My Dream Project Nearing completion

I have been in the midst on renovating a house I bought this year and it has been a fun experience, having August off has really helped it getting things done. I have been my own general contractor and using my skills from building sites and online projects has been invaluable and saved me a boatload. Negotiating with contractors over timing and cost was second nature and all the decisions that need to be made from cabinet color to faucet style.

The story starts with a house in my summer community that was empty since 1986. It is small but enough and it is on the water, a beautiful tidal creek, Corey Creek. The house had no human occupant since 86 but a number of raccoons made it home for years, how many I am not sure but calculating the amount of raccoon poop in the house I would guess 3. On the first day I was given a tyvek suit as a joke and realized when opening the door for the first time it wasn't a joke but a necessity. Raccoons like to poop in sinks and on soft surfaces like beds and furniture. More about this later...the photos will show you where I started and what it looks like today all in 10 weeks.

It has been a while

Busy renovating my house and time to get back to work. Found this little store in Chinatown last week. I need to get downtown more often.

I Love Street Art

Found this cool site that documents some work from around the world. http://www.woostercollective.com/

Wanna be a Crispin?

Get more bikes in the office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWzGB3QBRUk

Interested video. Randy Nelson, Pixar University’s Dean

What Would Google Do is a must read

Lots of duh observation in the book but interesting view on advertising, it's a dying industry but relationship marketing is growing except with Office Depot.

Facebook and the military

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_pentagon_social_networking

A book I would recommend

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Say-Yes-When-Want/dp/0440154138/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240942506&sr=1-1

Buy it now!
Don't Say Yes When You Want to Say No: Making Life Right When It Feels All Wrong

Something I learned in art school

When I was a senior in art school I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to a lecture by Paul Rand (look him up if you don't know who he is). I was really excited to listen and learn from probably the best graphic designers in America. It was fascinating to learn about his creative process, his methodically, see all the great work and hear how design fit into his life.

The most profound thing that I remember from his lecture was in the q&a portion of the lecture. A woman asked him about the new AT&T logo that Saul Bass (look him up too) had just designed and sold for $1,000,000. She asked him to critique the logo and I found his answer intriguing. He said he doesn’t critique other creative’s work. He went on that it wouldn’t be fair not because he had no way of knowing the circumstances under which the work was created. I thought that was a dignified and professional answer.

When I was at JWT they instituted a 1 thru 10 rating system for all creative work, there was no explanation that went with the judging. It made me think of that lecture and how could I judge colleagues work solely on creative merit when I knew some account folk were jerks and got in the way, when the strategy was off or that the client was a dick. I went to my CD with my misgivings and being in DM/interactive I explained we have our own rating system. Whether or not someone responds or clicks through. I went on to tell him the Paul Rand story and his response was “Who is Paul Rand?”. It made my sad.

Are we in a post-consumer era?

Read the article here