Can Optimism Change the Subway?

by Kevin Roberts

A public art project that links New York's subway system with the idea of "optimism" is bound to attract some cynicism, if not outright ridicule. That's because public transit everywhere in the world is one of the more popular targets for complaint, vitriol and even fist-shaking rage.

However, radical optimists seek out optimism in the hardest places - and where better than the subways of New York?

A campaign instigated by Manhattan designer Reed Seifer to distribute 14 million Metrocards emblazoned with the word "Optimism" to New York commuters kicked off in November last year under the MTA's Arts in Transit program. He's been an optimism promoter since the early 80s after an experience as a young boy with his father and a homeless man. He wrote a thesis on optimism and then started selling buttons. Now he's reached exponential scale. The naysayers were quickly vocal - "I am optimistic that the MTA is mismanaged and the fares will continue to go up while service goes down", and the sarcastic sucker-punch: "I feel better already."

It'll be interesting to see what effect the campaign has. Is simply putting a positive word out there into the atmosphere enough to cause social change? I'm a great believer in the power of language to change the entire conversation. This is how Lovemarks came about - I wanted to change the whole paradigm of brand management which had run out of juice. Love is the most provocative act of all, and people can get remarkably jumpy at the prospect of getting close to Love. One of the ways we started to propagate the idea of Lovemarks in Saatchi & Saatchi was to simply use the word a lot - in emails and conversations. Do it naturally, don't overdo it - but just do it!

Whether Optimism is as compelling as Love is yet to be seen. I've called myself a Radical Optimist - not an everyday garden variety, but a committed evangelist. Reed Seifer is therefore a Radical Optimist, taking the notion beyond the "glass is half full" cliche.

Radical Optimism is not about seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses; it's about taking notice of the roses that are out there - and getting out there to plant some more. Negativity and pessimism is easy. As the MTA campaign reminds us, traveling through life with some optimism in our back pocket is a great idea for us and for those around us.

Oh and here's the thing - the New York transit system is a world-beater, and it deserves better than the relentless negativity that seems to be directed its way. Did you know that New York is one of the most sustainable cities on the planet - per capita greenhouse emissions are around a third of the rest of the USA - and that's largely thanks to the subway system, and the five million people who use it every day.

Image source: http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/about/optimism.html

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Visible and Invisible Innovation - Cirque Du Soleil

by Andrea Meyer

Point: Behind-the-scenes innovation makes visible innovation shine

Story: I saw the premiere of KOOZA in Denver last week. Actually, it was my second time seeing KOOZA (the first was in Boston), and it was even better the second time.

The first time, I was mesmerized by the overt innovations in the show, like the "Wheel of Death." Imagine two connected hamster-wheels, each of which spin while both together revolve vertically as well. Suspended high above the stage, the performers run, dive and somersault inside the wheels. And just when it looks like the act couldn't get any more thrilling, the performers switch to running on the outside of the wheel.

My second time at KOOZA, I sat in the second row, so I had a closer look at the costumes. Even from the very last row (where I sat the first time), I remember the dazzling shine of the juggler's suit. The second time, I had a chance to see the intricacy of all the costumes, which led me to wonder about the R&D that must go into them. The costumes hug tight body lines yet flex with all the contortions the performers make.

How does Cirque Du Soleil create these amazing costumes? First, Cirque hires talent: specialists in textile design, lace-making, shoemaking, wig-making, patternmaking, costume-making and millinery all work together to combine their knowledge.

Second, they actively seek out new materials which can be used. A "technological watch team" tracks global advances in adhesives, batteries and miniature lights to see how they could be incorporated into costumes. The team looks beyond boundaries of standard textiles to encompass fields such as avionics, plumbing, water sports and even dentistry for components that achieve the imagined task.

Third, the artisans of Cirque Du Soleil's Costume workshop custom-make all the costumes, dyeing the colors in-house or painting costumes directly. They mold each individual hat on a plaster model of the artist's head for a perfect fit. They consider comfort during these very athletic shows: the wig-making team, for example, builds wigs one hair at a time to achieve optimal ventilation. The attention to detail is staggering: the Bungee costumes used in Cirque's Mystre each have over 2,000 hand-glued sequins. The juggler's suit in KOOZA consists entirely of mirrored squares, like a disco ball.

Whether visible or hidden, Cirque du Soleil innovations shine.

Action:

• Hire specialists in multiple related disciplines to work as a creative team


• Explore beyond the expected. Cirque's costume team doesn't just use fabrics but expands into composite materials such as silicone, latex, plastics, foams and urethane


• Let team members be hands-on to devise ways to make an innovation work

Further information:

The show has moved on to Santa Monica, CA in October and will be in Irvine, CA in January. Info on future cities is here.

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Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, Andrea Meyer writes & ghostwrites about innovation, IT and strategy for clients like MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Follow her at www.workingknowledge.com/blog and twitter.com/AndreaMeyer.

The Art of Whitespace

by Matthew E May

Being a sometime pencil sketcher, I've been a fan of the Wall Street Journal pen and ink stipple portraits, also known as a hedcut (that's not a typo) since I started reading the journal in 1982. I love the fact that the portraits are most whitespace with artfully placed dots and dashes -- pure black and white -- and the brain fills in the rest and essentially creates the gray tones. I've tried the technique myself, and it ain't easy. Much easier is pencil shading.

I decided to track down the originator, Kevin Sprouls. You can find his work at Sprouls.com. You can read about the evolution of his technique and how he creates each sketch on his "Ink Rhythm" blogsite. And if, like me, you doubt the Wall Street Journal will ever do a feature article on you worthy of a hedcut, you can hire Kevin to do it for you for a few hundred dollars. Which is exactly what I did.

Not only is the art terrific -- I sent him the blog photo to the right so you can compare -- but the service he provides is outstanding. I sent him a request, he responded promptly, I emailed him the photo, and in two days received an overnight delivery (included in the cost) with the finished portrait along with a digital file, also included in the cost.

Make no mistake, you cannot replicate this technique with Photoshop masks and filters. I know because I've tried all the tricks available online. It's gotta be done old school by hand. And that makes it all the more special, somehow. I can even see small whiteouts here and there on the bristol board where a dot was not to his liking.

Over the years Kevin's mastery has enabled him to crank one of these out in a few hours. He emailed me four hours after I sent him the photo telling me he was done. To me, that's an amazing talent and skill.

Based on the experience and outcome, I intend to have Kevin do portraits of my family members (including the dog) as holiday gifts.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Color Yellow Could Have Created a Billionaire

by Matthew E May

One month ago today, the legendary master potter Otto Heino passed away at age 94. You'd probably have to be a ceramics aficionado to appreciate his art and recognize his name. I know of him only because he lived and worked in Ojai, not far from where I live in southern California, and where my family loves to visit and camp. Otto was of Finnish descent, and the first thing you'd notice when you met him was his incredibly smooth skin, the result of two decades of applying his own porcelain slip (the liquid porcelain before it's been cast) as a mud mask to his face, 20 minutes per day.

Why is he legendary? Because the Chinese government once offered him a billion dollars for what he knew about color yellow. Not only that, but in 1978 when Pablo Picasso wanted to know who the best potter in the world was, he sent out a request to the ceramics world to help him figure it out. Picasso invited 50 countries to participate in a contest. It was Otto who won the grand prize with a 24 inch pot with two birds on it. His entry remains in Picasso's museum.

Otto's most elegant solution was a highly sought after shade of yellow. As the story goes, Otto went to a ceramics conference in Japan in 1980, where he met a Chinese monk who wanted European and American potters to work on a certain lost color. The monk was looking for a high-temperature yellow glaze popular during China's Chin Dynasty (A.D. 265 to 420). It was the color of a Buddhist monk's robe. What intrigued Otto, and what started a 15-year pursuit, was that the formula for mixing the color had been lost centuries ago. Said Otto in an interview with a local magazine two years ago: "I found an old book in a library that said the original Chinese artist had burned the formula because he didn't want it to be put onto cheap pots. So my wife [fellow potter Vivika] and I decided to work on it."

Two months after the sad passing of Vivika in 1995, Otto got it. "I knew it right away. I opened a bottle of champagne. I celebrated all day. I called China."

As journalist Anthony Head put it, "the ceramics world descended on Ojai. They came in droves. Japan and other countries sent official delegates to scrutinize the color and the ability to fire the glaze at high temperatures. Once they confirmed that the secret of this precious color had indeed revealed itself to Otto, they spent a lot of money obtaining his pottery created with this newly uncovered treasure."

The FBI didn't like it. After Otto cashed a seven figure cashier's check, they ransacked his shop and home. It took him three days to clean the mess up. Said Otto, "They came at seven in the morning, three with rifles, two with pistols. I thought all along the guy was going to shoot me. They said no potter could make that much money. They accused me of being in the drug business because I was on the phone talking about 'shipping yellow.'"

Otto's peaceful life in Ojai changed with the color yellow. What didn't change was his work ethic. He was up every day at 4 AM to start work. What didn't change were his principles--he turned down China's billion-dollar offer for the yellow glaze formula! Of course, he enjoyed depositing $600,000 cashier's checks for his wares. One of his uniquely shaped teardrop pots would easily go for $35,000.

As for Otto's elegant solution, it passed away along with him. He would not sell the formula. He would not reveal it to anyone. "When I die," he said, "then it goes with me. It isn't the money. It's the ethics. I don't want anyone to put this yellow glaze on bad pots. It is the most important part of my legacy."

Like his predecessor before him centuries earlier, Otto believed in creative integrity. He was a consummate artist to the end.

Otto Heino, rest in peace.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Part 2 - The Power of the Question (Rx for Deadly Mistakes)

You may or may not know this: Art has its foundations in utility.

Great works of earlier centuries were never meant to hang in museums and adorn private collections any more than elegant Egyptian hieroglyphics were meant to simply beautify crypts, wooden totem poles to garnish the forest, or coarse images of the hunter's kill to decorate the walls of a cave. Rather, they were intended for a very specific purpose or to signify a specific event, judged first and foremost by function and usefulness, and by the ability to meet the requirements of the commissioner. They were made by people, for people.

Deborah Adler knows it, though. She was a design student when her grandma Helen took grandpa Herman's prescription medication Amoxicillin by mistake in 2001, and it was a clarion call for Deborah to apply her skills and make sure such a thing never happened again. Coming from a family of doctors, the world of medicine was a familiar one. When the unfortunate accident occurred, it became clear to Deborah that she had an opportunity to develop an idea that both hit close to home and satisfied her need to help others.

A single question drove her pursuit of a new design: How can I make medicine bottles more safe and user-friendly?

She immersed herself in the problem, exploiting her own need for an MFA thesis project at New York's School of Visual Arts. She discovered that people take medication incorrectly 60% of the time. Grandma Helen's problem was almost universal.

Medication bottles hadn't changed much in 60 years. Sure, there was child-proofing in the 1970s. But simple observation told a story of deadly complexity: Inconsistent labeling, confusing numbers, poor color combinations, hard-to-read shape, and tiny type, (except for the drugstore's name and logo).

Her goals? Clarity. Visibility. Intuitiveness. Personalization.

The new design included turning the bottle upside down and flattening it, so the label doesn't wrap out of view. The prescription information is delivered in a hierarchy of priority, starting with the medication in big bold letters. Back label directions (e.g. "Take with food") are standardized and icon-based. Information cards tuck neatly into the back of the bottle label. Color-coded rings make it hard to take the wrong medication, because every family member has their own designated color.

Target liked it so much that they bought up her patent rights and fast-tracked the design to all 1000-plus Target pharmacies nationwide, dubbing it Clear Rx.

The Clear Rx design is a true work of art. So much so that the New York Museum of Modern Art put it on display in the autumn of 2005.

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Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Design, Discovery and Humor

Here is an interesting and funny video from Ted with David Carson speaking about the importance of graphic design and intuition:



During his presentation, David Carson uses a great quote on intuition:

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you, and you don't know how or why." - Albert Einstein

He also talks a bit about how the pendulum is swinging slighty back from simplicity in graphic design, and how as we become more digitally driven, graphic design will feature more people and more handwriting.


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)