Indian Street Performers: India 1981 by Mary Ellen Mark 

Today, I updated the Business & Marketing links in the right column to include some additional trend spotting sites that I think are important to note. 

With the changing landscape of marketing, keeping up with the global culture shifts can be overwhelming. Last week, I talked about “New Marketing” which focuses on cultural insights, sustainability, responsibility and innovation. Because of this trend, new types of design and marketing firms are popping up all over the globe.

One major player in this organization of thought is PSFK. Recently, the PSFK Conference was held in New York and Alan Chochinov from Core77 spoke about this issue.

Here is the video: The Dumbest Smartest Design Problem - (Why Shit Matters To Design)

Here are some other links added today:

Anomaly

“Blurring the borders between providing traditional marketing services and working as a business development partner” - Business Week 2007

Peep - Insights and Revelations

“A new research based company created especially for today’s and tomorrow’s marketeers and innovators utilizing proprietary methodology filtered through the lens of experienced socio-cultural researchers and consultants.” - peep

Spring Spotters

The world’s largest idea-spotting network.  

Daily Monster was created by the multi-talented Stefan G. Bucher. You can see all the monster videos online and check out Stefan’s design site too - 344.

 

 

Exercise, costumes and mud! It is like an adult field day. You can’t go wrong! This 6 mile race requires a partner and consists of five legs of biking and running separated by obstacles (cargo net, low wall, monkey bars, hay bales), then finishes off with a mud bath. Costumes are encouraged!

Check out Muddy Buddy online for more details. 

Let’s make sure we can keep our beautiful balance of life.

Want to know what Earth Day 2058 might be like?

Read this article featured on the Environmental News Network from the president of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan.

I took a short road trip over the weekend. Of course, there aren’t that may healthy dining alternatives when you are on the road. I guess I could have been more prepared and brought food for the drive, but part of taking a road trip is experiencing the unknown and we certainly survived. However, it did get me thinking about the entire restaurant business and how much impact it has on our health as well as the environment.

According to Michael Oshman from the Green Restaurant Association,

“As more people dine out, Americans spend about half of their food budgets at restaurants. Besides the government, the restaurant industry is the largest employer in this country, accounting for 12.8 million people. Lastly, the restaurant industry impacts about 1/10th of the American economy, making its impact larger than the total of many countries in the world.”

The Green Restaurant Association was founded in 1990 to help restaurants achieve environmental sustainability through its green guidelines which include: sustainable food, green building practices, nontoxic chemical usage, energy and water efficiency, recycling, composting, using recycled packaging, etc. You can find out if there are any green restaurants in your area by visiting the website. Here in Atlanta, only two restaurants are listed: Radial on Dekalb Avenue and My Panini at Lindbergh City Center.

I am not sure if the Green Restaurant Association is currently being recognized in the restaurant industry or there are similar types of organizations that have more popularity. So far, I have only found regional sites that address this topic in some California cities and the Chicago area. If a majority of the restaurant industry could get on board, it would produce a substantial impact on the environment and health. 

There are a few new sustainable fast-food restuarant chains forming that are worth mentioning. Both will make their debut in Atlanta soon.

Evos - serving horomone-free burgers, baked fries, wraps, organic salads and milkshakes as well as fruitshakes made with fresh fruit and natural juice.

Pizza Fusion - serving pizza, sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts made with organic ingredients including gluten-free options for people with celiac disease.

      

Some people have asked me why I write this blog and mostly it is because I want to develop better writing skills, but I also have an insatiable appetite for knowledge and that includes understanding people, cultures, art, etc. With this information, I try to make connections. The benefit of this appetite is that I have a good grasp of marketing and advertising, which helps me in design and business. See … full circle, right?

It is obvious from the subject of my posts and the website links I have listed, that I am becoming more passionate about sustainability and what it means to us as a nation and throughout the world … but also, what does it mean to marketing and business? How are all the connections being made?

Ultimately, the marketing climate is changing and there is a need for products that appeal to people’s want of sustainable products so they feel like they are doing good for the earth, but feeling good and actually doing good are two different things. As design, marketing, advertising and business people try to sell you something, they really have the power over the truth. Right now, the need to advertise and market your product as a sustainable one is growing at an alarming rate. As consumers, we still have to watch out for frauds and as marketers, we have to be sure that we are actually giving good information to consumers.

I have found two good articles on this subject that I wanted to share. The first one is from Laurie Lamson, a professional writer and filmmaker, who emailed me her article titled, Cutting-Edge Marketing for Cultural Creatives. This article addresses the push versus pull style of selling that we have been seeing more of lately.

The other article is a free download from a management consulting firm called ReCourses. The title of this article is “The Sad Fade of Branding, and When Sustainable Isn’t.” To read this article, you need to sign up with your email address, but there are many other valuable articles for creative businesses to learn from here. Link to free position papers.

 

Danielle Van Ark, a photographer based in Amsterdam, has gotten some attention lately for her eerie series of photos entitled, “The Mounted Life.” These photos let the viewer’s mind interpret the scene the way they like, but the animals are indeed “stuffed” and can be found in the back storage room of natural history museums. These images are intriging to me because they seem too still or rigid and in the wrong environment. The straight lines and the materials in the background aren’t natural. Something is not “right” here.

You could make an environmental interpretation or statement out of these photos. The fact that we visit natural history museums to see animals on display is odd, although I have been myself and enjoyed the visual learning experience. Can some animals only be seen in a museum now? What does that say about us?

You can read an interview with Danielle Van Ark about this photo series on the I Heart Photograph Blog. 

If I share an artist’s work on my blog that I would like people to be aware of, it is important to note that all the artwork, including photography, is the copyright of the artist. If said artist sees their work on this blog and wants it removed, please contact me and I will remove it immediately.