Uncategorized

Also published at Huffington Post: In a meeting of nonprofit leaders the other day, I heard an executive praise some recent work done by his staff as "amazing" and "incredible".I hear this kind of thing so often that, normally, it hardly registers -- it's become the equivalent of someone saying "thank you".But this time it hit me: it is the equivalent of saying "thank you". … [Read more...] about That’ll Do, Pig: If You Care About Excellence, Stop Over-Praising

Here's a great new tool for us creatives - Palettab - available as a Chrome extension. It works like this: Everytime you open a new tab in Chrome,  a new combination of color palette and fonts appears in the browser window. If you see a color you like, simply click, and the hex number is copied to your clipboard. All the fonts are available via Google fonts. Simple to … [Read more...] about Inspiration on the Fly

This article is crossposted at The Huffington Post.Back in 2005, Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat made a persuasive argument that the globe was coming together on a level playing field, thanks to the equalizing forces of technology and peaceful economic competition.But nearly 10 years later, it looks instead like the world is falling part.Among the most disturbing … [Read more...] about The World Isn’t Flat, It’s Hollow

This article is crossposted at The Huffington Post. A while back, I predicted the coming of no-content marketing: what comes next after the sheer volume of content drives its value below zero. That's the point at which we start paying to avoid content, no matter how compelling, shocking, funny, or celebrity- or puppy-laden. That point is here. The latest sign: In a … [Read more...] about Shopping Made Psychic: No-Content Marketing Marches On

Also posted at O'Reilly Broadcast. A long time ago, I had to learn from scratch how to manage visual designers, after having started out as a composer and audio producer, with no training in graphic arts -- back then I thought of it as "the blind leading the deaf."Luckily, I found that most of the skills I'd developed while working with sound carried over to other … [Read more...] about How to get a designer’s best work for a logo, website, ad – anything