Take it slow, mon .... and read the road signs

Hello, Loyal Readers ..... I am back from Jamaica, mon! It was a lovely trip and just what I needed in terms of relaxation .... swimming in the sea, cliff diving, dining on lobster and the most delicious hot sauce known to mankind, sleeping in and listening to the waves .... bliss. I returned to the Twin Cities refreshed, recharged, and ready to tackle some exciting new Crazy Savvy projects. Indeed, the only bummer about returning was the weather ..... after 100 degrees of West Indies sunshine, coming back to a place where you can see your breath in the air is kind of a rude shock. But ah, c'est la vie.

In light of Erin's previous post about messaging, I wanted to share some more examples of what not to do. To wit: If you are going to be making informational signage, it's important to consider your message (see previous post if you don't believe me!), but also important to obey basic rules of grammar and, well, common sense. This appears to be a bit of an issue when it comes to the Jamaican Dept. of Transportation. Case in point:

Mwhahaha. Perhaps in another life, I can be reincarnated as a copywriter for Jamaican road signs. Lie on the beach, sip some rum, write similarly amusing road signs ..... no, no, back to work, Jen!

Why Messaging Matters

Today, I offer you a bit of humor (and a nice illustration of why it is essential to fully think through one's message before going to print!)

This little gem caught our fancy on a recent downtown trek. Let's just say we certainly were glad to be in this particular parking ramp during operating hours! Because as we all know, a response to an emergency alarm is most likely to be needed during normal operating hours...

Running errands with art directors (and other tangents)

It's not particularly easy to do. In fact, as Erin and I embark on one of our many lunchtime productivity sessions together, swinging by bank / supermarket / liquor store / other crucial daily haunts (ha ... kidding ... ), we often find ourselves distracted by the abundance of bad advertising there is to behold. Frequently this involves us stopping traffic as we deride a nearby billboard, bus stop sign, or store facade.

"That's so bad," says Erin.

"Hello .... don't they get it that the visual and the copy should work together?" adds Yours Truly.

HONK! goes the angry person in the minivan behind us.

Meh. A day in the life, folks.

Occasionally we're pleased by what we see — particularly if it's one of our own. I have a distinct memory of cruising down a major road in downtown Minneapolis, only to see one of our billboards looming above us. Although it may not have been 100% legal for me to open the sunroof, stand up, lean out, and snap a photo, it sure was satisfying.

Also satisfying? The thought that, in 24 mere hours, I am going to be on a beach in Jamaica for some well-earned R&R. Fear not, though, Loyal Readers: Crazy Savvy will be in my wonderful business partner's capable hands (hands that may be clenched into jealous fists as she contemplates the thought of me sunning myself and dining on lobster and conch while the Minneapolis forecast is drizzle, fog, and cold).

Hah! I will stop being smug. Plenty of updates when I return. Ciao for now!

Information Lovefest

Let me take a minute now to sing the praises of one of my favorite stages in any new project: information gathering.

One of the reasons I love running my own agency with Jen is the constant opportunity to read and think about new issues, topics, and concerns — there's no same old, same old here. From marine biology and equestrian innovations to best practices in special education and health disparities, I'm constantly broadening my base of knowledge. This makes for a happy and productive Erin.

And then there's the innate satisfaction I gain from the process of sifting through information. After years of talking to clients about this topic, I know that it takes a rare individual to enjoy this kind of task. I'm used to looks of skepticism as I tell clients to bring on the information — reports, brochures, notes, web resources, books, competitors' materials, research, statistics — the more, the better!

I'm unabashed about the joy I find in curling up in a soft chair with piles of paper and a cup of coffee in one hand, highlighter in the other, all set to jot down the notes that will help form the crucial elements of my publication. Connecting the dots between disparate pieces of information, identifying where I need to dig deeper, and formulating a structure in which to put all of this information....ahhh, it is good for my soul.

I'm lucky enough to be immersed in this process right now for an annual report for a fantastic client. Today is definitely one of those days in which it is very clear I've chosen the right line of work for myself.

P.S. Today's postcard comes to us from Tokyo. Thanks, Krystal!

Never surrender, but sometimes retreat ....

(Ah, how I love tweaking the immortal words of Buck Travis, childhood historic interest o' mine. /random history tangent over & out) But the sort of retreat I'm talking about isn't a tactical battle decision (I'm not much for retreating in that sense, unsurprisingly) but rather .... a marketing retreat! Crazy Savvy's marketing retreat, to be precise.

Erin and I just returned from a busy day chock full of brainstorming, scribbling, aha! moments, and ..... Lucias for lunch, yum. Although we love working from our national headquarters at Crazy Savvy, Inc., we find that occasionally a change of scenery helps us think strategically about the Big Picture. So we rented a room downtown (killer skyline view), relaxed in some super-comfy postmodern chairs that looked more at home on the Enterprise than at a business retreat, and talked shop. No phones, no computers (well .... no using them anyway): just Crazy Savvy's founding partners and their thoughts on marketing and more.

Sad to report, the content of our discussions is Top Secret — but let it suffice to say that we emerged hours later energized, excited, and with all sorts of (we humbly think) brilliant ideas. It's often hardest, we find, to apply the same objectivity and strategic acumen we like to leverage for our clients to our own selves .... seeing the forest for the trees can be tough at times. A retreat is a great way to step back, change things up a little, and come up with some exciting new ideas. No doubt you'll discover the fruits of our labors soon!

Madame Kreativ Direktor?

One of the greatest joys in working in the creative industry, for me anyway, is getting to creative direct a project. I have the distinct impression that it isn't a skill you can properly be said to "learn." You can go to art school to learn graphic design (though I've seen enough atrocious design over the years to be able to say with confidence that an art school degree does not an artist make). You can study English, advertising, or communications and call yourself a writer (though again .... technical skills don't translate into Miltonic dexterity with language, and I will die convinced that true writers are born, not made, and no amount of training can make uninspired language sing). But there's something even broader, even more visionary (and thus fulfilling) about developing a cohesive creative approach for a project.

I think it comes back to something we discuss often at C/S: the nexus of writing and design, style and substance, form and function. It's hard enough to pull off brilliant copywriting, or inspired graphic design, or wicked cool interactive. But the challenge is even greater in identifying — and then articulating, and directing to fruition — an entire concept, something that encompasses the entire suite of creative capabilities needed in a project of scope and complexity (precisely the sort of projects we like to do!).

Both Erin and I have had the opportunity to work with, and observe in action, a variety of creative directors over the course of our careers, and in the best ones we were able to witness a certain nuance and artistic sensibility that translated into visionary work. Likewise, we've seen how uninformed creative direction — without strategic understanding of a project, its audiences, or its purposes — can lead to results that are less than impressive. Now that we're in the driver's seat, it's great to apply these observations to projects of our own.

But I think both Erin and I agree that there's a certain intuition in artistic direction that extends beyond best practices or lessons learned. We so appreciate having the sort of amazing clients that let us exercise our creative discretion and direction (are they really so different, after all?) and bring in talented professionals who can transform concept into tangible results. Because beyond the patina of cynical detachment that often seems to accompany the Don Drapers of this world, there is something incredibly satisfying (dare I say beautiful?) about shepherding an idea of your own invention into reality.

S-M-R-T

Typos, ah typos! The joy they bring to us here at Crazy Savvy is nearly endless. It's not uncommon for Jen and I to find ourselves laughing at a particularly good typo for weeks.

My current favorite? That would have to be the Craigslist apartment listing my friend just came across, proclaiming the "contentious landlord." Freudian slip, perhaps? At any rate, my dear friend decided he wouldn't be compatible with someone who confuses contentious and conscientious.

It probably comes as no surprise that sloppy typos and grammatical errors rankle me — particularly when perpetrated by so-called communications professionals. It's one thing for the Mom & Pop appliance store I pass every day to post their sign advising that their parking lot is under "survailance" (and that's bad enough, right?) but quite another to see communications firms with grievous errors in their promotional materials. This week alone, I've seen it happen on multiple occasions.

Suffice it to say, Crazy Savvy's clients can depend on copy that is devoid of unintentional hilarity!

No More Wearing White

Post-Labor Day, kiddos and kidlets. Back to school, back to work, back to reality, back to .... business as usual. (As for the white after Labor Day debate, I humbly abstain. My winter wardrobe is FULL of cream and ivory and .... well, whether those shades constitute white is another topic for another day, potentially a topic involving Pantone chips and a trip to Neiman Marcus for "market research.")

Anyhow. We hope our Dear Readers had as lovely of weekends as we did! My radiant business partner enjoyed the long weekend at an exclusive screening of film classics, dining al fresco at a birthday extravaganza, and hiking in Afton State Park with the kids. Yours Truly had her inaugural Minnesota boating and cabin experience (I know .... took me awhile), chowed down on lobster and foie gras (it's a hard-knock life, eh?), and went for long walks with Pushkin. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend, but not entirely without work .... both Erin and I carved out time to work on the biz end of things, in preparation for a busy week.

This touches upon one of the greatest joys (and occasionally the greatest challenge) of owning one's own business. Bad news first: if something needs to get done .... you need to do it. Not your boss, not your temp, not your intern, not your colleague down the hall: y-o-u. The buck stops here, so to say. It doesn't matter if it's 11 o'clock on a Saturday night or 5 a.m. on Tuesday — it's your reputation on the line, and you have to find a way to make it happen. (I should note, though, that if you plan your work schedule intelligently, you'll rarely be in such crunch-time situations. But we all know, sometimes there are last minute changes, and these things happen.)

But the trade-off for a bit of added stress is .... glorious. How wonderful — how emancipating — to determine your own calendar, your own working rhythm?! You pick your clients, you choose your projects. If we're not in meetings, we can wear pretty much whatever we want — which, for me, vacillates between high fashion and homelessness, depending largely on how much coffee I managed to ingest in the hour between eight and nine. Our workdays are filled with laughter, errand-running bike rides, and trips to the coffeeshop in addition to plenty of business. We find that this balance keeps us refreshed, energized, and on our toes: particularly in the creative industry, you need to be able to approach your work with a grin and a gleam in your eye, or you'll never find inspiration in anything. It comes back to the simple but oh-so-true mantra: Do what you love; love what you do. At Crazy Savvy, there's never any doubt about it!

Friday at last

How about some authentic messaging to bring this week to a close?! We're big fans of authentic messaging at Crazy Savvy, so here goes: TGIF! It's been a rewardingly busy week over here at corporate headquarters: new projects, exciting proposals, many meetings, and more. While we wouldn't have it any other way, I must confess, we are looking forward to a most relaxing weekend! After some unseasonably cold weather, the forecast is finally looking promising, meaning Erin and Yours Truly can spend some quality time attending outdoor movies, making appearances at friends' parties, getting out on the water, visiting certain grey fuzzy equines, and other delicious weekend activities.

All of this R&R, of course, will leave us refreshed and recharged to kick off another exciting week — no rest for the wicked, apparently, as we'll be back to work on Monday ... Labor Day doesn't seem as necessary when the boss you happen to be laboring for is yourselves, after all!

We also end this week with some more fanmail, this time from the lovely butterfly garden at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We're always glad to hear that our blog is a hit, so keep the commentary coming! And, for those of you who are looking forward to a long weekend as much as we are .... TGIF, indeed!

Content is (Still) King

The advance of technology is a beautiful thing. Really and truly. Just ask Jen, I get as excited by Apple's new product offerings as she does when Lanvin releases its fall line. Beyond the lure of a shiny new toy, technology interests me in part because of its power to democratize the transfer of information. This is hardly a new phenomenon, of course. I won't subject you to my handy dandy little historical treatise on how this has played out from Gutenberg to desktop publishing, but suffice it to say, it's a topic I find fascinating.

The technological frontier du jour is, of course, social media. In an age of monotonous media monopolies, I'm all for knocking down the gatekeepers. And here I'll fall on the blatantly obvious example of the power of social media: the State Department asked Twitter not to shut down for regularly scheduled maintenance in June because it was a critically important source of information in Iran. (Does it get any better than that?)

But here's the thing, loyal readers: content is still king. Are you rolling your eyes and muttering "DUH!" right about now? I was afraid of that...I might be preaching to the choir here. The thing is, with each new technological advance, American society tends to forget the golden rule of communications: if you want people to listen, you must...have something to say.

We are a culture that gravitates to bells and whistles, after all. Which is why a carefully crafted communications strategy executed with all the trappings of the shiniest new technology is so singularly effective — and satisfying to create!

Five four three two one blast off! (Or, notes on launch)

At Crazy Savvy, we've been in kind of an unusual situation all summer long. Although we opened up shop in spring, we've yet to officially "launch." Obviously, we made our identity materials and website a major priority as we set off on this exciting business (ad)venture .... But we had the singularly fortunate "problem" of quickly getting actual work from clients — meaning our primary focus became, of course, our client work.

But we certainly didn't put our own materials on the backburner, and we're thrilled to say that we're nearly there. Our business cards have finally arrived, our logo and mark are complete, and our website is being coded as we speak .... er, type. We are giddy as schoolgirls waiting to finally show off our stuff to an adoring public (well, we'd like to believe so, anyway). In the interim, we wanted to thank you, dear readers, for joining us as we embarked on our Crazy Savvy journey, and for sticking with us as we take things to the next level. (The fanmail is nice too, and we have more to share with you on the way!)

So though it may be a bit late to authentically call ourselves a startup, we assure you that we're super-duper excited to unveil our suite of identity materials. And we promise ..... they're well worth waiting for. Kind of like this whole endeavor, actually!