Back to school always feels like the real start to my year. With 3 kids entering new schools this year, we're still trying to figure out our routines and rhythms. Getting there. I hope your start to fall is going smoothly, and you’ve managed to find your groove.
TikTok & Art
Speaking of grooves, is music on TikTok a different kind of art? An interesting post connects a philosopher’s concept of “Arts of Action” to the participatory nature of music and dance on TikTok. Smart artists (and brands) get this, and remember the ‘social’ in social media. But there’s a specific kind of ‘social’ that is native to each platform, and it’s difficult for other platforms to replicate it – as Instagram discovered with its TikTok copycat Reels. Casey Newton summed up this challenge really well (“the switch from personal posts to elaborate dance challenges, stunts, comedy, and recipes feels too jarring. Snapchat stories were a natural fit for the Instagram feed, but Reels still feels like an alien interloper.”)
I find it helpful to think about platforms like places – each with its own distinct culture, norms, and set of expectations for those visiting. TikTok also features large in this smart round-up of the 10 key moments shaping digital culture by We Are Social.
Quick Skims
The Follower (@DRIESDEPOORTER): Speaking of new forms of art, this Belgian artist is making ‘surveillance art’ using AI and open cameras – sharing videos of influencers taking pictures of themselves. Is vanity shaming our next trend?
Most Searched Consumer Brands (Visual Capitalist): If you’re looking for evidence of the hegemony of big, global brands – check out the most ‘searched for’ brands by country.
Stable Diffusion + Photoshop: Love this video / proof of concept of how a designer might use a tool that generates images from text in Photoshop. Super-interesting to see this type of technology used in context.
Emoji Trends (Adobe): Did you know that 73% of U.S. emoji users think people who use emojis are friendlier, funnier, and cooler than those who don’t? Just avoid poop and eggplants – useful advice in general, really.
Smart Reads
Reconsidering Retail (Troy Young): Interesting reframing of how modern retail works – physical building and manufacturing is easy, building attention (largely via digital) is hard. Starbucks also recently made news for reconsidering its own retail model – focusing more on efficiency, and less on “third space” ambiance. Can I both love and hate a trend?
Is Anything Cool Anymore (GQ): Some smart language and theory around the ambiguous concept of coolness. With e-commerce, “everyone can have everything. And so therefore, it feels like nothing’s cool.” Social media also plays a role here in equal parts introducing and killing fashion trends – leading to the death of cool, personal style?
Reconsidering Dating Apps: Singles are tired of dating apps and are looking for love using Twitter, TikTok, and even – gasp – email newsletters (?) Be thankful I’m married, who knows what I might be including in these things.
Shaping Thinking
I’m not proud of how much time I spend monkeying around in PowerPoint. I’ve wasted full days shunning SmartArt for bespoke versions of simple process diagrams. Why? As a visual learner and compulsive whiteboard doodler, I’ve always been drawn to (pun intended) the relationship between what we see and how we think. Frameworks and visual cues play a huge role in how we interpret information. Visual models become mental models. As a consultant and trainer, I've found that incorporating the right visuals into a presentation can help me to explain things more clearly, structure sessions more effectively, direct the attention of participants, and ultimately influence outputs.
I’ve put together a quasi-periodic table of visual elements that can be used to help bring more clarity to presentations. Each includes what I want to communicate (the client’s question that I want to answer) and a visual element to help me do so. And yes, I created this in PowerPoint.
