Russell Davies

charette confusion

I was half listening to a Rem Koolhaus lecture a while ago. (He does go on a bit.) Then he described a word that architects use, meaning - the bit at the end of the pitch process, where it gets very last minute and you have all the good ideas. He said that architects actually plan for that to happen in the timing plan of the creative process. It probably goes in MS Project. It seemed like a fantastic word. A really useful concept. How clever architects are, I thought, we should remember that when we're doing creative stuff. Though of course I couldn't remember the word.

Then I came across the word again. it's charette. Though it appears it doesn't quite mean what I thought it does. It means this. Which is a shame. Someone needs to come up with a word to describe that last minute ideas thing. Perhaps it's panic.

descriptions of planning

I've come across two good descriptions of the planning/strategy process in the past few days. Not that they were intended as such, but they're still good.

I saw the first in a New Yorker article about Maureen Baginski, who runs the Office Of Intelligence at the FBI. Before that she was at the NSA, in charge of signals intelligence. She explains that they need to change their way of doing research; they need to 'hunt, not gather'. ie they need to investigate ideas and possibilities rather than hoover-up data. I think this is a great description of the best approach to Market Research. 'Hunt. Not Gather.'

The second is from The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. The heroine, Eliza, is giving her protege advice on how to get on in the world (specifically the worlds of intrigue, politics, love and finance) but the advice could be exactly what you'd give to a young planner. Or frankly, a young anyone:

"Pay attention, thats all...Notice things. Connect what you've noticed. Connect it into a picture. Think of how the picture might be changed; and act to change it. Some of your acts may turn out to be foolish, but others will reward you in surprising ways; and in the meantime, simply by being active instead of passive, you have a kind of immunity that's hard to explain."

I love that.

alternative names for planning - part many

Office Of Strategic Services (America's first intelligence service - created during WWII)

great quote about creative endeavour and work/life balance

you must be regular and natural in your habits like a bourgeois; so that you may be violent and original in your work.

flaubert

good way to present a strategy

creative strategies to avoid

1. vote for X - 'it'll be like a mock election, we'll have candidates and everything, and we can actually create a character who can stand at a by-election. It'll really seize the popular imagination' No, it won't.

2. parody of existing advertising style - who hasn't yet done a parody of 'the best a man can get' style stuff? Irn-Bru did it. Fray Bentos have done it, Miller have done it. I think. And everyone's done 70s cheesey stuff. Just don't do it.

bad things to do in presentations

1. characterising your target audience as 'darren and tracey'

2. saying 'this is going to enter the language and/or popular culture' It won't. It might have done 20 years ago, but unless it's the best ad ever, it won't.

clever

Right here's all you need to know about brainstorming. Death Star is clearly a great name. And it clearly wasn't brainstormed by Darth. He wouldn't have done that. The Death Star was a conviction brand, a lighthouse brand. The Empire was not a consensus organisation. It did not look for a lot of stake-holder input.

worrytank

this is how brainstormings normally feel to me.

psywarrior

PSYOP PSYOPS PSYWAR Psychological Operations Psychological Warfare