The nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise employed a common literary technique-a red herring- in their latest PSA video. The first half of the video shows an endearing high school story. It opens with a male student writing “I AM BORED” on a school library desk. When he returns there the next day, someone has written back…
A Brief Personal History with Pinterest I created a Pinterest account in 2012 during my senior year. The girls in my class became addicted to the site, and we curated boards for “prom dresses” and “future dorm room” with vigor. We followed one another, as well as older stylish girls we knew, and pinned each…
Although I am a committed to my Toyota 4Runner, I admire the Jeep brand and its ability to attract drivers of all ages and lifestyles. Jeep users are also decidedly loyal. Driving a Jeep offers entrance into a community of drivers who wave at one another, gather at Jeep off-road events, and share a history…
Made In A Free World exists to create awareness about slavery and other injustice found in the supply chain of most manufactured goods. It partners with organizations who are willing to examine and engage with every step of their supply chain so that they may partner with ethical employers. They hope to fight forced labor…
What is Ideation? After going through the Design Thinking phases of understanding and defining the problem, the most fun and freeing phase, ideation, can occur. This phase can also be called the “imagine” phase because it requires letting go of ideas of perfection and ‘the way things have always been done’. This is the time…
The second step of the Design Thinking process is to define the problem. After gathering research and observations, you can begin to find common themes and pain points that emerge from the data. This step must happen following focus group sessions, so that observers can identify the frequency and validity of comments made. It’s important…
Design Thinking is a strategic process for developing new products or solutions. It hinges on customer needs in a “technologically feasible and strategically viable way”. The process is linear on paper but cyclical in nature, as each step builds on the next but requires frequent iteration. In the same way, the writing process seeks to…
My last post on Transmedia discussed the way that digital platforms should communicate the same story. This concept relates to the way that businesses ought seek to use Integrated Marketing, essentially the discipline of sending out a consistent messaging through all channels-PR, advertising, social media, direct marketing, etc.. Bloomberg notes, “Integration means communicating a consistent…
Transmedia is the scholarly term for fancy, widespead storytelling. It refers to the way that many platforms can tell a single story. It involves the “convergence” of digital mediums in tandem, where producers of media meet media consumers and overlap. Producers can be tweeters (?), Instagrammers, bloggers, and Buzzfeed collaborators all the way to creatives…
In W.E.B Du Bois’ address at the Chicago Conference of the NAACP in 1926, on the Theory of Black Art, he describes a scene of lake vacationers: “They all tried to get everywhere first. They pushed other people out of the way. They made all sorts of incoherent noises and gestures so that the quiet…
