digital art science

It’s a good question, I mean, why did I call my business Digital Art Science? I could just trade under my name. Then I would spend time correcting the spelling of my first name and writing blog posts about its Old Welsh heritage. It’s Morgwn, from before the Welsh discovered the letter y, and after they started shunning a‘s…

Anyway, Digital Art Science says a lot more about my approach, and way of thinking and approaching digital strategies for branding and marketing. It also sums up my three passions, my three areas of interest, but there’s my personal blog and rants on atheism to cover that off more thoroughly.

Let’s check off the 3 elements of my business name one by one, starting with the first and easiest.

Digital – what I do, I do on the internet, which is digital. What I do uses technology, systems and software which all manifest themselves digitally. Digital is the channel that brands, consumers and audiences communicate and interact through with increasing levels of frequency and using ever more complicated, engaging and rewarding channels, portals and tools.

Art – Creativity is at the heart of what I do. Basically, art is breaking the rules, or rather thinking without any consideration of the rules. Through this I find new ways to use existing technology and channels, and conceptualise bluesky ideas that extend what’s real into the future, or extend what doesn’t even exist yet. It keeps me awake at night, excited about a new channel or concept, waiting until I can get up, log on and visualise and record it, finding a practical use along the way.

Science – is the rules and technical smarts that I sometimes ignore, sometimes ponder as part of the art process. There’s a lot of technology out there, that’s science. There’s a lot of established fields of research, such as usability and psychology. All of them are useful and can offer an insight that can steer a creative idea into the realms of the real, possible, effective and optimised for success.

And all three rolled into one ensures a considered approach. Bluesky, innovative, ground-breaking thinking paired with practical optimisation, analysis and rationalisation. Makes sense, no?

Either way, it’s how I roll. And it works.

Hi there. Well, Digital Art Science has been humming along for a little while now. Given that it’s Wednesday, I thought, why not unleash upon you ususpecting people my latest creation. It’s an advert for none other than…Digital Art Science, and they say traditional media is dead? Well, they don’t, but they might…one day.

Without further ado, I give you… Digital Art Science’s debut on the YouTubes, or Vimeo’s rather.

Introducing Digital Art Science from Morgwn Shaw on Vimeo.

That Skittles campaign the other week seems to have had a number of consequences. 

First and foremost I have bought Skittles at least 3 times since it started. Spooky, no? The other consequence, and hopefully one that will be better for my teeth, is www.unhub.com.
Man, what an awesome idea.

For those that foresee the death of the brand site and are hunkered down in their virtual bunkers awaiting the onset of Web 3.0, break out the tinned goods, it’s here. Unhub is an aggregation site like not much we’ve seen yet, and I for one, love, adore and applaud the development. The sheer length and breadth of the list of sites you can input your profiles from has had me registering madly for Web 2.0 portals at an alarming and un-productive rate…(must…fill…that…toolbar…)

Sign up and give it a shot.  Do you think this kind of thing has a future? My answer; Yeah.

Mst of us know the story. Facebook is huge, but Twitter is creeping up. Facebook tries to buy Twitter, Twitter says ‘er…no’. So Facebook launches Twitter-like functionality within their status updates.

The general consensus, or what I have gathered from the buzz around this development is that it’s pretty poor. Well, those that weren’t confused by it felt it was poor…And regardless of what the masses were saying, I was always gonna come out and say that it’s rubbish.

Why? The 140 character update loses all it’s charm when lost in the Facebook interface.

The beauty of Twitter is in it’s simplicity. True, I lie awake at night thinking of all the functionality I’d love to see in there to help me tweet, but at the end of the day, what I adore about Twitter is watching the stream of conciousness updates from friends, family and tweeple I find interesting. It’s pure, un-adulterated aggregation. 

So, pooh to you Facebook. Stick to what you do best, making it easier for people I have intentionally lost touch with to find me and harass me.

1. I will always propose the least expensive, simplest solution to any problem.
2. I understand Google is the homepage and I will ensure everything I do is sensitive to this fact.
3. My job is to facilitate business. When I start talking brand dialogue it’s only because I can’t find a way to really add value.
4. My job is to help you with the interface between your company and the customer on the web. They are using the web for utility; my job is to find that utility wherever it may exist.
5. We’ll be clear about the returns.
6. We have a chance to do things better to improve from our learnings.
7. The Internet has changed the world; let’s make sure we treat it with the respect it deserves.  It took us many years of TV to develop the technology to skip ads.  Let’s not clutter our communities and forums with useless messages that add no value. Consumers want to hear from companies who are relevant to their circumstance; let’s work with that.
8. Our job is not to sell our ideas to the client.  Our job is to sell the clients product to their customers.

Stumbled across this article in the HBR the other day. I think it’s both pertinent and poignant.

Having worked within all sorts of agencies, I’ve been exposed to all sorts of approaches to both creative, account management, strategy and (gulp) process.

While I fundamentally understand the need for process and accept that there’s always going to be a spreadsheet or workflow that needs updating, overly complicated or convoluted process can totally strangle creative thinking. Whether its coming from an art director or the finance assistant, creative thought needs the right kind of environment to flourish and the thing it needs most is freedom.

On the flip side, no one wants to delay a website launch because the lead designer partakes of a little too much ‘creative juice’, first thing in the morning. I think a measure of restraint is required from all sides.

Twitter. No doubt you know what it is by now, or have heard of it.

The boffins have been pegging it for big things for the last 4 years running, the law of averages (and the amount of media coverage it’s getting) would dictate that ’09 is the year for it. Soooo, what does that mean for your brand or agency? I’ve got a few ideas, ranging from the mundane to the ridiculous.

There’s several ways to approach ‘the next big thing’, be it a digital thing, or an other, erm, thing. The breadth of my thinking on Twitter encompasses both the quick win and the long game. And if you think I’m being a bit obtuse here, there’s a reason. I have a killer idea that I’m itching for someone to ask me to implement. Get in touch, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.