ml haynes design

Ikea and agency, Forsman & Bodenfors of Sweden, are at it again as they reinvent their annual Ikea Wardrobe campaign. I recently posted on the group’s creative campaign to sell kitchen appliances via coffee table cookbooks; in this campaign they’ve turned everyday household storage into fashion show knockout.

Garderob, which means “wardrobe” in English, was the hook for a media blitz announcing the annual campaign, the design competition that fed the event, the website that promoted that competition and the four-day event that showcased the 25 designers chosen to compete in the final fashion spectacle.

Tapping traditional and online media outlets, the campaign went above and beyond the promotion of inexpensive furniture to build a current and creative story around what it is we do with that furniture. The rich storytelling around a relatively plain, box-shaped storage unit enabled Ikea to position their brand into the rich lives of designers, fashionistas, and fashion-forward consumers in Stockholm and throughout Sweden.

Ultimately, the grand-prize winner was a young watchmaker, but the real winner was Ikea with more than 60 journalists reporting on the fashion event and more than 10,500 people attending that same event over four days.

This one goes out to Mr. T and all the storytellers that inspire.

The Huffington Post recently posted a piece on The Dollar ReDe$ign Project. This online contest to redesign the American dollar bill is described by organizer Richard Smith as a way to “rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy.” No small task and not particularly convincing if the posted comments are any indication. But seeing the amount of creative energy expended, the solutions shared and the rationale underpinning these submissions, it’s clear that many of us believe in the power of a good redesign.

Billed as “the ‘only’ realistic way for a swift economic recovery,” I wondered if Smith might need to step away from the computer for a few hours. Described as “the ‘only’ pragmatic way to add some realistic stimulation into our lives,” I began to see the beauty in this open design project. And the genius behind striking up such an initiative.

Crowdsourcing American currency as the ultimate feel-good and minting a new calling card for Mr. Smith. That’s no chump change.

While the competition is closed, voting on the winner continues until September 30, 2010. Submissions are still being received as of this writing — so if you’re inclined to show the world what’s inside your wallet (or your sketchbook, cocktail napkin or hard drive) head over and throw your bills into the pile. Of course, you can also just take a look and see what inspiration you might find.

Fix the economy, unlikely. Add a little something different to your portfolio, sure thing. Boost the profile of a fellow creative and savvy marketer, absolutely.

The Flip has landed and the fun has just begun. This is a quick field test of the UltraHD, sans tripod. Mic picks up absolutely everything. Color is true and consistent. Upload and transfer couldn’t be easier. Getting 120 minutes of record time, more than 6 hours of battery life and 1280×720 video resolution means I’ll be taking this everywhere and sharing the adventure here.

Started the week (didn’t we all?) watching Avatar in a 3D IMAX theater. Ended the week watching Aurélia’s Oratorio (we all should!) in a small rep theater. Probably the closest I could get to two extremes of storytelling. Made for a lot of thought on how we do this as producers of stories and how much we bring as consumers of stories.

I’d heard the hype on James Cameron’s new movie and was struck by the harsh critique of the storyline. I was more interested in the technology and effects, but found myself paying more attention to the storytelling than I might have had I not heard the criticism. Bottom line: The story is a simple one, and one that we’ve been telling each other for a long, long time. I believe that anything more complicated would have weighed down the story, pulling us away from some of the most telling truths of the film. Using just one visual metaphor — that of light and illumination — the film-maker has captured so much, and tells us so much, about life and truth.

I had not heard one word about the live theater piece I saw nearly one week later. Reading the program as the venue filled to capacity it became clear that I was about to see the latest in a long line of performance pieces spawned from cirque and ancestral to so much modern-day big-top entertainment. And while there were words uttered during the 70-minute show I found those sounds so unnecessary. The colors of the spare set, the simple props told so much of the story. The movements of the performers — just two for the vast majority of the piece — did more to communicate than any dialogue could. The producer of this story certainly had a point-of-view and a story to tell, but the space that was allowed for each of us in the audience to bring our own experience and expectations was such a counterpoint to the tightly scripted and structured tale I’d taken in just days before.

As storytellers we could all take a minute to consider the silent spaces between lines and the import of the audience in filling those spaces for themselves. If what we’re truly trying to accomplish is an experience — a positive and memorable one at that — shouldn’t we be inviting the collaboration of our consumers (the listeners, viewers, users, guests) and creating authentic and available space for them?

Pre-production began nearly a year ago. Principal photography, for all intents and purposes, wrapped in early August 2009. And after many interviews, presentations, reasoned arguments and irrational fears, a team of film-makers, storytellers and dreamers are now waist-high in post-production on a 60-minute documentary film. I’m honored and excited to be a part of the team and the process.

What I’m finding of most interest at this point is the experience of building a narrative — crafting a story from hours and hours of footage. We intentionally created this path for ourselves, knowing that we could never predict the stories and soundbites we’d find once filming began. Now to be on the other side, sifting through so much material, the choices we made months ago have presented us with some very particular challenges.

I’m curious, relatively new to this, what typically happens as the documentary film-making process unfolds. Does a writer/director outline a story arc and produce the footage to support the story? Or does that creative person conjure a direction, broad and open, and go in search of whatever may come up along the way? One direction seems so purposeful and yet so conscripted. The other organic and unruly. How often might this describe the creative process in general?

Something to consider: How do we prepare for creative challenges? How comfortable are we, as designers and developers, with the unexpected?

Nice piece on Pandora, the Oakland-based online radio service, in Sunday’s New York Times’ Magazine. The Song Decoders, written by Rob Walker, reveals the dot-com start-up’s hungry beginnings, the president’s (musician, Tim Westergren) thoughts on collaborative filtering and social networks, and what I think is the beauty of Pandora, The Music Genome Project.

Walker states that many of the Pandora users he interviewed for this piece did not know of the Genome Project. It’s this incredible human-based system of codifying music that drew me to Pandora and it’s why I’ve been an avid fan and promoter since that first listen. Recording the DNA of a music track. Mapping it to thousands of other tracks. Then letting the computer do the rest has made for true 21st century radio.

Listen here if you’ve never tried. Keep it up if you’re a listener. This intelligent and entertaining merge of music and methodology deserves the support. Your ears will thank you.