There’s a major building renovation project near my house. It’s one big construction site, so there’s a plethora of warning signs, stuck on every available vertical surface.

These signs provide a rather alarming insight into the construction company’s perception of their role in the world and indeed their perception of how public communications  work. The first sign has a straightforward message, delivered in a conventional manner. It’s dangerous here. Keep out. Basic health and safety compliance? Check.

And the next gives a little more information, just in case you’re skeptical about the risk.

So that’s clear, right? It’s a construction site. Stay away. Then things get a bit weird. Someone decided that messages needed to be tailored to a specific audience, namely children. And what better way to repel children than with a cartoon character…

Yeah! Stay away kids! Tommy says so. (Whoever the hell Tommy is.) But hold on… who’s this other guy? It’s Tamar, an overtly non-Caucasian character. And he has another point of view. He is calling for your complicity:

Some seriously mixed messages here. Stay away and get involved. No wonder the youth of today is confused. But the next sign surely proves that the Communications team at the construction company have really lost the plot. Enter, stage left, the flaxen-haired Tammy. Listen up, kids. She’s got something to say about ‘respect’.

Clearly, the building firm feels its remit goes way beyond running a safe and professional construction project. They also feel have a mandate to instil broader social values, developing good citizens and fostering harmony in the home.

But they don’t stop there. Tammy has a friend. Her name is Tina and she’s got some serious concerns about the environment… Hey, Tina. What’s up?

Oh, Tina, Tina, Tina. Our environment is indeed important but so is punctuation.

But I digress. What really confounds me about these crazy signs is not the motivation behind their construction or the shoddy copywriting. These are commendable objectives and we shouldn’t snigger at their good intentions or oversights. No, what fries my brain is the fact that someone must actually believe that these signs might be effective in changing the people’s behaviour.
[Guys. I don't know how to break it to you. I think it will take more than a few posters.]

Thankfully, they have shown some signs of contrition…

With a lot of design focusing on ‘feelings’, or ‘emotion’ as an essential ingredient, do we sometimes forget about getting people to ‘think’?

After watching The Iron Lady last night, this scene highlights the difference between the two, and got me thinking about which one is more important in terms of creating effective design?

Let me know your thoughts (and feelings).

Each month, we post a short profile on our most recent placements. Find out a bit about them, and see some of their work…

Hello, my name is…
Megan Williams
In three words I would say I am…
Normally less succinct.
And in my spare time I like to…
Read, design/craft, pub quiz with friends and get the maximum use I can from my Cineworld Unlimited Card!
I have just finished studying at…
Nottingham Trent University
You can see a portfolio of my work by…
Visiting www.megwilliams.co.uk or emailing me via williams.meg@gmail.com for a PDF copy of my CV and portfolio.
And my piece of work that best represents me is…
I’m not sure one piece of work necessarily represents me more than another, but I’d probably have to say my response to the ISTD Mutton Quad brief

(Although in terms of my personal feelings – the blood/organ donor campaign I produced back in college is still close to my heart in terms of cause – please consider giving/signing up if you can!).

Because…
While I love design I also enjoy playing with language and developing copy, so I used this brief as an opportunity to have fun with both. The result was a restaurant theme that blended food and typography together in both aesthetics and menu-content!
You would never guess that I…
(Despite rarely wearing any) probably own enough hats to accessorise everyone at The Partners, at least once over.
After The Partners, I’m going to…
See the Wizard, the wonderful wizard (and witches) of…Wicked.

Each month, we post a short profile on our most recent placements. Find out a bit about them, and see some of their work…

Hello, my name is…
Adam Steel
In three words I would say I am…
Could’ve been Batman
And in my spare time I like to…
Watch classic cinema, play football and bake cakes.
I have just finished studying at…
Norwich University College of the Arts
You can see a portfolio of my work by…
Emailing me: adamsteel1990@aol.com
And my piece of work that best represents me is…
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards ad campaign

Because…
It always makes me smile.
You would never guess that I…
Am a pretty mean chef.
After The Partners, I’m going to…
NextBigThing

The book Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (previously titled: Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People) contains an exploration of the common personality traits of creative people. The traits are articulated as a series of ten paradoxes. Before listing them, he writes:

Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living.
Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity.
What makes us different from apes–our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding, and technology–is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognised, rewarded, and transmitted through learning.

You’ve got to love the man, I’m sure he’d be against speculative work and 6-way creative pitches.

The list itself is delightful on its own, and will feel intuitively familiar to anyone who has an appreciation for creativity and creative people. An interesting thing, is that while going through the list you discover that the principles apply not just to creative individuals, but also to innovation and to creative companies and organisations.

So here are Csikszentmihalyi’s Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality, translated to the the traits of creative companies.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.

Creative companies balance a great capacity for doing and action with time for focus, reflection and a healthy work-life balance.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.

Creative companies retain a sense of wonder and innocence. This allows them to attempt the impossible even when “they should know better”. It sometimes results in great breakthroughs.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

Creative companies realise fun and experimentation are just as important to the bottom line as budgets, KPI’s and deadlines. However, when most companies think of creativity, they only think of the fun part, the truly creative appreciate all the work involved in making the idea a reality.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

Creative companies continually imagine, reinvent and plan their future, but they also acknowledge that “A goal is a dream with a deadline” and that “Vision without action is an hallucination”.

5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.

Creative companies look outside as well as inside. They tell stories and look for the limelight, but are also great listeners and willing to learn from anyone (and anything).

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.

Creative companies know their self-worth and don’t shy away from tooting their own horns, but they also keep their eye on the next challenge and know that their status should be continually justified. They acknowledge their debt to those who came before them, while not afraid to carry out their own vision.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

Creative companies actively seek a healthy gender balance – both in term of staff mix and cultural style.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

Most organisations will be either rebellious or conservative, but truly creative companies stay loyal to their values while challenging and often revolutionising their markets. A deep understanding of your business, requires you to be immersed in its history, principles and mechanics. And then you have to challenge them – a rare quality.

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

In a creative company, people passionately defend their work and are expected to do that, but they are not ashamed to step down or make changes when someone has a better idea, because creative companies are “all about the work”, so when the work can be improved, there’s no reason for conflict.

10. Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

Creative companies can be a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, but have the biggest potential to provide fulfilling work experiences (and, in turn, great customer experiences). In creative companies people are not afraid to be themselves, allowing themselves to show vulnerability (for more about the importance of vulnerability to creativity and happiness, see Brené Brown’s smash hit TED talk.)

Being at forefront of your business will expose you to a lot of criticism, unless you can handle it, your creativity will be squashed very early. In a truly creative company, the thought that things can be better and you’re not aspiring to make them so is unbearable. This requires a certain sensitivity. Companies with a culture of compromise, rarely exhibit creative breakthroughs.

These are but initial analogies? What do you think?

Uri’s blog is at Marketing Babylon
He is @uriba on Twitter

I’m fully aware that I’m probably way behind the times on this one (especially if if isitold.com is anything to go by) but I’ve only just seen it and I think it’s absolutely fascinating.

CityMaps | The Social Map is a website and app that lets you view New York by brand.

Whilst what you see is no real surprise (5th Avenue is home to the expensive retail brands, Macy’s takes up a whole block, and fast foods outlets are everywhere), it does however offer an unbiased and fun view on your surroundings:

There is a Starbucks on almost every corner.

Soho is nothing but a dense network of fashionable brands, anything uncool = not allowed.

Food outlets fill the financial district – powering the counties big businesses?

Trendy and alternative Williamsburg lives up to it’s name, with barely a corporate logo in sight.

Check it out here:
City Maps | The Social Map

There is no doubt that we’ve moved away from just ‘having’, the acquisitive material emphasis we saw before the recession, to a deeper appreciation of the true value of luxury – exquisite, magical and often unforgettable experiences that paradoxically, mere money, often cannot buy.

From detailed research and interviews across the luxury sphere, The Partners Consultant Director Margaret Wolhuter has authored – Future Luxe: What the Wealthy want Next, a paper that looks at the history, present and future and challenges that keep us obsessed with the unattainable.

In this brief excerpt, we look at 4 of the 9 key trends that are shaping the modern world of luxury.

1/9: The Search for Authenticity
Here we explore how the origins of a product – where it has come from, who made it, the veritable history of its passage through time – can become a touchstone and strategic weapon

2/9: The Experience of Luxury
As our material needs are met, the experience of luxury, offering unique cultural and emotional connection, has become the ‘new frontier’ for brand expression and differentiation.

Copyright Upsilon Andromedae on Flickr

3/9: The Luxury of Time
In the time – poor world of the wealthy, we examine at the fascinating industry of ‘helpers’ who help the clients extract more pleasure and benefit from that most precious of commodities – time.

4/9: The New Philanthropy
The measure of true wealth today is not how much you have, but how much you can afford to give away. The essence of philanthropy is to bring discovery, learning and fulfilment to others. This is not new. What is, is the desire to actively participate, shape and influence society during one’s lifetime.

If you’re interested in how the future of luxury could shape your business, contact
The Partners: margaret@thepartners.co.uk.

If you happen to be in central London tonight or tomorrow night make your way down to Buckingham Palace to see the Face Britain projection.  Face Britain is a initiative from The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.  Face Britain embarked on a mission to get children from all over the country to create self portraits of themselves and submit them to become a part of a montage image of the Queen.  The kids will in turn have a chance to be part of a Guinness world record attempt. So last night over 200,000 children’s portraits graced Buckingham Palace and on BBC Live Screens across the country to try and break the record.

The Partners designed the logo and identity for the initiative.

Last year to celebrate the launch of Face Britain The Partners created their own self portraits.

Today we christened our new website in typical Partners style, with a little bit of bubbly. We hope you enjoy the new site as much as we do.

the-partners.com

In the spirit of Easter tradition
Why not have a little healthy competition

Let’s see how crafty you can be
And see what happens when you let an egg go free

Your task is to design a flying egg-craft
It can be pretty or practical, silly or daft.

Just make sure it keeps your little eggs safe
When we drop them off the third floor fire escape.

If your egg doesn’t break and your invention succeeds,
A chocolate prize will be there to fulfil all your Easter needs.

So good luck to you all, may the best man win,
Lets hope we don’t have to throw too many eggs in the bin!

This year for Easter instead of an egg decorating competition (so last year) we decided to chuck some eggs off of our 3^rd floor fire escape.   The object was to get your egg safely to the ground without breaking or cracking ideally in some sort of ‘egg-craft’.  This morning the office felt more like an architecture or engineering firm rather than a brand consultancy, even Jim our CEO was cutting and pasting and rendering sketches.  For an idea of some the amount of thought and energy that went into some ‘egg-crafts’ check out Martin’s diagram below.

The rules were simple, you could enter as a team or as an individual, you had to use items found in the office, and you had to use the egg that was provided to you (unaltered).

Like Martin’s there were complex feats of engineering, there were simple ‘egg-cups’, there were loads of parachutes, a teddy bear, and even a moon boot.  And before you ask, yes there was a moon boot in the office.

So lunchtime was the launch.  We all gathered in the courtyard to watch the first egg (Honey Creeper) fail miserably, proof that cheaters never win.  After a few more successes we had our first casualty with Tiffany’s much-anticipated Egg Roll.  From there was a series of triumphs and fails, there was a great showing from the simple but effective Every Little Helps from Be, and a massive fail from our resident engineer Cami whose Egg-stra Power Milkshake was a serious bust!  All in all not too bad we had 62% success rate, which means I had to go to the store to buy more chocolate.

Very impressed with the turn-out and the results. Check out the ‘egg-crafts’ below.

Black Death- By Greg Q

British Flyer- By Matt M

Egg Roll By Tiffany FAILED

Omlette by Andrew FAILED

Eggpollo 13 By Megan(Placement) FAILED

Egg-stra Power Milkshake by Cami FAILED

Super serious egg suspension by Mike P FAILED

Super serious egg suspension

Gravitational Egg Transportation System 1.0 By Martin D

The Ultimate Eggsperience (Zipline) by Jess and Adam(placement)

Teddy by Margaret

Captain of The Tally Ho vessel By Stuart

Super Egg by Amy FAILED

ROI by Jim FAILED

Eggspress Delivery by Adam (Placement)

Honey Creeper by Greg B and Carre FAILED

Every Little Helps by Be

Moon Boot by Me

Eggscilator (Bungie) by Sam H, Lizzi, and Suzanne

Egg Wolf by Sam L FAILED

And last but not least, it’s might not look pretty but the super intense suspension system inside ensured the eggs safety.

The Spruce Goose Egg by John, Dave, and Ross