Fierce winds are blowing trees, branches, and just about everything that's not strapped down. I keep thinking someone is knocking on the door of my offfice which is a separate dwelling in my backyard. A bit spooky at first. But now I know I'll tomorrow morning the streets will be littered with fallen branches and debris we shouldn't see. Here comes those winds again. Ahh. But the air will be so clear.
11:34:47 PM permalink | | trackback ()
I read with interest Liz'spost on design piracy. Zeldman pointed her to a funny site that illustrates some questionable "pirated site designs". When I was principal and executive VP at an agency and interactive design and technology firm we proudly pounded on our chests when we spoke of our innovative technology, compelling design and integrated online and offline strategies for our clients. I earned the title "inspiration evangelist". This because I pushed hard to get the best from our teams. I pushed hard to inspire them to think differently, push the envelope and pave new paths. All for the sake of strategy and never form over function.
The beauty and challenge of integrating on and offline content and messaging is in the design. And I'm not talking fonts, color palate, illustration and photography. I'm talking to reinforcing messages with imagery, style, voice (tone) AND function. Can this stuff be copyrighted? Probably. I guess anything can either be bought or protected -- for a price.** It pained us when we'd find blatant rip offs of our designs (logos, marks, colors and layouts). But the pain was short lived because our analgesic was simply the understanding that design and strategy are more than skin deep. The roots of great ideas are usually deep, complex and have lineage to its creators. And when these are blatantly ripped off, it's superficially evident. We all need inspiration -- to spark great ideas.
Doc has a funny and interesting post on the open shit slinging season we've encountered here at the turn of the new year. What's 2003 got in store for us?
I don't know whether it's the New Year, or the pollen, or the end of a collective hangover, but it's suddenly open bullshit-calling season on the folks who sold the crack pipes we used back when the New Economy was getting high off its own exhaust.
![[Valid RSS]](http://radio.weblogs.com/0108247/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}