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Question everything
In Figures of Speech, an essay entitled, Virgil Abloh: A Hundred Percent, Virgil Abloh and Anja Aronowsky Cronberg write: Get this. I was the idiot who believed that all fashion design was deeper than just clothing. I thought each season was about a concept that represented a larger idea. Don’t get me wrong, I know…
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Start with the end in mind
In The Art of Possibility, Ben and Roz Zander write: “Each student in this class will get an A for the course,” I announce. “However, there is one requirement that you must fulfill to earn this grade: Sometime during the next two weeks, you must write me a letter dated next May, which begins with…
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Eating your vegetables
u/MaginusMedia writes, in response to creating a perception: Marketing is eating your vegetables. No more and no less than that. So my advice, for what it’s worth, is learn as much as you can (i.e., find some good “vegetable recipes”); get as much help as you can; and remember that in all this stuff (music…
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The preciousness paradox
The more important a piece of work is to you, the more difficult it is to make progress on and release it. Obsessive creative energy builds up; your expectations rise endlessly. You envision what this work is going to be like after you’re done, as well as what this work will do for you and…
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Contentions: What A.I. will not disrupt in marketing, editing, and writing
Some friends of mine have recently asked me, “What do you think of A.I.’s implications for your field of work?” I work professionally in marketing, editing, and writing. I also wrote a book, and I write every day at my blog. My initial response was to discuss the difference between text generation and writing, though…
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Fictional brands
The fictional brands archive is one of the most intriguing directories I’ve come across in a long time. Merchandise from these fictional brands have occasionally made their way into the physical world, which is always fun.
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Contentions: They’re asking ChatGPT first
A good friend of mine was waiting for a branding plan from an agency. A few days before the agency was sending it over, and presumably presenting it, he prompted ChatGPT: “What does a good branding plan look like?” If the marketing agency came up with the same plan, he figured he probably wouldn’t need…
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Learning to love rejection
A few days ago, I wrote one of my favorite posts: red lights. It reminds me of an opening story in the third chapter of Creative Doing, entitled, “Make Constraints Your Canvas.” I recently came across a quote from Virgil Abloh on rejection. In an interview with the New York Times, the writer mentions a…
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Quit while you’re ahead
1. “As soon as you buy something you lose the power to buy something,” Loftis tells Cooter in Exchange Value by Charles R. Johnson (via Lauren Berlant in Cruel Optimism). 2. “When we are in the gains, we have a tendency to quit too early in order to avoid the risk of giving those gains…
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Make your work the best practice, and let people copy it
People copy today. Incentives reward derivative work. Sequels, song covers, and newsjacking (including celebrity culture) are all signs of this. The most constructive thing you can do in this environment is to behave the way you want to see more people behave, and then to promote your work and make it a best practice. People…