are welcome, everything gets added into my research. If you are aware of any Irish graphic design blogs please let me know so that I can include them as well.

Update: I have closed the dedicated dissertation blog and republished all of its contents within Thoughtport. Primary research posts are tagged with Masters_PDP and Irish Blog Research. Videos and resources gathered during the research process are tagged with Dissertation Assets.

Ubiquitous Capture

2009-05-18T20:15:00.000+01:00

Another key learning from this process has been a rediscovery of the centrality of ‘Ubiquitous Capture’ as a behaviour. This is a central practice of the GTD methodology, and one I am mostly in the habit of observing. But given the amount of work to be done on this dissertation and the time scale involved I have gained a new appreciation for its utility. Whether it was on my daily commutes, lunch breaks, or sitting in the car with a sleeping baby in the back seat, all opportune thoughts, ideas, and insights went into my iPod Notes app, or were jotted into one of many small black notebooks as they occurred to me.

Even as the majority of these notes were heavily revised or simply abandoned, the importance of recording all such relevant thoughts as they occur made the task of actual composition more efficient. Being able to start with some raw materials ready for crafting and refining means that I always have something to work on for those days when my mind was unable to tackle an intimidating blank page.

Thinking that your brain works on any project only during its allocated time is a self-defeating fallacy, one that this practice routes around. Helpful as this practice was in marshalling all of my
thoughts for this dissertation, it really is a central life skill with broad application to all projects.

Tim O’Reilly’s Twitter Book

2009-05-16T20:15:00.001+01:00

This is the kind of beginners guide to Twitter that is now being published as the service gains a higher profile.

The Twitter Book - A Sneak Preview

View more presentations from O’Reilly Media.

O’Reilly Webcast: Twitter for Business

2009-05-16T20:09:00.001+01:00

An hour-long webcast running over the opportunities for businesses using Twitter.

The Necessity Of The Analogue

2009-05-16T16:58:00.000+01:00

One of the more interesting personal learnings from this project is a rediscovery of what I call “the necessity of the analogue”. After spending time constructing a moderately elaborate, robust infrastructure of online services to support my research and writing, I found myself writing many of my key insights and findings in black ink in small notebooks.

One detrimental aspect of researching blogging is that there is a practically infinite buffet of blog related news always available no more than one distracted mouse-click away. I found that writing on the laptop affords far too many distractions. Typing is not a problem, but my real thinking, analysing and writing had to happen off-line. A blank page is a blank page affording only opportunities not endless distractions.

Twitter as a research asset

2009-05-15T22:24:00.000+01:00

Given that the key books that I am referencing all happen to have been published around 2006, it seemed useful to follow up on the authors activities in 2009. I reasoned that, in a fast moving young field like blogging and social media, any expert’s thinking should have evolved significantly incorporating the last three year’s developments.

Sure enough all of the key authors had active current blogs. Keeping up with those within my work-flow and time commitments proved problematic. Of much more utility was that all also had active Twitter accounts. This meant that every day, as part of the casual act of reading my Twitter-feed, I was continually being made aware of further useful material pertinent to this research. Most of the author's tweets pointed to both their own blog posts and to relevant thoughts and analysis they had sourced online. While the majority of my research has to be ‘pull’-based, with me going looking for material, this added a ‘push’ dimension with content being directed towards me. The obvious downside of this being that, once following enough experts in your field of interest, you may become overwhelmed with the fire-hose of content pointed at you. This can be mitigated by developing good personal content filters and ruthlessly unfollowing anyone whose tweets are not adding value to your research.

I have found this practice very beneficial in the information gathering phases of my research. It is a most effective way of keeping abreast scanning evaluating of a high volume of potential material. I would recommend this to any researcher, particularly any whose topic touches off technology or Internet-related subjects.

Evan Williams at TED 2009

2009-05-15T20:42:00.002+01:00

Evan Williams gave this presentation at this year’s TED conference. As before, his presentation style leaves a lot to be desired. However his content is good and his supporting slides help to get his message across effectively. Of most interest to this research is his discussion about how the real-time search aspect of Twitter has definitely expanded the potential use-cases of the service. This runs about seven minutes.

Microblogging for Marketers

2009-05-13T23:03:00.000+01:00

An early interview with Peter Kim of Forrester on the possibilities for businesses using Twitter and micro-blogging in marketing, from December 2007.

My Thought For The Day 22/04

2009-04-22T21:24:00.000+01:00

“Trying to work out the correct formatting construction for citing tweets in my dissertation. A First World problem or what?”
9:24 PM Apr 22nd from my Twitterfeed.

Notes from Viral Marketing presentation

2009-04-22T13:20:00.000+01:00

Jonah Perertti of Buzzfeed.com gave a very interesting presentation on viral marketing last night 17 April 2009 at the Science Gallery, as part of the Infectious festival and exhibition. Viral marketing is tangential to the subject of this research, but I noted some points that may be of interest.

Some aspects of his talk aligned with the observations of Shirkey regarding the societal forces that limit or promote the effects of Internet technology.
• In the case of viral marketing it is the social imperative that drives the passing-on of the viral content.
• The architecture of the underlying system influences how viral memes spread. He drew an analogy with a forest fire: it's not so much about the particular match as about the dry brushwood and the trees. ‘The network structure is more important than the influencers.’

There are a number of nontrivial problems with viral marketing that need to be mitigated against.
1 It is unpredictable and hard to control.
2 What tends to spread is inconsequential: free, simple, fun and instant.
Ergo most messages are not viral. Furthermore, the slightest drag makes something non-viral. To grow at exponential rate 100 people will need to tell 200, who then go on to tell 400 and so on. If the spread rate is only one-to-one or less, then it will die out.

He spoke about his categorisation of the Bored At Work Network. This seemed to posit some kind of viral elite who are too busy, too hip and too creative to ever have any time to be bored, as opposed to millions of numb accountants and claims-adjusters waiting to click on the next photo of a kitten on a skateboard, or whatever.

In terms of viral marketing for things other than novelty, fun, trivia, he spoke about ‘big seed media’. This seemed to have an old-school Interruption Marketing basis, as it is starting point was leveraging an installed base of email addresses. His example was Tide emailing a million people to shift 40k of product samples.
More interesting was his overview of the real-time audience data informing the editorial decisions on the Huffington Post home page. Articles are promoted or demoted based on their audience figures. This reinforces Shirkey's analysis of the new paradigm of 'publish first and filter second'. It's the same Darwinian methodology that kills off unpopular television shows, but whereas that process takes months this happens in hours.

Finally, in strategising how best to propagate your particular message it's best to think like a Mormon rather than a Jew. That metaphor is about focussing as much on the mechanism of how your message is to spread and not just on the content of your message. This is probably his most insightful point. Looking to the Irish graphic design blogosphere the greatest failing seems to be that most effort is expended on the content and little on ensuring both that the content is read and that it facilitates being read. Building in hooks for propagation whether by social imperatives or other means is part of the key to success.

Establishing a dissertation blog

2009-04-18T12:19:00.003+01:00

Social Media and technology journalist, author and blogger Shel Israel is writing a book on the intersection of Twitter and business called Twitterville, due for publication in Q3 2009. He is blogging the writing process, putting up his raw notes and interviews. He is crowd-sourcing comments, feedback and suggestions to further his research (but holding back his final manuscript for publication obviously).

This approach would be a productive model for an aspect my own research. It certainly puts the traits of openness and transparency into practice: “be the change you wish to see”. In my case I have created a dedicated dissertation Work-In-Progress blog as my public research and crowd-source hub.

Update: My dissertation blog is now offline and its content has been moved into my ThoughtPort blog.

Twitter in plain English

2009-04-17T13:41:00.000+01:00

A companion piece to the explanatory blogging presentation video below.

Blogs in plain English

2009-04-17T13:39:00.000+01:00

This is very much the ‘Beginners Guide to What Blogging Is’, but it is still worth a look. Particularly good for sharing with anyone you know who is new to blogging and the blogosphere.

My Thought For The Day 15/04

2009-04-15T23:54:00.000+01:00

“Writing Literature Review long-hand. My theory was that after 40-odd pages my writing would improve with practice. Sigh. So much for that...”
11:54 PM Apr 15th from my Twitterfeed.

Evan Williams interview with Charlie Rose

2009-04-11T17:50:00.000+01:00

Charlie Rose interview with Evan Williams, founder of Twitter Inc, from Friday 27 February 2009. Williams is the second interview of two in this excerpted highlight version and starts at 04:15. You can watch the complete interview here, but Williams is not the best communicator.

Speaking from his previous experience as the founder of Blogger, he notes that it took time (culturally) for blogging to become normalised, and now that practice and having a MySpace or Facebook presence are seen as things that normal people do. Twitter is not there yet and people still wonder why others would 'put themselves out there like that'.

Relevant quotes about Twitter:
“It’s very simple, although not obvious.”

“It's something we did not know we needed (until we had it).”

“Living more publicly, more transparently can have powerful and positive effects... new people and new opportunities... an authentic and open way to live your life that people enjoy and makes everyone richer.”

Zeldman on blogging

2009-04-07T08:36:00.000+01:00

Noted US web designer Jeffery Zeldman talks about his personal history as a blogger. He explains his own interpretation of online authority and talking straight with his clients. He discusses how having better content on your blog can engender better comments. He recommends that you think about the kind of community you want to aggregate around your blog.

Six DBI graphic design companies blogging in 2009 (of 46)

2009-04-05T22:55:00.008+01:00

I reviewed all of the graphic design companies listed as members of Design Business Ireland on the DBI website (accessed on 05 April 2009) and identified which have a company blog linked to from their primary company website. This does not preclude their being such a blog, but where none is visible on the company website an inference can be made as to how the blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications. Of the 46 relevant DBI members on the list, six had corporate blogs and forty had none.

These six member companies had a link to their corporate blog on their company web sites.

BFK Most of their website is a news blog of projects, with multiple an RSS feeds, but no comments or social networking features.
Creative Media A ‘News Blog’ link from the home page.
Penhouse A ‘Fresh Air Blog’ link from the home page, with comments and an RSS feed, but no social networking features.
The Brand Union An ‘Our Blogs’ link from the international home page leads to the Dublin office blog, with comments and an RSS feed, but no social networking features.
Rain Communications A ‘blog’ link from the home page, with comments, social networking features and an RSS feed.
20-20 Vision The news section of their website is in a blog format, with comments, social networking features and an RSS feed.

These forty member companies had no link to a corporate blog on their company websites.
01 Affinity [www.affinitycreative.co.uk]
02 AKGraphics [www.akgraphics.ie]
03 Baseline [www.baseline.ie]
04 Big Fish Design [www.bigfishdesign-ad.com]
05 Blink Design [www.blinkdesign.ie]
06 Catalysto [www.catalysto.com ]
07 Creative Inc [www.creativeinc.ie]
08 Dara Creative [www.daracreative.ie]
09 Dcoy Design [www.dcoy.ie]
10 Design Associates [www.designassociates.ie]
11 Designbank [www.designbankltd.com ]
12 Design Factory [www.designfactory.ie]
13 Designers Ink [www.designers-ink.ie]
14 DesignInMind [www.designinmind.ie]
15 Designworks [www.designworks.ie]
16 Drawinginc [www.drawinginc.com]
17 Eamon Sinnott and Partners [www.sinnott-design.com]
18 Form [www.form.ie]
19 Frank [www.frankbelfast.com]
20 Fuse Graphic Design [www.fuse.ie]
21 GSDC [www.gsdc.net]
22 HamillBosket [www.hamillbosket.com]
23 Huguenot [www.huguenot.ie]
24 IDEA [www.idea.ie]
25 Konnect Media [www.konnectmedia.com]
26 Martello Media [www.martellomedia.com]
27 Mesh Design Consultants [www.meshdesign.ie]
28 Neworld Associates [www.neworld.com]
29 Pica Design [www.pica.ie]
30 Positive Design Consultants [www.positivedesign.co.uk]
31 Principle [www.principle.ie]
32 Profiles Design and Marketing [www.profiles.ie]
33 Proviz Design and Visualisation [www.proviz.ie]
34 Rain Design Partners [www.raindesign.com]
35 Raven Design [www.ravendesign.ie]
36 Red Dog [www.reddog.ie]
37 Roomthree Design [www.roomthree.com]
38 Source Design Consultants [www.sourcedesign.ie]
39 Totem Visual Communications [www.totem.ie]
40 Zebedee Marketing and Design [www.zebedee.ie]

This list does not capture any company design blogs which are not linked from the company’s primary website, or any personal blogs maintained by company directors or employees.

Obsession Times Voice

2009-04-02T22:13:00.002+01:00

Noted blogger Merlin Mann expounded on this theory in a presentation given at SxSW with John Gruber.

“Topic times voice. Or, if you’re a little bit more of a maverick, obsession times voice.”

Their presentation was broadly about blogging as micro self-publishing. Their principle theme was the importance of owning your topic. To expand Merlin’s quote above. Without obsession your blog will tend to wander. Without their own individual voices all too many blogs fall back on repeating other content from web.

His argument is that if you have obsession without voice, then all you basically have is a keyword search. You have reblogging without curation. Conversely if you have voice without an obsession then you get the equivalent of the more pointless content people post on Twitter (what they had for lunch).

Mann and Gruber both stress the importance of bloggers figuring out where you are, whatever it is that you want do and whatever outcome is the most important to you. They see the platform of personal publishing via blogging as the lever to become really great, becoming "the go-to person for whatever topic you are obsessed with".

They argue that you need to set yourself ambitious goals, aiming to be in the top twenty percentile. “Whatever your topic is, try to figure how to be better at it than 80% of everybody else in the world. I think that’s very ambitious, and you know what, you probably won’t be. Right?”

Download the audio recording of their presentation here.

My Thought For The Day 01/04

2009-04-01T22:52:00.001+01:00

“Hmmm, perhaps my Twitter-referencing April Fools gag was just too clever-clever by half...”
10:52 PM Apr 1st from twitterrific

Small pieces, loosely connected

2009-04-01T22:35:00.000+01:00

After a very quick scan through the blogs submitted after yesterday’s email request it strikes me that there are no A-List or Go-To blogs in the Irish Graphic Design sector. Only a few blogs were mentioned more than once by respondents (in what was admittedly a very small and unscientific sample).

Where are the Seth Godins, the Hugh Macleods and John Grubers of this sector? Given the small size of the Irish graphic design sector and the smaller subset one would expect to actively blog within that, perhaps small, ultra-niche atomized, personalized audiences are all that one can expect. Shirkey’s power law analysis of blogging would suggest that one or two of these blogs should have gained a broader audience and expanded beyond their initial audience.

Actions: examine the sample blogs.
— Is their content very personalized, only of interest to friends and acquaintances?
— Is their content primarily of interest only to the author (diary blog, design reference for self)?
— Is their material published on an ad-hoc basis, with long intermissions?
— Does the blog promote the designer or their business?

Irish graphic design companies on Twitter 2009

2009-04-01T13:40:00.000+01:00

This list is sorted by each design company’s starting date on Twitter, oldest first.

(This post was started in April 2009 and updated with additional designer’s details throughout my research during the Summer. The total had only reached twelve by the time my research was submitted in October 2009.)

Twitter.com/CreativeDistric
The Creative District: graphic design studio
Since: January 2009
Twitter.com/ArrivalDesign
Arrival: graphic design studio
Since: February 2009
Twitter.com/BFKDesign
BFK: branding and design company
Since: February 2009
Twitter.com/Xcommunications
Xcommunications: digital meda design company
Since: February 2009
Twitter.com/PenhouseDesign
Penhouse Design: graphic design studio
Since: 20 April 2009
Twitter.com/CandyCollective
Candy Collective: Irish graphic design evangelists
Since: May 2009
Twitter.com/CreativeMediaNI
Creative Media: graphic design studio
Since: May 2009
Twitter.com/DesignInch
Design Inch: graphic design studio
Since: June 2009
Twitter.com/CubedRoute
CubedRoute: web design agency
Since: June 2009
Twitter.com/DesignTactics
Design Tactics: branding and design company
Since: June 2009
Twitter.com/NewGraphic
NewGraphic: graphic design studio
Since: June 2009
Twitter.com/Ebow
Ebow: web design and graphic design company
Since: September 2009

Irish graphic designers on Twitter 2009

2009-04-01T13:31:00.002+01:00

This list is sorted by each designer’s starting date on Twitter, oldest first.

(This post was started in April 2009 and updated with additional designer’s details throughout my research during the Summer. The total had only reached seventeen by the time my research was submitted in October 2009.)

Twitter.com/AidenKenny
Since: 22 March 2007
Twitter.com/DaraghOToole
Since: 04 April 2007
Twitter.com/DavidAirey
David Airey. Since: 17 March 2008
Twitter.com/Pawelgra77
Pawel Grabowski. Since: 28 December 2008
Twitter.com/YoussefSarhan
Youssef Sarhan. Since: 14 January 2009
Twitter.com/AceJet170
Richard Weston. Since: 27 January 2009
Twitter.com/EoinStan
Since: 24 February 2009
Twitter.com/GaryMcginty
Since: 27 February 2009
Twitter.com/GillianReidy
Since: 27 February 2009
Twitter.com/Laughing_Lion
Jennifer Farley. Since: 05 March 2009
Twitter.com/Miralize
Sean O’Grady. Since: 06 March 2009
Twitter.com/Acatisacat
Fergus O’Neill. Since: 13 March 2009
Twitter.com/Fogra
Sean O’Grady. Since: 14 March 2009
Twitter.com/PaulGuinan
Paul Guinan. Since 16 March 2009
Twitter.com/ConKennedy
Con Kennedy. Since: 24 April 2009
Twitter.com/JamesCullen123
James Cullen. Since: 28 June 2009
Twitter.com/HilaryT4S
Hilary Kenna. Since 22 September 2009

Mann on obligations and your blog’s community

2009-03-31T21:55:00.000+01:00

This episode of The Sound Of Young America podcast was recorded live at the Integrated Media Association conference in Atlanta at a session with the slightly disconcerting title of ‘Blow Up Your Brand.’ It is a round-table discussion covering a range of online activities. The content that is relevant to this research begins at about 37 minutes when contrarian blogger Merlin Mann talks about his experiences dealing with the community that builds up around a high-profile blog. He makes a number of admirable points.
“If you put out great work that says a lot more about you than a press release.” [28.29]

“Creating community is not as simple as turning on comments.” [37.40]

“Any time you turn on a community aspect it not only needs moderation of some kind, but you are obligated to listen, respond and then show how that input had an effect on what you do. and if you do that I think it is very cynical.” [38.10]

“If you encourage community and social media around what you do, you need to be prepared for the day that it goes in a direction that you never expected and becomes wildly successful in a way that you are completely unprepared for. And your PR people are going to have a stroke when they see all the @ responses on Twitter. People giving a very unvarnished public opinion that you asked for.” [43.22]

“Know where you stand on that and understand that, at a certain point on the web, you give away a lot of control when you accept somebody else carrying your freight.” [43.48]

TSOYA Podcast, 27 March 2009
The Sound of Young America

Initial call for Irish design blogs

2009-03-31T21:00:00.001+01:00

I sent this email out to certain contacts of mine to gather some initial blog addresses.

I am researching the uses of blogs by Irish design companies and by Irish designers.

What I need to do at this stage is pull together a quick list of blogs by Irish designers and if possible Irish design companies. So if you can send me on links to any that you know of, your contribution will be most appreciated.

This is very preliminary work, so go as broad and wide as you can — I will filter later. It's more important that I get a comprehensive sample to start off with.

I'll just be looking through them — at this stage this is not a call for people to interview or anything as involved as that.

The term 'blog' is wilfully elusive: so if you are not sure if something is bloggy enough or not, just go ahead and add it in anyway.

I'm also interested in designer's personal blogs. Whether they are freelancers using their blog as part of marketing (Like Benny here) or designers doing their own thing quite separate from whatever design studio they work in. (Like Con here.)

Also the blogs don't have to be writing-orientated. Link-blogs or design reference blogs full of deadly cool stuff are just as valid. (Like this kind of thing.)

I'm also looking for any Irish design companies or designers micro-blogging on Twitter (like this). In my research I will eventually need to focus on applied use of this for some defined aim: most likely marketing. But as this stage just seeing whether many in design industry are availing of this channel at all shall be productive.

I will aggregate all of the results onto a web page as some kind of shared resource listing. I will circulate that once I get it lashed together.

Also, do feel free to forward this email on to anyone you know who may be able to point me towards some relevant blogs. (That way I can tick the box beside Research Aim of “Leveraging the sophisticated network effects of online social networks to gather information”.)

Thanks in advance.
Aiden

Quote Of The Day 27/03

2009-03-27T10:04:00.000Z

“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
—Walt Disney

My Thought For The Day 26/03

2009-03-26T14:25:00.001Z

“3K+ words written, now I need to get the train into college library, but it is really lashing rain. Therefore: Motivation Level = Low.”
2:25 PM Mar 26th from Power Twitter

Cutting through the fog

2009-03-24T08:36:00.000Z

I am trying to tie down my Research Question in detail and that is still proving to be somewhat of a challenge. I imagine that it is the absolute cliché of the MA student that one finds more and more interesting avenues of investigation the more more reading and researching one conducts. My doing some initial research this last week has shown that.

I now have a very clear sense of why a defined and locked-down trinity of Question, Aims and Objectives can serve as a necessary merciless filter for keeping laser focus on the end-goals.

My Thought For The Day 22/03

2009-03-22T21:31:00.001Z

“Doing some initial online research into corporate blogging. Oh yessiree that’s one fine can of worms you have opened up there Mr Kenny...”
9:31 PM Mar 22nd from Power Twitter

My Thought For The Day 19/03

2009-03-19T11:23:00.002Z

“Attempting to construct an irrefutable wall of logic: each component self-evident, elegantly reinforced & interdependant. (Not quite there.)”
11:23 PM Mar 19th from twitterrific

My Thought For The Day 13/03

2009-03-13T08:23:00.000Z

“Social Media defined: the most efficient method yet devised to allow companies to show the world that they hire people who cannot spell.”
08:22 AM March 13, 2009, from my Twitter feed.

Quote Of The Day 05/03

2009-03-05T08:16:00.000Z

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving the non-essential things undone.”
—Lin Yutang

Quote Of The Day 01/03

2009-03-01T09:12:00.000Z

“To get your ideas across, use small words, big ideas, and short sentences.”
—John H Patterson

My Thought For The Day 25/02

2009-02-25T23:09:00.000Z

“Arguably you could be creative without being innovative, but you can’t be innovative without being creative.”
23:08 February 25, 2009, from my Twitter feed.

Quote Of The Day 24/02

2009-02-24T23:05:00.000Z

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it properly.”
—Rene Descartes

Drafting My Thesis Proposal

2009-02-23T08:42:00.000Z

I spent time today assembling my thesis proposal so that I have it in better shape for my meeting with John O’Connor tomorrow.

What is interesting is discovering that something I thought I had a clear idea about is really only a loosely-related cloudy collection of notions. Working through the proposal headings to break my topic down into its logical components and arguments is more interesting and rewarding than I had envisaged. The challenge is to really question all of my assumptions as I go.

Even at this very initial stage what I am finding is that as I think through the questions posed under each heading, I am splintering off sub-questions and sub-issues that all seem worthwhile pursuing. I have read so much about this topic over the last number of years that I have a menagerie of relevant ideas, opinions, commentary and analysis in my head. Different aspects of which keep surfacing as related points and issues are re-encountered in the drafting process.

I had a draft prepared for tomorrows meeting then I read Louise’s feedback on two topics posted by some of the others on WebCourses. That inspired me to go back in and immediately edit out some of the material I had been unsure about. So I think today’s draft is now about 50% focused. If I can get to the core of my proposal with John tomorrow and discard the rest of the extraneous material that will be most productive.

Quote Of The Day18/02

2009-02-18T21:18:00.001Z

“In times of rapid change (that would be now), embracing the algorithm of the evolution of ideas and systems is a significant competitive advantage.”
—Seth Godin on algorithms and business change

Quote Of The Day 16/02

2009-02-16T12:50:00.000Z

“So there is no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.”
—Clay Shirkey, Interview with Columbia Journalism Review.

My Thought For The Day 13/02

2009-02-13T08:59:00.000Z

“Moving the icons around on my iPod so that all dissertation-related apps are on same screen. That does count as productive work, yes?”
8:59 February 13, 2009, from my Twitter feed.

Quote Of The Day 12/02

2009-02-12T08:30:00.000Z

“When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.”
—Seth Godin

My Thought For The Day 10/02

2009-02-10T23:20:00.000Z

“Porter’s Five Forces would be way cooler if it was called something like ‘Porter Force Five!’ (I’m thinking cheesy 70’s tee-vee show here...)”
10:18 PM February 10, 2009, from my Twitter feed.

Quote Of The Day 07/02

2009-02-07T22:19:00.000Z

“Marketing is telling a story that sticks, that spreads and that changes the way people act. The story you tell is far more important than the way you tell it.”
—Seth Godin

Quote Of The Day 27/01

2009-01-27T17:23:00.000Z

“Good learning nearly always involves a feeling of discovery rather than acquisition. The best teaching creates an efficient context for this.”
—Kathy Sierra, via her Twitterfeed.

My Thought For The Day 26/01

2009-01-26T23:08:00.001Z

“Its all going very fractal this evening. I just referenced one of my own articles in my Module-Two assignment footnotes. How meta is that?”

Quote Of The Day 25/01

2009-01-25T20:32:00.000Z

“Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.”
—Mark Twain. This seems very apt after eight hours of writing my Marketing assignment.

Quote Of The Day 22/01

2009-01-22T22:03:00.000Z

“Real leaders exist only in the heads and hearts of those who believe in them.”
—Kjell Nordstrom, from his book ‘Funky Business’.

Quote Of The Day 20/01

2009-01-20T21:23:00.000Z

“Hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.”
— US President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech today.

Sunday’s B&J Hive Workshop

2009-01-18T22:17:00.002Z

We had an all-day team workshop to break our Ben & Jerry's presentation. This was probably the most productive session we have had in the programme to date. Obviously our team-working skills are advancing with each presentation that we do. I also think that everyone is much more focused after our last effort.

We are approaching our actual presentation on the day in a completely different format. We have ditched the PowerPoint and embraced the school play format. Fundamentally retooling the mechanics in this way frees up our minds — you cannot but break your old habits.

Another key reason why we are being more efficient this time is my decision to bring by laptop to all of our meetings so that we are always working on our actual presentation and making real decisions as we go. In the past we would have long meetings talking around the topics with very reworked notes resulting. Then one person would be left to convert all of that into the presentation file, often with a looming deadline. This way we are always building.

(The only disappointment today was that none of us managed to score any Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for our workshop.)

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Actual notes from Ben & Jerry’s business plan

2009-01-16T22:15:00.001Z

My investigative journalism skills have managed to unearth some actual documents from Ben & Jerry’s original business plan. When they were working on their five-dollar ice cream correspondence course, they left one of their pages inside a book in the college library which has only just come to light. I have managed (through means that may best be left undocumented) to acquire a PDF scan which I can display here.

I think it gives us some insight as to what they were thinking, and believe that my team should make use of this as an exhibit in our forthcoming court case on Saturday 25 January next. I am very excited about this discovery. It is always great to have some primary research! (And its good to see that four-panel matrix thinking was just as useful back then.)

The Six Lessons Of Johnny Bunko

2009-01-15T08:49:00.003Z

Daniel Pink, author of ‘A Whole New Mind’ has written a new best-seller called ‘The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The last career guide you'll ever need.’ It is a funky little book, presented in manga comic format and obviously aimed at Generation Y (or whatever letter we are at these days). It looks like a short read, but the lessons proposed in it are summarised on the related website, which make for an even shorter read. It’s a good list, even if you are not starting out on in your career.

The six (+1) lessons of satisfying, productive careers:
1 There is no plan [The economy changes too fast for your career to have a plan.]
2 Think strengths, not weaknesses [Find your advantages]
3 It’s not about you [Serving others serves you best]
4 Persistence trumps talent [Keep showing up]
5 Make excellent mistakes [Take risks, but fail forward]
6 Leave an imprint [Do something that matters]
7 Stay hungry

The seventh lesson is in italics because it is currently being voted on in an online poll. I have chosen that one from the three available as it strikes me as the best. I also like the way they he is working the user-generated content angle. I found some elegant additional commentary on Pink’s list from Kevin Kelly which I have appended in parenthesis. Those seven points seem particularly useful while I am thinking through what I am learning on the Masters programme.

If you are interested in these seven lessons you may also find something useful in my post about learnings gained in achieving my Masters degree.

#learning #leadership #business #career #insights

Quote Of The Day 14/01

2009-01-14T08:28:00.000Z

“Imagine you have almost what you need. Then, just start something.”
—Merlin Mann, from an outstanding post on 43Folders.com

Reading Porter On 'What Is Strategy'

2009-01-13T08:29:00.001Z

Michael Porter is on of those names that I forever seem to be running across. (He seems to be quoted or referenced in The Economist every single week). But up until now I had never read anything of his.

I work in a Strategic Brand Consultancy and have been delivering Brand Strategy to my clients for more years than I dare to say. So I am familiar with the broad outlines of the ideas he presents in this article. He is mapping the topography of the business landscape I inhabit. That said, reading this was like coming home to the source material for me. I have probably encountered ninety per cent of this thinking in other places, filtered through lesser authors. A lot of this ideas is material I found that I have internalised over the years.

I found myself reading this article with a mix of familiarity (for the core ideas) and novelty (for seeing all of them assembled in this fashion). In noting the salient points then, I am just going to limit myself to those aspects which are new to me.

On first reading, Porter's ideas in this article seem almost common-sense. But on further reading you see that it is only because of the way he states his points and assembles his arguments and examples. What seems obvious after the fact is often not all that apparent beforehand. Equally it does not mean the implications are any easier to implement or to realise.

Porter presents two interlinked concepts: Operational Effectiveness, how we perform activities better than our competitors; and Strategy which leads us to perform different activities than our rivals or else perform similar activities but in a more effective way. Thus strategy relates to differentiation and being different is the key to success. (Just as brand differentiation is key to successful positioning.)

I really think that he made such an insightful point when he says that if there were only one ideal positioning then there would be no need for strategy. That speaks to me about how you and your business always need to be able to adapt and respond. As he says: "new positions arise because of change".

He says that strategy is about being very clear about what you do not do as well as what you do. Which relates to my own experience of finding that clients who are absolutely focussed on the core proposition of their offering succeed better than those whom are all over the shop and tend to go chasing off after shiny new business ideas or business models that they read a one-page article about on a flight...

I think I have long ago grasped that point about knowing what you don't want to do. However, I do think that I need to work harder at addressing his point about always checking that I and my colleagues are not doing anything contra-indicative to our differentiated strategy and actively not doing such things. Particularly in light of the idea that everything is important: that failure or under-performance in any area drags down our whole organisation, confuses or disappoints our clients and dilutes our positioning and our reputation.

All of this segues into leadership, as the leader needs to make the trade-offs implicit in the reasoning above. Thinking strategically and acting strategically requires hard choices more than it ever requires consensus.

So a number of apparent question arise from this article has to be how do all of our activities and internal processes fit with our strategic positioning? What is misaligned? Which complement and reinforce each other? What wasted effort can we eliminate and what is redundant?

Then, looking outside of ourselves, what has changed in our industry in, say, the last five years that has opened up opportunities for competitors to define a positional advantage against us? Also then arising from that what positional opportunities are there for us to capitalise on?

Quote Of The Day 12/01

2009-01-12T08:14:00.000Z

“Facebook is about people you used to know; Twitter is about people you'd like to know better.”
—Ivor Tossell

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

2009-01-11T22:20:00.000Z

I just totally love this new phrase ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ which was proposed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in in their book ‘Built to Last’. A BHAG is a form of vision statement “...an audacious ten to thirty-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.”

It strikes me as a very Tom Peters kind of idea and one that definitely appeals to me. They write about it in the context of teamwork, but to me I can see how this can be such a useful leadership asset as well.

“A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.”

It is an interesting exercise to think about my work and my organisation and ask how we could stretch ourselves be setting the challenge of our own particular big hairy audacious goal.

Quote Of The Day 11/01

2009-01-11T14:50:00.001Z

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.”
—Francis Bacon

Quote Of The Day 09/01

2009-01-09T13:42:00.000Z

“Twitter: Writing or sharing cool stuff. Builds respect. Grants acceptance from others to self-promote = Profit!”
—Hugh MacLeod. From his Twitter feed.

My Thought For The Day 08/01

2009-01-08T23:02:00.000Z

“Have not written enough this evening but the paint fumes are really starting to get to me, which is salad, banjo, monochrome thought-bubble...”
23:02 January 08, from my Twitter feed.

Quote Of The Day 05/01

2009-01-05T09:24:00.000Z

“What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.”
—Jim O’Toole, Leading Change

My Thought For The Day 03/01

2009-01-03T13:48:00.000Z

“Jump-starting my fore-brain after Christmas break. These assignments are just not going to write themselves.”
09:17 January 03 from my Twitter feed.

Colin Powell’s Thirteen Rules Of Leadership

2009-01-02T09:57:00.000Z

I discovered this online and it is a useful practical listing of leadership advice.

Rule 1
It ain’t bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
Rule 2
Get mad, then get over it.
Rule 3
Avoid your ego being so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Rule 4
It can be done.
Rule 5
Be careful whom you choose.
Rule 6
Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
Rule 7
You can’t make someone else’s decisions.
You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
Rule 8
Check small things.
Rule 9
Share credit.
Rule 10
Remain calm. Be kind.
Rule 11
Have a vision. Be demanding.
Rule 12
Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
Rule 13
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Leadership Opportunities For 2009

2009-01-01T07:19:00.000Z

“While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here’s a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.”
—Seth Godin’s New Year Message.

Quote Of The Day 31/12

2008-12-31T21:39:00.000Z

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
—Karen Lamb

On Reading ‘Level 5 Leadership’

2008-12-30T09:47:00.000Z

I had encountered this martial when I read Jim Collins' book ‘Good To Great’ over the Summer.

There is some interesting cross-over between this article and Goldman’s ‘Emotional Intelligence’, but whereas Goldman talks more about interpersonal, people-management, aspects of leadership this also addresses resolve, vision and direction-setting.

One fact to note when mapping any learnings from this article onto my real experience is that he is looking at companies performance over a thirty-year cycle and few, if any, Irish design companies have yet lasted that long. Not to say that they won’t achieve that span of years ever, just that they have not yet

Quote Of The Day 30/12

2008-12-30T07:32:00.000Z

“It’s more important that you be passionate about what you do all day than it is to be passionate about the product that is being sold.”
—Seth Godin