and she did….
DHDT does it again. Duck Hate Duck Tape….coming soon
-Quack
A full 360! Vertigo just looking at it.
DHDT 2
Did you know that Duck hate duct tape? Find out more soon on why the war between duck and duct tape has been the world’s most underground secret war.
A New Logo
Business logo version 1.0 and still working on it. The meaning and story to DHDT soon to come.
The Ushers Manual
We have thought got everything down to the tiniest detail for our wedding (lie). We even have an easy, step-by-step ushers manual. Just a word of warning to all the would be ushers out there, Ashley and I like to consider you more like Secret Service than wedding guest guides, so this won’t be easy. Here is a sneak peek into the user’s manual.
Neversweat Bourbon Whiskey
All of their spirits are named after famous Butte copper mines. The “headframes” litter the Butte skyline and represent the toughest damn city in America!
Enjoy!
Bad Robot?
For some reason this picture reminds me of a combo of Blade Runner and JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. Just the shadows of Ridley Scott and the glare effects of JJ.
How To Train Ideas To Come When They’re Called: A Review
Two weeks ago I opened my Gmail to find the sporadic newsletter IHAVEANIDEA.ORG snuggled at the bottom of my inbox unopened. Sometime when I wake up too early with too little coffee, I will open emails on my iPhone and totally forget I did so, letting some important emails slip past my unusually keen mind.
For some divine reason, I decided to reopen the email and see what’s new in the creative world. The usual suspects were on there along with an agency profile. Towards the bottom was a copywriter promoting a book she put together in conjunction with IHAVEANIDEA.ORG. I hit the jump and landed at a fantastic discovery. What I found was a small exert from a new book for young advertisers written by a fantastic creative. Suzanne Pope Associate Creative Director for john st. and her book called How to Train Ideas to Come When They’re Called: Notes and Advice for Young People in Advertising struck me dumb.
Having being close (kind of) to payday, I decided to buy this book for three reasons:
- The Title: The title alone shouts to every writer and artist who works in advertising and sweats bullets when our bosses say “I need ideas”.
- The Writer: Some one with Ms. Pope’s resume and snippets of her work made me say “She has a secret…and she is selling it…and I WANT IT!”
- The Price: The book was reasonably priced and the great content inside would greatly make the cash spent well worth it.
Flash forward a week.
I receive a huge box from the receptionist in my office and I start to get excited. I pick up the box and about through out my shoulder. I was expecting a very heavy and bulky book and I used a lot of force to pick it up. It weighed under three pounds.
I tear open the package and to my bewilderment, the book is barely the size of a pamphlet with a flimsy laminated cover. Hoodwinked! I paid almost $30 for this great secret that is supposed to unlock the greatest ideas that I haven’t thought of yet! Where is the size and thickness? Where are the beautiful covers and textures?!
Now it took a while to cool down, but when I did the windows were defrosted and the sun began to shine! I read the book. Then I read it again. Then I wrote down everything in my “copywriter handbook” I found useful, which was damn near all of it.
Not to give too much away, Suzanne Pope gives a great cadence to start channeling ideas, with short and to-the-point examples on how to create them. She also lets you know how to tell which are the best ideas. If you strike gold on the first idea, don’t stop there, keep going and maybe there will be another gold nugget farther down stream.
The book has no filler and only has the good stuff. That is what I and everyone else will love about this book. There is no puffing or promoting thy writer, only educating the pupil, which is the point isn’t it?
In summary, this book is the small gold flake you find in the stream. Although small in size, it’s value is larger than its circumference. Also it’s only the first flake and when you pan that area more and more and more….you will find that golden nugget snuggled under the river bed, just waiting for you to pick it out and shine it up. Bruce Springsteen sang “from small things ma’ma, big things one day come”. Errrrr Yup! Four out of Five Stars!
Follow Suzanne Pope @Suzannepope on Twitter. Let her know you got some good word of mouth about How To Train Ideas and then go buy her book. You will be glad you did.
Good Public Relations Hunting
There was a point in time when information, valuable information, was sought after like the Holy Grail. Now as I type this, millions of new articles, websites and blogs are being filled to the max with the latest and greatest information in every subject possible.
Last week, a mentor of mine directed me toward a very reliable and credible source of information. She said there is a great section on iTunes called iTunes U that provided free college lectures. The whole concept of iTunes U revolves around the central idea of professors recording their lectures and posting them for all to learn. How’da like them apples, Good Will Hunting?
Once I found this golden nugget of pure, uncontaminated knowledge, I started downloading everything my little mouse pointer could find. I downloaded subjects such as Advertising, Marketing Principles, Phycology theory and lastly Public Relations.
Since I have had experience in all of these subjects except for one, I obviously became mega-attracted to Public Relations. The lessons come from Missouri State University and are taught by a professor named Dr. Sam Dyer.
Since there is no video built into these lessons, only audio, it really adds that extra value to a lecture when the professor has a great tone, pronunciation and attractive voice. Since I have never seen Dr. Dryer I can tell you in my minds-eye I imagined a Josh Lucas looking individual, someone who is confident and generally interested in teaching the next generation of great communicators. I listened to a lecture taught by a woman professor that I imagined looked like Sofia Vergara with out the accent. See, this is really fun.
I have listened to the first five lectures while I work out at the gym which for me can be very challenging. While I was in college, I wrote down everything the professor said because I did not trust my memory recall and also I would get severely distracted or disinterested very quickly. With Dr. Dyer, this is not the case. I listen to every word this man says and I make it a point to remember all he has to give.
Now, this could also be because I have never taken any Public Relations courses even though this is a part of my profession. I realize that at my age (which is young, I can admit that. Everyone views themselves so old anymore) that I am lagging in skills and knowledge. This could lead to my intense mental visualization and super human ‘listening’ skills.
As for the lectures, it has been solid so far. I see that I probably lack sentence structure strength and the same for corporate writing, but that is why I am writing a blog, to flex that muscle. I am more of a copywriter and a creative at heart, so putting together press releases, company training manuals and journalism is hard for me, but I am willing and able to learn.
I have learned a great deal so far and the best part is that it was all for free, and Über-free to boot. I will update all you loyal readers (hey mom!) on my progress in my learning’s. I hope Dr. Dyer is still teaching because he is a REAL human being who can actually connect with students, not some high-brow yuppie who is teaching because ‘I got tired at my old job, so I figured I would be good at this for a while’ (You know who you are i.e. Traci).
All for now.
