Inspiration for life: Toys and stories

How many people out there feel like the blockbuster Pixar series “Toy Story” relates to them, and their own experiences as youths playing with toy cowboys and astronauts? You can certainly count me among them, and of course I know that Woody is meant to be Johnny West, and at least to me, Buzz is G.I. Joe. Those two men were my constant companions when I was a young boy, especially after my older brother had gone off to school. They inspired my imagination and brought adventures to life that are permanently etched in my memory banks. With time, I have come to see that this treasure trove of wonder and endless possibilities represented by the toys of my youth is something of a universal phenomenon.

For example, by viewing the video above, you can learn about the toys that inspired some of the top speakers from recent FITC Events. I was equally fascinated by the subject matter presented in Emma Hutching’s PSFK feature story entitled “Children Around the World Pose With Their Favorite Toys.” Check out the story to view photographer Gabriele Galimberti‘s photo series “Toy Stories” wherein children from around the world pose with their favorite toys.

What’s your toy story?

Two weeks to go: Adweek Project Isaac Competition

As media, marketing and technology continue to rapidly transform the world, genuine invention has become crucial to advancing brands. The Adweek Project Isaac Awards were conceived to cast a celebratory light on invention across all areas of the venerable publication’s coverage. Submissions are now open (the deadline’s in two weeks: April 8) in 35 categories across four brackets: Advertising & Marketing, Media, Digital and Best Practices. Winners will earn the right to use a custom Adweek Project Isaac seal, and will appear in an invention-themed issue of Adweek to be published on May 13, just ahead of the CLIO Awards in NYC on May 15. The judges will also select one overall “Gravity” award winner who will be revealed and honored during the CLIO ceremony’s Adweek Project Isaac presentation.

Founded in 1978 and fully relaunched and redesigned in 2010, Adweek delivers vibrant, insightful and forward-thinking content via the traditional weekly print magazine, Adweek.com and Adweek on the iPad for the advertising, media and marketing industries. For further information please visit www.isaacawards.com.

Sharing secrets: SXSW Walter Alert

Very soon, we will all begin reading about all the fun that lucky traveler/revelers in Austin, Texas, are having at the fabulous annual SXSW interactive and film (starting March 8) and music (starting March 12) festivals. I hope you’ll be there this year, and if so, please be safe and have a great time. In case you have a new tech business in the works, many prominent media outlets are abuzz about an innovative pop-up advertising agency that will be meeting with startup tech ventures at the festival between March 8 and 12 to discuss marketing program development. Reporting for Advertising Age, David Teicher writes:

There are only 25 interview slots available, so visit www.Calluswalter.com soon to request a meeting, and break a leg. Here comes SXSW 2013!

Adventures in art: Art Basel 2012

Art Basel stages the world’s premier modern and contemporary art shows annually in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Founded by gallerists in 1970, Art Basel has been a driving force in supporting the role that galleries play in the nurturing of artists, and the development and promotion of visual arts.

At Art Basel Miami Beach 2012 last December, a new piece of contemporary art was unveiled as part of the $30 million dollar renovation of the InterContinental hotel. Once the town’s top destination, the property has faced intense competition over the past 30 years. Enter the eye-popping dancing silhouette above, created through a thin strip of LED lights across six windows on 19 floors of the InterContinental… now performing nightly all the way across Biscayne Bay. According to Robert Hill, the hotel’s general manager, the display launched during Art Basel 2012 to boost InterContinental’s brand and put it back on the map, and to help propel Miami into a higher class of world destinations. Read more

2013 AICP Show Call for Entries

The Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) has announced its call for entries for the 2013 AICP Show and Next Awards. Entries are now being accepted at www.aicp.com. For more information visit AllArtIsAdvertising.com.

Great to know: Leviathan’s Jason White

Jason White, the executive creative director of design-focused production studio Leviathan, recently returned from a very successful trip to Australia, where he participated in events with Autodesk in Sydney as well as the Pause Digital Festival in Melbourne. At Pause, Jason presented “Moving Masses: The Art of Transformative Visual Experiences” as part of the PauseStage premiere conference event, and he hosted the world premiere of the dramatic short “Lilith,” Leviathan’s first original narrative film. The film was very well received, and so were Jason’s presentations. Here is some of the feedback. Read more

Sharing secrets: Architizer

The principals of Architizer.com believe the internet can transform the way architects do business. Since launching in 2009 with the mission of connecting architects to a vibrant network of peers, fans, and potential clients, the open community has become the largest and fastest-growing database of architecture online. A vital resource for news and information on competitions, job listings, and events happening around the world, Architizer’s blog also publishes the most relevant design content on the web, attracting an audience of millions who discuss and share through social media. Architizer is designed to transcend its editorial-based peers and empower the architecture. Check it out at www.Architizer.com.

Adventures in Publishing: Charlotte Cheetham

Charlotte Cheetham is a french curator in graphic design: her publications & exhibitions projects, about graphic design and art relevant issues, are thought like spaces for experimental proposals. Manystuff.org, the blog she runs since 2006, proposes one possible reflection of a landscape and promotes a contemporary adventurous and transversal practice of graphic design that comes closely with art, curatorial practices, publishing practices, etc.

Her practice, constantly redefined, is based on an experimental approach embodied in publishing experiences, in exhibition moments, and in a flow of information over the Internet. Working on interpretation, on reinterpretation, she is interested in the thinking process – multi-disciplinary, poetic, experimental and surprising – that leads to the final “form.”

Slide Shows is a landscape of Contemporary Independent and Art Publishing, curated by Charlotte for Fillip’s Print Centre. To see more, please visit slide-shows.tumblr.com.

Creative entrepreneurs: Tina Roth Eisenberg

Swissmiss is a design blog and studio run by Tina Roth Eisenberg. Besides swissmiss, she founded and runs CreativeMornings, TeuxDeux, Tattly and her coworking space called Studiomates. Above, I’m sharing Tina’s presentation from the 2011 Future of Web Design conference.

“The talk is mostly about lessons I want to teach my kids, hoping that one day, they will be at a place in their lives where they are happy with the decisions they’ve made and most of all, love what they do.”

Enjoy!

The powers of now…

I am a big fan of author and philosopher Eckhart Tolle, but since this blog is more focused on business, I wanted to borrow this key theme from Mr. Tolle’s work to bring your attention to some of the interesting new ways in which technology is offering individuals some relatively phenomenal superpowers. While I know there are no big secrets revealed here, I do feel it’s well worth emphasizing how powerful we all are becoming by virtue of technology. Over the past several years, I have posted many items relating to personal brand building. Once you have sorted out what you intend to stand for and how you will communicate that, you have a growing number of options for converting your ideas into action. Read more