Cartoon (life considered): billability blues

Posted by Guy Downes on February 28, 2011 under Cartoons | Be the First to Comment

Most professional services firms (who basically ’sell time’) face the same problem: the time they capture is only as accurate as the person capturing it. Like Vegemite, some people love their time sheet, others hate it.

Tags: Cartoon, productivity, professional services, time

Case study: zooming in on creative ideas for Intel Asia Pacific

Posted by Guy Downes on February 25, 2011 under Illustration | Be the First to Comment

Developed ‘blue print’ illustrations to inspire an Intel Atom netbook photo shoot – final photos offered to consumer media in Asia Pacific during holiday season build-up

A final photo inspired by one of my concept illustrations

Issue:

The build up to the holiday season at the end of the year is an important sales period for consumer electronics (such as netbooks) across Asia Pacific. With the arrival of the iPad, the consumer hardware market had become even more competitive and ‘noisy’.

Insight:

The success of netbooks has been due to the fact they are small, light, portable, innovative and fun. Although the consumer hardware market had become more competitive, nothing has really changed with netbooks themselves, except from the fact that they have got better and better. So, in the run up to the holiday season, there was an opportunity to remind people why they fell in love with netbooks in the first place and shine the light back on their many benefits.

Challenge:

In order to showcase the breadth of choice available to netbook consumers during the Christmas/holiday season buying period, Intel set out to commission photography that would show the Atom netbook range in an innovative, creative and shopper-friendly way in time for consumer buying guides across the Asia Pacific region. The final photos would also be used to pitch to consumer and technology publications.

My role:

Following a creative briefing session with Howorth, a business to business, consumer technology and enterprise technology public relations agency in Sydney, I was tasked with developing a series of creative concepts that Intel could use across Asia Pacific as the foundation for their photo shoot and photography.
A key requirement in the creative process was to highlight the small form factors, breadth of range and innovative netbook designs made possible by the Intel Atom processor.

Idea:

My creative idea was to use the netbook form factors e.g. its angles, shape (when open and shut) and its size, to replace, create or enhance items or situations that can be found or occur in the build up to the holiday season. In doing so, and using a simple illustration style, this would remind or introduce people to the great form factors netbooks have (e.g. small, breadth of range, flexibility, fun or simplicity etc)
The aim was that the final photos would mirror the simplicity and minimalism of the concept illustrations as well as build on them by placing them in aspirational and modern settings.

Original concept: open netbooks create a Christmas tree

Campaign results:

The photos were distributed to Intel’s PR agencies throughout the Asia Pacific region for use when liaising with consumer buying guides and relevant media publications.
Photos were made available to agencies in Australia, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines and Singapore.

Original concept: a thin netbook vs bags full of heavy school books

Final photo supplied to PR agencies across Asia Pacific

“Guy’s fresh thinking created some great ideas. His illustrations formed the platform for some really innovative and consumer-friendly product photography that we used across the Asia Pacific region”.

Paul Thompson, Account Manager, Howorth

Original concept: profiling the small netbook form factor

Final photo: a small netbook fits neatly into a stocking

Media coverage example:

Photo appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald's online Digihub section

*Disclosure: I used to work at Howorth before launching my own visual communication practice.

Tags: Atom netbooks, Communication, Creativity, Howorth, Illustration, Intel, netbooks

Cartoon (life considered): could you take the 5th penalty?

Posted by Guy Downes on February 17, 2011 under Cartoons | Be the First to Comment

Craig Foster, former Socceroo and SBS Chief Football Analyst, talks about Australia’s most famous penalty and connects football to business at a Tamworth Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast

When John Aloisi stepped up to take the deciding penalty for Australia against Uruguay in the 2006 World Cup Qualifier, he had to walk the 30 metres or so to the penalty spot alone and in front of over 80,000 Australian football fans and millions watching worldwide. Score and he would take Australia back to the World Cup for the first time in decades. Miss and he would be cast as a villain forever, despite his successful career and massive contribution to the game. Talk about pressure. As we know, thankfully, the rest is history. With a deathly silence engulfing the stadium, Aloisi stepped up, maintained his composure and planted the ball in the back of the net. The stadium erupted.

This is the introduction Craig Foster, the SBS Chief Football analyst and former Socceroo, gave this morning during an engaging and insightful talk at The Tamworth Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast. But what we also learnt from Foster were some insights of what went on behind the scenes in the run up to that memorable penalty shoot out.

Drawing out key business lessons from the many football achievements and failures he has witnessed or experienced, Foster painted a picture of what it takes to succeed – even when others may have written you off or you make serious mistakes. He skilfully shared insights, ones that resonated strongly with the business audience, not by rattling off facts and figures but through engaging, emotional and entertaining storytelling. And there wasn’t a Powerpoint slide in sight.

Focusing on the Aloisi spot kick, Foster made some strong parallels with the day-to-day challenges we all face in business. The day before the Uruguay game Guus Hiddink, the coach of Australia at the time, asked his players who wanted to take a penalty if the game went all the way. He didn’t outline his choice of penalty takers but rather asked who wanted to take a penalty. Many of the big names you would expect stepped up to the plate.

Aloisi did the same but he took a different approach. He put his hand up and said: “I’ll take the 5^th penalty”.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with football, this can be the last and deciding penalty. The stakes and the pressure doesn’t get much bigger than this. But Aloisi nominated himself all the same. According to Foster, this is because Aloisi’s years of determination and dedication to his sport had prepared him for this moment. Apparently back in the UK, Aloisi was always the player who would stay behind after training (regardless of the weather and conditions) to train more as well as practice penalty taking. His effort paid off when it counted.

Foster compared that timeless moment to everyday life. Like Aloisi, there are moments in our businesses and lives (perhaps only ever one or two, three if you’re lucky) when a ‘door opens’ and you get the opportunity to do something very significant. These may be career or life defining and no doubt they come with an element of risk. But if you have done the preparation, the hard work and have built a deep inner-belief in your ability over time, the opportunity is truly there for the taking.

(Many thanks to Chris Ingall from Duncan Plante & Co for inviting me along this morning to a great presentation and networking event).

For more information:

Craig Foster as a public speaker.

Tamworth Chamber of Commerce, NSW.

Tamworth Regional Council, NSW.

Tamworth Regional Development Corporation, NSW.

The Northern Daily Leader (Tamworth, NSW).

Tags: business, Craig Foster, failure, football, soccer, success, Tamworth Chamber of Commerce

Cartoon (life considered): do sole operators ever sleep?

Posted by Guy Downes on February 15, 2011 under Cartoons | Read the First Comment

Craig Pearce is a strategic communications professional and a former colleague of mine. He writes consistently on PR and in my view has chiseled out a position for himself as one of the thought leaders on PR in Australia. I use the word ‘chiseled’ because writing insightfully about communications (in your own voice and from the heart) must be like sculpting an artwork out of rock – it takes skill, time, dedication and persistence.

Today, Craig has posted about life as a sole operator and I provided this cartoon for the story. As a micro business myself, it’s a topic very close to my heart. To be honest, I can’t see myself ever working another way. His post really tackles the advantages and drawbacks of this business model. My cartoon, supporting his themes of ‘making hay while the sun shines’ and ‘feast and famine’ asks: do sole operator’s ever stop working? Can they ever “clock off”?

Tags: business, Cartoon, Craig Pearce, entrepreneurs, sole operators

Pictures spark conversation and fresh thinking in business planning

Posted by Guy Downes on under Graphic Recording | Read the First Comment

One of the real advantages of graphic recording (or drawing meeting conversations as they happen on large posters) is that participants have the opportunity to stand back and see what they have been talking about. It allows businesses and organisations to see how their ideas have evolved and the direction their conversations are going in. It’s a colourful and creative record of their group discussion (which, if not captured, may have otherwise been lost forever) and shows them ‘the bigger picture’.

A photo of me capturing the conversation at a leadership workshop

From my experience, I have found no matter what industry sector the business is in people respond to pictures. I think drawings and pictures strike an innate chord within us – we learn to speak with images first and then move onto letters and words. As we get older, we may put less emphasis on pictures but deep down I believe the connection always exists.

The icons I draw and scatter within my posters build on the key words, issues or ideas I hear while listening intently to the conversation in the room. And when people reflect on the posters, the icons or images seem to reignite this connection to pictures – and in doing so, they help spark conversations, kick-start more thinking or allow people to understand or share a key point within the context of their business.

The start of one of my posters from a business strategy workshop

I like to think of the icons I draw as little ‘doorways’ that allow people to step into new areas or as little ‘bridges’ that enable participants to meet half way and find common ground without getting stuck on words or corporate language. Here are a few of examples from recent business and leadership workshops. I hope you enjoy them.

Leading change

Motivating our employees

Dream like you were a kid again

Entrepreneurs never sleep

Building trust

Business can be challenging and tough

Acknowledge achievement

Business congestion

The fish bowl effect at work

Somethings aren't an overnight process

What big themes jump out at you?

Sharpen your story

And finally, here’s a good photo of participants at a business leadership planning workshop reviewing their ideas and ‘standing back to see the bigger picture’ of how their strategic discussion had evolved.

Partipicants review, reflect on and discuss the graphic recording posters

Tags: business, Communication, Creativity, Graphic Recording

Behind the scenes: creating Mr Fix I.T. from start to finish

Posted by Guy Downes on under Behind the scenes, Illustration | Be the First to Comment

One of the most satisfying parts of my job is to see my work develop and move from the seed of an idea to the final outcome. I collected a few photos that chart the journey of creating ‘Mr Fix I.T.– the everyday hero for small business’.

Drawing by hand to get the rich colours and levels of depth can be intense but very rewarding. As I concentrate heavily while illustrating it’s really interesting how my mind ’opens doors’ while working for such long periods. My mind seems to dig up thoughts and memories that would never otherwise pop up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle. Perhaps illustrating is my own form of meditation.

Based around the main character of Mr Fix I.T., the little cartoon storybook highlighted how computing can be made simple for small to medium sized businesses with Microsoft Online Services. My original case study on the booklet can be found here.

Ready, set, draw! My tidy studio desk at the start

Developing the colour palette for Mr Fix I.T.

A not so tidy desk as the illustrations take shape

Where the idea began. The original butchers paper from the first brainstorm with the Howorth team.

A short but truthful message that I wrote with my finger in all the pencil shavings when the job was complete

Tags: Communication, Howorth, Ideas, Illustration, Microsoft, Microsoft Online Services

Case study: Mr Fix I.T. – the everyday hero for small business

Posted by Guy Downes on February 2, 2011 under Illustration | Be the First to Comment

Cartoon storybook highlights how computing can be simple for small to medium sized businesses with Microsoft Online Services

A collection of the printed cartoon storybooks

Issue:

Australia’s small to medium sized business (SMBs) owners are busy people. So, finding the time to understand, select and get the best from their computing technology can be difficult. However, it’s their IT that can make one of the greatest positive impacts to their business.

Challenge:

The challenge lay in finding a quick, entertaining yet simple and educational way to shine the light on the benefits and advantages cloud computing (also known as Internet based computing or online services) can bring to SMBs.

Insight:

In today’s society, where people appear to be overloaded with information and seemingly with less time than ever before, storytelling with engaging imagery can be an important communication tool.

Idea:

Working closely with Howorth, a business to business, consumer technology and enterprise technology public relations agency in Sydney, I recently helped illustrate a creative, fun and educational storybook that underscored how SMBs could take advantage of Microsoft Online Services (Howorth’s client).
Set in the fictional town of Mosworth, the simple-to-read illustrated storybook recounted the story of Mr Fix I.T., the town’s friendly and in-demand computer expert, who helped a cross section of the town’s SMB owners with simple, cost-effective and no-fuss answers to their computing problems using Microsoft Online Services.
My illustrations showed the characters ‘before’ (think: worried, stressed, overloaded) and ‘after’ (think: happy, productive, organised) Mr Fix I.T. had implemented Microsoft Online Services for their businesses.
The booklet was balanced with the creative illustrated story as well as product information on the Microsoft Online Services suite, customer testimonials and a free 30 day opt-in trial for readers.

Campaign results:

Microsoft Australia printed over 3,000 colour copies of the A5 Mr Fix I.T. storybook, which were distributed to SMB customers, partners and media.

The booklet front cover illustration: Mr Fix I.T. with the story characters

Project responsibilities:

My role involved:

Working closely with the Howorth team to brainstorm and develop ideas that could be converted into a storybook highlighting the benefits of Microsoft Online Services;
Helping provide feedback and ideas on the storybook script developed by Howorth; and
Bringing-to-life the story and characters through hand-drawn illustrations using Black & White ink and traditional colour pencils.

The busy and in-demand Mr Fix I.T.

“Guy is a talented illustrator and he has really helped us bring to life the benefits Microsoft Online Services delivers to SMB customers. He has been great to work with, plus he really ‘gets’ complex technology and business issues and knows how to humanise them”.

Marie-Claire Suter, Senior Account Director, Howorth