{GOOD MARKETING} Being human

Apple traditionally releases a holiday video every year. This year's video is the story of a young family with two daughters visiting their widower grandpa for the holidays. It's been directed as a short story that doesn't seem entirely related to apple, aside from an iPad being a central part of the plot.

While I don't want to spoil it (go watch it and see for yourself), it is a masterful piece of advertising because the central theme is how technology can make us more human and cement deep meaningful relationships. Say what you want about Apple and god knows that as a company it is far from perfect, but they nailed it with this one because it hits the bullseye. They've always marketed their products’ "why", e.g. powerful enablers of creativity in contrast to soulless competitors, who always tout their wares’ gigabytes, screen size and other irrelevant features. This is why apple survives through thick and thin and has been the most valuable brand in the world for a long time.

Ultimately this is what makes a strong brand: a well-defined, aspirational purpose (or "why" as Simon Sinek put it) which guides all business decisions and ultimately builds a strong culture. I would venture a guess that if any modern-day company is meant to survive for a long time (say, more than a century), I'd bet on Apple, as they have in them the ability to reinvent themselves without losing their soul. That's what makes the brand the most valuable in the world.

I was dared by Bob Hoffman (link - scroll to the bottom) to watch this ad without weeping like a little girl and I went into saying "yeah right". Little did I know that I would end up bawling my eyes out every time I watched it. If you don't weep like a willow tree by the end of the video, allow me to question your humanity. That alone makes it one of the greatest ads ever made.

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Safeguarding the oil field

Data is the most valuable commodity of the 21st century. For nearly 20 years, big tech has been downplaying its value in the public's eye while generating untold amounts of profit at the same time. The same way there is a distinction between owning an oil field outright and merely being granted a license to exploit it, we should be very conscious of what we do with our personal data and not give it away to corporations for free.

If personal data is so valuable, we should then treat it like our own personal oil field. By estimating how much future value it contains, we can then demand compensation and assurances of the companies that it will not be abused beyond explicit terms.

The same is true of so-called smart cities. Giving a company carte blanche to build, collect and exploit data in perpetuity, with little to no oversight on how and when this data will be used has long term implications that are as yet poorly understood, so we have every reason to tread carefully. The way to develop smart cities that are beneficial to everyone is to treat the data collected as private (the identifiable stuff) and its aggregate as commons, that nobody can own outright, in order to level the playing field and allow anyone with a good idea to make good use of these data. We should seek out fully open-source standards and demand interoperability instead of closed, proprietary ones.

Now, imagine an open-source smart city where data are shared and marketplace players emulate each other as a way to make a more sustainable built environment a reality so that we ensure to leave the planet better than we found it. Wouldn't that better a better use of the oil field?

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Why cities matter

Cities have attracted people for millennia because they offer something that one cannot find anywhere. They are groups of people coming to a place, to work, play and live with one another. One could argue they have been a great pacifying force in history, as commerce has proven time and time again to prevent wars, as people trading with one another would have too much to lose. City-states, of which there is arguably only a handful remaining today, were great examples of that.

With the rise of the modern nation-state and breakneck technological progress of the last couple of centuries, especially with the ever-decreasing travel times enabled by modern transportation, cities may have lost a little of their importance in enabling humans to interact and trade with one another, but they still offer one advantage that technology has not yet been able to supplant: the proximity to one another and therefore the ability to cultivate face to face relationships. While it is now nearly frictionless to make a video call from Toronto to Shanghai, we communicate so much in person that it cannot be communicated through a FaceTime call that I do not see the need to be near one another vanishing anytime soon.

The question is: how do we build the cities of the future that are continuing to leverage and improve upon these in-person interactions?

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Moving Pictures

The title may be a riff on Rush's famous 1981 album and its hilarious cover art, but I want to discuss the power of film to tell the story of a project. I recently went to NYC for 10 days and taught myself how to film and edit architecture videos. While my technical skills at this point are only average (but constantly improving) when it comes to filmmaking, I mainly focused on how to assemble moving images in order to tell the story of a place.

Stills are a great tool to showcase architecture, but lacking in the fourth dimension - time - they are an incomplete representation of space and as such, present tremendous challenges when it comes to representing time in a frozen medium. They are essentially a highly curated view of a space fixed in time, that we all know is not a representation of reality.

Film, on the other hand, is a lot messier, because it is darn near impossible, unless you have Hollywood-type budgets, to curate the imagery the same way it can be done for stills. That means that one has to embrace the inherent messiness of a space, place or object and work around it. While a finished movie is still a curated vision of the subject, it feels more authentic because the time dimension makes it harder to fake, although one could argue that with AI and deepfakes it is now only a matter of time -pun intended- before we can represent anything in any way we want without regards for reality.

But for now, that realism associated with film still stands. Why is it that so few people are taking advantage of the media to tell their stories?

Here’s a short film about handball in Coney Island:

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Spending one week in Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a fascinating world. Large enough to be a city in and of itself, it nonetheless takes a backstage to Manhattan when we evoke imagery of New York City. Fairly large, but more importantly very dense and vibrant, it is, very much like Toronto a city of neighbourhoods, each having its distinct characteristics, culture and populations. Unlike Toronto, it is not a collection of small commercial hubs surrounded by endless blocks of low-density residential neighbourhoods, but rather a fairly homogenous dense urban environment, with brownstone-lined residential streets nestled in between major commercial arteries.

Having grown in a rather small, but very dense (for its size) city, I find in Brooklyn a lot of the qualities I've come to appreciate about my hometown: lots of walking-distance commerce, with pretty much everything one can wish for within a stone's throw, lots of vibrant activity (there is always people around), ease of getting around and tons of pleasant public spaces within a 30-minute walk radius.

This may be the romantic in me speaking but there is really something about one's ability to be in a dense urban environment that makes life interesting. There is an energy that's exhilarating and the opportunity to make random connections with strangers that may share some of our interests that's exciting and promising. NYC may not be perfect, and the very high cost of living makes it increasingly harder to make it there, but it seems to be giving so much back in return.

How do we replicate that elsewhere?

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The kindness of a stranger

I was recently sitting in a cafe minding my own business when an aspiring photographer asked me to take my portrait on her Soviet-era film camera. Being a photographer and often frustrated at people's awkwardness and reluctance to be in other's photographs I decided to play along on one condition: that she shared the picture with me once it was developed and scanned. I completely forgot about it and on Christmas day, I received an email with said photo attached (see below). It's one of the most thoughtful and meaningful selfless Christmas gift I've ever received.

Never underestimate the power of random acts of kindness, especially to strangers. I realize it's easier said than done and impossible to physically help everyone we encounter, but it's these kinds of small meaningful interactions that can make someone's day, not to mention that they are nearly costless. I personally find that instead of worrying about Trump's latest asinine statement or Kylie Jenner's latest tabloid headline (yes she had plastic surgery done) life's enjoyment increases exponentially if I focus on the people that are directly around and do what I can to help them have a good day.

Photo credit: Sofia Sytnykova (@35mm.ss ).

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The value of having no choice

I recently purchased a gimbal for my camera as a way to force myself into learning how to tell stories with video. While I did not spend an inordinate amount of resources on this new tool, being financially committed to the object and by the same token, the practise of film-making, I have but no choice to go out and start playing with video to develop a new area of practice.

There is real value in being committed to something, with serious consequences if I fail to uphold the commitment, in this case, wasted capital. Having never had any significant experience making films, aside from fucking around with the family's Hi-8 camcorder back in the 90's, this is a practice that terrifies me. It does mainly because the monkey brain is setting expectations of quality that are completely unrealistic for a complete noob, primarily because I foolishly imagine that I could produce videos of the caliber of a seasoned professional immediately, which is an insane proposition.

My heuristic to overcome this "I'm not good enough" barrier is to run towards the things that terrify me, as I know deep down that the challenge will be a source of tremendous learning and growth.

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How to do institutional buildings real good.

The Whitney Museum of American Art is a well-known NYC institution. In its 89 years of existence, it has known many incarnations, the latest of which is a purpose-built building in New York's Chelsea neighbourhood, designed by RPBW.

While it is an imposing building, it is certainly not out of scale in a city like New York. It is noticeable yet does not scream for attention and plays nice with the surrounding meatpacking district, a formerly industrial, gritty and derelict neighbourhood that has experienced a renaissance in the last decade or so. It doesn't hurt that it's adjacent to the southern end of the High Line, another fantastic NYC insta-landmark.

It is inside the museum that one can experience what truly meaningful architecture is like. This is a building dedicated to the showing of art and as such, it is designed to take a backstage to art and the multitude of other activities that unfold in it. While very nicely built and rife with clever detailing (my favourite is the lighting in the main staircase - see picture), the building is a very effective background for life's many activities. In typical Piano fashion, it is a very simple, yet elegant building that does what it's supposed to do very well.

Compared to -ahem- more showy institutions that have come about around the same time, it is of very high calibre and one of the best museum building to come about in recent years.

Pro-tip: if you visit, be sure to check out all the vistas from the multitude of outdoor terraces, the glazed staircase facing the Hudson River and the well-curated museum store.

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Truth Is Golden ep. 305 - Good Fucking Design Podcast w/ Jason Bacher

One founding half of GFDA and certified foulmouth, Jason Bacher is a talented designer, dedicated teacher and all-around decent human being. We talked about his humble beginnings selling wallpaper and how that eventually led him to found Good Fucking Design Advice with his long-time friend Brian Buirge. We also talked about failure, the strangeness of moving to new cities, firing your mother twice and the value of standing out using unbridled profanities.

About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.

The second greatest drummer of all time

At the risk of sounding insensitive, I usually don't get too interested when celebrities die. Part of the reason, it seems, is that unless it's someone whose work I appreciate and am familiar with, I just don't feel any connection with them, even though it's always sad when someone dies. However, I am really not interested in the celebrity fame game. Plus, for every one of them that dies, how many complete strangers have died in absolute anonymity? Instead, I like to think nice thoughts for all the people who die whom we will never know about.

There are a few exceptions. As you may know, Neil Peart recently died of cancer and I felt pretty sad when I learned the news. Not only was he an essential part of the greatest Canadian band of all time, but he was also a fellow motorcyclist who travelled the world on two wheels.

A few years ago, I read his memoir "Ghost Rider" which is the story of how he healed his broken heart after losing his only teenage daughter in a car accident and then his wife 10 months later, whom he claimed "let herself die of sorrow". The story of his grief and eventual newfound appreciation for life was one of the most touching non-fiction books I have ever read and shaped how I was to deal with my own grief after my mother passed away a few years later.

I'm not sad so much because he passed away, as I had no personal connection to the man, but I am certainly sad to see such a raw, creative powerhouse disappear, because we lost someone who genuinely brought something honest and valuable to the world, and that's a great loss.

In times where all we hear on the news (even for someone who doesn't watch the news like me) is doomsday scenarios, crises and petty politics, it is refreshing to come across someone who loved life so much that he was able to pass down something positive to the world, and for that, I am sad.

RIP Neil.

Single Serves ep. 105 - Johnson on Creativity and Innovation

Beck Johnson is our guest on the latest Single Serves podcast. Our conversation on creativity and innovation is one of my favourites to date as she is an engaging speaker and a wealth of knowledge. Enjoy!

Check it out below.

Treat your clients like your grandparents did theirs

Reading time ~8 minutes

If you’ve ever come into contact with Gary Vaynerchuk, you may already be familiar with some of the points discussed in this piece. Vaynerchuk wrote a book called “The Thank You Economy” in 2011, which is antediluvian by today’s standards, but a lot of the lessons gleaned from this book still apply today, as they are universal and timeless.

The book discusses how to connect with our clients and audience in the digital age by drawing parallels to the way business used to be done before the post-industrial age (roughly before the great depression), after WWII and today. Although the book focuses heavily on how to use social media to your advantage when it comes to promoting and growing your business, the gist of his thesis is those old school principles of serving and caring customers are returning in force, primarily because in the digital age, there is no such thing as privacy anymore. As a result, businesses are going to be forced to return to the way business was done for centuries before the advent of the industrial revolution and the fast-paced world changes that came with it, to create loyalty and keep customers around in the long term.

What is the thank you economy?

In our great-grandparents’ time, business was very local. If you needed meat, you couldn’t get it at the local supermarket, where nowadays it can be bought without ever having to talk to a human (I’m looking at you automated check-outs). Instead, you had to go to the local butcher, which likely belonged to someone in your inner social circle. They knew you and your kids by name and would occasionally toss a free cut of meat with your weekly purchase or let your kids have a couple of slices of that delicious prosciutto they had just got in, as a thank you for being a faithful customer. Back then, business was personal, rooted in empathy and understanding. By knowing you and your daily struggles personally, the butcher had a vested interest in your well being and so being kind, polite and deferent to you was commonplace for business owners. By the same token, when police officers were walking their beats, they had an interest in being perceived as an integral part of their community and policing had more to do with interacting with people and preventative policing than catching people in the act and chasing them with patrol cars, literally and figuratively being cut off from the world around them.

I’m a firm believer in the fact that we cannot fear what we know and understand. What this means, in this case, is that by being an integral part of the community and knowing personally the people we deal with daily, all possible fear, resentment of strangers is virtually impossible. Conversely, the advent of the automobile reduced the impact of the community on our lives. People started moving further and further away from pockets of density, and arguably, social life, to live in suburban detached homes where it is easy to not talk to anyone all day by driving to and from it without experiencing any form of social interaction.

How has that state of affairs changed in the digital world?

Vaynerchuk posits that with the advent of social media, we are facing a tremendous, not-to-be-wasted opportunity to connect in a meaningful, community-oriented way with our audiences and clients. While this book was written 8 years ago and a lot has changed in our understanding of social media since (listen to more about the scandals that are constantly plaguing Facebook and Twitter), the intellectual foundation of his advice is still very solid, as it applies to any platform, existing and future ones alike. 

While we now know that social media platforms are designed to take advantage of our worst hard-wired evolutionary traits (echo chambers anyone?), it is also up to us to make use of them in a responsible fashion as we learn to overcome our evolved default behaviours. Social media is no different from any other kind of tool: if used improperly, it can very quickly turn into a weapon. As some of us have learned the hard way, we don’t often think that digital tools may cause physical harm, but they can. Even in the absence of physical harm, the acute emotional or psychological distress they can trigger can also have dire consequences and we all have to internalize these lessons to make responsible use of social media. A table saw, used by a complete noob, untrained in basic safety precautions, will likely end up in cut fingers and blood splatter, the same way unchecked social media usage can lead to feeling depressed or in the worst of cases, suicide attempts.

We cannot rely on these social media companies to suddenly do an about-face and care about us in ways that they haven’t before: the incentives they respond to are simply not aligned with the interests of their users and other stakeholders. They follow the money and the money is going in the opposite direction from the platforms’ users best interests. We have to become responsible users and learn to recognize the much-discussed echo chambers that are known to spontaneously sprout on social media, often as the result of their algorithms working in favour of creating constant, feverish and addictive behaviours.

Is it all that bad?

The short answer is no. There are tremendous opportunities to flip the social media platforms on their heads and use them to our advantage. Twitter and Linkedin are still great to have meaningful conversations with the people that are engaged and interested in the same topics as us. As long as you ignore all the things news and politics related. Inflammatory comments designed to trigger a response are having the intended effect if you respond to it with an air of offended righteousness. Trust me on this one, you’re better off unfollowing Trump that being offended at his every tweet.

Similarly, Instagram is amazing at sharing visual stories that are both meaningful and engaging, and I’m not talking about toddlers and puppies, although these can be adorable and have never hurt anyone. The best way to make the most out of social media is to act on these platforms the same way you would act in person. Though I still don’t know what facebook is good for? Creeping your ex perhaps? Here are some of the things that can lead to social media greatness:

• Be nice: if you treat people the way you would like to be treated in person, there are innumerable ways to make someone’s day. 

• Be authentic: If there is the slightest whiff that the way you portray yourself on social media is inauthentic or contrived, people will run away from you faster than Usain Bolt.

• Always engage people: If your audience takes the time to try and engage with you, you owe to them (and yourself) to engage in a meaningful way. If you’re not ready to do so, you have no business being on social media.

• Be platform agnostic: It’s been said before, it makes no sense to put all your eggs in one basket and solely rely on social media platform to do all your outreach, but if you pick a handful of platforms that make sense for your business, and use them to both engage with your audience where they are but also take advantage of hyperlinks to send them back to the assets you own (such as your website) then you’re golden, as you are now spreading the risk across multiple platforms and if one of them goes belly up, you’re not suddenly finding yourself rudderless.

• Be patient: good marketing takes time and you cannot start something new tomorrow and then complain the following week that you’re not getting any engagement. There is no shortcut to greatness, so it’s more important to design an outreach strategy that works for you and stick with it for a while. If after a certain amount of time nothing changes, it may be time to revisit, but please be patient and give yourself the time to be successful. If it’s hard for you to wait and you’re impatient, put your phone down and go engage with people in real life.

• Ignore the metrics: We live in a world where everything is measured and analyzed to death. Data mining everything is not a viable substitute for intuition, real-life interaction and experience. If you must pay attention to metrics, make sure that you pick meaningful ones and be wary of basing your accountability systems solely on metrics, as many of the important things in business and life are not easily quantifiable.

Conclusion

Ultimately, what I’ve described above are mere tactics on how to tackle social media. The way you will show up on there will be a reflection of your organization’s culture, and if you have none, your social media presence will feel empty and meaningless. Defining a great culture is a lot of hard work and takes a long time, but those who persist at it often end up being very successful in business, as they have developed something greater than the sum of its parts. Zappos and Roma Moulding are two shining examples out there, but there are many more of these to be studied. 

Without culture, your social media efforts will be in vain. Now go make someone’s day with a random act of kindness.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaudrvltr.studio.

On Not Taking Rejection Personally

Reading time ~19 minutes

For anyone selling anything, being rejected on a regular basis is par for the course. It is going to happen and it’s gonna hurt. We’ll explore below why that is and how we can deal with this. Ideally, business is just business and we wouldn’t react to rejection when it happens. We’d just take it for what it is: a signal that a prospect is not interested and move on. But in reality, we often pour so much of ourselves in our work, that being rejected feels more like a personal insult where we take the rejection of our offering, be it products or services as a personal affront. It’s especially true for us, creative people, who are trying to sell our thinking.

If you’re particularly sensitive to what other people say about your work, perhaps the selling part is not for you and better left to seasoned salespeople. Some people have thicker skin than others and can take rejection all day, every day and never think twice about it. For others, including yours truly, there is a small part of us that cannot help but take it personally. When that happens, we can train ourselves to handle the situation swiftly in order to avoid being taken out of commission because we can’t handle it on a personal level.

How to reject people with grace and class

Not all rejections are made equal, some people are really good at being direct and open about their choices while being gentle at the same time. These people have mastered the art of being empathetic and by putting themselves in someone else’s shoes are able to say no while being very gracious about it. I once received a rejection letter from a Simon Sinek’s press team that actually made me feel good about being rejected. I had requested a podcast interview and Sinek was too busy to appear on my podcast. 

Below is an excerpt from the letter. That level of people skills is the gold standard that we should all strive for:

“I'm Jen on Simon's press team. Thank you for taking the time to reach out with your request to spread Simon’s message. We love it when people choose to share the WHY in their own right to inspire others. That is what makes the movement to inspire strong. So, thank you.

Simon is only one person. While we wish we could say ‘yes!’ to every worthwhile request that comes in, we are simply unable. Simon is knee-deep in writing his next book, The Infinite Game. We are doing our best to give him the space to keep charging ahead with the writing process and his significant commitments to grow the WHY movement. For this reason, we are going to graciously pass on your request.

Thank you again for what you are doing to make the world around you a better place. Your WHY (and HOW-- the podcast is great) is an inspired way to help the professional creative community!”

Reading the text carefully, we notice that a few elements stand out:

1. She responds by acknowledging the time and effort it took to reach out and says thank you. At no point, there is a hint of “We’re too cool for school and you should be happy that we deign to give you the time of day”. Her answer is positive, polite and empathetic.

2. She acknowledges the validity of the request and the purpose of it.

3. Then she proceeds to explain in detail why he is too busy to take on this request. Which is another way to say “your podcast isn’t significant enough for us to consider”, but without being hurtful.

4. She closes the letter by acknowledging once more what I am trying to accomplish and encouraging it.

I am aware that it may look like a shit sandwich on the surface. A shit sandwich is a way to give feedback that sugarcoats bad news or negative commentary with meaningless niceties and is completely ineffective. There is one major difference, in this case, is that the letter reads authentic. For anyone familiar with Sinek’s work, the response is completely consistent with his message, purpose and everyone working with him will communicate in a similar fashion, a sign that he has mastered the cultural foundation of his business. The authenticity and empathy are what make this missive stand out from the rest. I remember when I first received it, it actually felt good to read it because it wasn’t a rejection of myself or my work, but merely based on his inability to fulfill every request he gets, and Jen was a master at getting this point across.

How to deal with painful rejection:

Unfortunately, the majority of people don’t have nearly that level of skill and their rejections will be clumsy, merciless and will invariably sting. The degree of pain is directly correlated to their communication skills. Some people might even be total assholes about it and purposely try to hurt you while rejecting you. Perhaps their mommy didn’t love them enough or their spouse drove them crazy that day, but whatever the reason, better be prepared for it. There is nothing we can do about the other party’s actions, but there are things we can do to make that pill a little easier to swallow on our end. 

At a high level, being clear on your business’s purpose, mission and values make it easier to endure rejection. Knowing what you stand for and being clear on how you can help your clients with clearly articulated solutions helps tremendously, because if you consciously know why you do what you do and truly believe in it, then rejection just becomes another hurdle on the way, the true goal being to find your people, that is, the type of clients that believe in what you do and are culturally aligned with your business. If and when you reach that level of mastery no amount of rejection will affect you because you are anchored on a solid foundation. What’s even more amazing is that the stronger your culture is, the less you will be rejected as the people you interact with on a daily basis will become more and more aligned with you.

That enables you to take rejection for what it is: merely the expression of a lack of desire on someone’s part to interact with you or your business, but ultimately that has nothing to do with you. It’s much easier to deal with rejection when one is grounded and clear on their purpose. 

Another thing that helps is Meditation. It teaches us that all things in life are impermanent and in a constant state of flux. Good things come and go, but so do the bad. If we learn to accept the impermanent nature of life and stop craving for things, then we truly learn what’s important and let go of the things of unimportant nature, such as rejection. It is a tremendous practise that helps us stay grounded in tough times.

Some tricks that help.

One trick I’ve learned from a coach I’ve worked with is to constantly remind myself that I can train myself to be completely detached from the outcome when I am selling my services. I do so by repeating a predetermined mantra every day before starting my work. While this is very effective in the short term to overcome minor barriers and a great way to remind myself why it is that I do what I do, it is only a quick fix that if not practiced every day will quickly lose its value.

Perhaps, it’s the way we talk about our work that’s not convincing enough to make prospects see the true value of what we do. While we may think that our work is a gift from God in our heads - and it could very well be - if that fact is not clearly articulated when we try to sell our ideas and we cannot convince a prospect in 30 seconds or less why they should hire us, or at least grant us an audience, then this gift from God is useless. The best thing to do in that case is to educate ourselves and learn how to sell effectively so that we are rejected less often. A common mistake is that we all tend to talk about ourselves when trying to convince prospects to buy our services while failing to look for and address the client’s pain points. It’s a lot easier to persuade someone when the conversation is about them and how what we offer can make their life easier.

Another possible avenue for improvement is to be picky about the people we try to sell to. By trying to connect with just about anyone with a pulse, in order to sell our services, we end up talking to many unqualified prospects and therefore increasing our chances of rejection. By being more choosy, we end up connecting with people who have the greatest potential to become clients and thus reduce our chance of being rejected.

The way we conduct ourselves also says a lot about who we are and the people we speak to always pick-up on non-verbal communication, even on the phone. The first few seconds of interaction can make or break the rest of the conversation. Being polite and grateful, as well as training yourself to become good at small talk, go a long way to get people to open up to what we have to offer more quickly. A quick way to create rapport with a stranger is to ask them questions about themselves, it will make them feel valued and validated and will open the door to further conversation very quickly.

Ultimately, rejection is easier for some of us, but it isn’t easy for most people. Finding ways to cope with it in the short term is useful, but working on your own resilience and that of your business, by striving to develop services that have a lot of value and that people want, will lead you to be more successful in the long term, while facing fewer “nos”. When you become a master at your craft, people will come to you and beg you to work with them, which ultimately makes dealing with rejection irrelevant.

What about you? What are some of the tricks you use to deal with rejection?

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaudrvltr.studio.

How old-school photography techniques are changing the digital game.

Reading time ~7 minutes

In the film days of photography, the possibilities of editing images were bound by the limitations of printing images on paper from a film negative, effectively limiting prints to narrow parameters of correctness. Photographic printing was a skill mastered by a few artisans, whose function was to bring the photographer’s vision to life through a lifetime of accumulated darkroom skills.

While photographers were more deliberate on set and did multiple tests of their envisioned shots, primarily through the use of polaroids to test their views, they had little more than an intuitive idea of what the resulting finished image would look like, as there was no way to instantly review images, the way we are able to now with digital photography. They relied on a combination of skills, accumulated knowledge and a good dose of luck. As film was an expensive commodity, nothing like the nearly free and virtually unlimited storage ability of digital media, the more one took shots, the more expensive a shoot would become, forcing photographers to find the right balance between shooting enough frames to ensure a good ratio of useable images and not going overboard, thus rendering the shoot prohibitively expensive.

While they were limited by the techniques of the day and their associated costs, a good photographer then would have to possess the ability to envision and plan a good shot even without the use of polaroids or cameras. That vision, a combination of the intuition-based “ability to see” and experience acquired through dedicated practice, is still what makes a good architectural photographer today, as the tools of the trade have little influence over one’s skillset. 

With the advent of tools to both shoot and edit images digitally, a whole new world of possibilities has opened to image producers. For people with large film archives, digital tools enabled the re-interpretations of old photographs through the lens of modern technology. 

The late Balthazar Korab, famed 20th century architectural photographer and lifelong collaborator of Eero Saarinen, had the opportunity in his later years to re-appraise portions of his archive, but this time acting as a sort of curator of his work and bring new life to old photographs, only revisiting the images that stood the test of time and emerged as exceptional. He did so with the help of his supremely talented son, Christian Korab. 

During their collaboration, while preparing a definitive edition of his father’s images for a monograph on Cranbrook Academy (one of Korab’s favourite subjects which he repeatedly photographed over many decades) in a new digital medium, Christian was able to execute his father’s vision in a way which was never quite reachable before the digital editing tools we have today came into being. These digitized re-mastered images were described by Korab father as:

 “The precise and nearly-flawless execution that I could never quite realize in darkroom printing.” 

Indeed, his son has parlayed a lifelong working relationship with his father into a set of skills that very few, if anyone else has. It is the ideal blend of technical and aesthetic vision for the finished project. He developed a way to digitize film and master it into digital files that not only allow for the most faithful rendering possible to date but also allow for nearly flawless, unambiguous reproduction and archival conservation.

What is image mastering?

Mastering is a term that’s been widely used in the sound and film industries to describe a process aimed at codifying complex and collaborative artistic efforts that involve a variety of talents. When it comes to photography, it means bringing a similar level of predictability and reproducibility, with a great degree of accuracy to finished images.

In sound engineering, mastering was born from the need to reproduce music with the highest degree of fidelity across many systems of unequal quality, from cheap speakers to hi-fi systems worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the sound mastering process, artists codify their vision of how their music should be rendered to ensure that it renders in the best possible way on any system.

In film, mastering allows filmmakers to coordinate sound and colour to create a coherent finished product, accounting for the varying conditions in which the movie was shot and recorded. It essentially takes disparate pieces of raw material and through the editing process ensures that they are coherent and aesthetically pleasing in the finished product. Once the colour grading process is done, the viewer should not be able to see any differences across the scenes of a movie, even though they may have been shot at different times with varying pieces of equipment (this Instagram account is a great way to learn more about the idea).

Ultimately, the goal of these mastering techniques is to ensure that the artistic intent gets conveyed as accurately as possible. Learning from these other industries, Korab developed this methodology while trying to solve the problem of ensuring the perennial survival of his father’s film-based archive. It turns out that the process is also supremely applicable to digitally-native photography editing and archival, as it enables photographers to produce more consistent images across their entire catalogue and oftentimes, turn decent images into hero shots.

Additionally, mastering allows artists to include in the master files information relevant to using the images in the myriad of possible formats, such as fine art printmaking, publication, electronic display, archiving and art conservation. It is, therefore, a unique kind of artifact that possesses both raw information and the final rendition of an artwork. In other words, a digital photographic master is to photography what an audio master is to the recording industry:  an unambiguous, infinitely reproducible original artifact that is used to produce all subsequent versions of an image.

If properly archived and backed-up accordingly, its stability over time is guaranteed, as digital files do not decay and can be infinitely reproduced, the redundancy making information highly resilient. Another advantage is that the artist’s vision if properly reproduced, cannot be unintentionally modified as the master contains all the information about accurate reproduction in as many types of media as desired. 

A well-produced master is non-destructive, meaning that the work can always be revisited at a later date by the artist and modified to taste. These multiple interpretations are included in the master, thus forming a one-stop-shop history of the multiple versions of the same work

“The negative is the score and the print is the symphony”

Ansel Adams.

If we are to believe Adams' words, a digital master thus includes both the score and the symphony, not only that, but it can also include many symphonic performances, all infinitely reproducible.

Why you should care about it.

Formatting the images that represent your work in a highly-codified, high-fidelity file, enables the representation of your body of work in the most refined of ways. Not only the rendering of your images will be better, but the files themselves can embody a multitude of variations ensuring that your work is always showing up at its best no matter which media it is showcased on.

I have yet to find someone who doesn’t want this level of precision and quality in the public display of their work. Ultimately, your work will not sell itself, but beautiful imagery, well designed and perfectly reproduced will certainly help you convey what your work is about and enable you to find the clients that want what you have to offer.

The work you’re most proud of deserves the best of renditions, don’t you think?

This piece was co-written and edited with/by Christian Korab. If you’d like to know more about how image mastering can work for you, contact us and we’ll walk you through the process.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud@rvltr.studio.

Double Whammy: Single Serves Ep. 104 in Building Magazine and podcast form!

Toon Dreessen, architect has been a relentless advocate for procurement reform in the architecture industry. While there has been some movement in the right direction, it's still not enough according to him and in some cases puts architects in very tricky situations. This is a debate that goes well beyond the scope of this interview, but listen in to learn more about the topic and be inspired to fight the good fight along with Dreesen.

Listen here or check our the interview transcript in Building Magazine.

You Did Not Have Them At 'Hello' on Archipreneur

We had a piece recently published by our friends at Archipreneur. Check them out, they’re working hard at building a meaningful archi-community. I like them because we share a lot of the same values.

Reading time ~10 minutes

Imagine you’re looking for a lawyer to help you with a legal matter. You do some googling (surprisingly none of your friends and family know a good lawyer to recommend to you) and you find a few eye-catching firms. Looking at their websites, three out of four say more or less the same thing, along the lines of: “We’re licensed professionals, in good standing with the law society and we’re good at what we do, look at all our awards and testimonials. We’ll get you the most money in court. Hire us!” The fourth one catches your attention: “I only work with clients who are interested in trying different ways to solve their legal issues. I believe in an alternative brand of justice that aims at trying every possible solution and only litigate when no other option is left. This saves you money, time and aggravation.” Which one would you hire? More importantly, which one do you think commands a price premium?

Read more…

On Death And Motorcycles

Reading time ~10 minutes

The identities have been changed to protect the innocents…

Warning: This writing is an experimental piece about a topic is deeply personal. It’s about to get real, so buckle-up Bucko, and come along for the ride.

For anyone who knows me even a little bit, it’s no secret that I love motorcycling. I enjoy few things, if any, more than being on the open road, carving through twisties, enjoying the angry growl of a high-revving V4 engine, delivering a healthy dose dopamine to the brain. Even if that were the one and only benefit I got from riding a bike, it would still be my #1 hobby, but there is indeed much more to it than that.

I don’t ride to cultivate a certain image (although I do love wearing colorful leather jackets that weigh 20lbs). I do because it is calling my name every day and I can neither explain it, nor can I resist it. Don’t talk to me about motorcycles in the middle of winter when my bike is stored away in the garage, impatiently waiting for spring, it will not be a fun conversation. It’s one of those all-consuming things that just takes over one’s life. I used to be a casual rider, the kind of motorcyclist who goes from A to B for practical reasons and does the occasional out-of-town outing for a few hours on a sunday. However, the drive to ride - pun intended -  has grown over the years and now, I am only fully satisfied with multi-day trips clocking in thousands of kilometers. 

There is something about the transient motorcycle-bum lifestyle that one is forced to adopt while on the road that is deeply satisfying. Indeed, as a function of riding a small, lightweight vehicle, it is impossible to travel with more than the bare essentials: basic camping gear, non-perishable foods - canned tuna, rice and boiled eggs are the road gourmet’s treats of choice - and a few changes of clothes. While it is always a bit tricky to abandon the comforts of our modern urban lifestyle, a few days on the road makes me forget the luxury of a warm, fluffy bed pretty quickly when traded for beautiful, unfamiliar landscapes and endless, billiard-smooth ribbons of asphalt. To me, that is the ultimate expression of freedom: a loose destination, no time constraints and not knowing where I’m going to sleep at night.

There are things that every serious motorcycle rider experiences while on the road, but few are able to express in a meaningful manner. One of those things, is the realization that life is a giant paradox, where opposing forces constantly work in tension: Night & day, black & white, happy & sad, rich & poor are only a few and some of the most obvious of these contradictions. When it comes to riding, the paradox takes the form of taking big, possibly lethal risks, in exchange for a fleeting reward.

Indeed, on the one hand, riding is exciting, exhilarating and a potent source of adrenalin. On the other hand, it is also an incredibly dangerous activity that requires the utmost level of attention, as the difference between remaining on the bike and wiping out lies in split-second decisions. With 100+ horsepower on a 220 kg bike, the power to weight ratio is that of a modern-day Supercar. Put another way, nothing but the rarest of ultra-luxury sports cars is faster than a moderately powerful bike. And I’m not even talking about the crotch rockets that you see bozos in t-shirts and flip-flops stunting on the highway (that’s a rant I’ll save for an in-person discussion about how these clowns make all bikers look bad). 

As a thrill-seeker, I can say that there are few things I’ve tried that provide as much excitement. Yes, bungee-jumping will give you an intense adrenaline rush, but it’s typically short-lived and the risk of injury jumping off of a bridge is practically zero, given the safety measures that these operations are obligated to provide. Beyond excellent preparedness and decent riding skills, motorcyclists have to ensure that their machine is well-maintained and constantly on the lookout for issues that could spiral into accident-generating blow-outs if not addressed early. It’s in many ways the modern-day incarnation of a rider and his horse: I have to take good care of my ride so that it’s safe to ride and can take good care of me in return. One can neglect the maintenance of a car with few dire potential consequences beyond being stranded on the side of the road. Doing so with a motorcycle can mean your chain will break while doing 120 km/h on the highway. Locking the rear wheel at this speed is no fun, trust me on that one. 

It is that constant tension between risk and reward that I find fascinating. Riding a bike is cheap thrills, but if I am not careful it can mean serious injury or death. Having experienced the sudden passing of my mother just about two years ago, death is something that has been on my mind a lot since. Like most, I have experienced the mourning of a loved one and the subsequent grieving period, but it also created a deeper appreciation of life. I’m fortunate to have had a mother whose life’s work was as impressive as she was productive. Coming to grips with her legacy was both a surprise and a wake-up call, as she spent her professional  and personal life caring about others in a completely selfless fashion. As a result, dozens of perfect strangers came out to her funeral to pay their respects and show how much she positively affected them, and these were only a tiny portion of the people she was able to touch throughout her life. It made me realize that if I could accomplish even half of what she did, that would amount to a life well lived, but also that making a difference doesn’t have to be shouted from the rooftop in order to attract attention. If anything, I would say that it is more of a long, quiet slog behind the scenes, the results of which are not always obvious to anyone, especially not the person practicing selfless giving. I have become very grateful for what I have and am getting better everyday at appreciating the little things and people around me, but also much less afraid of pushing forward and stand for the things I believe in. Her legacy permeates everything I do.

It also triggered a profound desire in me to share my own experiences with others, in order to help them navigate the trials of life. I personally think that death is not something that we talk about enough in our culture, yet ironically that’s the only thing that absolutely 100% certain in life. We would be more comfortable with our own impermanence if it was a more accepted part of the culture and as a result, help us focus on what’s truly important for us. That’s why I enjoy so much practicing an activity that constantly reminds me of my own mortality. It’s not that I fear my imminent demise whenever I hop on the bike, but rather that the risk of something dramatic happening is constantly present in the back of my mind. While it may seem a little somber to think of motorcycling in these terms, I don’t think it has to be that way. The inherent danger is a sobering expression of reality and helps me stay grounded. It is a constant reminder to act in a manner that’s congruent with the person I am striving to be and a fantastic way to remind myself that I need to take the such actions that, if I were gone tomorrow, I would have no regrets whatsoever. A friend recently told me that being in these risky situations made us more aware and deliberate of our own behaviour, and I couldn’t agree more.

The parallel between this passion of mine and what I do for a living is that I find inspiration in being alone on the road, riding in a spirited fashion on backroads where very few other people venture out. It brings a different perspective to everything else I do as one literally looks at the world differently when seeing the world from a motorcycle. It makes my work better, more inspired and pushes me to work harder so I can take the time off to go on that next, 6000 km road-trip.

I recently completed a 4000 km tour of eastern Quebec, where a buddy and I rode around the Gaspé peninsula. Not only this is a magnificent part of the world, that I had no idea existed, but the trip was deeply fulfilling on a personal level. I learned more about myself than I would have in doing months of deep self-introspection. Being thrown into an unfamiliar environment without real safety net forced me to look at things from a different perspective and was a source of a number of epiphanies along the way. While on the road, I realized that we cannot fear what we understand. As human beings, if we make a genuine effort to understand the unfamiliar, all fear of the unknown instantly vanishes. Call me hopelessly naive, but it’s worth trying to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us, because at the very least we grow by learning new things and at best, we can be more intentional and bring more meaning to the things we all work towards, having the benefit of being a little more open to different perspectives, which in turn makes our work, and lives better.

As serendipity would have it I have recently stumbled on a little poem about riding. I’ll leave you with that as I think it perfectly encapsulates the essence of the ideas conveyed in this writing:

ODE TO A MOTORCYCLIST

I own a motorcycle because of a personal life choice.

One day when I am very old and when I can not ride anymore, it will be in my garage as a trophy of my memories.

I have met people who taught me something and have the same spirit.

I meet people now who get wisdom from me.

I get wet,

I get cold,

And I have been hot,

I was afraid,

I fell,

And I stood up,

I even hurt myself,

But also, I laughed out loud with the wind.

I spoke a thousand times with myself and still do.

I sang and shouted with joy like a madman,

And yes ... sometimes I cried.

I have seen wonderful places because of motorcycles.

I have made curves that even my dad would be proud of; other times I made curves full of terror.

I stopped many times to see a landscape.

I spoke with perfect strangers.

I go out with frustrations inside and return home with a feeling of absolute peace in my heart.

I always think how dangerous it is, knowing that the meaning of courage is to advance even feeling fear.

Every time I go up to my ride I think about how wonderful it is. I learned through gestures to communicate with other riders.

I spend money that I do not have, I gave up many things, but it's all worth it...

My bike is not a means of transportation but is a piece of machinery with wheels and “soul” that I am blessed with; it's part of who I am.

I love my friends and the joy of great people & motorcycles!

I would love nothing more than hearing how your own experiences shaped you. Leave a note in the comments or send me a note directly.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaudrvltr.studio.

Singles Serves 101 interview in Building magazine

The first episode of our Single Serves podcast, with Dave Sharp on Social Media for Architects, has been transcribed into a written piece in the latest issue of Building (Sep 2019).

Read more here…

How to Approach Social Media as a Design Business

Reading time ~6 minutes

Social media is all the rage these days. Everybody is glued to their phone frantically checking for likes, updates and twitter verbal jousts they can take part in. Long gone are the days where we just read the newspaper and watch the evening news on TV. While the digital world has unleashed upon us a glut of information. I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by the endless availability of information, some good, the large majority of it horrendous. 

Joe Rogan and Penn Jillette recently commented on this on Rogan’s podcast, comparing the information we take in to the food in our diet: We have access to more caloric and abundant food than ever. In fact, it’s the first time in the history of humanity that food is by and large so abundant that most of us never have to worry about starving. Yet, most of that food is processed garbage and in order to stay healthy we have to be careful about the type of food we eat.  The same goes for information. There is today more information in a single issue of the New York Times than a 17th-century peasant would have come across in his lifetime. Therefore, we have to be very careful about the type of information we digest, as most sources of “information” have proven to convey mostly garbage, and the social media platforms have been proven to not be immune to this phenomenon. Check out Single Serves ep. 103 with Peter Sobchak to hear more on the topic. 

On social media in the design industry.

Design businesses have gotten on the bandwagon and are liberally sharing their share of milquetoast and uninspired content. It’s not because everybody else is mindlessly doing it that it makes sense to partake. Now I’m not advocating that social media has no place in a design firm’s marketing, communications and business development efforts. I’m no luddite and I can see that well done, social media can be tremendously beneficial. What I’m advocating for is to conscientiously and deliberately decide which platforms make sense for you and what you should say on these platforms. Getting on social media without a solid strategy because everybody else is doing it is one of the worst reasons to do it. Now that this is out of the way, let’s talk about how to make the best use of it.  

The critical piece that’s missing from a lot of firms’ social media accounts is a coherent message that is consistently supported by high-quality content. Said message, cannot be born out of thin air, it is a reflection of the firm’s culture, values and purpose. Without a solidly pre-established cultural foundation, all efforts to communicate are fruitless as the message is likely to change day-to-day and season-to-season. The firms that are most adept at social media are those that have both the resources and the cultural capital to tackle social media and it’s ever-demanding need for more and more content. Not to mention that the “hacks” required to be successful at this are constantly changing at the whim of social media companies. It’s a constant game of catching up as the algorithms change and what worked yesterday to get some attention does not anymore. Without that cultural foundation, your social media accounts are basically destined for your family and friends and the occasional wandering client who was curious enough to look you up. In addition, every platform has a very specific audience they cater to and it doesn’t make sense for everyone to be on all platforms that are available. 

It is also a very dangerous game to put all your assets and bet the house, namely your content and contacts, on someone else’s platform. When social media networks die, and they do (I’m looking at you Myspace and Vine), you’re left with nothing. That audience is gone unless they were faithful enough to you to follow you wherever you are. But that’s only given to a selected elite, as for most of us, we’re not big or established enough to have such a following.

In his book “The Thank You Economy”, Gary Vee explains very clearly and in great detail what social media is good for: connecting directly and without filters to your audience. Treating it like a one-way channel like pre-digital platforms is a mistake that many companies have made and continue to do. It’s a tone-deaf thing to do to post on social media and not engage with your audience when they’re trying to communicate to you. As such, social media have brought us ever closer to our audience and not using to that effect is a crime. I highly recommend Vaynerchuk’s book for anyone interested in upping their marketing a social media game and specifically learning more about this.

Where to start?

In order to define that cultural foundation, it is critical to look at what your firm is about and really spend the time distilling that to its essence, so that the way the firm is positioned (what it does and who it does it for) is clearly defined as well as what it stands for (its purpose, mission and values - how it does it) is crystal clear. This takes time and is a critical part of a creative professional services firm success. Undifferentiated firms who do not have a strong sense of self, will go in many directions because as soon as there is a new and exciting idea idea floating around, they get excited and dilute their efforts by pursuing yet another endeavour that’s not necessarily aligned with their core mission and therefore wasting precious few resources.

There are many things that a firm can do to grow and find clients before getting on social media. One of these is to develop valuable content that lives on on a platform that the business owns (namely its website and in-house print publications). Everything else, including social media, should serve two purposes only: first, to get people to eventually land on your website, because as mentioned earlier, you do not want to be at the mercy of someone else’s good will when it comes to the ownership of your own content and second, to open direct communication channels with your audience, which social platforms are unmatched at enabling us to do so. I cringe when I see businesses forgoing a website altogether and using instagram as their sole portfolio. When that boat sinks, they will sink with it. Remember that there is no such thing as too big to fail. 

Once you have that process established, social media, carefully selected based on where your potential clients are active, makes perfect sense. At that point it is time to lay out a strategy for the kind of content you want to put out and do it. Until then, better to stay away from social media and focus on spending your limited resources on building the aforementioned foundation and producing content that you own and control.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.