Greetings!

The Question

That was the question asked this morning.

None ranked the meeting above 7.

So, then, each was asked how the rating could be upped to 10. And here are the suggestions:

1. To begin with, we need to revamp the rage website, which is a sad piece as it is today.
2. We need to also watch television commercials and print advertising, as there isn’t a difference as far as medium is concerned when it comes to ideation.
3. Everybody also felt that there should be a better library. More books like the One Show etc that spans all media and not just interactive advertising, for the very same reasons stated above – ideas and presentation are free of media borders.
4. We need to discuss an award winning creative – be that in television, print, out door or interactive – every alternate week. Take up that one piece and dissect it.
5. We need to make the submission of creatives for review every week a compulsory affair. Not just any creative, but the best that we’ve done for the week.
6. Have something better than the sword to give away each week for the best design and best copy. And also have a yearly ‘biggie’ for the most awarded creative person.
7. Send a mail of the week’s best creative to a selected audience outside the Friday Morning Meeting to garner feedback.
8. We need to also go out once a month.
9. And get us a TV and VCD.

That’s what would take us to a 10. But it’s the website that’s action point number one.

We’ve decided to have a brainstorm together, and then split individually to do up a few homepage options. And take it up from there.

To us!

Cheez!

This picture was taken just before we left to the Sterling Resort, Mahabalipuram for our annual New Year bash. That's all of us at Rage!

Mo's Wakow

Where's the Participation?

Last week, we did have our pow-wow on the squiggle exercise we gave ourselves. Hey, wait a minute. We've got that wrong. We had one person opining about what he thought and another about what she thought. And then a word or two. Hardly a pow-wow.

People! What's happened to participation? What's happened to healthy, constructive debate? Are all of us to be audiences? We're forgetting here that this little exercise, the whole idea of a Friday Morning Meeting is to make ourselves better.

We're here to make mistakes.
We're here to be silly.
We're here to be laughed at.
We're here to look stupid.
We're here to stumble and mumble...
To hell be damned!

For without making mistakes, without even trying to do anything at all, how are we to make ourselves better?

We need to open up. We need to participate. We need to loose that chip on our shoulder that says we're better than a Friday Morning Meeting. Because the truth is, we're not.

So the next time we 'huddle' let's leave our inhibitions behind along with our smugness and come in to the meeting with open minds, ready to falter, ready to look stupid.

We've got things to do... places to go... and the Friday Morning Meeting is where it all begins. Let's not forget that, even for a moment.

The Yellow, Small, Slant

This blog isn’t about pedagogy. But, hell, there are times when you need to reflect on the fundamentals, on the nuts and bolts. We’re doing that right here, right now.

Design, as most of us know it, is all about color, proportion and perspective. Let's take an example by the biggest designer of them all - God Almighty (err... not to be confused with Bruce Almighty). There's no greater designer than Him. There's so much we can learn from Him. Yet, like we do with the rest of His well-meant examples, we ignore the design examples He passes down to us each day.

Take the tree that throws up a cloud of yellow flowers about the month of April each year. Remember that tree? It's called something-or-other. Right! That tree! Let's quickly see how color, proportion and perspective come into play here.

Color - Yellow
God! He gets His hex numbers right for each and every blossom. The petals are a deep yellow. The sepals are a soft, light green. The stamens are a powdery maroon red. And that's not the 'hex' for one blossom. That applies for all blossoms, for all years, since the time He created them. Perhaps He uses Ctrl+C, on the sly, and puts all blossoms through rigorous QC. But in the end, they are all perfect yellow blossoms!

Proportion - Small
He gets them right every time. These yellow blossoms are always the right size for sprinkling about, much like jasmine. You might have noticed the huge spread of fallen yellow blossoms that form a pretty picture all around the tree. And who can resist those clouds of tiny yellow flowers as they weigh down the branches of the tree itself? That particular arrangement, be it as they droop down the tree or spread on the ground beneath it, is made possible only by the flower's exquisite proportions.

Perspective - Slant
The yellow spread on the ground and the yellow cloud on the branches we just talked about... have you enjoyed them at a distance? The spread would be perfect, the cloud would be captivating, no matter where you see it from. God! He’s got this killer sense of proportion too. Imagine… you wouldn't have to rearrange even one blossom in this arrangement. If you were a photographer you'd just click right away from every slant, because each angle would give you a faultless perspective.

Contrast that with... hey, wait a minute. We forgot to discuss contrast. Deep yellow petals, maroon red stamens... now isn't that a perfect contrast? Let's borrow a bit of that design sense from Him from now on. It's free, you see? And let’s remember our CCPP (Color, Contrast, Proportion, Perspective) each time we sit down to design.

Another View

A bit late in the day perhaps, but here's one more photograph from this years' Diwali celebrations. Groovy looks huh?

Text is good! So is white!

Here are the highlights - a terrific summary of lessons learned, as Seth Godin puts it - from eye tracking studies courtesy the Virtual Hosting Blog. You might want to print out these points and pin them to your soft board.

1. Text attracts attention before graphics.
2. Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page.
3. Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.
4. Readers ignore banners.
5. Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
6. Show numbers as numerals.
7. Type size influences viewing behavior.
8. Users only look at a sub headline if it interests them.
9. People generally scan lower portions of the page.
10. Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
11. One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
12. Ads in the top and left portions of a page will receive the most eye fixation.
13. Ads placed next to the best content are seen more often.
14. Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested.
15. Bigger images get more attention.
16. Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixation.
17. Headings draw the eye.
18. Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus.
19. Lists hold reader attention longer.
20. Large blocks of text are avoided.
21. Formatting can draw attention.
22. White space is good.
23. Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.

To read more on these click on the title of this post.