Marine Plaza, D&AD and Creative Lessons

I had made myself a promise last year to attend more industry fora, at least the ones in Mumbai. Have been quite regular. And would urge all of us to do the same.
With an industry already reeling under a talent problem and the fractious industry bodies getting impeded, we must do our own little bit!

There is no point blogging our rants. Even the smallest of changes need one action step!

Anyways, it was a thinly attended gathering. Actually, this was just a front to market D&AD( the UK based creative and design excellence award guys). Two half drunk, not-so-young, Brit women marketing the D&AD brochure, bad beer and peanuts and some chicken kebabs(which weren't bad!)

However, I have decided to be positive and get something out of every contact/ experience.
So, at night I breezed through the hand-made paper brochure and here are some nuggets I gleaned! Some questions, some observations, some pointers!

1. Is the left side of your brain always right? Think about all the instances when it wasn't. When it was.

2. Writing for advertising requires a warm feeling for words. You also have to look outside books, you look in unusual places and you encourage words to work on you; to surprise you, intrigue you, move you.

Then you experiment, bending and stretching language to find you own voice. It takes a while!

I find this particular bit of advice is relevant for planners and account management people as well! None of us need to draft boring, uninspiring briefs or memos!

3. Writing for design. Words give design a personality that engages the ear as well as the eye. They give the work a voice. But will others recognise it when they hear it?

It's important to sharpen our sensitivity to language. Rummage around it, strip it down, get opinionated about it. Track down our own writing voice.

Art directors must not be word blind. They must think beyond the pictures and learn to love the words too!

4. Talking Digital. Walking Digital.. The digital audience aren't consumers anymore: they are users. They are inhabitants of new worlds. They are adventures, story-makers, shape shifters, voyeurs. They are hands on and they are waiting to see what we are going to give them next.

Working in digital needs everything that we are already good at - and then some.

In the digital domain we must learn to create a dialogue with the user.

We must know how to build virtual space.

We must know how to transfom ideas into experiences.

And the surprising thing is that it's possible to explore all that without turning on a sigle computer. Digital needs to be demystified!

5. Interaction - the people formerly known as audience.
These days audiences do not sit quietly and watch and listen. Now they want to lay hands on our work. They want involvement. They want control.
Interaction is beyond 100cc ads and 30sec TVCs. They are making bus stops sing, park benches walk, dust bins emote and make 'chaddi' brands work of art!

No piece of communication is merely an object anymore. It's a relationship!So what are we going to do next?

Well, there were other thoughts whirling after bad beer went to my head...

6. Execution is 200% more important than the idea itself( most of the time)
7. Don't blame planners for a bad brief. Collaborate with them to explore the boundaries of a creative idea. I don't particularly find Honda's 'The Power of Dreams' original or greatly inspiring. Yet the creative leap is world class!

Of course planners must focus on making inspiring stuff like the book of dreams!
(visit Russell's site)

8. The answers are not necessarily locked in insights. They are more in the media landscape and in the interactivity of our ideas!

For 400 bucks, this learning was not a bad deal! Harshal/ Roop - recommend some good design books to read over the week-end...cheers