by Mark O'Brien | Dec 5, 2016
Seth Godin published a recent post that said this, in part: There are plenty of people who will pander, race to the bottom, and figure out how to, “give the public what it wants.” But that doesn’t have to be you. Professionals have standards....
by Mark O'Brien | May 9, 2016
An ‘ideology’ is like a spirit taking up its abode in a body: it makes that body hop around in certain ways; and that same body would have hopped around in different ways had a different ideology happened to inhabit it. (Kenneth Burke, 1897-1993, from Language as...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 12, 2016
Why in the world do we think we’ll see, perceive, or even recognize innovation? That question leapt to mind, yet again, when I read this: “Why Real Innovation Will Not Come From Within Your Own Industry”. Outside your own industry? If real innovation...
by Mark O'Brien | Dec 17, 2015
It’s apparent from a post I read recently — “Design is Not a Service” — that there must be some sort of potent and pernicious hallucinogen making the rounds. The author of the post, seemingly in the throes of an overdose of the stuff, ranted through...
by Mark O'Brien | Dec 16, 2015
I couldn’t help thinking about Charles M. Schultz’s most popular character (with the possible exception of Snoopy) when I read “The Dark Side of Creativity”. The article would have us believe creative people are negative, moody, depressive,...
by Mark O'Brien | Nov 20, 2015
There’s an old expression in the graphic arts that says this: If you’re not creating an effective presentation of a message, it’s not design. It’s art. So it is with content: If you’re not creating an effectively persuasive message for an...
