I got to thinking today about just how many channels of communication I enjoy and how often they connect with people I’ve mostly never met. There’s this site for my business. There’s Twitter for everything. There’s Facebook for a few things. There’s my sports site The Loss Column and there’s Gentlemanly Means Pursued for thoughts on culture, creativity, Americana, and etc. Through these and other efforts I have, over the years, gained an audience.

What if I picked one day and just went nuts? Indulged every crazy idea, got snarky and angry and gave in to every bad impulse? Said out loud all the things I’ve thought privately? Could I ruin everything I’ve built? Maybe. But maybe not.

It’s a question of attention. Whenever I post something I try to stay aware that it reflects on who I am and what I do, each piece playing a role in defining and cementing my identity. Many people “know” me only through these channels. And yet…

So much information gets traded in the ether that there’s no way the vast majority of it ever registers. We have large audiences in theory. So what? The question is, who is actually listening? Probably not as many people as we’d like to think.

The hard truth is that much of the audience just happens to be there. They like us well enough, probably. On the whole though, good or bad, they can likely take it or leave it. That’s the new reality and the quicker we come to terms with it the better.

The strategy, then, is to formulate the things we say with an eye to either the folks we know are listening or to folks we’d like to turn into listeners. One size should not fit all.

The whole audience is important to a point, but most of them won’t be there when it counts. Most of them aren’t actually “there” at all. 

If you head out and grab a copy of the latest (as of press time) copy of Wired Magazine you’ll find contained therein one of my latest projects: a collaboration with longtime partner in crime Daniel Krall to produce a comic book-style advertising piece on behalf of Yahoo! and their suite of mobile apps.

To see it you can download a pdf here or visit this site.

This was an awesome project to work on. The assignment went like this: come up with a modern superhero story that integrates Yahoo!’s products in a fun, interesting way. We had three pages to work with — one splash page for the front and two panel-based pages from there. 

I sat down with Daniel and we brainstormed for a couple of hours before settling on an approach. From there I wrote the script, which Daniel and I then discussed and revised. After that we submitted it to Wired, then we all collaborated with Yahoo! to make the pieces fit.

We had to act and think fast. Daniel, in particular, put in effort above and beyond anything that I thought a single man could accomplish. Lots of late-night emails and revisions and discussions and phone calls. Lots of strategic back-and-forth. Lots of balancing acts as we all worked toward the same goal. That’s how it goes.

Eventually, we got there. The finished piece both meets the client’s needs and speaks to the intended audience in a way that we believe to be both effective and interesting. Which is, after all, the whole point.

I could repeat this process again and again and be happy each time. There’s nothing better than collaborating with talented people and seeing it all come together. Awesome.

My wife and I brainstormed, debated, surfed the web, and here you go. Mystery solved.

Akzidenz-Grotesk (Bold Extended weight), a precursor to Helvetica. More info at Wikipedia and Typophile. 

(quote from Jerry Della Femina – source)

Gentlemanly Means Pursued is an attempt to curate modern life in service of those who seek to live it better. Among that which you’ll find here: substance, style, handmade and/or artisanal goods and services, thoughtful approaches to complex problems, an appreciation for fine artifacts, and worthwhile dispatches from culture both high and low.

I’d been looking for a place to do some more arts/culture writing but was wary of starting up another site. When Nancy from the Sun approached me about writing for Charm City Current, promising that it could be about “pretty much whatever you want,” the pieces all started to fit.

I’ll probably post links here to a lot of what I do there, but I’d also ask that you bookmark it and/or grab the RSS feed. If you do, you’ll always be one of the first to dig the new stuff. Such as today’s post, Writing Tips For Modern People. A sample:

Don’t get too cute.
Use exclamation points sparingly. Use emoticons very sparingly, if at all. If you’re older than 22, start to weed out phrases like LOL and OMG. Keep your sentences on the short side.

I’m planning on having some fun with it and I hope you’ll join me.

More announcements soon…

But saying it’s the “best” word doesn’t mean it’s the “perfect” word. I still run into instances where I need to explain what I mean. It’s a concept I grasp intuitively, but I recognize that not everyone thinks like me. I needed to find a way to succinctly define and explain.

Here it is:

Identity = Brand + Content

Brand is the bedrock of identity. It’s your core values coupled with how you communicate them. It includes both how you look and feel (logo, collateral, approach to service, etc) and how you present both (strategy, language, etc). 

Content is the day-to-day additions you contribute to the brand. The things you make and services you provide coupled with the communication you create around it. Blog posts, video, informational materials, presentations and conversations, even simple things like your voicemail greeting.

Add brand and content together and you have identity. Who you are.

So when I say that I do “identity” work I’m saying that I do work which helps make the brand + content equation add up. That can mean a number of different things depending on the project at hand but I specialize in keeping a focus in the big picture and the way that different pieces have to work together in order to make the whole as strong as it can be.

Coming in part two: why you should care.

I think I’ve got it. 

The problem is that the word “marketing” has lost its proper meaning, and that loss of meaning obscures the purpose and importance of creative and/or strategic work done in a commercial setting.

Consider this official definition from the American Marketing Association:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Take a moment to parse that out. What does it really mean? Essentially, this: that “marketing” is a catch-all term and that it’s easier to just say it than explain what’s actually going down.

Perhaps there’s a place for that, but only if we first remember this: marketing is a function of institutions, not people.

Institutions engage in marketing as an overall effort. That effort is realized by individuals, each of whom actually does something else (even if their work is ultimately in service of that broad and general goal). 

The strategists aren’t marketing; they’re researching, planning, and problem solving. The copywriters aren’t marketing; they’re writing. The PR people aren’t marketing; they’re finding ways to effectively communicate ideas to the right audience. The illustrators and photographers and directors are…you get the idea.

I believe in both the value of that work and in the craft that informs it. 

Perhaps it’s fair to say that some folks in managerial and oversight positions really are “doing marketing.” Keeping the overall effort on track and making sure the pieces fit. There’s value in that, of course, but even for them I think “management” and “oversight” are both better words to use. Still somewhat vague but more direct than “marketing.”

And so, a plea: in any situation where you might be tempted to refer to the work you or someone else is doing as “marketing,” take a moment. Consider the details and consider the craft. And if you do want to use that word, try to use it in conjunction with a noun. As in “I’m doing copywriting for the marketing team at Citibank.” As in “we made a kick ass commercial to support the YMCA’s marketing campaign.” Etc.

To me that feels a lot more clear, and a lot more honest.

I’m fortunate to have been invited to speak on a panel about DIY (specifically relating to my comics work) at 11 AM in the Fine Arts Department at the Enoch Pratt Library main branch (400 Cathedral Street). If you’re in the area, I’d love it if you came and said hello.

On another note, I have a bunch of interesting projects that I’ll be ready to talk about soon. Stay tuned…

At least that’s how it seems. I started noticing the trend last year, then this blog post from Brain Traffic drove the point home. More and more people appear to be coming to the realization that if “content is king” (an annoying phrase, but true enough) then the creation and management of said content ought to be treated as something more than an afterthought.

Finally.

Content is an asset. Your blog posts, advertising copy, multimedia files, social media presence, etc all hold great value. They are the outward facing representations of who you are (the importance of which, I hope, is obvious). Concepting, creating, and managing those assets calls for thoughtful consideration and, yes, dedicated resources. 

“Content strategy” is still emerging as a mainstream idea, for sure. It’s not always going to mean the same thing to everybody and that’s OK. It probably shouldn’t. The important thing is this: that we start having the conversation. That we agree that content deserves a place at the table, and that decisions are made accordingly.

With that in mind, here’s some help to get you (or your business) started in that direction. Take a few minutes to look at your current efforts and ask yourself these six questions:

• What kinds of content are you dealing with? Take into account your blog, your marketing materials, your social media presence, your media (photos, videos, etc), and anything else that represents outward-facing communication.
• Rate your own effectiveness at creating that content on a scale of 1-5. Be honest.
• Rate your effectiveness at managing it on a scale of 1-5. Again, be honest.
• How much time per day is allocated to content?
• Who’s handling it, and is that person qualified? 
• How unified is it? Do all the pieces fit? If someone visits your blog will they immediately believe it’s being produced by the same folks behind your website and your newsletter?

It shouldn’t take long, but by answering those questions you’ll get a broad preliminary picture of where things stand. What’s working, what isn’t, and what to do (or not do) next. 

Naturally, I’d be happy to help.

(photo credit)

I spent a couple of hours Saturday afternoon enjoying Thief, Michael Mann’s 1981 directorial debut starring James Caan as a robbery artist with a vicious (and compelling) case of emotional disconnect. 

Why didn’t anybody tell me about this before?

It’s a damn fine – damn fine – piece of work. The missing link (to me before Saturday) that helps explain why Heat and Collateral are so good.

I went digging around online for more info and found this New York Times article about Caan’s promo work for the movie. That guy gets it. Some highlights (not including the quote that gives this post its title):

• He won’t direct again, Mr. Caan says, because ”everybody wants to do ‘Rocky Nine’ and ‘Airport 96’ and ‘Jaws Seven’ and you look and you listen, and what little idealism you have left slowly dwindles.”
• “Anybody that can tell you how he’ll feel tomorrow is full of baloney.”
• ”I want to be the best actor in the world, but that’s not what happiness is. Happiness is my kid, and my friends, and being able to laugh as much as possible.”

I tend to take my cues from iconoclasts, and I’ve always had a passing admiration for James Caan. Now I’ve got a better sense of why.