Ad Caulk

I hate what reading Academic writing does to my own writing.
It's overly loquacious and often up its own ass.
And some of that seems to seep over here.
Again, I hate that.
Language should be deliberate.
You shouldn't have to deconstruct a message.
If you do, I haven't done my job correctly.
That's a problem because I love my job.
I love calling a spade a spade.
Or calling crap...well, crap.
This is in the attempt to be stupidly clear.
Without clarity these are just the ramblings of a raving lunatic.
I also think this academic viewpoint leads to a lot of problems we have in the industry today.
Everybody is talking with words that don't really mean anything.
Buzzwords, jargon, general shite.
This kind of speech doesn't make goals clear.
It doesn't help with communication.
It helps build up a barrier between us (gods of advertising) and them (plebeian consumers).
It's a barrier that doesn't really need to exist, but it makes us feel better.
My opinion (however humble that may be) is that this stuff doesn't need to be that difficult.
We are making it hard on ourselves.
The creep of academia is certainly not something advertising needs.
It needs inquisitive people.
It needs agile people.
It needs people who love simplicity*.

What it doesn't need is more formality and more scholars.
Leave that to the academic journals (which I hopefully won't be reading for a very long while).

*Not just in the helvetica/clean design sense.
(With apologies to Dave Trott for using his writing style. It's loads better than most others, IMHO.)

I did a project about Walt Disney The Man® way back in 3rd grade. Two things he did really impressed me.

First, every night after Disney World closed he would walk around and clean the park. This includes scraping gum off of the paths. The man was a perfectionist.

Second, he created the MultiPlane camera. This added depth to animation AND CHANGED THINGS FOREVER. I had never seen any video of the camera in action until yesterday when someone* sent me this video. The way he explained things is pretty excellent.

*can't remember who, sorry.

Well this is really just one example of why I'm not a designer. Although my friends sometimes think I can do design it takes a ton of talent and effort to produce something like this.

It's possible to be better than 95% of people at something but made to look amateur by the other 5%. This took some mad skills. (via)

Or craftspeople, if you prefer.

No fancy tools, no fancy techniques. Working from a blueprint that was lost hundreds of years ago. It's people like this who do awe-inspiring things. Even when the path they choose to take is unwise, or unpopular.

Korehira Watanabe has worked for 40 years to try to make his dream, and it's only in the past 5 that he's gotten close. That's dedication.

There's also something to be said for the sense of tradition Master Watanabe is trying to instill through his craft. Enriching society by eschewing trends or modern technique.

Watch and learn. There's tons of lessons in here for everyone.

All of my family members opposed the idea because they didn't think I could make a living. They told me, 'don't ever come back home if you want to be a sword maker.'

(via)