Corey Canada

Dave Hoffer at Frog Design recently coined the term “Disruptive Realism”.  It describes expression presented in an everyday context that disrupts peoples perceptions about different things.

Banksy’s graffiti looks real enough that you might do a double take looking at it. It draws you into the content which is disruptive…like a little girl flying a refrigerator kite in New Orleans. Another example was Orson Welles’s ‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast, which was meant as entertainment and likely a commentary on how evolution had been twisted into Social Darwinism Regardless of its intention, the broadcast caused mass hysteria. An excellent example of Disruptive Realism.

I get annoyed at much of the nonsense agency speak that gets vomited into Powerpoint slides. In general I think insightful ideas and concepts do not always have to be complex, difficult or have a fancy new term. They just need to be articulated to the audience in a clever easy to understand way. Simplicity is typically key in my book. That being said, I think the term accomplished that.

So as much as I fight the industry jargon, Disruptive Realism is actually a good clever way to describe elements of street art, urban activism, ad-jamming and the like. I may even be guilty of using it at some point. For more information the term was originally introduced in the video and then elaborated upon here.

What do you want to say to the new administration? from Departika on Vimeo.

Katie and Jason provide a nice recap and video of the event at our Departika office last Friday. “Our gallery wall was blank except for the words, “Hey Mr. President Elect…Do better this time around. We certainly need change.” We let the people say the rest by writing their statements with the markers we hung from the wall. Sit back and watch how the night played out.“

I snapped the image above in New York a few years ago and it’s the work of Judith Supine. Many people may not have heard of this artist but everyone knows who Banksy is right?  Just so you know, there are hundreds of other great artists that deserve your attention and Streetsy has a selection of the very best here.

Most web design and development studios follow the standard process paths with modifications to meet individual business needs and project types. It usually consist in some form of planning, design, development and measurement. The process you use can be imperative to profitability, productivity and general happiness by the team. Below a few important things I’ve learned to keep top of mind about the process that work well for my business.

• Set standards and adhere to them both internally and with clients
• BUT, know when it’s OK to deviate from the normal plan
• Evaluate regularly and implement steps to streamline
• If things are not working give your process an overhaul
• Find what work for your business and roll with it

Looking at what other successful companies are doing can be a good source of inspiration and insight. On that note, Jeff Croft presented an in-depth deck on his company’s process at a session at the Webmaster Jam Session in Atlanta. It’s full of solid information and insights to consider when evaluating and streamlining your processes.

It was a five hour marathon of a session in which we tried to really give a sense of the entire workflow and process we use at Blue Flavor, from planning and strategy to IA and UI design, to visual design, to both front-end and back-end development. It seemed to go over extremely well, The slides from each day of the session Keith and I gave follow:

Just when you thought it would never end, election day is hours away. We have seen the good, the bad, the clean and the dirty of the two candidates marketing strategies and tactics. Bnet provides an easily digestible feature that highlights what businesses can pull into their own marketing playbooks and learn from the circus.

Many of us might have battle fatigue from this year’s longer-than-ever presidential campaign. But don’t tune out the tactical analysis just yet. Marketing a candidate is simply that — he or she is selling a product, a brand, and a message, not unlike any other product or service. Political campaigns, in fact, can teach private sector marketers more than first meets the eye. Read the full story here