Scott Hull Associates

A few weeks ago I attended the AIGA conference and had the opportunity to experience first hand, just how engaging Dan Roam’s communication style is.

Who doesn’t want to improve their communication skills? I for one, am always striving to become a better presenter.

Dan has landed on a technique that has the top television networks and even the White House scrambling to learn his process.

Dan Roam’s first book, “The Back of the Napkin” became a best seller when he taught his readers how pictures impact our conversations and help us sell our thoughts and ideas.

In his just released new book, “Blah, Blah, Blah”’ what to do when words won’t work, Dan continues to educate us on the importance of using pictures and words in combination. With Dan’s “VIVID Thinking” system clearly and precisely explained we marketers and creatives are offered a new way of impacting our audience.

Get the book on Amazon

Teachable Moment

A brilliant idea can change your life. Just ask Steve Jobs. And think about it – how would one incredible idea affect your work? How would it affect your personal creating? Your career? Your confidence and opportunities?

These days, new ideas aren’t just inspiring; they’re essential. A narrow-gauge mindset doesn’t work in modern business. Consumers aren’t loyal to cheap commodities. No, they love the remarkable, the human, the unique. And those ideas don’t just fall from the sky. (Usually.)

So where do they originate? Since Scott Hull Associates is in the business of ideas, I figured our artists ought to know. They surprised me with their answers, citing everything from “cross-pollinating synergetic associations” to cracks in the driveway. Enjoy.
-Scott

Aren’t you silly…Ideas come from the stork, just like babies. – Andrea Eberbach

From an ever expanding and curious mind. –Von Glitschka

I’m not sure where they come from, but I’m pretty sure – starting in 2012 – that there will be a federal tax on them. -Mark Riedy

Personally, I group them into two broad categories: surprise ideas and task-oriented ideas. There’s an enormous area of interaction and cross-pollination between these, but if I think about it, most everything I do whether art-related, fixing a faucet or otherwise, fits somewhere in the continuum. In the area of ideas for art, surprise! Ideas are just that — out of nowhere, triggered by who-knows-what…smells, memories, dreams, emotions, even stress. Task-oriented ideas are usually, at least for me, more forced and rarely complete at the beginning — they need refinement and tuning, and the trick is to retain something good and fresh enough to keep through that refinement process. Most won’t make it to the end, and many aren’t worth fooling around with from the beginning, but each has to be weighed before discarding. Working in collaboration with commercial clients, most illustration ideas are going to be task-driven, and will be a blend of your ideas and the client’s regarding concept, style and desired results.

Somewhere in here also has to be addressed the impact of original vs. derivative ideas. For a visual artist and especially one working commercially, purely original ideas are hard to come by. We’re bombarded by visual imagery from the first day we open our eyes, then later are drawn to and/or repelled by most everything we see that other artists have done – this can’t help but affect our style and how we see the world through art. How we control and channel our own likes, dislikes and influences through our work, all the while adding whatever personal flavoring we bring to the equation determines how original our artistic solutions will be. Recognizing and utilizing influences is a balancing act that’s always there when generating ideas.

Lastly, I think ideas spring from that overused word, passion. It’s why we do what we do instead of pursuing any of the millions of other occupations available in the world. Speaking only for myself, I want to add my spin and polish to whatever visual problem is put in front of me, as long as it’s something that I can relate to. Generating good ideas is more often than not hard work, and the effort needs to be applied where it will do the most good both for the artist and for the resulting work. -John Maggard

A mysterious internal response to an ever-changing external set of chance meetings. -Lorraine Tuson

My ideas come from nature. I am an avid gardener and I am always in awe of the design found in natural things. The hardest part of drawing nature is keeping its fresh and random quality. I love taking a natural theme (such as shells), and combining the many shapes and textures to create patterns. -Lisa Ballard

Ideas come from playing. -Penelope Dullaghan

The most common comment I hear when asked this is, “ideas are everywhere”. But to me that’s a cop-out because our society cannot see the forest through the trees. For me ideas come from staring at the stars, or a plant in the crack on the driveway. Yes, the Internet is also full of useful images, but where does one start? Back to the basics, I say! For me this is an endless journey, because problem solving is a passion of mine. -Geoffrey P Smith

Ideas come from doing, not planning. The best ideas I’ve ever had came to me in the process of making creative work, not from sitting down and intellectualizing my next move. -Grant Gilliland

Now that’s a good question! Ideas are a kind of cross-pollination of thought and problem parameters that comes from combining one or more unlike things to create a third, more synergetic association. It starts with research; I look through information relevant to the problem at hand, making lists of items and key words that can drive the direction of thought. Next, I take the information and start to play with it without judgment – it’s called free association. I take some of these key words or essential elements from the lists and literally connect them to see if there’s a potential association there. For example, if you take the word magnet and library and think about what associations they make, you come up with a series of thought-play ideas. I’m hoping for some kind of visual metaphor or analogy that will help communicate the concept of whatever it is I’m trying to get across. So… Library+Magnet=What? I think of a place where information storage plus some kind of pulling force comes together. The human brain would be considered a a kind of information storage unit and the attractive force might be a lighted billboard sign. Or the Rosetta stone, the key to interpreting several dead languages, might have Space Odyssey monolith-like properties that attract the monkeys.

Once all of the play is done, it’s time to see which of the ideas might have merit for the problem at hand. Maybe some that are seemingly way off base will lead to something else by association. This is the portion of the event that we must judge or deem relevant to solving the problem. That, and a healthy amount of sketching, usually bring good results. -Larry Moore

Teachable Moment

CREATIVITY.

So I’ve been trying to understand how the creative process is affecting today’s businesses. What does it take, I wonder, to make the collaboration between creativity and corporate more fluid? To find out, I’m gleaning information from lots of websites and magazines like Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. It goes pretty quickly, though, because they are all saying the same thing: Old ideas aren’t working. “What we learned in business school is upside down and sideways,” they say. “Customers control the company, advertising is driving customers away, and demographics have less meaning.”

And sure enough, when IBM’s Institute for Business Value asked 1,500 chief executives to name the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future, the CEOs unanimously said “creativity”.

Frank Kern of IBM Global Business Services summed it up. “That’s creativity – not operational effectiveness, influence or even dedication,” he says. “Global complexity is the foremost issue confronting these CEOs and their enterprises.” Now, in the past creativity wasn’t viewed so much as an essential leadership asset, but more as just fuel for R&D. Not anymore. Today creativity must “permeate the enterprise,” he explains.

So what does this mean to agencies, design firms, and marketing groups? What about the illustrators, copywriters, and photographers? How is this big-business focus on creativity trickling down to us folks in the creativity-delivery business? I decided to ask a number of branding firms’ top creative executives to find out.

“What,” I asked them, “is the client expecting from you today?” The answers turned out to be our slogan.

Originality: CEOs have realized creativity isn’t “nice to have”; it’s necessary. At least if you want to reinvent your relationship with the customer. And you do – the current landscape is so template-based and commoditized, there’s rarely an emotional connection between businesses and the people they’re talking to. The estimates say one fifth of revenues will have to come from new sources; if you can’t unleash wealth, you have to create it.

Collaboration: As clients break from traditional, “here’s what we’ll do for the next decade” strategy planning and shift to rapid-fire fluidity that lets them adjust their business models on the fly, it’s more important than ever to have a relationship with a solid partner they can rely on.

Results: The shift in corporate culture is toward something far more transparent and entrepreneurial. Companies must emotionally engage the customer. The customer will reward the company’s ability to build a creative process with fluid business models, not absolute ones. As one creative executive put it, “The right visual combination creates insane loyalty.”

Bottom line, the more complex the world becomes, the more its leaders will value creativity. And today’s CEOs know it.

That’s why, at Scott Hull Associates, we deliver what every CEO wants – meaningful original art for companies that use visual branding to drive markets. And fortunately, with 18 acclaimed artists on our roster, creativity is never in short supply.

What is an art rep. and what do they do?
How should an illustrator find and approach the right art rep.?

These questions will be explored and answered on Tuesday, April 20th.

http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/podcast

“This award recognizes an alum who exhibits exceptional work ethic, extraordinary craftsmanship and innovation; someone whose work pushed the envelope, influences many, and changes the way we see the world through art and design.”

- Lucy Godman, Director of Alumni Relations

By Scott Hull

At Scott Hull Associates we want to help you teach your customer how to get more out of your communications by bringing in outside help.

Most companies generate a steady stream of print communications, websites, packaging, trade show exhibits, ads, manuals, presentations, etc. When you add to the list, new emerging opportunities through social media, operational processes, brand training, decision making, business strategy, and thought leadership– you begin to appreciate why most companies feel the need to cut costs by managing all of this in-house.
Before you or your customer think about building an in-house creative program, you need to address the problem that has plagued internal departments since the days of “Mad Men”.

As soon as a designer is hired, the perceived value of their talents depreciates faster than a new car in a showroom. Within months the new in-house group will be inundated with low-level tasks and excluded from high-level conversations.

The cure for vanishing value when going internal is going outside for a new creative perspective. This will give you and your company a breath of fresh air and an organic outlook from a visual specialist who has the skills to create something that does the job, but in a more unique way.

Drawing from my years of experience, I can offer the following 3 tips for working with visual specialists.

1 Hire a visual specialist early in the project’s conception, to work together with you as a single team. This way you will reverse the 20th century business model that has become a training ground for non-collaboration.

2 More of a benefit than a tip, hiring a visual specialist can promote innovation while lowering costs. It can be scaled up or down at a moment’s notice. Hiring a high performance artist can turn a confused and vaguely represented organization into a coherent leading entity, thereby raising long-term value.

3 Since the outside is where you find the best-of-breed visual specialists, many visual building skills needed to execute brand related projects should more often than not, be outsourced. But brand and design management should never be outsourced. Your brand needs to remain strong and consistent through various strategy shifts.

After all, there are only two choices. Win by being more ordinary, generic and cheaper. Or win by being faster, more remarkable, and more human.

“A new decade of effective creativity.”

Why is this year different from the past years?
To start with, I’m a little wiser. As a result of the current market, the world of creativity and business is changing and I’m seeing opportunities to take our artists and myself, to a whole new level. With the passion of Scott Hull Associates to help others, it comes down to bridging the gap between creative and corporate. Collaboration and understanding the new culture of business is very important in creating a successful visual brand image. With insights learned from the challenging economy, we are excited not about only a new year, but a new decade.

What would you consider your “mantra” for the coming new year to be?
Original Art Works through Collaboration. I’m viewing 2010 as a new year of effective creativity. When resources are constrained, the key to growth is teaming up an analytic left-brain thinker with an imaginative right-brain partner. Look at the latest articles in Harvard Business Reviews, Business Week, or Fast Company magazines; they are blending creative and business minds.

What role does the client’s target customer or end user play in everyday business?
The new business model is building products around consumer needs, not the business needs. This is where original artwork can help client’s empower their customer. This is because original art can be tailored to more specific emotions of a targeted customer.

How important is open communication with a client?
Now more than ever, marketing executives and artists must listen and understand what the client is trying to say/achieve. The closer we can get to define the elements of a client’s desired customer experience, the more value, longevity, and uniqueness we can offer.

Why do you need a company like Scott Hull Associates?
STATUS QUO IS IN BIG TROUBLE. People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring. I’m excited for the new era of visual branding. The marketplace (every marketplace) rewards innovation: things that are fresh, stylish, and new. After all, the best way to teach is through the eye and the hand. It’s harder to retain what we hear. Listen with your eyes!

We have had the privilege of working with some of the best and brightest in the art world. And I would like to personally thank them all for such incredible business over the years and a continued partnership into the new decade.