SeeMartin

Art and Creative Directors

Martin Dimitrov — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:13:19 +0000

Among the traits successful Art and Creative Directors possess is that they speak fluent executive language and can explain to the CEO why the font size should remain small and conversely can “sketch” the business picture for the designer so s/he can design with business considerations in mind. They are linear persons with vivid imagination—sounds oxymoronic but describes them well.

Through experience they learned that the good design is the one that achieves its purpose; to sell a product, to build awareness, to entertain, or provoke. As materialistic as it sounds, creativity is measurable. It has always been, but unlike centuries ago when an artist had to die before the relatives start raking in the millions, today we can measure acquisition cost, ROI, response rate, etc. That is not to say, however, that past performance should dictate artistic direction—numbers have stifling effect on creativity and innovation.

And there lays the tricky part: it takes designers years of experience to learn to subordinate creativity to business objective without sacrifice of artistic value. Some designers are bitter with their destiny to do beautiful things that get “ruined” by clients. In time, they either change career path or evolve to stop seeing the design as an end in itself, but rather as a tool to achieve something specific. They learn to listen for real and see things through client’s lens and even assume that sometimes the client knows better which design will work. Then it all comes naturally – their creative skills sharpen, the clients are willing to trust them, the time wasted on dead-end projects vanishes, and most importantly – they start enjoying what they do—these are the guys cut for Art Directors.

Corolla – the Total Lack of Personality

Martin Dimitrov — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:28:57 +0000

To me Toyota Corolla symbolizes the total lack of personality. I’m not even worried that I’d offend people who drive it because they are probably so pragmatic that being offended seems like a waste of emotions to them. Year after year Toyota manages to “design” the non-descript, unnoticeable sedan perfect for a surveillance vehicle that you can park in front of buildings for days without anybody noticing the car. The 2011 model is no exception – the design finally caught up with what Hyundai Elantra looked …in 2000.

Turtle Wax Commercial

Martin Dimitrov — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:05:34 +0000

One commercial on Versus that I particularly like is the Turtle Wax Ice commercial below. It nails down everything – the message, the execution, the channel, everything! I think that commercials like this are the earthly appearance of (and justification for) focus groups, zmet analysis etc. theoretical tools. It clicks with me – I associate with the guy, it’s on Versus – the boys channel, and most importantly – I REMEMBERED the product after the first viewing: Turtle Wax Ice. It is not often to see such a quality commercial for such a niche, relatively inexpensive product.

The vending machine & the corporate culture

Martin Dimitrov — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:42:41 +0000

Most of the folks I work with are programmers and by definition very linear and structured people. So much so, that they don’t even start the next column of diet coke until the first is depleted. It was probably someone from marketing though, who randomly started in the middle of the row.

Samsung Disapointment

Martin Dimitrov — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:25:38 +0000

Samsung’s marketers either do not profile their customers very well or don’t give a damn about CRM and brand loyalty. Android 2.2 Froyo operating system will not be pushed OTA (over the air) to Samsung Vibrant phone owners because “…this could potentially hurt Samsung Galaxy 4G sales”!? Dubious argument at best. The adverse effect of this decision, however, is clear – annoyed Samsung Vibrant owners. What were the folks at Samsung thinking? If someone shells out $500 for a smart phone s/he probably gives a damn about what it does and stays on top of things such as a major operating system upgrade.

The upgrade is available if you go to Samsung or T-Mobile website and search a bit or, as I did, burn some customer service money by chatting with a rep online until they sent me a link to the step-by-step upgrade instructions. I don’t know what Samsung and T-Mobile put in their prenuptial agreement regarding such decisions but not sending Android 2.2 OTA to existing customers makes them both look bad.

Fairweather fans are the cash cows II

Martin Dimitrov — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:43:29 +0000

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post Fairweather fans are the cash cows, it’s time for an update. For the Washington Capitals the weather is not fair anymore as this season they are a mediocre team at best. Let’s not worry about them, however, and see what’s happening with the cash cows. I consider myself a cash-cow for the Caps and NHL because I occasionally buy overpriced tickets, merchandise, subscribe for hockey channels etc. I also happened to have a son who plays hockey at the mite age group (7-8 years old) and pay handsomely for him to do so. Yes, the money goes to a different league but in the grand scheme of things indirectly benefits NHL. Last year, when the Caps had a great season, the interest in youth hockey was such that my son’s team management had to cramp 21 kids in one team so they don’t turn any parents (and their money) away. This year? Not so much, as Borat would have put it. Team management and coaches are scurrying to recruit kids and it seems that the interest is winding down. I bet the situation is the same for all regional teams. On the positive side the interest in ice hockey must be picking up sharply in Tampa, FL as their team is doing great – too bad they don’t have many ice rinks there.

Compact Cameras Going the Way of the Dodo Bird

Martin Dimitrov — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:16:02 +0000

A few years ago my wife bought one because we were going to Rome for a week. We didn’t want to haul our bulky camera with us all the time and the compact was perfect for the abundant daylight and very convenient to carry in either a pocket or a purse. Today my cell phone has the same resolution and pretty much the same optics for Facebook and Flickr purposes. Why would I take a compact camera for marginally better quality and worry not to forget or recharge one more thing? Human anatomy and practicality play a role here – two factors that determine the faith of many categories in consumer electronics. The smart phones are wiping up the compact cameras – a natural selection as Darwin would have put it.

Honest Tea, honestly?

Martin Dimitrov — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:59:24 +0000

Every now and then I drink Honest Tea and I noticed that all bottles have this concavity at the bottom. The first time I thought I probably grabbed a bottle that was flawed but no, all bottles are like that. The well is irregular in shape and clearly an alternation of the original bottle design. This “defect” eats up an ounce or two of liquid from the volume of the bottle and is only noticeable once you fiddle with the bottle and not while still on the shelf. There is nothing wrong with this as the actual content of 16.9 fluid ounces (500ml) is stated on the label, although not as prominently as on most other beverages.
It is common practice with consumer packaged goods (CPG) to use packaging much larger than the content inside with various explanations about it — more air for the chips so it doesn’t crumble, standardized can sizes for the coffee etc., although the real reason is rooted in the consumer behavior analysis, or in other words — a perception of more bang for the buck. In the case of Honest Tea, it usually shares shelf space with Tazo Tea, Snapple, Steaz and other substitute products and looking bigger on a hot summer day might be just the difference that would sway the purchase decision one way or another.
That is fine too, cheesy but fine. What is not fine is when you use deceptive packaging and your brand name is Honest Tea. Even if I’m paranoid and I’m looking for a calf under the bull (as Bulgarian saying goes), even if this is totally coincidental, which I doubt, Honest Tea should “fix” the concavity because it trashes their brand essence.

“Semantic” Banner Advertisement

Martin Dimitrov — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:17:02 +0000

Banner advertisement has gone a long way from static images, through blinking animated gifs, through obnoxious sound enhanced flash to what you see on the right. A cool banner on weather.com that snatched the zip code I entered to customize the town, got the time right to the second, and showed me the weather forecast within the banner. Amidst the privacy craze this is an example of how personal (but not personally identifiable) information is used to benefit of the visitor. Being smart about sharing information online does not mean “not sharing” information online. I’m happy whenever semantic Web sites like Amazon, Netflix or Bing micro-target me and suggest a book, movie or service that is relevant to me. That’s as close to the personal attention the salesman can give you as it gets. Moreover, behind these recommendations is the wisdom of the crowd (btw, the book was suggested to me by Amazon after I purchased Freakonomics – mucho gracias, Amazon)

Infographics

Martin Dimitrov — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:46:52 +0000

I like infographics in public spaces, that’s the way to eliminate language barriers. A distant relative of the heraldic symbols and logos they have their own peculiarities and requirements — to be minimalistic and yet descriptive, to be culture-independent, to be in high-contrast, not to offend, …and as in my case yesterday, to entertain drivers stuck in traffic. It is much better to have the infographic on left instead of: “Expanded strollers are not allowed on bus. Put it under the bus and the driver will flatten it.”