The wedding was in Seattle, but most of planning was done remotely in LA and Vancouver. Thanks to the internet, finding and hiring the right vendors was a breeze, but once they're on your team, if you can't meet with them face to face, then you have to know that you are communicating your vision for the wedding clearly.
Lucky for me, because I've spent the last few years working in the ad business where knowing how to communicate and effectively critique and direct creative is key I had a secret weapon on my hands, which I am now going to pass on to you - The Creative Brief.
The brief is usually a one pager detailing the project at hand and what the tone and messaging need to be. Because in this case the task at hand was clear (Get Us Married), and the roles each vendor would execute were unquestioned (DJ - keep people dancing, Florist - flowers, Fiance´ - design all print materials) it was the tone and creative vision that needed to be communicated. That's where the brief comes in and in these cases, I prefer visual briefs.
A basic visual brief is basically a bunch of pictures that give the receiver a clear idea of what you're going for. Try to avoid using pictures of other peoples' weddings. This will tell the vendor that you want someone else's wedding and that you don't trust their creativity to do something unique. Instead, use pictures you like that set the stage for what you're going for. For instance, I told the florist that I wanted to use black calla lilies as the predominant flower at our wedding and the brief I gave had photos of autumn, Japanese maple leaves with their deep purples and reds, wrought iron, silent films, and elegant New Orleans-style decay. This pictorial communication meant the difference between black calla lilies....
Especially considering that we never met our florist face to face. For all he knew I could have been a wicked clown for life, but the brief gave him guidance in another direction.
So when you're working with creatives, try putting together a brief to get everyone on the same page. It helps them understand your vision and it helps you stick to your vision.
How we consume media is changing rapidly. Digital books are downloaded to people's Kindles and Nooks instead of purchasing the paperback. I can see a day when paperbacks are no longer and we only purchase those books held most dear in hardback for our personal libraries. I think this is why Penguin is starting think of their books more as collectibles than commodities.
Now what about children's books? I hear about more and more parents using their iPhones as a temporary pacifier for their bored children. Apps targeted at kids are sometimes even an educational tantrum avoider.
But children's books on the iPhone? Storytime between a parent and child is a sacred ritual. Something both parties look can back upon with fondness (or guilt, depending on the parent). The iPhone is such a small, personal device. The ability to share the experience seems like a lacking feature. Here's a concept video for what a children's book on the iPhone might look like. (btw - I'm also looking forward to the day when Phone Book no longer refers to a directory).
It's a nice idea for one person, but I think the important part of picture and story books are the shared interaction which would be better experienced on a larger device.
When I was getting fitted for my wedding dress, I found out something unpleasant. I realized that I only had a month to tone up and lose the weight that I had gained since moving in with Dave.
I had access to a pretty good gym in our building, but because I'm not working regularly so I couldn't afford a personal trainer. I suppose I could have just followed the instructional posters on the walls, but it's not the same as someone who gives you a program, helps you stick with it, and pushes you to challenge limits of what you can do.
iPhone to the rescue!
I did an app search on fitness and found the very well reviewed $2 iFitness app. It's pretty awesome. It comes with step by step instructions on how to do multitude of exercises, all categorized by muscle group, some even have videos. It tracks your progress - how many reps you do, the weight you use, even how much and what kind of cardio you do. It also has built in routines to accomplish whatever you're looking for.
Thankfully for me, it had a specific weight loss routine focusing on the larger muscle groups so that they'll get bigger and burn more calories. After three weeks of working out at least three times per week of doing the routine, and doing alternate days of cardio in between, I lost 8 pounds and gained a lot of muscle mass. My pants are a lot looser and I'm seeing definition in my thighs that I haven't noticed in what seems like ages.
It was hard work, but I feel better about my body and a lot better about how I fit into my wedding dress. Now I just need to keep it up after the wedding, which is going to be a lot easier with a $2 personal trainer that fits in my pocket.
I'm getting married next week. Holy crap I'm getting married next week! Calm down. It's okay. Everything is in order thanks to a my iPhone.
I was flipping through a Real Simple Weddings magazine and I found their version of the to-do list. It was three pages long, in a small font. THREE pages! That's insane. It's just a freaking party with some paperwork people. There's no need to overdo it.
I didn't get any issues of Modern Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings, or any of any of the other typical wedding magazines. I did get two wedding books, but I only read one of them once and was done. I never opened either of them again. Primarily, I used the internet and my iPhone.
Early on in the planning stages, I found the iWedding iPhone app and relied it almost entirely for the timeline of to-do's and storing all of the budget and vendor contact information. It gave me a good idea of what needs to get done and how many months/weeks/days it needs to get done by.
The list was simple and not overly complicated and it covered the major points - venue, catering, officiant, flowers, and music. Once you get those out of the way, then it's just details and your vendors will usually help take you through those.
There were lots of other features beyond the to-do list, but to me, that was the most helpful. I hardly touched the other features.
If you're planning a wedding I would highly recommend this app. It made the the whole process relatively simple and stress free.
Now that I'm living in the northern climes Vancouver, one of the things I really miss about LA is the year-round farmers markets and their fresh local produce. The funny thing is, I never took advantage of it while I lived there, but now that the opportunity isn't there at all I miss it a lot.
Vancouver's farmers markets only last through the growing season, from late spring to mid-fall and then it switches to one location which for me is inconvenient since it would involve an extra commute and $5 in bus fare. A steep price when you're used to walking.
During the summer my shopping and meal strategy involved going to the Main Street farmers market, getting two shopping bags full of whatever produce looked good and whatever protein was available and then building my meals for the week around that. I made some delightful things with that strategy.
Spaghetti squash with cooked all day from scratch pasta sauce
It worked well because it gave me parameters to build off of. Now I'm faced with an empty frige. It's the equivalent of a blank page, and any artist, designer, or writer will tell you that there is nothing worse for inspiration than a blank page.
Dinner tomorrow night? Who knows? Probably not squash. Dave is getting tired of squash. My fault. Too much too early in the season. I'm going to still try to buy local and seasonal, but it's going to be a lot harder to stick with the program (California artichokes and asparagus, oh how you tempt me in all your black carbon footprinted glory).
I'll just have cruise my cookbooks and online sources for recipes. Any recipe. So many to choose from, so hard to decide.
I love predictions and forecasting. Usually because that when they get it wrong, they usually get it so very wrong (anyone remember how SecondLife was going to change everything and I am still waiting for that jetpack I was promised). It's mostly because people with very little qualification to comment on a subject do so with abandon, but that is the nature of blogging and the advice to not believe everything you read has never been more true.
There are a few people that I would consider actually qualified to comment on the future of the internet, and Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO is one of them. Here is an excerpt from his tak at the 2009 Gartner Symposium/IT Expo in Orlando:
Main take aways (from ReadWriteWeb) with my added commentary:
* Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
Makes sense, especially now that non-latin based characters have just been approved to use in web addresses and that China has the largest share of the global population.
* Today's teenagers are the model of how the web will work in five years - they jump from app to app to app seamlessly.
If you work on a computer with any proficiency, then you're already doing this and you get frustrated when different communication applications don't work together to create a seamless messaging/broadcast structure. Google Wave and Mozilla Raindrop - you better be everything you've promised.
* Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today."
If the past five years is any indicator, then I believe it.
* Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away."
What is this "TV" and "radio" that you speak of? Do you mean the NPR and CBC apps on my iPhone? The shows I get on AppleTV and Hulu?
* "We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video."
Finally! They're making money off of video content. It's about time.
* "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."
* "There are many companies beyond Twitter and Facebook doing real time."
* "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"
Real time search is definitely helpful during large events or times of crisis, but sometimes when I view the results for the trending topics on Twitter they make me sad for humanity.
* It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.
I'm not entirely sure that this will be 100% the case. I think that there will always be a great social need for solid investigative journalism. It is the funding and the distribution of that journalism that is in a huge state of flux at the moment. The non-profit funded investigation of the Hurricane Katrina mercy killings is a great example of where journalism could go, but to be fair, that article was pointed out to me by a friend's blog.
Final assessment, mostly agree. Interactive technology and real time reporting that comes with ambient intimacy is going to continue to expand and how we navigate these oceans of information is going to grow and change drastically over the next few years. Kids are going to be at an advantage for using these new pathways of learning and communication and we grownups are going to have to figure out how it all works.
These are predictions that I think could actually happen.
I was watching this PopTech video of David Rakoff doing a reading on happiness, luxury, what money can and cannot buy, and how times have changed. He's not a scientist, he's a humorist; but he's exceptionally insightful and a great storyteller.
It reminded me a lot of the concept of Stealth Wealth, or the Anti-Bling movement. This is a collective action where either A) we hide the fact that we have spent a lot of money on something (i.e. painting over or antiquing a new expensive street bicycle for your daily commute) or B) spending a lot of money on something that appears simple, rustic, or simply not immediately recognizable to our peers, but that we know to be of exceptional quality and or history (i.e. buying a rustic piece of furniture designed by Noguchi). It is a 180 from where we were a few years ago and much more reflective of more somber times.
Not long ago when credit was near free and consumption was king, conspicuous consumption was the norm. Buying and displaying luxury name brands not only was a show of taste, but also a announcement of your disposable income. It was and "this is an obviously expensive item and I was able to purchase it" type of statement. It was also a very New Money type of attitude.
Now luxury is almost about being part of a secret club, and as I've mentioned before, secret clubs can be very powerful. Buying and using these items says that you know something very few other people do. By wearing and using these items in public you send the signal of your personal taste not to everyone, but only those that recognize the item. You share a common bond of rare knowledge with someone who would otherwise be a stranger. These is a form of consumption that has the potential to make us unique or interesting.
Another aspect is the desire for simplicity. Lives have become so complicated that people almost wish to regress in their view of luxury. It is no longer about more features, or ingredients, or flare, but about finding items offer simple solutions, are pure and of indisputable quality, or offer a sense of minimalism. This goes hand in hand with a lot of green gestures such as buying organic food or following the design edict of purchasing less, but better.
So the next tie you market a luxury product or service, think about whether or not you are offering a form a simplicity (Apple iPhone - one device, many functions, intuitive UI) a form of identity (TOMS Shoes - buy one, give one to a needy child; you are a charitable person), or bling.
Dave and I have been watching the new season of Dexter and it's hard to watch that show and not think about rituals. The main character mentions it often, sometimes calling it "The Code." How he goes about selecting his victims, carrying out the executions, and then blending back into normal life. His ritual and the rituals of the other serial killers he stalks are very important. They can't break from the ritual any more than they can stop breathing.
We all have our rituals. How we wake up in the morning and prepare for the day is one that I'm sure we all have some version of. I usually blink painfully awake, grab my phone from the charger, and read the previous night's twitter feed until I feel alert enough to dress myself and head to the gym for my daily must-fit-into-wedding-dress workout. It's not necessary, but it's the way I like to meet the day - slowly.
This ritual can sometimes be mistaken for or even interchanged with habit. It gives us a modicum of pleasure to re-experience the familiar or to meet something new in a way that feels proper to us. Rituals can give something mundane an air of mysticism, or a sense of power over something unfamiliar.
I stumbled across this on High Snobriety via NotCot. A collaboration between the champagne maker Piper Heidsieck and the super sexy shoe designer Christian Louboutin - a resurrection of the almost forgotten ritual from the 1880's where courtly revelers would sip champagne from their lover's shoe.
What forgotten rituals about your product can you reinterpret to the benefit of your brand and to enrich the experience of your customers? Can a ritual help make your obscure brand more familiar to new customers?
